Paul and Leadership

I've had the chance this summer to take a look at book that is not yet published (how cool is that?) that is about the Apostle Paul and Leadership. One of the trends in leadership literature is modeling after great leader icons. One of the premises of this book is that in this long list of great leaders we've mined for their leadership qualities Paul has yet to really be tapped from this perspective. They would know better than me, having looked at so many more books, that there isn't a lot written about Paul from a leadership perspective, but it seems to me that many of the models shared with me in college and through those years of being an employed youth minister that most models were based on Paul, or some portion of his writings....

One of the things that has struck me so far is some of the discussion about Paul and his passion. Which leads us to understand that a great leader has passion. What if I'm not passionate about something, how might I find that passion? Let's look at me for a brief example. I do have a bit of a passion for ministry and so I have chosen to follow that particular call. One day I will be heading out to a congregation and at some point it might seem reasonable, if not necessary, to have some sort of stewardship campaign. I don't really have a passion for stewardship so to speak, so where might I derive that from to be a better leader of this campaign? Is that even possible? Should you not ever even consider a leadership position until you have found a passion?

I wonder as well about this whole concept of using icons like Martin Luther King, Jr., Gandhi, Jesus, Paul, etc. as models for leadership. Yes, they were all great leaders, but are we setting ourselves up for failure in trying to live up to their standards? It's like that popular campaign a few years ago "What Would Jesus Do?" Even if we were able to precisely discern what Jesus would have done in a particular situation would we really be able to do what Jesus would do? Before you answer to quickly in the affirmative remember that Jesus is also the Son of God. Paul was not Jesus, but he was an amazing leader and witness. Am I just setting myself up to fail by trying to model my leadership after his, because I will never, ever do it as well as Paul?!