Tim Keller on a Biblical Model for Leadership

Timothy Keller, ‘The Steward Leader: A Biblical Model for Leadership’ (2011).

This paper (available here via a sign-in process) was given during a 2007 leadership training session at Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City.

Keller says at the start:

‘I believe the main biblical model for leadership is the “steward leader.” The “steward” was both a ruler and a slave, and this model provides us with a unique way to think out what it means to lead others.’

He traces this model from the creation of Adam and Eve to ‘have dominion’ over living creatures into some examples from the New Testament, with the ultimate example of Christ himself.

This leads into a more extended reflection on the metaphor of the leader as a ‘slave of Christ’, drawing especially on the work of Murray J. Harris:

‘In the “steward leader” model of Christian leadership, a leader is a slave who is in a position of humble accountability, and a ruler who is the cultivator of resources.’

His treatment takes in the crucial differences between slavery in the Greco-Roman world of the first century and the more recent race-based African slave trade.

In applying the metaphor today, he notes that ‘we contemporary Western Christians, who tend to negotiate our relationships, are offended by the idea of being “slaves of Christ,” but we may need the metaphor even more than people have in the past!’

This is because of the difference between covenantal and contractual relationships, and the fact that ‘in Western culture all relationships are increasingly being conducted on a highly conditional consumer-vendor basis’.

‘When Western people become Christians, they often do so (usually unconsciously) very conditionally. They expect that God will meet their needs, fulfill them spiritually, and protect them from troubles and difficulties. If this doesn’t happen on their terms, they often cool off very quickly or abandon their profession of faith altogether. The same thing happens in their relationships with Christians. Believers often switch churches and change Christian communities the moment they find themselves uncomfortable or unhappy – or even just bored and uninspired – in any of their relationships. The call to be slaves of Christ and of one another confronts our Western mindset in the most powerful way.’

‘We are not to enter into relationships like a consumer, remaining in them only as long as they profit us and meet our needs. We are to ask ourselves (especially about our Christian brothers and sisters) not “Are these cool people? Nice people? People whom I want to be around?” but “How can I serve? How can I help them grow? How can I help make them into better people?” Our model, of course, is Jesus.’

In summary:

‘The most fundamental definition of a steward leader is one who has power and authority to cultivate and develop resources entrusted by God. But the essence of Christian leadership is to humbly develop those resources for God’s glory, not for our own.’