From Empty to Overflowing: The Pleroma Principle of Leadership

There's a Greek word that shows up repeatedly in Paul's letters that most of us have never heard of, but it holds the key to understanding what leadership actually looks like in God's Kingdom. The word is pleroma (and its related form paleroma), and it means "fullness" or "complete cargo."

Every time Paul talks about headship and leadership, this word appears. It's not a coincidence—it's the whole point.

The Cycle of Fullness

In Ephesians, Paul describes something I call the "cycle of fullness." It's this beautiful picture of how power actually works in God's Kingdom versus how it works in the world's pyramid structures.

In worldly systems, power flows one direction—downward. Those at the top extract energy, resources, and life from those below them to maintain their position. It's like a pyramid where the foundation exists to support the peak.

But in God's Kingdom, power flows in a cycle. Love generates more love. Fullness creates more fullness. When someone is truly filled with Christ, they don't hoard that fullness—they release it, which creates even more.

It's like a spring that flows into a river, which flows into the sea. The water evaporates, becomes clouds, falls as rain, and feeds the spring again. The cycle continues, and everything flourishes.

True Leadership Creates Fullness

Here's what I've discovered: true leadership can be measured by whether it creates fullness in others or drains them.

Paul says in Ephesians 4:11-12 that Christ "gave some as apostles, some as prophets, some as evangelists, some as pastors and teachers for the equipping of the saints to do the work of the ministry" (NASB). Notice the purpose: equipping. Not controlling. Not commanding. Equipping.

The whole point of leadership is to help people become fully alive, fully functioning, fully released into their gifts and callings. Because when everyone is operating in their fullness—when the tide rises—we all go higher together.

But pyramid power structures do the opposite. They suck life out of people to build up those at the head. I've seen this in churches, businesses, and families. The "leader" becomes more important, more powerful, more central, while everyone else becomes smaller, quieter, less significant.

That's not God's Kingdom. That's Babylon.

What This Looks Like Practically

In my real estate brokerage, traditional business models would have me as the boss, them as employees, with clear hierarchy and chains of command. But I've discovered something beautiful happens when you lead through fullness instead of control.

When one of my agents has expertise I don't have—whether it's Spanish language skills, specific neighborhood knowledge, or technical systems—I don't feel threatened. I don't need to maintain the illusion that as the "Grand Poobah," I should know everything. Instead, I direct people to the agent who can best serve them.

This doesn't diminish my leadership—it enhances it. When people know their strengths are valued and their contributions matter, they bring their best. When they bring their best, the whole organization becomes stronger. When the organization becomes stronger, everyone benefits.

It's the cycle of fullness in action.

The Pleroma Paradigm

Every time Paul uses that word pleroma—fullness—he's describing this reality. In Ephesians 1:23, he talks about the church as "the fullness of Him who fills all in all" (NASB). In Ephesians 3:19, he prays that we "may be filled up to all the fullness of God" (NASB). In Ephesians 4:13, he describes our goal as "the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ" (NASB).

Do you see the pattern? We're not meant to be empty vessels waiting for orders. We're meant to be filled with Christ's fullness and to fill others with that same fullness. The head and body are united in this cycle of mutual filling.

This is why Paul immediately follows his discussion of leadership gifts with a warning about being "tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine" (Ephesians 4:14, NASB). When we're not rooted in this fullness paradigm, we become vulnerable to every religious formula and power structure that promises to tell us what to do.

The Difference Is Love

Here's what I've learned: love can be powerful, but power without love corrupts. Always.

I've studied what I call the "generals of the faith"—people who had amazing miraculous ministries that were clearly God-given. What intrigued me was that most of them didn't end well. Once they began to demonstrate power, even God-given power, it corrupted them.

But Jesus was all-powerful and never corrupted. He could stop storms and raise the dead—serious power—but His power was rooted in love. He used His power to serve, not to be served. He used it to lift others up, not to control them.

This is the heart of true leadership in God's Kingdom. It's not about having power over others—it's about using whatever power you have to create fullness in others.

Growing Into Fullness

Paul talks about growing up "in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ" (Ephesians 4:15, NASB). This isn't about becoming more submissive or more compliant. It's about becoming more fully ourselves as we're filled with Him.

A child is self-centered by nature—they're not mature yet. But as they mature, they naturally begin to think beyond themselves. They start contributing to the family rather than just consuming from it. They become partners rather than just dependents.

This is the maturity Paul is describing. As we grow in understanding who Christ is and who we are in Him, we naturally begin to operate like Him—creating fullness in others rather than extracting from them.

The Invitation

So here's the question: Are you leading (in whatever capacity) in a way that creates fullness in others, or are you operating from a pyramid mentality that requires others to be smaller so you can be bigger?

Are you connected to the true Head—Christ—in that beautiful cycle of fullness? Or have you disconnected from Him to follow human formulas and religious structures?

The enemy doesn't want us to know who we really are in Christ because when we do, we stop operating like slaves and start operating like the royal priesthood we actually are. We stop extracting and start generating. We stop controlling and start equipping.

We become part of that beautiful cycle of fullness that transforms everything it touches.

That's the pleroma paradigm. That's leadership in God's Kingdom.

And it changes everything.

Blessings,
Susan 😊