Tuesday, March 20, 2007
Making Leaders
Milt Stanley recently linked to a post at Spiritual Conversations about how Jesus makes leaders.. There are 15 points, but I would like to hit just a few:
Jesus as teacher is a co-traveler on a shared journey...
OK, so there are some theological problems with how this is stated, the point remains very strong. Yes, Christ gave pendantic sermons, but the leaders He rasied up, the apostles, He journeyed with. The next point naturally follows:
Education is relational not merely informational.
More on this in a moment, but the building of leaders involves much more than merely imparting information. Like genuine faith, learnng leadership is transformational.
Jesus defines success not in corporate terms (buildings, budgets, and butts), but rather how their transforming power as "salt" made a difference, and the "light" they mediate exposes human futility and illuminates the divine presence.
This takes me back to the Dallas Willard quote about genuine Christiasn being viewed as a hinderance to the church. It strikes me that Christ was crucified because He was a "hinderance" to the religious officials of the day.
Christian leadership is probably something very different than mere organizational leadership.
Jesus creates an atmosphere for change and reorientation.
And so we arrive at the crux of the matter. There are really two kinds of leadership. The first kind is very good at cranking the wheels, corrdinating the activity and getting things done. This is the kind of leadership that "sees the parade and gets in front of it."
That was certainly not the kind of leader Jesus was. He knew the parade was heading off a cliff, and he wanted to pull it in a very different direction.
The first kind of leadership can be learned. You can buy books, attend institutions, take classes. But that later kind, the kind that Jesus was, well, that takes soemthing extraordinary. It takes real, personal transformation and it takes a willingness to risk being viewed as a hinderance. The first kind of leadership will result in apparent "success." The later will lead to a lifetime of frustration, but it will be frustration experienced in the arms of a loving Lord.
Related Tags: leaders, training, Jesus, hinderance, risk
Jesus as teacher is a co-traveler on a shared journey...
OK, so there are some theological problems with how this is stated, the point remains very strong. Yes, Christ gave pendantic sermons, but the leaders He rasied up, the apostles, He journeyed with. The next point naturally follows:
Education is relational not merely informational.
More on this in a moment, but the building of leaders involves much more than merely imparting information. Like genuine faith, learnng leadership is transformational.
Jesus defines success not in corporate terms (buildings, budgets, and butts), but rather how their transforming power as "salt" made a difference, and the "light" they mediate exposes human futility and illuminates the divine presence.
This takes me back to the Dallas Willard quote about genuine Christiasn being viewed as a hinderance to the church. It strikes me that Christ was crucified because He was a "hinderance" to the religious officials of the day.
Christian leadership is probably something very different than mere organizational leadership.
Jesus creates an atmosphere for change and reorientation.
And so we arrive at the crux of the matter. There are really two kinds of leadership. The first kind is very good at cranking the wheels, corrdinating the activity and getting things done. This is the kind of leadership that "sees the parade and gets in front of it."
That was certainly not the kind of leader Jesus was. He knew the parade was heading off a cliff, and he wanted to pull it in a very different direction.
The first kind of leadership can be learned. You can buy books, attend institutions, take classes. But that later kind, the kind that Jesus was, well, that takes soemthing extraordinary. It takes real, personal transformation and it takes a willingness to risk being viewed as a hinderance. The first kind of leadership will result in apparent "success." The later will lead to a lifetime of frustration, but it will be frustration experienced in the arms of a loving Lord.
Related Tags: leaders, training, Jesus, hinderance, risk
