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On this episode of The Lead On Podcast, Jeff Iorg, president of the SBC Executive Committee, discusses the leader’s calling to model the commitments they teach. He explores why Christian leaders must live as visible examples—authentic, transparent, and consistent in every area of life. Using biblical teaching and practical stories, Iorg unpacks the challenges and rewards of leading by example, showing how faithful modeling shapes others to follow Christ more fully.
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Ready to hone your leadership skills and unlock your full potential? Tune in to the Lead On Podcast, where Jeff Iorg dives deep into Biblical leadership.
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From effective communication and team building to strategic decision-making and fostering innovation, each episode is packed with valuable lessons and inspiring stories to empower you on your leadership journey.
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Welcome to the Lead On Podcast. This is Jeff Iorg, the president of the executive committee of the Southern Baptist Convention, continuing our dialogue about practical issues related to ministry leadership. Leadership. Thanks for joining me on the podcast, and thanks for faithful listening week by week. Today, I wanna talk about modeling a challenging commitment.
Jeff Iorg:I wanna talk about the responsibility that leaders have to be role models, to be living examples of what we're teaching our followers to do and challenging them to fulfill. Now, the expectation that Christian leaders will be role models is hard for some people to accept. They think, no, I I don't really wanna put myself out there. I I don't really want people noticing me. I don't I don't wanna lift myself up as an example.
Jeff Iorg:The problem is the bible clearly teaches that Christian leaders are examples. We're role models. We're living demonstrations of what we want our followers to become and what we want our followers to do. Now leading by personal example can be difficult. In fact, sometimes even painful.
Jeff Iorg:Here's some examples. When when you're leading a fundraising campaign, for
Jeff Iorg:example, you have to set the pace by giving first, giving sacrificially, and
Jeff Iorg:giving in such a way that it models for others what you want them to give. This kind of financial giving can involve sacrifice, but it's important because it establishes credibility before you ask others to join you in giving. Another example is a pastor who wants his church to increase its prayer focus. One particular pastor started a daily early morning prayer meeting to facilitate the goal of raising the commitment his church had to prayer. Adjusting his schedule required personal discipline and forsaking late night activities and other personal changes, but nevertheless, he knew if he wanted people to follow him in early morning prayer, he had to set the pace by being present himself.
Jeff Iorg:Another leader wanted to increase scripture memory throughout his ministry, so he founded a scripture memory group for support and accountability, and they memorized scripture passages together. Another leader wanted to promote
Jeff Iorg:humility among his men's group. So taking kind of
Jeff Iorg:a twenty first century, perspective on foot washing, he shined everyone's shoes during the next men's ministry meeting. It was humbling,
Jeff Iorg:yet effective, and this lay leader, a surgeon, was a powerful example of someone humbling himself and shining someone else's shoes. Setting the pace as a leader in areas like this can be challenging, sometimes even personally painful, but it comes with the territory of being a Christian leader. Now as I've said, sometimes people feel that being a role model seems awkward or or presumptuous, but it's not. It's a biblical strategy. It's
Jeff Iorg:a way of saying to others, observe my life, follow my example, do what I do. It requires you as a leader to step forward often boldly to set the pace for others to follow. You know, years ago, Charles Barkley, the former NBA all star player and now NBA commentator, infamous infamously said, I am not a role model. But as a Christian leader, you don't have that option. Now why is it that we're reluctant to put ourself forward as role models as part of our leadership role?
Jeff Iorg:Well, there's a number of reasons. Let me let me click through some of them for you. First of all, some leaders are put off by arrogant leaders whose style includes self promotion and maybe even the abuse of position or the abuse of power. They these leaders don't wanna be seen as role models because they wrongly assume that being a prominent leader means a person has to be autocratic or dictatorial. Now listen, while some leaders obviously abuse their position and abuse their authority, most don't.
Jeff Iorg:So rejecting putting yourself forward in this capacity is really unwise because you're basing your reasoning on the sins of a few rather than the practice of the many. Look, just because some leaders are arrogant or abusive or autocratic doesn't mean that you can't be an assertive leader who puts himself or herself out there as a role model for your church organization.
