Judges and Leadership: Part 1 "Good Ideas and Bad Ideas"

I've been thinking through leadership principles as they show themselves in scripture. There's no better place, book, or teaching to start from on the subject of authentic leadership then in God's word. So after cracking open the book of Judges here's some of what I've pulled out.

Principle 1: Before You Lead Consult the King.

As I talked about in my previous post Judges is God raising up leaders to guide his people back to himself and lead. Chapter one of Judges starts out with Joshua's death still fresh on the new leaders minds. The first leadership decision they make is a great one. " After the death of Joshua, the people of Israel inquired of the LORD, “Who shall go up first for us against the Canaanites, to fight against them?”
(Judges 1:1 ESV) A temptation I face as a leader is to charge into things without first inquiring of the LORD if this is in fact the direction we are to go. It's a pride move which often gets leaders into trouble. There is a place for strong directional leadership however if its done before seeking the Lord then trouble is soon to follow. The elders of Israel get an A+ on this leadership decision. Seeking after him will guide them, us, and those we lead into ways that best serve his kingdom.

Principle 2: Team

God's answer to the elders was that Judah was to lead the charge. Here the elders make another great decision. Judah takes the lead and brings others on board with him. He invites Simeon to join him. This might be a hermeneutical stretch but from the context we see Judah leading by assessing the situation and realizing that the best course of action is to take his brother with him.  Remember Andrew in John 1:41 "He first found his own brother Simon and said to him, “We have found the Messiah”  One of the lessons I've learned over the past few years is that for a team to work it needs balance. There have been a ton of material produced on how leadership functions within the context of a team. I know that a team full of people exactly like me will be of the same mind (my mind) but will fail to carry the ability to affect a large scope of people and be limited to take on tasks. I'll take a swiss army knife over a steak knife any day.

Principle 3: "Clarify the Win"

Here's where things go bad for God's people. Despite a great first few leadership decisions the rest of the first chapter in Judges has a constant refrain running through it. The theme is this... They failed to drive out the people. To stop short of accomplishing the vision is either laziness or a failure to understand the objective. Andy Stanley and friends have put together a good book where the first principle they talk about is to understand the "win".  What is the "win" in your and my context? For the Israelites the win was to carryout the covenant God established with their forefathers.  Instead of conquering the land they enslaved the occupants. They stopped short of what the covenant required and began a downward spiral which would lead God to raise up judges to lead his people back to him.