The Making of a Leader Recognizing the Lessions and Stages of Leadership Development

Abstract

"Leadership" is a topic high on many agendas today, whether in politics, business, or the church. In part, this is because of a perceived leadership vacuum. In his leadership essays, John Gardner pointed out that at the time the United States was formed, the population stood at around 3 million. That 3 million produced at least six leaders ofworld class: Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Franklin, Madison, and Hamilton. Today's American population of 240 million might be expected to produce eighty times as many world-class leaders. But, asks Gardner, "Where are they?" At a convention of the National Association of Evangelicals, college president George Brushaber spoke of "a missing generation" of younger leaders ready to take the places of the senior post-World War II group of evangelical pioneers. My own travels and observations have led me to believe this is a worldwide phenomenon. Yet I am encouraged to believe there is a new group of younger men and women, roughly forty and under, emerging into leadership around the world. In response to both the lack of and the new wave of leaders, there is an urgent need for the cultivation of godly and spiritual leadership. There are a number of responses to this challenge. The Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization has called several conferences for emerging younger leaders. My own ministry, Leighton Ford Ministries, is focused upon identifying, developing, and networking these younger people. A number of graduate schools are focusing some specific programs on leadership development. One is the School of Intercultural Studies at Fuller Theological Seminary, where Dr. Bobby Clinton taught. It is out of his experience in teaching that his important book The Making of a Leader developed