Dictators Aren’t Leaders

We live in an era where leadership training is everywhere. Books, podcasts, and conferences promise the latest framework, the newest method, the secret that will finally “move the needle.” Pastors and church leaders, in particular, are routinely targeted as prime consumers of leadership content.

And yet leadership remains in crisis.

One reason is uncomfortable but plain: many pastors don’t truly want to lead people. They want to be successful.

In the church world, “success” is often measured in bigger crowds and higher online views. And when those metrics rise, fame and money often follow. The temptation is subtle: leadership becomes less about shepherding people and more about managing optics. Less about faithfulness and more about outcomes.

But the quickest path to “success” rarely requires leadership. It requires leverage.

It requires convincing enough people to get out of your way so you can accomplish your desired ends. That may produce results, but it is not leadership. It’s enforcement. And enforcement is what dictators do.

A dictator is not a leader.

Too many leaders today are enforcing rather than leading—demanding compliance rather than cultivating conviction.

Leadership is a shared vision, not forced alignment

Leadership, at its simplest, is persuading a person or a team to move together toward a shared vision. That doesn’t mean everyone agrees on every detail. It does mean people understand the mission, trust the direction, and willingly shoulder the cost.

But many leaders never develop shared vision. They prefer the vision to remain personal rather than collaborative. When that happens, enforcement becomes the primary tool. Hours are spent crafting processes, policies, and pressure points to make people fall in line—and in the process, leadership is lost.

True leadership takes the harder path.

It doesn’t assume you know everything. It listens—especially to wise, devoted people. It makes decisions with humility, using data and discernment, and it learns from failure. When a strategy breaks, leaders evaluate what went wrong, adjust, and move forward.

The shared vision remains constant. The methods refine.

Enforcement is easier than leadership

Enforcement is seductive because it is efficient. It doesn’t require patience. It doesn’t require listening. It doesn’t require the vulnerability of collaboration. It simply acts in the interests of the few—and calls it “decisive leadership.”

But a church is not a corporation, and the pastorate is not a platform.

If your “leadership” only works when dissenters are removed, questions are silenced, and people are coerced into compliance, you’re not leading. You’re ruling.

Jesus has already given the church what we need

This is what makes the church’s leadership crisis especially frustrating: Jesus Christ has not left his church without direction.

He gave us the vision: make disciples of all nations (Matthew 28:19–20).

He gave us the principles: the fruit of the Spirit—love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22–23).

And he gave us the power: the Holy Spirit, whom the Father and the Son have sent to guide and strengthen the church.

The church does not need to invent a new mission. We are not authorized to craft a private vision and then recruit the church to accomplish it through sheer force of personality. Paul presses the point in Galatians 5:24:

“Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.”

Christian leadership does not baptize ambition. It crucifies it.

The Spirit leads the church to pursue Christ’s vision with Christ’s character. That means leaders don’t get to chase “success” in the flesh and call it obedience. The ends do not justify the means—especially when the means deny the gospel.

When a leader’s vision rivals Jesus

I believe the leadership crisis in the church exists because too many leaders desire a different vision than Jesus.

They may convince themselves—and their people—that their goals are biblical. But often they are not. They are rivals to the Lord of lords: personal empires built with Christian vocabulary.

That’s why Christian leadership training must be shaped less by corporate America and more by Scripture. If our training were truly biblical, our seminars would include more confession and worship—and fewer tactics for “achieving success.”

Jesus led by dying

Jesus did not lead by demanding his rights. He led by laying them down.

He served, he suffered, and he died. He did not build his kingdom by crushing opponents, but by being crushed for sinners.

So the question for anyone who desires to lead in Christ’s church is not, “Can you grow something?”

The question is: Are you willing to die to yourself?

If you are eager to enforce your demands on the church—if your instincts bend toward control, fear, coercion, and image management—choose a different profession. The church does not need more dictators with Bible verses.

The church needs leaders who follow Christ, not leaders who follow their passions.

Leaders who persuade rather than pressure.
Who listen rather than silence.
Who shepherd rather than perform.
Who measure faithfulness more than fame.

Because in the kingdom of God, the mark of leadership is not how many people you can gather.

It’s how faithfully you can serve.

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