Modern corporate leadership is rooted in self-absorbed concepts of success, ego-driven desires for power, and what is now a socially approved expression of greed that a century ago would have been decried as evil. This self-worshiping, man-centered model of leadership is promoted anew every semester through collegiate MBA programs. American educational institutions are the front line of the culture war as the typical university is militantly intolerant to any idea that would propose ethical absolutes in any degree program. Few university MBA programs today instruct future business leaders in the traditional, biblically based ethic of sacrificial servant leadership. In fact, only a pitiful few MBA programs retain a course on business ethics. Traditional American capitalism, along with the Judeo-Christian worldview on which it was based, is fiercely rejected at today’s typical university. What’s being taught instead? Pragmatism rules. The end justifies the means. Ethics are not absolutes to be obeyed, but obstacles to be overcome. And now, voraciously, this humanistic, greed-driven model of leadership is being adopted and absorbed by churches throughout our nation. Yet greed destroys. This popular new model of corporate leadership will eventually destroy the American church if unchecked and if continued as the primary source of leadership models and/or leaders themselves. What can be done to stop this deadly plunge into a black hole of destructive leadership? Can the church profit from certain aspects of how to do business from corporate America? Certainly. But the church is not a business. We do not produce a product to be bought; members are not customers. Pastors are not CEOs, and leaders are not a board of directors. Secondly, the church certainly cannot imbibe the diving dynamics of death from today’s greed-based and self-promoting culture-destroying found in the executive officers and boardrooms of America’s business world. The church must escape the valley of greed-driven leadership prevalent in contemporary corporate America and ascend the high ground of gospel-driven leadership described in God’s Word.

The Biblical Model

Regaining lost ground won’t be easy, but the solution is simple: the church must follow the Bible’s model for defining, developing, and deploying leaders while simultaneously rejecting the world’s leadership models and standards. Simply put, the American church must define leadership and then develop and deploy leaders who can transform the world for Jesus Christ. How do we do it? Obviously, raising leaders for such a time as this will require more than a couple of officer training classes or a few sermons on Christian leadership. The Christian church must become a leadership factory and distribution center for the world, and by the grace of God, it can—if we return to both the biblical definition of leadership and the biblical method of producing leaders for the church and the world.