Synthetic vs. Authentic Leadership
Dr. Dave Williams, D.Min, D.D.

Dave Williams served as pastor of Mount Hope Church in Lansing, Michigan, for more than thirty years. In that time, Dave trained thousands of ministers through the Mount Hope Bible Training Institute, Dave Williams’ Church Planter’s School, and Dave Williams’ School for Pacesetting Church Leaders. Dave is a teacher, speaker, author, and trainer. He coaches church leaders, business leaders, entrepreneurs, and followers of Christ on how to live a pacesetting life. His three-pronged approach—spiritual, attitudinal, and practical—has transformed ordinary people into extraordinarily successful leaders in every field of endeavor. Click here to learn more about Dr. Dave Williams.

The following is an excerpt taken from The Art of Pacesetting Leadership by Dr. Dave Williams.

One of the most important decisions you will ever make in your life is this: Will you be an authentic or synthetic leader? This decision will transform your life and everything you do. It will determine if your efforts are fruitful or fruitless. This decision is critical to your success as a pacesetting leader. Being authentic or synthetic means to live either from the perspective, principles, and power of God’s Kingdom or the perspective, principles, and power of this world. John the Baptist said it this way:

Matthew 3:2b NKJV
“…Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!”

Jesus preached the same message.

Matthew 4:17 NKJV
From that time Jesus began to preach and to say, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”


These verses encourage you to live authentically, from the perspective of the Kingdom of Heaven. Jesus spent a great deal of time teaching about living from God’s Kingdom perspective. In Matthew 5, Sermon on the Mount, Jesus started with, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” He then gave parables about God’s Kingdom. After Jesus was raised from the dead, the Bible tells that for forty days he taught the disciples about God’s Kingdom (Acts 1:1–3). If Jesus spent so much time teaching about God’s Kingdom, it must be important! Understanding how to live from God’s Kingdom perspective is the key to authentic living.

God’s Kingdom = Authentic
Worldly power and principles = Synthetic

Kingdoms in Conflict
Some people are born again, meaning they are saved by the Blood of Jesus Christ. However, these Christians function in the realm of the five senses: what they see, feel, hear, taste, and touch. They have not learned the difference between authentic and synthetic. They operate in the world’s synthetic realm rather than the authentic Kingdom realm that is available to them.

Far fewer people are familiar with what it means to live from God’s Kingdom, meaning his perspective and principles. Only God can give us authentic promises and authentic leadership. Man cannot create anything authentic!

John 3:6 NKJV
That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

Once while I was praying, I had a vision about the church I served as pastor that vividly illustrated the difference between authentic and synthetic. At the time, our church had many ministries but seemed to be stuck in neutral; there was no forward momentum or growth.

In this vision I saw a train on a track trying to move in the direction of God’s purpose and plan. Sparks were flying out from under the wheels and everything was moving forward—but very slowly. I intuitively knew that this train was my church. My view of the train panned back, and I saw five engines on the front of the train. I thought, with five powerful engines that train ought to be speeding along!

Then the view panned back even further, and I saw three other engines hooked up to the back of the train. They were pulling in the opposite direction.

Then the Lord spoke to my spirit. The five engines are authentic ministry and leadership. The three engines in the back are synthetic ministry. They represent people trying to minister in ways that are not a part of my plan. Their ministry is based in their own selfish desires, and they are holding back the church. You have to disconnect those three engines.

Who wants to disconnect a ministry that looks good, sounds good, and is popular? No one, but I had to because they were holding the church back. So I asked the Lord, “How will I know which are the synthetic ministries?”

Again I heard God speak: Don’t worry; they will identify themselves to you. They will tell you that theirs is not a synthetic ministry.

I spoke to the congregation one Sunday evening and said, “The Lord gave me a picture of synthetic and authentic ministry. One is pulling us in the right direction, and the other is pulling us in the wrong direction. We are going to disconnect all the synthetic ministries in the church. Everything that was born of a committee, a brainstorm, a good idea, or because we attended a conference and somebody else was doing it, is going to be disconnected.”

I did not tell the congregation how I would identify the synthetic ministries, so after the service a woman approached me and said, “Pastor, I know my ministry is not synthetic, but if you want me to stop, I will.”

I replied, “Okay, I would like you to stop.” Sure enough, she left the church because she couldn’t lead “her” ministry. She chose the synthetic over the authentic. This scenario repeated itself until we were free—at least for a season—of all man-made ministries.

God’s Word is clear on the results of life and ministry that are not founded in God’s plan:

Psalm 127:1a KJV
Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it….

Matthew 15:13 KJV
But he answered and said, Every plant, which my heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up.

John 15:5 NKJV
“I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.”

All these verses point to one thing—the difference between the authentic and the synthetic.

