Imago Dei: The Secret to Developing Christian Leadership By Dr. Tim Westbrook

The Dirty Little Secret of Higher Education

There is a dirty little secret that most college presidents won’t tell you. A student can attend any accredited college, learn what they need to do, and get a job after graduation. If you speak with C-suite executives, there is a prevalent theme. Employers want people who will work hard, are trustworthy, have integrity, and work well with others. Employers expect applicants to have the skills to work. The wildcard with each hire is whether this person is simply a good human.

The soft skills are not the kinds of skills one can memorize for a test. Neither rote memorization nor generative AI can transform one’s heart to be the kind of follower, colleague, and leader that employers need. As we think about job readiness, there is a separator between job hunters: whether prospective colleagues bring values and maturity that align with the organization.

Theology Unlocks the Secret to Leadership Development

In the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth, he also created humanity. This last creature of the created order was not the same as all of the other mammals walking or crawling on the earth. These two-legged creatures were set apart to be special above all others. They were made in God’s image (Genesis 1:26-28).

The theme of imago Dei permeates the Bible, but its roots are in creation. We see in Genesis two major applications of “image of God” — a relational use of the term (Genesis 5:3) and a representational use (Genesis 1:26-30). In short, our being made in God’s image presents before us not only a relational claim to our Heavenly Father but also the major responsibility of how we represent God within creation.

The Key to Stewardship

As people who have been created to bear the image of God, we see in Scripture a couple of more hints of the impact this should have on our ethics. First, God tells humanity to “subdue” and “rule over” the natural order. Our charge from Scripture is not a license to be reckless with creation but rather a mandate to be good stewards of the world around us. Just as a king hires his gardener to tend the garden, so God placed humanity to take care of the garden we call earth.

The Key to Respecting Others

Second, God tells humanity to respect others because of the inherent image-bearing within all people. This command comes out of the Noah story after the flood subsided. As Noah and his family disembarked from the Ark, God instructed them not to shed human blood. Why? Because humanity has been made in the image of God (Genesis 9:6).

Image Bearing Leads to Soft Skills in Christian Leadership

Deeply embedded into biblical theology about human relationships lie the godly values of stewardship and respect. The leap between these two and the desirable soft skills for leadership is not far. Behind trustworthiness, hard work, integrity, and social intelligence are the theological core values of caring for God’s creation and caring for each other.

When we consider the important calling of leading Christian organizations, I cannot think of a better space for leaders in these organizations to tap into the God-given principles ordained with each one of us because we are made in his image. Whether we are considering our own ongoing leadership refinement or nurturing the leaders within our organizations, we need to recognize that stewardship and respect for others are essential pieces of our identity as Christian leaders and Christian servants.

Dr. Timothy Paul Westbrook serves as president of York University in York, Nebraska. He and his wife, Dr. Anessa Westbrook, have been working together in Christian higher education for over twenty years. He earned his BA, MA, M.Div, and MBA from Harding University, and he completed his Ph.D. in intercultural education at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School.

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