What Truly Leads a Leader?
An Essay on Godly Values and Christian Leadership
Leadership is often described in terms of skills, effectiveness, and influence. We ask how to communicate better, how to motivate others, how to manage conflict or inspire vision. Yet beneath all these questions lies one that is far more decisive, though asked far less frequently: what truly governs the leader’s heart?
The fourth meeting of the Men’s Azimuth 10 formation cycle, held on January 15, 2026, confronted this foundational issue by turning attention to values—not as abstract ideals or cultural slogans, but as the deepest forces shaping a leader’s life. Bill Moyer’s teaching reminded participants that leadership, before it becomes visible in action, is already being exercised invisibly in the realm of conviction, desire, and allegiance.
At the heart of the reflection stood a simple yet demanding truth: values are uncompromisable and undebatable truths that drive and direct behavior. They are not what a leader claims to believe, but what actually governs his decisions when pressure mounts, when costs increase, and when obedience becomes inconvenient. In this sense, values are not chosen once and for all; they are revealed continuously through the concrete choices a leader makes.
Jesus’ words—“Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also”—frame the entire problem. Leadership flows from the heart, and the heart inevitably follows what it treasures. This is why values are more decisive for leadership than personality, competence, or even good intentions. Skills can be learned, strategies refined, and structures adjusted, but if a leader’s values are distorted, leadership itself becomes misdirected, no matter how impressive the external results may appear.
One of the most illuminating aspects of the teaching was the recognition that values perform a double function. They motivate, providing reasons for action and perseverance, but they also restrain, placing boundaries around behavior. True values do not merely tell a leader what he wants to do; they tell him what he refuses to do, even when compromise would bring immediate advantage. In this sense, values protect leadership from becoming reactive, opportunistic, or self-serving.
Psalm 15 offers a striking biblical portrait of such value-driven leadership. King David does not describe a flawless individual, but a person whose inner commitments shape outward conduct: speaking truth from the heart, refusing to harm others, keeping promises even when it hurts, rejecting unjust gain. The psalm ends with a promise that is as spiritual as it is practical: the one who lives this way “will never be shaken.” Stability, both emotional and spiritual, is the fruit of leadership rooted in godly values.
The question of values cannot be separated from the question of God Himself. If values are to be more than cultural preferences or personal ideals, they must be grounded in something absolute. Scripture reveals God as the ultimate source of all value: truth, goodness, justice, love, and beauty are not external standards imposed upon Him, but expressions of His very being. This is why God looks beyond actions to motives, beyond outcomes to intentions. Right behavior performed for the wrong reason does not satisfy Him, because it does not flow from a heart aligned with His own.
Here the teaching became particularly challenging for leaders. It is possible to make correct decisions for inadequate reasons: avoiding wrongdoing not because it contradicts God’s will, but because it threatens reputation, position, or comfort. Such leadership may appear moral on the surface, yet it remains fragile, because its values are conditional rather than absolute. When circumstances change, so too does the leader’s behavior.
The figure of Jonah illustrates this danger with painful clarity. Jonah knew God, understood his calling, and possessed theological knowledge, yet he failed as a leader because his values did not align with God’s mercy and purpose. He acted not out of fidelity to God’s heart, but out of attachment to his own expectations of what God should do. Jonah’s story exposes a sobering reality: leaders can be religious, informed, and even called—yet resist God at the level of values.
God’s purposes are not dependent on any individual leader. As the story of Nineveh shows, God will accomplish His will with or without human cooperation. The real question is whether a leader chooses to participate joyfully in God’s work or remains outside it, burdened by resentment and inner division. Alignment of values is therefore not merely a moral issue; it is a relational one. It determines whether leadership becomes communion with God or quiet opposition to Him.
Living by godly values inevitably involves cost. Faithfulness is rarely efficient, and obedience is not always rewarded with immediate success. This is why Jesus consistently directs His disciples away from short-term gain toward eternal perspective. Leadership shaped by the question “Does this please God?” cannot be enslaved to outcomes, applause, or measurable results alone. When this core value is firmly in place, other priorities find their proper order; when it is absent, leadership fragments under competing loyalties.
The January meeting of Men’s Azimuth 10 did not provide a checklist of acceptable values, nor did it offer quick techniques for moral improvement. Instead, it placed leaders where authentic formation always begins: before God, confronted with the truth about their hearts. It asked them to examine not only what they do, but why they do it; not only what they reject, but what they truly desire.
In the end, the session left participants with a quiet but pressing realization: Christian leadership does not begin with action, vision, or influence—it begins with conversion at the level of values. Only leaders who allow God to shape what they treasure can hope to lead others with integrity, stability, and lasting fruit.
Such leadership is not dramatic. It is often hidden, costly, and slow. But it is precisely this kind of leadership that Scripture promises will endure—because it is rooted not in human calculation, but in the unchanging character of God.
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