About Red Letter Leadership
Red Letter Leadership was founded on the belief that to be a truly great leader, one must first humble himself/herself to Christ’s lordship in his/her life, and then he/she must commit to studying Christ’s words and example from a leadership perspective. Now, we all have served under great leaders who embody much of what Christ lived and teaches but who may not claim to be a follower of Christ. I believe that, though we may have had a great experience under such a person’s leadership, their potential is much greater if they would make Christ lord of their life. The Red Letter Leadership Team has extensive leadership experience with over six decades of active-duty service in the military’s special operations, infantry, and aviation communities and they leverage that experience to add value to leaders.
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Red Letter Leadership acknowledges that the life of Jesus, his teachings, and his example is at the very heart of true, effective leadership. To not study the red letters is to not desire your fullest leadership potential. Studying leadership without Christ is like studying the founding of America without George Washington or the Civil Rights Movement without Martin Luther King, Jr.
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Red Letter Leadership believes that, though leadership is more difficult for some than for others, the attributes of leadership are inherently necessary for all to achieve. In short, leaders are made not born. In Matthew 28 verses 19-20, Jesus commissions His disciples to “go and make disciples of all nations…teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” This simple instruction to all of Christ’s followers requires us to be leaders. We must follow Him because our authority is derived from Him, and He will go before us. But we must be able to lead others to Him. We cannot do that if we have no influence. Leadership is influence.
Red Letter Leadership understands that the source of this problem is the removal of the Bible from our schools, our institutions of government, and in some sad situations, the pulpit. Teddy Roosevelt said when he addressed the Long Island Bible Society in 1901: “The teachings of the Bible are so interwoven and entwined with our whole civic and social life that it would be literally—I do not mean figuratively, I mean literally—impossible for us to figure to ourselves what that life would be if these teachings were removed. We would lose almost all the standards by which we now judge both public and private morals—all the standards toward which we, with more or less resolution, strive to raise ourselves. Almost every man who has by his life-work added to the sum of human achievement of which the race is proud—of which our people are proud—almost every such man has based his life-work largely upon the teachings of the Bible.”
President Abraham Lincoln stated, after receiving a Bible as a gift from the Committee of Colored People of Baltimore in 1864, “The Bible is the best gift God has given to men. All the good the Savior gave to the world was communicated through this book. But for it, we could not know right from wrong.”
Signer of the Declaration of Independence, Benjamin Rush, said that “The Bible contains more knowledge necessary to man in his present state than any other book in the world. By renouncing the Bible, philosophers swing from their moorings upon all moral subjects… It is the only correct map of the human heart that ever has been published.”
Many other leaders throughout the great history of our Republic have committed themselves to the study of the Bible and its influence on their leadership. Red Letter Leadership seeks to grow your capacity to lead through the study of Christ’s perfect leadership and using the Bible as the standard to guide and director our leadership.
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Why must we turn to the Bible for leadership, for effective planning, for anything else in our lives? Because God's word is intended to be infused into every part of our lives. Deuteronomy 6:4-9, “Here, O Israel, the LORD our God, the LORD is one. Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.” It is the foundation from which all truth is derived. Prov 1:7, “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline.”