Jeff Iorg:Another reason people are reluctant to do this is a sense of false humility. Now to be a leader
Jeff Iorg:means that you still have to be a demonstration also of humility. Now, humility isn't self abasement. Humility is appropriate self appraisal. It's seeing yourself as God sees you, and it's adopting God's perspective on who you are and what you're assigned to do. Being humble means you accept God's assignment, which in this case means being a role model, a leader that others look to as an example.
Jeff Iorg:And if God has made you a leader, obedience requires you accept that assignment and doing God's will, doing it God's way means that you can still be a leader who's a role model who puts himself or herself out there
Jeff Iorg:for others to follow with humility. This is true of Christian leaders. Now, third reason people resist this is because they observe leaders who do put themselves forward being abused.
Jeff Iorg:One young man once told me, I will never become a pastor because of how a church treated my dad. Well, this young man had obvious leadership gifts and many of us saw evidence of God's call in his life, but he refused to accept any ministry role for several years. But finally, he realized the abuse his father had endured was an excuse, not a valid reason to reject the leadership responsibilities God was thrusting upon him. Now one of the interesting parts about that story is I know his father well, and his father never abandoned his leadership calling because of the difficulties he went through in pastoral ministry. Despite the fact that he endured some difficult days, including some very abusive behavior by a church that terminated him, I believe, unfairly.
Jeff Iorg:He never gave up on his responsibility to be a spiritual leader, a pastoral leader. Real leaders know the road is difficult, but they don't give it up just because it's hard. And others shouldn't use those examples of difficulty as an excuse to avoid stepping forward and taking on the leadership mantle and being the examples, the models that God has called them to be. Now some people refuse this idea of being a a role model because they have a genuine sense of inadequacy. You may, for example, wonder about your weaknesses and your foibles, and you wonder how God could use someone like you, and you feel inadequate and wonder if it's even possible for for you to accomplish anything in any way that causes other people to be inspired or informed.
Jeff Iorg:But the good news is you can lead in this way. You are not inadequate. Oh, well, I
Jeff Iorg:guess you are. I guess I am too. We all feel inadequate. What I mean is God, who has called you
Jeff Iorg:to leadership and assigned you the task of being an example or a model, will give you the adequacy you need in the moment. Now another reason people won't assume this kind of leadership role of public modeling is they have an aversion to what I call public scrutiny or notice. Being a role model, being an example for others is a public responsibility. That means that your decisions, your choices, your actions will be dissected and analyzed and sometimes ridiculed. It can be painful.
Jeff Iorg:And some reject doing this because they simply don't want the pressure that comes with life on stage. They'd prefer to work behind
Jeff Iorg:the scenes in the shadows without the pressure of being observed or emulated or discussed or critiqued. That's simply not possible. You're a leader. You've been given responsibility, and one of those responsibilities is to be a model for others, a role model, if you will, an example, a public demonstration of what other believers should do, choices they should make, character traits they should develop. You are that model.
Jeff Iorg:Now I said earlier in the podcast that this was a biblical responsibility. Let's let's review some of that. On several occasions, Paul and Peter wrote specific instructions
Jeff Iorg:to some of their followers who were leaders to be examples. And Paul often
Jeff Iorg:challenged his converts to imitate him in order
Jeff Iorg:to become a more fully devoted follower of Jesus. For example,
Jeff Iorg:Paul wrote Timothy in first Timothy four twelve, no one should look down on your youth. Instead, you should be an example to the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity. Paul told Timothy, be an example.
Jeff Iorg:Timothy was challenged, first of all, to be an example for his followers. And then second, Timothy, remember, was a young man, but he had the responsibility of being a role model as a pastoral leader as well. Now you may think you're excused from being a role model or an example because of your youth or inexperience. That's not so. If you're in a leadership role, even if you are younger or less experienced than others, you are still responsible to set an
Jeff Iorg:example worthy of being followed. Now Paul wrote another one of
Jeff Iorg:his trainees, this fellow named Titus. In Titus two seven,
Jeff Iorg:he said, set an example of good works with integrity and dignity in your teaching. Titus was challenged to be
Jeff Iorg:a role model of good works and sound teaching. And like Timothy, Titus was a first generation Christian leader who may have felt overwhelmed by the responsibility thrust upon him. Nevertheless, Paul clearly challenged Titus
Jeff Iorg:to be an example, to be a role model. Peter wrote the
Jeff Iorg:same idea. In first Peter five one through three, he wrote, I exhort the elders among you, shepherd God's flock among you, not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock. Peter expected these elders to be role models, actively demonstrating the character and actions they desired in their followers. Listen, we aren't, armchair quarterbacks barking signals and expecting others to run the plays. We're we're on the field.
