Biblical Principles of Spiritual Leadership: The Early Church of Act as A Case Study

Mickael Oluikpe, PhD

Abstract

1. Introduction 

Leadership is a very important and needed topic for today. D It is one of the most discussed and explained subjects in the modern world since it is part of every successful venture. Though there are a variety of books and resources in the world on the subject, the Bible remains one of the best sources on good effective leadership. Great world leaders such as Abraham Lincoln, Mahatma Gandhi, Mother Teresa and Martin Luther King Jr. among others have all drawn from the Bible for successful leadership. The Bible indeed contains a great many examples of good leadership. However the Bible presents a paradigm of leadership, which differs from those of the popular theories on the subject. Through its stories, The Bible teaches and models the "what" and the "how" of "spiritual leadership". This model of leadership is a very much needed subject today especially for the leadership of the SDA Church. Since the Bible contains a great number of principles of spiritual leadership, this presentation aims to present just a few key ones. Therefore the article is not an exhaustive list of principles of spiritual leadership. It focuses on the definition of spiritual leadership by describing the "what" and the "how" of it through the model of the leadership of the early church in the book of Acts.