Prolegomena to a Theology of Eschatological Leadership: 13 Leadership Principles for the End Time Gleaned from the Book of Revelation

Abstract

Jesus entrusted his disciples with leadership. That leadership was to be exercised on behalf of his mission to seek and save the lost in all the world before his return. This mission work will reach a climax during the time of the end before Christ’s promised return. This article explores the book of Revelation for clues concerning leadership qualities required for this task. The article will support the discussion of these leadership qualities with contributions from contemporary authors on the topic. Developing a theology of eschatological leadership is a daunting task and will require a broader discussion than what one author can contribute. This article consists of three parts. The first part proposes a working definition of the time of the end—the eschatological period that will couch the specialized focus of this article. A survey of selected eschatological passages in Revelation will follow. The purpose of this survey is to identify the nature of the events and themes focusing on the period of time, technically defined as “the time of the end,” and then to extrapolate leadership implications from these passages. In the final section, the identified leadership implications will be further discussed and compared with contemporary literature on leadership principles to propose a theology of eschatological leadership.