A Leader’s Character: Ambition

Christian leaders must want to see people change and grow

Ambition is often seen as a bad thing. And it’s true that ambitious people often desire to be successful for selfish reasons. Yet there is such a thing as holy ambition, which I will consider briefly in this article.

The apostle Paul had this kind of ambition in his own life:

Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
— Philippians 3:13-14

He never settled into maintenance mode. He was always pushing, always pressing, always reaching to realize more of Christ in his life. He was ambitious to become everything God wanted him to be.

Leaders should have this mindset, not only for themselves, but also for those they lead.

In the first editorial I defined Christian leadership as fulfilling your God-given responsibility to lead by taking the initiative to help others achieve God’s goals for them. This has a baked-in assumption that leaders see a gap between where people are and where God wants them to be. Discontentment with that gap motivates a leader to action. His ambition is fueled by a desire to see people become more mature, more effective, more resilient, more faithful, and more fruitful than they currently are. John Piper describes it this way: “Leaders have a hankering to change, to move, to reach out, to grow, and to take a group or an institution to new dimensions of ministry.” 

It’s difficult to see how someone could be a leader in any meaningful sense if he doesn’t see any need for growth in those he is called to lead. When someone is leading, there’s action, movement from one place to another. Without movement — without maturity and growth — leadership simply isn’t happening.

But it is holy ambition which leads to that movement, an ambition which comes from discontentment with the gap between where people are and where they ought to be.

Jesus exemplified ambitious leadership in his life. As we see in the gospel accounts, he never stopped promoting growth in his followers. He never stopped teaching, never stopped showing them how to live, and never stopped challenging them. Every moment was a teachable moment, every event a chance to reveal more of what God wanted of them. Jesus was ambitious. He wanted his disciples to know and experience as much of God’s kingdom as possible.

We should develop this kind of ambition, too.

For those who are tempted to over-ambition, I want to give a few cautions. First, ambition must be balanced with patience and commitment. Untethered ambition leads to recklessness, instability, or a tendency to abandon people and projects halfway through. These excesses do not serve people. Healthy organizations need stability in order to be fruitful long-term, and too much ambition threatens this. Leaders should pull hard enough to keep people moving in the right direction. But don’t pull them off their feet.

Second, ambition can easily produce cynicism. Those who see what needs to change sometimes struggle to see anything else. The problems expand to fill our vision, and we lose sight of the good things that are happening. When we only see the gap between where things are and where they should be, we often respond in unhealthy ways. We may give up hope that things will ever change, or blame people for not changing fast enough or not going far enough, or create unrealistic expectations for what healthy growth entails. In short, we lose the ability to trust God’s sovereign involvement. We gauge things according to our idea of what must happen rather than trusting God to work in the details.

Third, our ambition should be to build God’s kingdom, not our own. I know I have had times where I was ambitious to be successful in ministry, but it had less to do with leading people to Christ and more to do with building my own reputation. This was selfish ambition and needed to be repented of. It’s easy to be ambitious because we feel insignificant, or useless, or overlooked, or insecure. These motivations can produce results, but they flow from a self-centered heart rather than a heart that loves God. Let your ambition be fueled by a love for God’s glory above all else.

Yet (with these cautions in view) leaders should cultivate a holy ambition to see people become more of who God wants them to be. Good leadership requires it.