Cultivating Leadership Part 2: In the beginning

In Part 1 we considered how Scripture’s theme of cultivation, running from creation to new creation, powerfully shapes our perspective on Christian leadership as ‘cultivating leadership’.  In this article we find important leadership principles in the very first chapter of Genesis. 

Let’s go right back to the start.

In the beginning God…

Genesis 1:1

Let’s begin by thinking about how the Bible’s account of creation shapes our understanding of leadership. The first two chapters of Genesis are an astonishingly rich and beautiful account of who created, and how, of what was created, and why. As we read and reflect on this account we see deep foundations for how to understand and think about leadership. However,  it all starts not with leadership but with followership. 

Genesis 1

26 Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”

27 So God created mankind in his own image,
    in the image of God he created them;
    male and female he created them.

28 God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”

In this familiar  passage, we first encounter something we might call ‘leadership’, in the form of the mandate given to the man and the woman to rule over the rest of creation. But it is vital that we recognise that this ‘leadership’ is first and foremost actually an act of followership: an act of obedience to God’s call to fill the earth and subdue it. 

The language in the passage is much stronger than a mere  encouragement,  invitation or an option they might be interested in. No – it’s their whole purpose! It’s not one career choice amongst many, but rather the very essence of who they are made to be. It’s a command to obey. 

If we translate that into the language of leadership, Adam and Eve are created  to be obedient followers of the Lord God’s command to them. They obey the Lord by exercising dominion over the world He has made. They reflect his ‘likeness’ by filling the earth and ruling over it. 

These verses in Genesis also introduce us to another pattern for leadership that endures throughout Scripture: a pattern of mutuality and interdependence. The mandate is not given to a solo individual; it is given to Adam and Eve together, and it can only be fulfilled by the two of them together. In fact it’s biologically impossible for the mandate to be fulfilled by an individual! 

And so even these few verses, containing great truths about God himself and setting out the amazing purpose and calling of humanity, give us three important leadership principles.

The first is that God’s people are always followers before we are leaders. We are made and called first to fulfil our creator God’s purposes and to obey God’s command. 

The second is that God’s people are all called to be in leadership, in some way, in relation to God’s world. The question is never whether we lead: rather it’s a matter of why and where,  who and how we lead. 

And the third is that human leadership is never meant to be a solo sport; leadership is designed to be exercised with interdependence and collaboration. That’s hardly surprising, given that we’re created in the image of the triune God. But collaborative leadership is hard to do, isn’t it?  The effects of the Fall reach into every facet of life, including leadership. We’ll come to that part of the story…