Who to Listen To?
It is popular for business and ministry types (I am much
more the latter than the former, though I have an undergraduate degree in
business) to write books and give definitions of “leadership.” One can take courses in many disciplines,
including seminary disciplines, that deal with the topic of leadership. As an adjunct professor at several seminaries
and colleges over the past sixteen years, I have been asked to teach some of
those kinds of courses: The Pastor as Leader, Leadership and Character
Development, and Leadership in Christian Ministry, etc. This is after sitting through courses as an
undergraduate business major and as a seminary student that addressed similar
topics. I know educators,
administrators, and even engineers who have taken these kinds of courses. It seems that being a leader is a big deal
across the disciplines. It seems that
there is a deep desire to lead and to acquire skills and techniques that help
us lead well. Lord knows that we pastors
sit through many seminars and hear many questions regarding our “leadership
ability” or “leadership techniques.” I
have hear more than one pastor and denominational leader say something like, “It
all comes down to leadership.”
Conflicting
Definitions
Every time I hear that last phrase (“it all comes down to
leadership”), I think back on the experiences I have had in seminars, meetings,
and classrooms wrestling with a variety of definitions of the “L” word. And though it is clear that it must be very
important to be a leader, it seems that there are a number of definitions as to
what that should look like. It is
getting to where an informed person can tell which brand of leadership is going
to be put forth by the authors used by the seminar leaders or professors. Are we going to look at leadership as a
global phenomenon? If so, then expect
books by the likes of Thomas Friedman (author of such best-sellers as The World is Flat). Is leadership a “top-down”
kind of proposition, where a strong figurehead must cast a vision and then
delegate power, while weeding out those who just don’t produce? If so, then expect a heavy reliance on those
associated with John Maxwell (the former pastor and current leadership guru,
whose bestsellers include 21 Irrefutable
Laws of Leadership) and Jim Collins (Good
to Great). Does leadership rely upon
critical analysis of data and judging future paradigm shifts? If so, then the ever popular Christian
marketer George Barna, or the seemingly ageless Leonard Sweet can help.
There are some helpful and practical things to be learned
from all of these writers and their approaches to leadership, but in recent years,
if I am asked to teach something in regard to leadership, my thoughts lean in a
different direction.
The writers I mention above have helped many people, both in
business and in ministry (and other disciplines) to develop good leadership
habits. And I have found something
helpful from each one of them and from many others. However, the overall approach to most of
those I have already mentioned contains areas of conflict when I begin to
re-examine the approach of Jesus as “leader.”
It seems that many Christians in leadership positions – whether in
religious or “secular” settings – begin with assumptions regarding leadership
that I do not see as starting points in Jesus’ life and ministry. For instance, many leadership gurus tout the
importance of “success” as a key measuring stick for real leadership: can you
produce the big numbers?, etc. Yet, I look
at Jesus, this carpenter from the middle of nowhere, who calls a rag tag bunch
of guys together (only 12 at first) and then spends an inordinate amount of
time with them before they are scattered.
Now, one can say that a good leader leaves a legacy, which Jesus
certainly did. But, it appears that the way Jesus went about that “legacy”
(over a billion followers after 2,000 years) does not match any traditional leadership
book or course I have ever seen! In
fact, the successful people of Jesus’ day were the ones that wanted him
dead! And the people who had very little
in the way of resume’ strength were the ones that became the foundation for the
Kingdom of God on earth.
Other Voices
As I began to say earlier, I am listening to other voices
about leadership these days. That is not
to say that I presume to know more than Maxwell or Collins or Barna or the
like. I don’t. They know more about delegation, motivation,
and lots of other things than I will probably ever know, and I respect them for
it. However, several years ago I began
introducing other voices into Christian ministry and leadership courses that I
teach. Voices like the late Henri
Nouwen, whose book In the Name of Jesus:
Reflections on Christian Leadership, has chapter titles like: “From
Relevance to Prayer”. Eugene Peterson,
author of the Message translation of
the Bible, was writing books to help “correct” (in his words) the notion that
pastors are called to be business managers or leadership experts. One of Peterson’s best known (and more than
slightly controversial) books for pastors is called The Contemplative Pastor, in which he states forthrightly that for
a pastor to simply keep himself or herself “busy” all the time could actually
be sinful! As I read those words years
ago, I could see many leadership writers and their faithful disciples (many of
whom were colleagues of mine or leaders of mine) cringing! Being busy, being important, being the one “in
charge,” being the goal-setting, excellence-demanding, highly organized,
smartly dressed, supremely confident “leader” seemed to be the ideal way to be
a pastor, according to the business models many of us were given in seminary
and elsewhere. But then there were these
other voices, and in those voices, I heard the voice of Jesus most
clearly.
William Willimon, who (before he became a bishop and began
leaning a bit too heavily on those other models I mentioned above) wrote books
reminding pastors that our job definition is not to be caught up in models like
“salesperson”, or manager, or even therapist.
Rather, we are to be shepherds who proclaim the humble truths of Christ
and let God have God’s way in our weakness!
Could this be leadership, after all?
What to Do? What to Be?
What are we to do with all of these models and
definition? I think that, for the
Christian, we should always be asking, “What are we to be?” By saying this, my
bias toward the “other voices” I mention above will become obvious. I simply do not think that leadership in the
style of Jesus is all about technique, though we can all benefit from good
techniques.
Who was Jesus? Jesus
acted like God the Father acts in Scripture.
How does God act? God takes
initiative. God speaks first when we are
lost (Gen. 3), God acts first when we are unable to act (“While you were yet
sinners, Christ died for you,” says the New Testament), and God moves first
when relationships are broken. While
worldly leaders are dismissing those who are not going to contribute to the
bottom line, Jesus sits for hours and chats with them (see the Woman at the
Well in John 4). Jesus even seeks these
kinds of people out!
Peter, the first leader in the early church, certainly would
not have had the kind of resume’ to write a book or teach a course on
leadership, but for better or for worse, Peter took initiative. And as Peter was transformed and corrected by
the love of Christ, Peter’s initiative taking became more in line with the will
of God, and God allowed Peter to become a true leader. Again, it is not that tactics, strategies,
and techniques would not have helped Peter.
Peter certainly could have benefitted from From Good to Great (Collins).
However, it seems that when Jesus goes looking for leaders, He leads
with transformation and works on the technique later.
One more thing about Jesus and leadership: Jesus has a
different definition of success. Success
for Jesus is about faithfulness. It is
true that some of God’s faithful people also attain worldly fame and prominence
(see King David). However, most of those
who lead with love, initiative, and who seek integrity by letting God define success
do not grab the spotlight (see Barnabas in the Book of Acts and later in II Timothy,
for instance).
Conclusion
I know the techniques that the books talk about. I know the so-called “irrefutable laws” of
leadership espoused by the gurus of the day – Christian and
non-Christians. However, in the long
run, I do not see those approaches having the influence that Christ’s humble
and sometimes seemingly reckless ways continue to have on the world. Jesus really is not the kind of person whose
life would be used as a model for many modern approaches to leadership, and
that includes many in Christian circles who are the most sought after
leadership writers and teachers today. I
confess that I am glad about this in regard to Jesus: I am glad that even Jesus
could not manage all those techniques and irrefutable laws, as powerful and wonderful
as He was. I am sure that I will
continue to benefit from some of the leadership gurus. But I am being transformed by the Nouwens,
the Petersons, and even the ancient voices who saw Christian leadership as less
of a technique or commanding presence than a life sacrificially lived and
centered in the initiative-taking love of Christ.
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