The Christian story

As many of you may have heard, in 2012 Dr. Albert Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, delivered a book on leadership-The Conviction to Lead-that has received very positive feedback. I read the book at the close of the year, and I must corroborate what others are saying; this is a fantastic book.

Mohler makes many helpful connections between leadership and aspects of our lives. One of the connections I found helpful was the relationship he notes between leadership and narrative. Leadership, he suggests, is inextricably tied into stories. And the Christian leader is necessarily enmeshed into one particular story. Writing of the Christian narrative of creation, fall, redemption, and consummation, he writes:

As Christians, we are to find our identity and meaning in this story and in no other story. It is to be the story that frames our thinking, our living, our leading. This is the story that tells us who we are, how we got here, and where we are going. This story is the truest and most powerful of all stories, the great metanarrative that frames everything we think, decide, and do. It is also what allows us to die, knowing that the story will survive us and that we are still a part of this story even after our death (41).