Saint Peter's Principles

Leadership for Those Who Already Know Their Incompetence

Peter A. Lillback

• Publisher: P Publishing
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9781629956398
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Church

Men and women can improve their competence in leadership as they apply lessons from Saint Peter's life and writings to their management style, communication, decision-making, conflict resolution, integrity, and more.

1

Welcome to St. Peter’s Principles

INTRODUCTION TO ST. PETER’S PRINCIPLES

St. Peter’s Principle #1

Every leader must confess with St. Peter, “I am a sinful man.” (Luke 5:8)

Many years ago, Dr. Laurence J. Peter wrote a best seller called The Peter Principle.¹ Professor Peter annunciated the potent insight that people—and leaders—are often promoted from one level of competence to another until they reach a position at which they are incompetent. At that point, typically the promotions cease.² Yet sometimes the promotions continue because of other factors, such as fame, family, fortune, and past success, such that some people arrive at a yet higher level where they prove to be even more incompetent. This I describe as arriving at one’s highest level of incompetence.

I’ve always liked that dictum. First, because I can see a great deal of truth in it. Second, because I “resemble that remark.” That’s not just because Professor Peter’s last name and my first name are the same. But it’s because I have experienced many times the feeling of being totally out of my league—in fact, downright incompetent to address the challenges that were facing me and the folks I was responsible to lead. But I hadn’t yet risen to the highest level of my incompetence. That’s because I’ve been asked to keep leading, leading organizations that are more complex and complicated than before.

So I began to wonder whether Professor Peter’s famous principle didn’t need a corollary, an adjustment, to describe the reality that I had encountered, namely, of ongoing experiences of incompetence. While reflecting on this, I was reading the Scriptures, and to my surprise, I came across some remarkable admissions by St. Peter and St. Paul, the two great founding apostles and leaders of the Christian church.

St. Peter was the one whom the Lord himself designated as the leader of his church on Pentecost (Matt. 16:18; Acts 2). He was the apostle—CEO—of the Jewish church (CEO here might stand for “Christian Executive Officer” or “Chief Education Officer”). Yet his real start in leadership was when he was in his field of greatest competence: fishing (Luke 5:1–11). When St. Peter encountered Christ, he admitted that he had fished all night and come home empty-handed. When our Lord told him to cast the net in again on the other side of his boat, he reluctantly obeyed—and caught the largest catch of his career. Peter’s telling response was, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord” (Luke 5:8). Peter had not risen to his highest level of incompetence. Instead, he began his ascent to leadership with a clear recognition of his incompetence as he stood in the presence of the Master.

It was there that the flickering idea of the “St. Peter’s Principles” was born. We do not rise to our highest level of incompetence. No, that’s where we start. We never outgrow our inherent inadequacy for the duties that are incumbent upon us as we lead others in the ever-changing challenges of leadership.

We find the same to be true with St. Paul. Saul of Tarsus—converted to Christianity by the risen Christ himself—was profoundly committed, ably trained, and hardened for battle, possessing a superior self-esteem and unrelenting in the pursuit of his objectives. Yet St. Paul never ceased becoming more aware of how inadequate he was to serve his God. At first, in Galatians 1:1, he identifies himself as “Paul, an apostle—not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father.” In Galatians 1:17, he writes, “Nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me.” In fact, St. Paul saw his ministry on a par with St. Peter’s. He writes in Galatians 2:8–9 that

he who worked through Peter for his apostolic ministry to the circumcised worked also through me for mine to the Gentiles[;] and when James and Cephas and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given to me, they gave the right hand of fellowship to Barnabas and me, that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised.

But later St. Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:9, after his third missionary journey, speaks of being “the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle.” And then from prison in Ephesians 3:8 he speaks of himself as “the very least of all the saints.” And finally, near the end of his ministry, he describes himself to his young understudy Timothy as “the foremost” of sinners (1 Tim. 1:15). These ever-increasing and self-effacing statements hardly bolster Paul’s résumé or impress his followers, who may have already been wondering about his competence as a leader! Thus, “St. Paul’s Principle” of leadership is manifestly parallel to this St. Peter’s Principle. St. Paul asks with truth and humility in 2 Corinthians 2:16, “Who is equal to such a task?” (NIV), “Who is adequate for these things?” (NASB), “Who is sufficient for these things?” (KJV, ESV). The unvarnished answer of truth is “no one, including me!”

As we learn to lead from the great founding apostles of the church, we are compelled to reassess the model that asserts that we begin with competence and climb the ladder of success by our competence, until we finally outgrow its reach. Rather, we are challenged by St. Peter and St. Paul to take a long, careful look at our fallen human natures that are marred by many inadequacies and incompetencies. The question then will not be “Are we competent?” or “Have we attained the right seat on the bus of our good to great organization?” but “Have we authentically seen our flaws, our failures, and our weaknesses that interpenetrate even our greatest strengths and our most notable successes?”

Admittedly, this first of the St. Peter’s Principles may leave our self-esteem and our leadership confidence a bit tattered and tarnished. But what if, by taking the “unschooled [and] ordinary” (Acts 4:13 NIV), “uneducated and untrained” (NASB) fisherman seriously, we end up receiving a “net” profit that is too great to gather, let alone count? Wouldn’t that be worth the enterprise?

If you’re willing to take the more humble approach of St. Peter and seek to lead, knowing only too well your own incompetence, then I invite you to keep your seat on this bus and grow by engaging that incompetence.

SPIRITUAL EXERCISES:

1. Look at this list of words that describe various kinds of leaders. Who are you? Which of these do you already hold or aspire to hold?