Jeff Iorg:We're in the game. We're a player coach if you follow that illustration. We're setting the pace, but we're in the action. The most effective leaders in the early church, like Paul and Peter, expected this of themselves and those they trained, we should do no less. Then continuing this idea, Paul instructed his disciples to be examples, to emulate his common practice of challenging believers to imitate him.
Jeff Iorg:For example, Paul wrote the Corinthians a summary about his perspective on being a role model. In first Corinthians eleven one, he said, be imitators of me as I also am of Christ. Earlier in the same letter, Paul also wrote first Corinthians four fourteen to 16, I'm not writing this to shame you, but to warn you as my dear children. For you can have 10,000 instructors in Christ, but
Jeff Iorg:you can't have any fathers. Now I have fathered you in Christ Jesus through the gospel. And then he wrote, therefore, I urge you, be imitators of me.
Jeff Iorg:You know, as a leader, Paul was comfortable telling other believers to follow his example,
Jeff Iorg:to imitate him in their character and in their conduct. Paul said, be imitators of me as I also am of Christ. He did not say, don't follow me, just follow Jesus. He said, no. Follow me like you see me following Jesus.
Jeff Iorg:And in that second passage, he used a powerful illustration of a father's influence, the subtle and powerful and permanent influence fathers have to communicate how influential leaders are as role models. You know, children are profoundly influenced by their father's example, whether it's good or bad. That influence, good or bad, positive or negative,
Jeff Iorg:all children bear their father's mark. Christian leaders like fathers then have the opportunity to profoundly influence their followers by their example. Look look, most of what children learn from their fathers is by intuition and observation, not not classroom teaching. And it's much the same with your followers
Jeff Iorg:who may be changed more by copying your
Jeff Iorg:actions, copying your character than by hearing your instructions. Now Paul combined both these themes, being
Jeff Iorg:a role model and expecting his trainees to be role models as he continued in first Corinthians four seventeen, this is why I have sent to you Timothy, who is my beloved and faithful child in the Lord. He will remind you about my ways in Christ Jesus. Paul not only was not only expected to be a role model, but he sent Timothy with instructions to use his life as an example of commitment to Jesus. So all of this together underscores Christian leaders are role models. That means you're one.
Jeff Iorg:You're responsible to model for others the conduct and character of Christians and what they're supposed to be like. And your followers should know you well enough to use your example as an example for themselves of what they wanna become in Jesus Christ. You know, Paul wrote a couple of other churches about imitating him. He he told the Philippians Philippians three seventeen, join in imitating me. And he affirmed the Thessalonians, first Thessalonians one six, because they, quote, became imitators of us and of the Lord.
Jeff Iorg:He later amplified the same theme in a second letter to the Thessalonians when he wrote, now we command you brothers in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to keep away from every brother who walks irresponsibly and not according to the to the tradition received from us. For you yourselves know how you must imitate us. We were not irresponsible among you. We did not eat anyone's bread free of charge. Instead, we labored and toiled working night and day so that we would not be a burden to any of you.
Jeff Iorg:Second Thessalonians three six to eight. So
Jeff Iorg:all of this comes together to to teach us that Paul and Peter practiced being a role model and advocated that other leaders be role models as a primary strategy for Christian leadership. These men were willing to shoulder the burden of living in such a way that others could grow closer to Jesus
Jeff Iorg:by emulating them. They trained other leaders to do the same thing.
Jeff Iorg:And so as a Christian
Jeff Iorg:leader, you have both the privilege and responsibility of being a role model. You have the privilege and responsibility of engaging people personally with vulnerability and authenticity, letting them look into your life to learn how the Christian life should be lived.
Jeff Iorg:Christians are even exhorted to watch you and imitate you. Hebrews thirteen seven, Remember your leaders who have spoken God's word to you as you carefully observe the outcome of their lives. Imitate
Jeff Iorg:their faith. Imitate their faith. Your followers are watching. And while that may make you uncomfortable in some ways, it is a biblical practice and reality of a primary way they are shaped to follow Jesus. So when it comes to being a role model, modeling challenging commitments, we set the pace.
