Top Ten Tuesday – Characters Who Are Great Leaders

Happy Tuesday everyone! This week’s Top Ten Tuesday topic from the girls at The Broke and the Bookish is an interesting one: Characters Who Would Make Great Leaders. I don’t know about you, but there are certain types of people or roles that naturally come to mind with the word ‘leader’. I think of presidents and prime ministers, I get a movie reel of Ronie Kendig‘s characters running across my mind’s eye. (I’ll just pause and let you enjoy that for a moment 😉 )
But there are all kinds of leaders, really: Teachers, parents, revolutionaries, pioneers, businessmen, trendsetters. And there are so many characters who already ARE great leaders, I decided to tweak the topic accordingly. 🙂

Leader of the People

Presidents, prime ministers, and kings, oh my! When I started thinking about this particularly category of leaders, I realized that the majority of books I’ve read featuring these types of characters are based on actual historical figures, like Henry II, Richard Lionheart, and so on. Sad to say, while they had their redeeming qualities (some more than others!) I’m not sure they were really great leaders. I suppose it depends on what your measure of greatness is.
However there is one character whom I have recently been introduced to, and whom I think definitely qualifies for this category: Sheikh Karim Al-Amir from Sarah Monzon’s The Esther Paradigm. He’s the sheikh of the Bedouin clan Hannah Pratt and her missionary parents have lived with for the majority of Hannah’s life, and he bears a heavy mantle of responsibility, particularly as Hannah and her parents become the target of hostility from some of the clan members.

Military Leaders

These are the guys you want to have your back when trouble hits. Offence or defence, it doesn’t matter. They’re boots on the ground, bodies on the line, focused on the mission, and when they say jump, you jump. I give you Max Jacobs (Nightshade), Dean Watters (Raptor 6), and Cole ‘Tox’ Russell (Conspiracy of Silence).

Growing Boys into Warriors

Somehow, Garr Wulfrith always ends up following Ronie’s characters when they appear in my Top Ten Tuesday lists! A renowned trainer of knights in the turbulence of mid 12th Century England, Garr Wulfrith trains young men mentally as well as physically. “Lesson one: When spoken to, listen well. . . Lesson three: Act when told to act. . . Lesson six: Learn to serve others. . .”

A Leader in Business

When I think about the world of business, one character immediately leaps to mind. He’s a character you don’t forget easily: Morgan Spencer, the success guru. He’s the Mr. Fixit of mega corporations, and I’m pretty sure that he could do anything he set his mind to and people would follow.

The Resistance Leader

Marcus Brennen would rather be anything but a leader, but as his pastor says, “If He’s asking you to do something, He’s also promising to go with you.” In an America where the only legal Bible is one re-translated and approved by the government, Marcus begins helping Christians to hide or move to avoid arrest. Little does he know what his resistance effort will grow into.

The Reformer

She’s definitely no Martin Luther, but 17 year old Claire Trevelyan is a reformer in her own way. Finding herself on the streets of a steam-powered 1889 London, this resourceful young lady adopts a raggle-taggle bunch of street urchins and undertakes to educate them and reform their way of life. And she might just manage to achieve her dream of becoming an engineer in the process. (This is a twelve book series, and I just had to include all the covers, because I think they’re so striking!)

The Role Model

I am going to slip one historical person into my list: Katharina Luther, wife of Martin Luther. When she married Martin, there was no such thing as a pastor’s wife (because until then, members of the clergy were required to be celibate). The way in which Katharina supported Martin, raised their children (biological and adoptive), and managed their home (including growing produce as well as providing hospitality to the many people who boarded with them) became an example of the way in which women could serve God in their domestic roles as wives and mothers (rather than being required to become nuns), and became the pattern for other reformation wives to follow.

Breaking the Mould

While Katharina Luther created a mould, these next characters broke out of theirs: sisters Rebecca and Flora Hawes from Lynn Austin’s Where We Belong. In a time when women were expected to aspire to little beyond becoming a wife and mother and keeping up appearances, these indomitable sisters sought education and adventure, and rolled up their sleeves and lived out their faith, no matter how unfashionable it may have been. I have little doubt these two ladies would have run a whole country successfully, had they been given the chance!

A Leader in Style

She’s a sassy artist from New York who has a style all her own, and she’ll give you one too given half a chance! It’s Ti Russo from Crystal Walton’s Begin Again, making over a beachside souvenir shop and giving its owner a whole new outlook on life—Henley shirt, essential oils, and Himalayan rock salt lamp included! 🙂

A Godly Example

Last, but not least, is a woman of wisdom who loves big and shares it through her cooking! Say hello to Mama Mitchell, Grace by name, and grace-giver by nature. Oh, that we would all follow her lead!

Have you come across any great leaders in fiction? Share them with us in the comments!