Leader	Director	Overseer	Vice President
Supervisor	President	Chancellor	Senior Partner
Doctor	R.N.	Senator	Governor
Judge	Minister	COO	Commander
Coach	Esquire	Founder	Ruling Elder
CEO	Partner	Prince	Congressman
Teacher	Instructor	Adviser	Foreman
Provost	Dean	Professor	Captain
Convener	General	Guide	Lieutenant
Admiral	Speaker	Moderator	Squad Leader
Principal	Chairman	Executive	CFO
Sheriff	Chief	Boss	Of Counsel
Head Nurse	Bishop	Vestryman	Teaching Elder
Regent	Supervisor	Deacon	Executive Director
Archdeacon	Pastor	Priest	Major

2. Is there another title that describes your position or aspiration? What titles for leadership positions are missing from the list and are significant to you?

3. Clearly, becoming a Christian leader is a good thing to pursue. First Timothy 3:1 assures us: “The saying is trustworthy: If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task.” Those who desire to be wise leaders will learn from the wisdom of Scripture. Meditate on the scriptural texts below and consider how you can develop as a leader.

• Seek to grow (2 Peter 3:18). “The Christian leader leads by what he is and by what he is becoming. He must meet the conditions of continuous growth.”³
• Hone your gifts and training (Rom. 12:3). “There are qualities genetically and socially inherited that incline some persons toward leadership more than others. You will do well to examine and assess this inheritance. Then there are qualities to be acquired through processes of learning and experience. These processes you need to understand and practice.”⁴
• Grasp the truth that ordinary people can do extraordinary things (Acts 4:13). The concept that the only leaders who can be exceptional persons are those who are unusually powerful and prominent is challenged by the Word of God. Note the lives of the disciples.
• Do not forget that God’s standard for success is not “bigness” but faithfulness(Matt.10:42; Zech. 4:10).

4. Strengthen your leadership skills by:

• Having a mentor (2 Tim. 2:2).
• Making plans and goals for good purposes (Prov. 14:22).
• Nurturing your spiritual life (2 Tim. 2:15; James 5:16). Read and schedule time for daily Bible study and prayer. It is often said that leaders are readers. See the Selected Reading List at the end of the book. Memorize the Lord’s Prayer, found in Matthew 6:9–13.
• Stewarding your time and resources (Eph. 5:15–16). “Dost thou love Life? then do not squander Time; for that’s the Stuff Life is made of.”⁵
• Being diligent in your labors (Prov. 14:23).

SUCCESS IS NOT MERELY SILVER AND GOLD

St. Peter’s Principle #2

A leader begins to be successful when, knowing his incompetence, he seeks to meet his deficiencies through the wisdom of God’s Word. (1 Peter 1:22–25)

Position, possessions, and problems often go hand in hand. In fact, when Professor Peter wrote his classic The Peter Principle, he developed unique names for various ways that leaders get promoted to their highest level of incompetence and what they experience when they get there. For example, he noted that in some hierarchical systems there are those who’ve made it to the top, where they are truly incompetent, but are nonetheless secure because of their previous success. This type of incompetent success has its liabilities, however. In his chapter “The Pathology of Success,” Professor Peter develops what he terms “the Final Placement Syndrome,” defined by the multiple physical maladies that are often experienced by people who have arrived at their terminal positions.⁶

But on the way up to a leader’s position of successful terminal incompetence, he often needs help to make his way up the hierarchy’s ladder of success. This can be facilitated by a patron who pulls him up or by a parent who places him in a position. The parent’s ownership of the company can clearly be of special help in placing a son or daughter in an advanced position that he or she may in fact not be prepared for or able to perform.⁷

It’s true that all leaders face incompetence. But it’s not just when they arrive at a place beyond which they cannot be promoted, and where they should, in fact, not be at all. Our incompetence is bound up in our fallen being and sinful nature. St. Peter was no saint when he said to his Master, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man” (Luke 5:8). Rather, he was showing the highest incompetence in seeking to send Christ away. But at the same time, scintillating wisdom was coruscating through his folly when he recognized that he was not worthy of Christ because he was flawed, fallen, sinful.

If success is not really defined by position, as The Peter Principle suggests, what is success, according to St. Peter’s Principles? What makes a sinful, uneducated, emotional, and impulsive fisherman leadership material for God’s kingdom, a kingdom that’s over everything on earth and whose influence reaches to the heavenly throne of God?

Ultimately, St. Peter’s wisdom was in recognizing what he ...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Foreword by R. Albert Mohler Jr.
• Acknowledgments
• Preface: Ten Principles for Reading This Book
• A Providential Prologue for Saint Peter’s Principles
• 1. Welcome to St. Peter’s Principles
• 2. Formation of a Leader
• 3. The Leader Looks at Himself
• 4. The Art of Godly Leadership
• 5. The Leader’s Relationships
• 6. The Leader’s Colleagues
• 7. The Leader’s Productivity
• 8. The Leader’s Management of People
• 9. The Leader’s Communications
• 10. The Leader’s Purpose, Planning, and Creativity
• 11. The Leader’s Decision-Making
• 12. The Leader’s Role in Development
• 13. When the Leader Faces Conflicts and Firings
• 14. The Leader and Integrity
• 15. The Leader in Culture
• 16. When the Leader Passes the Torch
• 17. Conclusion
• Summary of Principles
• Afterword
• My Top Ten Quotes on Persistence
• Epilogue: Reflections on Pastoral Ministry
• Selected Reading List on Biblical Leadership
• Index of Scripture
• Index of Subjects and Names