When you search for leadership development programs, you’ll find a lot. But when you search for leadership development programs that take your faith seriously, suddenly your options narrow.
The vast majority of these programs fall into either of two camps: programs that focus on business strategy but do little to promote character building (as if leadership were a purely technical skill) and programs that concentrate more on spiritual growth and only touch on practical Christianity (as if competence and spirituality were in separate buildings). Christian business owners are left to decide between programs that care about one part of their lives while ignoring the other.
A good leadership program that will benefit your spiritual growth as well as your professional growth will see that these are not mutually exclusive goals.
Look for Scripture-grounded, not Scripture-decorated
There is a big difference between a program that uses Scripture as a garnish, sprinkling a verse or two on the plate but calling it a day, and one that uses Scripture as the framework for the whole meal.
When evaluating a leadership program, ask the following question: Does this program’s framework come from Scriptural truth or is it essentially a secular leadership program that relies on Scripture as a topping? Paul’s call for church leaders to be blameless, “self-controlled, upright, holy and disciplined” (Titus 1:7-8) is not an add-on to the main training in leadership. It’s the framework from which the meal is prepared. If you are looking at a leadership program, ask yourself if it takes Scripture seriously as a foundation for leadership.
Look for Character-First Formation
So technical skills can be learned in a weekend workshop. Developing one’s character takes a lifetime and requires a different kind of program.
Look for a program that is about character formation rather than technique.
A program that aims at character formation will probably ask more difficult questions than a program focused on just techniques of leadership.
How do your convictions actually show up in how you treat your weakest employee?
When have you compromised integrity just so that things would get done?
What sacrifices would you make as a servant leader, and are you prepared to make them?
If a program doesn’t ask these kinds of questions then it probably doesn’t really want to develop character, it’s just providing techniques.
Look for Practical Applicability
Formation without application is navel-gazing. The best faith-integrated programs give a framework for applying one’s convictions to concrete situations, such as major life choices and day-to-day choices. A program that can’t help you apply Scripture to a thorny business decision is not as valuable as one that can. Test a program by asking what its graduates actually do with their new insights. Do they just file the information away, or do they use it to make better decisions in the next difficult situation they encounter?
Look for Peer-Relational Structure
Leadership is a lonely job, and Christian leadership is particularly isolating in the modern business world. There are so many times when Christians are in the front lines of leadership and are the only ones who are talking openly about how their faith informs their actions. A good program will also provide a relational setting where leaders can be with people with whom they have a faith and a moral relationship. A program like that will understand that character is better developed in a community context through close and personal relationships where accountability is the rule, not the exception. Proverbs states, “As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another” (Proverbs 27:17).
What This Looks Like at EQUIP
EQUIP, the leadership development organization of Maxwell Leadership Foundation, is founded on these principles and has been training leaders in more than 170 countries for decades. Beyond Success is a seven-session transformation table for business leaders to understand success from a faith perspective. It is a Scripture-based, character-driven, relevant, peer-driven leadership program that allows Christian business leaders to bring together their Christian faith and their professional aspirations. EQUIP’s Bridge Builder program also supports leaders in seeing how to practice their faith in various spheres of influence (home, business and community), recognizing that leadership never stays confined to the office.
Neither of these programs considers faith to be a private thing to be kept separate from one’s professional life and that one needs to not think about it. They recognize that faith and leadership were never meant to be compartmentalized and not to function in splendid isolation from one another. These programs give you the tools to build a life integrated into one another rather than in two separate spheres.
Choose the program that sees your whole life
You shouldn’t have to choose between a leadership program that focuses on your business and one that focuses on your faith. The right program will focus on both, because they’re aspects of a single, integrated life.
If you are looking for a leadership program that works on Scripture, character, applicability and peer interaction, consider EQUIP. To learn more about Beyond Success, Bridge Builder, and other programs EQUIP has to offer, visit iequip.org.
