Leadership experts consistently advise aspiring leaders to maximize their strengths in order to become effective leaders. Efforts to overcome one’s weaknesses are commendable. However, overcoming weaknesses does not make one a better leader, because weaknesses cannot truly be developed—that is precisely why they are weaknesses. Even if one succeeds in developing a weakness, it usually improves only to an average level and never becomes a true strength. Therefore, to become a leader, one must develop one’s strengths. On the foundation of these maximized strengths, a leader exercises leadership.
Yet Paul’s leadership foundation—arguably the greatest in the New Testament—is unique. His strengths were remarkable: he stood at the pinnacle of scholarship as a disciple of Gamaliel, the foremost scholar of his time. In an era when all roads led to Rome, Paul’s Roman citizenship was another extraordinary advantage. Furthermore, he experienced visions and revelations unmatched by others. And yet Paul abandoned his strengths and boasted in his weaknesses (2 Corinthians 12:9). In other words, the foundation of Paul’s leadership was his weakness. This is a paradox that modern leadership theory cannot explain.
In fact, the leadership displayed throughout Scripture defies the leadership theories we know. When Moses had become an old and feeble man, seemingly devoid of any strengths, the Lord began to use him as a leader to deliver an entire nation. The Lord called fishermen—men with relatively poor educational and financial foundations—to be His disciples, trained them as ministers, and sent them out as apostles.
This same paradox exists in the church today. Why does the church grow in regions where persecution against Christianity is severe? Why does the church decline in the Western world, where religious freedom is guaranteed, and pastors are among the most highly educated?
In just a few days, it will be Christmas. Jesus Christ, the King of all creation, was born not in a royal palace but in a manger. To accomplish the solemn mission of human salvation, He did not grow up receiving the finest education. He lived as a carpenter, was baptized by John, and declared to be the Son of God, ministered by the power of God, yet died inexplicably at the hands of men. Had He fully exercised His divine power—His “strength”—and liberated the Jews from Roman oppression, all would have acknowledged Him as the Messiah. Instead, in the eyes of the Jews, He appeared less like a messianic leader and more like a weak and lowly servant who washed His disciples’ feet. Through His death, He redeemed humanity, and through His resurrection, He clearly revealed Himself as the Son of God. This is the paradox of all paradoxes.
This paradox suggests that even ordinary people like us can become great leaders. Today, more than ever, the church desperately needs spiritual leaders. Such leaders need not be extraordinary figures who display exceptional leadership by leveraging strengths that others lack. Rather, the Lord reveals His power through broken vessels filled with weaknesses. Leaders who, having no strengths worth offering to others, thirst only for the Lord. Leaders who labor with all their might according to the working of the One who works powerfully within them (Colossians 1:29), rather than relying on their own strengths. Leaders who, instead of exaggerating and packaging their inadequacies, honestly lay themselves bare before the lordship of Christ. Leaders who continually diminish themselves with the confession, “He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30).
Such leaders lead the church not by their own ability, but by the power of the Lord. This is the paradox inherent in spiritual leadership: “Therefore I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties, for the sake of Christ. For when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12:10).