Jeff Iorg:If you want your followers to be more effective evangelists, you have to set the pace in sharing the gospel with others and showing your followers how that's done. You want your followers to become more loving family leaders? They'll be more motivated if you're setting an example of family leadership, which is producing healthy relationships with your spouse and your children. You want your followers to live and give more generously? They will be motivated when they see you setting the pace as a good steward.
Jeff Iorg:All of these responsibilities are yours as a role model who has the opportunity to set an example that others can imitate and become more like Jesus Christ.
Jeff Iorg:Now having said all that, let's talk about some principles that will lead you to being a more healthy role model. Two important words for role modeling in Christian leadership are transparency and authenticity. Now these two concepts are are two sides of the same coin. They are the coin of appropriately, and I underscore that word
Jeff Iorg:appropriately, revealing your motives and actions to encourage and motivate others. Transparency implies freedom from pretense or deceit. Being transparent means you your life is visible and accessible. Authenticity means genuine character without counterfeit. Being authentic means when people see you, they see the real you.
Jeff Iorg:You aren't playing the role of a Christian leader. You are a Christian leader, and you are the same person in every setting, home, church, community, school. I've had a
Jeff Iorg:couple of experiences of this one recent one some years ago. Recently, I was talking with a young man and getting to know him, he was telling me his story. And he said, was blessed to grow up in a Christian home. In fact,
Jeff Iorg:my father was a pastor. And he said, my father is a wonderful man, a great dad, a really effective pastor, and we're very close today. He said, What made my dad so remarkable is he was the same person everywhere. He was the same person at home, at church, at school. He was the same person everywhere.
Jeff Iorg:That's one of
Jeff Iorg:the reasons that he and I've always had a good relationship, and we still have one today because I see him with transparency and authenticity being the same person all the time. You know, about twenty plus years ago, I went to the inauguration of doctor Danny Aiken, the president of Southeastern Seminary. At the time, I
Jeff Iorg:did not know doctor Aiken. I was
Jeff Iorg:a brand new president at Gateway just a few months in my job, and I went to his inauguration as a courtesy. Presidents do that for each other. I went to his inauguration and didn't really know anyone and never been on that campus or in that part of the country, so I was just sitting quietly, trying to soak up the experience. Didn't know most of the speakers, but two young men came to the microphone to talk in the service, and they were two of Danny Aiken's sons.
Jeff Iorg:And one of them said the same thing my new friend recently said about his father. He said, the most important thing
Jeff Iorg:you need to know about our dad is that whether he's teaching a theology class or coaching us in basketball or home alone with our mom or in the pulpit on a Sunday, he's the same man everywhere. And that's why we love and respect him. And I sat there thinking, I'm in. I'm convinced. I'm sold.
Jeff Iorg:I wanna know that kind of man and share leadership with him, which we did for more than twenty years as fellow seminary presidents.
Jeff Iorg:Listen. If you want people to follow you and you're going to be a role model of leadership like the Bible says you are and are supposed to be. Transparency and authenticity are essential qualities. You have to establish a pattern of transparent, authentic living that's essential to modeling real commitment. You you you don't just turn on transparency and authenticity when you wanna inspire people by your example.
Jeff Iorg:No. These qualities are integral to you leading as an example. You know, leadership again isn't a role you play. It's a life you lead. You know, you have all these venues, speaking, preaching, teaching, writing, counseling, all these places, home, work, school.
Jeff Iorg:If you're the same person everywhere, that's living with transparency and authenticity. Now it's important in living this way to also find a balance. You wanna present yourself as a role model.
Jeff Iorg:That's a legitimate biblical strategy as I've already outlined, but you wanna be careful about drawing too much attention to yourself. You know, even when you do this in the right way, sometimes your motives can be misunderstood. It's easy because people look at you and make judgments, and that's hard. But don't retreat from being a role model just because of that. Recognize that this is a part of your responsibility.
