Biblical Leadership: What Is Your Leadership Purpose?Sample

6. Provide a Helpful Product or Service

Of course, besides helping those that you may lead in your work, you can also claim a purpose to serve society at large by helping deliver beneficial goods & services through your work.

For example, perhaps you lead a research team in the pharmaceutical industry? Or work within an organization to relieve poverty? 

In both cases – and many others – your leadership at work helps your company or organization deliver the goods & services to society that make life better.

The same can be said about schools, shoe factories, construction firms, government organizations, and many, many other types of industries.

In short, if your leadership helps others live better then this is indeed a big part of your purpose. And this is true for pretty much any industry. As long your work does not go against the teachings of the Bible, then your leadership is very much a holy calling from God. 

A simple way to check if this is true for your work is to compare the details of your leadership role to that called for by the Bible:

So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. – 1 Corinthians 10:31

If you can see that your leadership helps to glorify God without going against His will, then this is also a key part of your purpose!

On the other hand, if your company or organization promotes products or services that go against the teachings of the Bible – think of gambling, pornography, or other destructive goods & services – then the best thing for you to do is to go elsewhere with your talents.

God will never call you to exercise your leadership gifts for the benefit of a few while destroying others with goods & services that violate His law. Even if you feel “called” to be the only Christian in a dark place, it is not what the Bible teaches:

What fellowship can light have with darkness? … Or what does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? … For we are the temple of the living God.  – 2 Corinthians 14b-16a

Furthermore, the Bible says to flee from every kind of evil – including that (maybe especially so?) in your work:

Reject every kind of evil. – 1 Thessalonians 5:22

Hate what is evil; cling to what is good – Romans 12:9b

Therefore, even if just a small part of your leadership role works against God’s will, you should cut that out or remove yourself. There are plenty of other “holy callings” in the workplace that can bring true glory to God with a positive value to society.

Most likely, however, you are already in a leadership role that is in accordance with God’s will and brings glory to Him. In this case, your leadership role to help deliver beneficial goods & services is a major component of your leadership purpose.

In fact, it may be primary to the other elements we already reviewed – but it is definitely in the second position to the final element of your purpose that we will uncover in our next and final reading.

Reflection / Application

1. As you look over all aspects of your leadership role, do you see any that are in conflict with God’s will? Can you change that?
2. Leading others to produce a benefit to society is a great and glorious calling. Do you see this in your role?
3. How does your leadership purpose move beyond helping those you lead or helping deliver beneficial goods & services to glorifying God?