Chapter 14: Leaders Are Managers: Not All Managers Are Leaders, but All Leaders Are Managers.
Although I agree with Mohler’s opening premise, he misses the fact that management is not new or modern. Joseph in Egypt and Solomon in Israel were not ahead of their time. There has always been a need for a house or nation to be well managed. Both men and women are called to mange their home (1 Timothy 3:5; 5:14). Thus Joseph, Solomon, and qualified men stand out; they are skilled at managing small and large areas of stewardship. Elders, Deacons, men, and women must manage well. It is those who do so that will be entrusted with more. Management is not first a leadership issue. It is first a stewardship issue which God is very concerned with.
Relying heavily on Peter Drucker, Mohler cites him often. Specifically when he writes, “the fundamental task of management is ‘to make people capable of joint performance by giving them common goals, common values, the right structure, and the ongoing training and development they need to perform and respond to change'” (118). However Mohler rightly corrects Drucker that managers should lead by conviction, not by objective (121). Finally, a leader who writes off management as unspiritual will eventually discover that God calls all his saints to give an account for the managing of that which he has been entrusted with. This will include spiritual gifts, material gifts, and people in their care.
This post is part of a larger series of posts. Each post is a short reflection on a chapter of The Conviction to Lead: 25 Principles for Leadership that Matters by Albert Mohler (ISBN 978-0-7642-1004-4).