Jeff Iorg:With transparency and authenticity, you
Jeff Iorg:can reveal who you are without doing so in such
Jeff Iorg:a way that it draws too much attention to yourself. But in order to do that, let me close out the podcast with four suggestions on this point. For appropriate transparency and authenticity, number one,
Jeff Iorg:share your struggles, not just your successes. You know, some leaders don't have any problem telling their success stories. They hope to impress people and inspire them. But it might be more powerful if rather than talking about your perfect marriage, your perfect children, your perfect devotional life, your perfect height, your perfect weight, your perfect workout plan, it might be more inspirational if you shared about your marriage challenges and your parenting struggles and the in in inconsistencies of your devotional life and the battle you have to maintain your weight. No one is so good that they have every part of life always together.
Jeff Iorg:And so part of sharing your life is sharing your struggles, not just your successes. It'll surprise you, but your credibility will actually grow when you share your struggles alongside some of your successes. You know, I was recently teaching a doctoral seminar, and I observed to the students that most of the illustrations I had in the seminar were about mistakes I made, shortcomings in my past, things I had learned and had to unlearn or relearn,
Jeff Iorg:and that the most profound things I teach today usually come out of things I did wrong the first time around. So share your successes, but also share your struggles. Number two, share your struggles, not anyone else's. Don't tell negative stories about your family and friends and councilors or team members. That's not that's not your transparency and your authenticity.
Jeff Iorg:Tell your stories. Now this can not only be offensive if you do it too much about other people, but even unethical. And I've made this mistake. I once shared an illustration about a person that didn't know they were in the audience. Man, that was a rough day.
Jeff Iorg:I shared someone else's struggles when I should have just been focusing on my own. Third, share to meet the needs of others, not your needs. When you choose to share a struggle in transparency and authenticity, check your motive. The right motive is for the good of your followers. The wrong motive is anything that hints of self adulation or self promotion.
Jeff Iorg:Another wrong motive is anything that tries to draw some kind of sympathy to yourself in the moment. Sharing personal information, personal stories that include your failures can be very helpful, but only when a leader is focused on sharing from the perspective of helping followers instead of attracting attention to themselves or trying to gain some kind of false sympathy or empathy for their situation. You know, when you when you share personal struggles with the wrong motive, that's not transparent authenticity, that's narcissistic catharsis. Under the guise of transparency and authenticity, a leader is really saying, look at me. Feel sorry for me.
Jeff Iorg:Share my pain. Have sympathy for me. You know, narcissism is an inordinate focus on self. Catharsis is a purging of emotions for personal benefit. And leaders who reveal personal issues, including their struggles for these reasons, embarrass themselves and frankly, make their followers uncomfortable.
Jeff Iorg:So share to meet the needs of others, not just your needs. And then finally, as you're sharing your stories of struggle and you're sharing your stories,
Jeff Iorg:not someone else's, and you're sharing in order to meet the needs of others, finally, share appropriate details, but not the gory details. For example, my life story includes some difficult early years as the son of an alcoholic, but I don't really need to go into details about that. I can share just enough for people to understand the pain of those early years without going into inappropriate detail that reflects badly on the people who were involved in my life back in those days. You know, sharing too many details can undermine your credibility because your followers may start to question your discernment and judgment in sharing so much information that was beyond what needed to
Jeff Iorg:be told. It can also make them cautious about sharing intimate details with you because they're afraid they'll that they'll be put on display in some future sermon or public setting. So it's important to share enough detail that people understand what you're trying to communicate without leaving out what I call the gory detail. So what we've talked about today is being a role model, being an example.
Jeff Iorg:The bible says you are one. The bible says as a leader, you put yourself forward and you say to others, follow my example. The bible tells people to imitate you and in doing so, follow more like Jesus. His character and his conduct should be more clear for people after they've observed you in action. You have to learn to do this in healthy ways and in right ways, but it's part of taking on the public mantle of leadership.
Jeff Iorg:You know, early in the book of acts on several occasions, the bible says Peter stood up in the process of leading the church. That phrase stood up is more than just describing his physical, location or his physical size or his stature. It wasn't his posture that was on display in those moments. When the bible says he stood up, it means he stood up. He took the lead.
Jeff Iorg:He said, notice me. He said, follow me. He said, I'll be your example. He stood up. So as a leader today, I wanna challenge you to take on the public responsibilities of being an example, being a role model, being a person that people can follow.
Jeff Iorg:And as it says in the Bible, that you could be able to say to others, imitate me. And if you do, you'll be a better follower of Jesus. Put it into practice today as you lead on.