Jesus would flunk out of most modern "Christian" leadership training courses. Jonathan at "Missio Dei" does a great job pointing this out in a post called "Jesus was a terrible leader". Jonathan says:
Jesus was a terrible leader, in the short run. He wouldn't get a job in today’s church marketplace. Think about it. He spent three years with 12 people. He talked to a lot of people but his primary focus was on twelve people who didn't always get a long and didn't always get it.
"Where's the growth" people would ask? "How are we gonna pay the bills" others would say, albeit quietly in from the other side of the room. "This guy just doesn't seem to get it."
Then, Jonathan concludes poignantly:
I wonder if those in leadership will someday follow the model Jesus developed. He followed His Father’s voice to transform the lives of twelve ordinary people.
Follow the voice of the Father... act like a servant, not a leader... pour your life into people... give up everything for those people. Perhaps its not the best paradigm for "church leadership", but it seems to be "Jesus leadership".
(This post was written by Alan Knox on his blog The Assembling of the Church. I just copied and pasted it here. Hope that's ok, Alan.)
Friday, March 28, 2008
Was Jesus a Terrible Leader?
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11 comments:
Jesus was a terrible leader depending on how one defines leadership. Certainly, in terms of the modern definition of leader he was an abject failure. But is that definition actually leadership? Is it a form of flawed leadership?
As followers of Jesus is leadership of any kind actually needed? In other words, if each of us is following Jesus and allowing the gifts of the Spirit in our life to be used within/without the ekklesia do we need leadership? Do we need leaders? I think this is the more interesting and deeper question that seems no one is really interested in asking.
I think that Jesus' teaching flowed out of a Shepherd's heart. Maybe that is the message.. maybe leaders should look more like shepherds than teachers? Of course it is hard to fill the pews with great shepherds.. maybe we just get what we really want.. a little bit of entertaining public speaking.. alas I am not neutral on this one :)
Traveller, great comments as usual! Yes, that is a deeper question and well worth asking. I really enjoyed an article on leadership written by Kingdom Grace (available on her blog). She talked about how leadership is not a static thing that derives from a static position (of 'leadership'). Rather, it is merely a natural influencing of others (and only by their voluntary choice to be influenced). Therefore, we are all leading and following at the same time as a dynamic, organic (natural) process of human interaction. Anyway, the article was great, and I'm not really doing it justice here.
K-Bob, that reminds me of the verse, "You have many teachers, but not many fathers." (Paul said it, but I can't remember where).
You're right. Unfortunately, the word "shephard" can carry a lot of baggage because of the misguided shepharding movement. This is unfortunate since it is a biblical term meaning something so different from how we've seen it misused.
Sarah,
You can definitely use anything that I write on my blog anytime.
-Alan
I think that is what parent's strive to do all the time in their own domestic church. They spend decades pouring their lives into their children and into each other, helping them to heaven.
As I see it, Jesus situation with the apostles is unusual for many reasons. The 12 apostles left everything to follow Him; jobs, homes, family, community; they gave it all up in order to have complete freedom to follow Jesus. From my perspective, living in celibate poverty apart from family and community is a radical calling. Few are called to live so radically like Christ and be discipled so intensely.
MB
Thanks, Alan!
MB, it is difficult to deny that Jesus's ministry style bears little resemblance to our current standards and practices.
The Shepherding Movement?
Sarah, you are much older than I thought :)
Lol. No, not really. (I'm 32, cat's out of the bag!) The Shepherding Movement was more something that my parents' generation had to deal with. But I think there is still a lot of left-over residue from that sort of thinking that my generation will have to address.
Hey I really want to know what you are referencing when you speak of left-over residue. I may be blind to it and want your input - really!
K-Bob, let me think about it a bit more so that I can articulate it better. But I think some of it has to do with our understanding of how submission works and how spiritual authority works. There still seems to be a lot of churches that preach the "covering" doctrine - and I believe this is a left-over from that movement.
"it is difficult to deny that Jesus's ministry style bears little resemblance to our current standards and practices."
I hope you didn't think that I was denying that. I was simply giving reasons for why it would be the exception rather than the norm. That kind of intense, single-sex, leave your family, job, everything commitment that Jesus required is unusual for understandable reasons. I'm glad it bears little resemblance to current standards, because I personally like my family, like holding a job and especially like having a roof over my head and knowing where my next meal is coming from.
I'm not saying that's for everybody. I've known people who greatly benefited (and were a benefit to others) spiritually by giving up all those things to follow Jesus, be discipled and disciple others in a very radical way. It's just understandably the exception and not the rule.
MB
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