How to tell the difference
Everything that glitters is not gold, and the synthetic and authentic can look a lot alike. When I was a bachelor, I lived in a little 720-square foot house on a dead end street. I worked an eight hour day at the power plant, and then I worked another eight hours on school and ministry studies after that. I had no idea how to decorate a house. My mother would come over and say, “You need to put some flowers around this house!” I didn’t care about flowers. I would rather have put in gravel than deal with watering anything, but every time she came over she would tell me, “David, you need to get some greenery and flowers around this house. It would make it so much more beautiful.”

One day I was at a dollar store and saw they were having a sale on plastic flowers, five cents apiece! So I bought forty flowers of all different colors, took them home, shoved them into the ground and within five minutes had a “flower garden.” My mother drove by and said, “David, you have a green thumb and didn’t know it.”

Then the snow came. Mine was the only house in the neighborhood with flowers peeking out of the snow. From a distance they looked like the real thing, but when you got up close you could see that each one was exactly alike. They all had come out of the same mold. They were flawless and didn’t have those little brown veins or ragged edges you see on real flowers. But they also could not give true beauty, a sweet aroma, or a tender touch.

The same is true of people who are synthetic. They look real from a distance, but when you look closer you find that they never admit any flaws! Authentic people are open about their flaws—they are living and real.

Most important, the authentic has the power to reproduce. This is the main test of authenticity: it bears good, lasting fruit. Synthetic flowers cannot produce anything. Synthetic ministries can only produce more synthetic ministry, which Jesus called “evil fruit.” He said,

Matthew 7:15–20 KJV
Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.

Later in Matthew Jesus made the same point,

Matthew 12:33 KJV
Either make the tree good, and his fruit good; or else make the tree corrupt, and his fruit corrupt: for the tree is known by his fruit.

The Psalmist said this about the righteous,

Psalm 1:1–3 KJV
Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in his law doth he meditate day and night. And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.

The difference between authentic and synthetic is fruit. Fruit is a very big deal to God. The first command God gave to mankind in the first chapter of Genesis proved this.

Genesis 1:28a KJV
And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish  the earth….

Jesus repeated this principle.

John 15:8 KJV
Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples.

It is impossible to fool people with your fruit because you reproduce what you are, not what you speak or teach. An apple tree can claim to be a pear tree, and may fool some people during the winter, but when harvest time comes everyone knows an apple from a pear. There is no hiding the outcome. A wolf in sheep’s clothing can look like a sheep, smell like a sheep, walk like a sheep, speak the jargon of sheep, and hide among the flock for a little while. But when that wolf reproduces, it’s going to reproduce a wolf!

Synthetic verses authentic

• Synthetic leaders love and thrive on the plaudits of man; authentic leaders thrive on God’s approval even though it may not be popular
• Synthetic leaders draw attention to themselves: authentic leaders point to God
• Synthetic leaders seek “golden opportunities;” authentic leaders seek only God’s opportunities
• Synthetic leaders gain strength from men; authentic leaders walk in the Lord’s strength
• Synthetic leaders walk in rebellion, deception, and darkness; authentic leaders walk in submission and truth and their path is full of light
• Synthetic leaders appear to work hard with great amounts of activity that never comes to much; authentic leaders are always working toward a specific God-given goal or purpose

I have found that authentic leaders are usually persecuted by synthetic leaders. You see this in Jesus’ ministry: the Pharisees and religious leaders were his enemies and found fault with everything Jesus did. They criticized Jesus because he was different. He operated from the Kingdom, while they operated by earthly principles of power. The prophet Jeremiah said,

Jeremiah 17:5 MSG
Cursed is the strong one who depends on mere humans, Who thinks he can make it on muscle alone and sets God aside as dead weight.

Synthetic leaders are literally cursed. There always will be synthetic, man-made leadership, people who pulled themselves up by their bootstraps. But they only look good for a time, and then they disappear.

One year, on the Fourth of July, some friends and I went down to the riverfront to watch the fireworks. The first firework went up, and the crowd gasped in appreciation. Firework after firework lit up the sky, and I heard people around me say, “Isn’t that beautiful? It’s so impressive.”

After the grand finale, the smoke drifted away to reveal moonlight shining down and a sky full of stars. For a moment, those fireworks were synthetic “stars” obscuring the authentic stars. But after the smoke cleared and the ash of the synthetic fell to the ground, God’s authentic creation endured and shone forth even more beautifully.

Synthetic leaders come and go, ascend and descend quickly, skyrocket and plummet, fizzle and burn out. What you want is that authentic leadership based on Kingdom principles and the planting of seeds that Jesus causes to grow.

Reflections

1. In your own words, describe what authentic leadership looks like.
2. Is there any “evil fruit” or synthetic activity in your life? How will you cut off that synthetic activity and become more authentic?
3. Right now, pray asking God to point out areas where your leadership is not authentic. Ask him to help you produce good fruit.

To order The Art of Pacesetting Leadership book, audio messages, and videos visit our website: www.davewilliams.com/PL, or phone (800) 888-7284.