The books of 1 and 2 Samuel might not seem the obvious place to start as a resource for contemporary leadership, but David Runcorn’s insightful book provide a fresh way of understanding the individuals in these familiar stories, and how the challenges they faced speak to our contemporary contexts.
Using insights from family systems theory, Runcorn explores the motives, reactions and choices of the different characters and what they say of their own inner journeys of maturity (or lack of it!) and their relationship with the God of mercy and righteousness.
Runcorn examines the world of power politics – a world where leaders often fail to listen, either to God or to other human beings – and draws out how it’s often it is women who offer a different perspective; and the most commendable men, such as Jonathan, who reject the most obvious ways of exercising power are the ones who forgo the playing of power politics.
Runcorn ends by noting a pattern that has been evident through the whole narrative of 1 and 2 Samuel: “the significant turning points, the redeeming initiatives, the interpreting of meanings, and the breaking of deadlocks have not been found at the centres of power. … Time and again, we have traced the true presence of Yahweh to the words, actions or faithful presence of people on the edge of the ‘main’ script.”
This book is a great resource for reflection on our own exercise of leadership and where our trust and hope are rooted.
