Leading with Vision, Focus, Trust and Obedience

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Vision distinguishes a leader, and sets the pathway for success in leadership. It gives the leader confidence, self-consciousness, and if effectively communicated, inspires trust and hope in the followers. A leader cannot command good followership without a powerful vision, unless the followers are themselves blind (metaphorically speaking) and vision is of no essence to them. It also keeps the leader focused. If your heart is set on something important, you are less likely to be distracted by other things.

For a Christian political leader, vision is threefold: personal (aspirations), collective (community: party, state, country), and divine (inspiration). Since you are leading in a community, it is assumed that there is a collective vision of the people in that community. In addition is your vision of what you want to achieve for the community, in line its own vision. Lastly, understand God’s will for the community in that time and season of your leadership. The latter supersedes the others, but they are also important. It is the duty of the leader to be aware of the vision in all three folds.

It is however important to note that it is possible for a particular community to not have a vision, or not to be aware of, or to have lost it. In this circumstance, the Christian political leader must depend on divine inspiration for a vision, where it is lacking and align his personal aspirations to it, and bring it to the awareness of the community; help them discover or rediscover a lost vision. This will entail absolute trust and obedience to God, and doggedness in driving that vision towards success. Can you imagine what it is like to lead people who do not know what they want, or are adamant, or hopeless?

Vision is one of the qualities applicable to most of the case studies in this series. However, for the purpose of this reflection, the central figure discussed is Noah, especially as it relates to focus, trust and obedience, and leading in a community of people without a sense of vision. 

Noah (Genesis 5:1-10:32, Hebrews 11:4-7, 1 Peter 3:20) was acclaimed by God as the only righteous man on earth at a time the rest of the world was full of wickedness and iniquity, and he found favor in God’s sight (Genesis 6:8-9). God chose Noah, and intending to save the world through him, instructed him to construct an ark, to which he obliged, but the people did not see any sense in what he was doing. They paid no attention to him, until it came to pass. God caused rain to flood the earth, and everyone and everything perished, except Noah and his family, and the creatures that he had taken into the ark (1 Peter 3:20).

There are many lessons to learn from Noah’s personal life and his leadership. As a person, he was righteous, faithful, and obedient. These are powerful virtues that will help you to trust in God and follow without complaining or doubting, even when it may appear illogical, unreasonable, or impossible. Noah yielded, and God preserved the posterity of mankind through him, and was blessed abundantly. As a leader, Noah was visionary, focused, and persistent. Your personal life should prepare you for your leadership. God calls you as a person to become a leader, not the reverse. As a Christian political leader, your personal walk with God comes first. Live righteously, be faithful and obedient to the will of God. Another person’s livelihood may depend on your obedience. The future of humanity may be dependent on your singular step of faith. If you are not strong in your private life, you cannot fake it in public. When your walk with God is in order, your work for God will be successful. Imagine if Noah did not pay attention to the specifications of the ark: how could he have saved his face from public ridicule? Not only did Noah get it right, God provided all he needed for his success.  

As a Christian political leader, your personal walk with God comes first. Live righteously, be faithful and obedient to the will of God. Another person’s livelihood may depend on your obedience

In Noah’s leadership, the power of vision (focus and persistence) is seen in action. He communicated God’s message (divine vision) to an obstinately sinful, pertinaciously faithless, adamantly unbelieving, hard-heartedly unyielding, chronically recalcitrant, and terminally visionless generation. They did not see any sense in what he was doing. Not only did they disbelieve his divinely inspired message; they also rejected him and his project. This is another lesson to learn from Noah: people may not believe in your vision, they may not help you, but God is able to help you succeed. Politics is a phenomenal human endeavor. It is highly unpredictable, and fraught with complexities. If you must lead in politics and not compromise your Christian standards, you have to be like Noah: visionary, focused, dogged, faithful and obedient.

How did Noah end? We have discussed two aspects of Noah’s life: personal and leadership. He became a leader in his generation because he was found worthy, and he succeeded in his leadership project of preserving life for posterity. There is however, one significant event that happened in his personal life, what Charles D. Adams described, “drunk on the eve of reconstruction” (to signify becoming proud of one’s achievements and not ending well). The Bible says, after the flood, Noah planted a vineyard, and became drunk with wine (Genesis 9:20-21). Noah’s drunkenness can be seen as a sign of one abandoning a vision. His mission was to restore mankind to a righteous world after the flood, but that was not the outcome. He himself became sinful, and that affected the vision. Could it be the reason why sin prevailed until the coming of Christ? If you must end well as a Christian political leader, you must never lose sight of the vision, or compromise your virtues, in leadership.

This article was written by Jude Terna Ayua who is a lawyer, artist, and author. He has authored and published on various subjects, in law, politics, and religion. He is a Master of Theological Studies’ candidate (2024) at the Harvard Divinity School. Jude is passionate about helping people find purpose and live fulfilling lives. He is the author of Finding Purpose: A 30-Day Journey of Purpose Discovery, and the #purpose_series, which he shares daily on his personal Facebook page.