Apostle Paul's Letter To The Corinthians

Paul Paul was one of the greatest leaders of all time as he exerted incomparable influence on the lives of countless people. The book of Acts and his epistles reveal that Paul possessed many outstanding characteristics of Christian leadership. In his first letter to the Corinthians, Paul influenced the Corinthians: "Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ" (I Cor. 11:1). Although the Apostle Paul wore many hats, he was a leader above all, and he never lacked followers (Sanders, 1999). From a fugitive slave to the officials at Caesar's Court, people from diverse backgrounds and social classes followed him. No one in the history of the church can be compared to him except our Lord Jesus. The Apostle Paul had many talents.
He was a skillful apologist, and able to reason with the best contemporary philosophers of Athens (Acts 17: 18-34). He was a bold preacher of the gospel, traveling to spread the Word of God to all of Asia (Acts 19: 10). And he was an incredible instrument of healing, miracles occurred even when people touched an apron he had worn (Acts 19: 11- 12). But none of these things can compare to his contribution as a leader. Without the leadership of Paul, the world would have been a very different place during the first century (Maxwell, 2000). People were attracted to Paul because of the sheer force of his character. In his testimony to Felix the governor of Caesarea, Paul testified that: "So I strive always to keep my conscience clear before God and man" (Acts 24: 6). Paul standard’s was so high that earthly judgment did not matter. "I care very little if I am judged by you or by any human court; indeed, I do not even judge myself. My conscience is clear, but that does not make me innocent. It is the Lord who judged me" (1 Cor. 4:3-4). Paul lived his life before God, and that is why he was so bold when he appealed to God to testify of his moral purity. You are witnesses, and so is God, of how holy, righteous and blameless we were among you who believed (1 Thess. 2: 10). The stated strategic principles that Paul used are beneficial to leaders in global environments today.
By crafting solutions to bring people and resources together across national, cultural, and organizational boundaries" (Cabrera and Unruh, 2012. p. 12), Paul delivered a consistent message that was reliant on others to assist in reaching a greater population. People are the primary subject of ideological analysis (Robbins, 1996) and communicating with people was the main purpose of Paul's travels. The people encounters provide dialogue and disagreement for ideological analysis regarding the biases, opinions, and preferences between the participants. These encounters ranged from amiable gatherings in the synagogues to hostile confrontations with an angry mob or disputing the words of the sorcerer Bar-Jesus. Today’s leaders could learn from Paul, because he had uncompromising ethics with deep humility, and demonstrated it when he stated, I make myself a slave to everyone, to win over as he adapted to the various cultural customs and traditions in order to convert and win over citizens for
Christ. Leaders and followers must have compatible values and cultural congruence to foster change in organizations.
Leaders articulate a vision that emphasizes values shared by leader and followers (Jacobsen & House, 2001) and infuse seemingly disconnected organizational activities with those shared values (Shamir & Howell, 1999), which guides behaviors of followers (Tsai et al., 2009). Leaders are most effective when follower self-concepts and values are the same with the values espoused by the leader (Lord & Brown, 2001). The shared sense of values and culture stems in part from the leader acting to transform followers personal values. Leader–follower value congruence occurs when as a result of the leader acting to influence the values of followers, and from the leader’s purposeful attempts to appeal to existing follower values and culture. Leaders are expected to be better than other leaders at shaping the values of others, and also at tailoring their messages to tap into or prime pre-existing values and culture of followers and potential followers (Brown & Trevino,
2009). Great leaders like Paul create a vision for their community and articulate their vision to the followers, build a shared vision, craft a path to achieve the vision, and guide their community into new directions (Banutu-Gomez & Banutu-Gomez 2007; Kotter 2001). The most important part in building a community with a legacy of success is the people within it, which includes the followers (i.e., citizen’s, employees and volunteers) as well as the leaders. Paul was chosen to preach God’s word and to convey God’s plan for managing the church. “Although I am less than the least of all the Lord’s people, this grace was given me: to preach to the Gentiles the boundless riches of Christ, and to make plain to everyone the administration of this mystery, which for ages past was kept hidden in God, who created all things” (Ephesians 3:8-9).