Biblical Leadership: What Is Your Leadership Purpose?Sample

1. Feed my Family

In this series, we take a look at the purpose of your leadership – comparing what the Bible says to what you think you might already know.

In each of the readings, we’ll uncover one facet of your purpose as a leader, expanding your understanding along the way until we reach a conclusion that summarizes God’s intention for your leadership role.

If someone were to ask you for the most basic reason that you go to work, you would almost certainly give the answer that you do so in order to support your family.

In providing this answer you are both right and 100% consistent with what the Bible teaches. The Apostle Paul clearly states this on several occasions:

Anyone who does not provide for their relatives, and especially for their own household, has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever. – 1 Timothy 5:8

...work with your hands, just as we told you, so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody.  – 1 Thessalonians 4:11b-12

In addition, Paul further strengthens this teaching with his command that work is a requirement:

For even when we were with you, we gave you this rule: “The one who is unwilling to work shall not eat.”  – 2 Thessalonians 3:10

Paul’s position is consistent with God’s design for humankind from the beginning, 

Now no shrub had yet appeared on the earth and no plant had yet sprung up, for the Lord God had not sent rain on the earth and there was no one to work the ground, but streams came up from the earth and watered the whole surface of the ground. Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.

The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. – Genesis 2:5-7, 15 (emphasis added)

Simply put, the Bible clearly teaches that you are designed for work and, by doing so, you also support yourself and your family.

At its core, then, the most basic purpose of your leadership and work is to provide for yourself and your family. 

Doing so is in accordance with God’s will for your life, but as we shall see in the subsequent readings, this is just the beginning.

Reflection / Application

1. Have you ever been unable to provide for yourself or your family? Reflect on God’s care for you during that time.
2. Is it possible to provide “too much” or “too well” for your family? What sets the bounds on our provision?
3. Beyond providing for your family, why do you work? What does God expect from you with the leadership gifts that he has given you?