Leadership, along with "discipleship," is one of the new buzz words in Christian ministry. There is no shortage of books or articles online that address some aspect of leadership in Christian ministry (look at the title of this blog!). It's also a big deal in most areas of life outside of Christian ministry. Books, podcasts, and blogs focused on leadership populate our media. Some of the brightest minds have been reflecting on, researching, and developing concepts and practices about "leadership" for a while in our culture as a whole.
This emphasis on leadership, leadership development, or best practices in leadership has the potential for both good and not-so-good things in relation to Christian ministry. On the positive side, I think of the well-known idea of "servant leadership." This idea has tried to align leadership concepts with the Christian idea of servanthood. There are other similar attempts to understand leadership through the lens of Jesus' teaching or Jesus' manner of life. There's no doubt that many people in ministry occupy what might be called "leadership" positions, and it's probably good that we try to see this through the lens of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
But this leadership emphasis also has potential to really mess things up. I know of a story of one pastor who unapologetically claims that the only books he really reads are leadership books. Some of those books consider leadership from within a Christ-centered framework, and others do not. He has admitted that he's probably read more on leadership methods and practices more than studying Scripture.
He's a senior pastor at a very large congregation.
Back to "servant leadership." This seems on the surface to be a good way of redeeming the concept of leadership, handing it over to the obedience of Christ as Paul suggests in 2 Corinthians 10:5 (if this verse is indeed applicable to this situation, but that's another issue altogether). But, there are a couple concerns still. First, "servant leadership" has been widely used by non-Christians also, and quite effectively. Simon Sinek has been one of the recent well-known proponents of "servant leadership." You can see what he says here. So, "servant leadership" is not inherently Christian. You can be a great servant leader and not care a whip about Jesus Christ.
And it makes me wonder (as Led Zeppelin says): is there anything specifically Christ-centered about "servant leadership" anymore? Or even more pointedly, was there ever anything specifically Christ-centered about the concept of "servant leadership" in the first place?
The second concern is that in our eagerness to embrace practices of "leadership," we're often not stopping to think critically about the idea itself. In other words, we're often presuming that the idea of "leadership" is a neutral concept, and that we can just transfer the idea to the realm of "Christian" and sanctify it. There are reasons to think that such a way of going about things is still not in line with how the Apostle Paul seems to have gone about things.
This makes me wonder that maybe we need to back up one more step: what is Christ-centered living in the first place? Is the concept of "leadership" even compatible with Christianity -- living as witnesses to the crucified and risen Lord Jesus? What if the very idea of "leadership" as we understand it is problematic? Can we abandon the concept?
Whaaat??!!! Wait! Abandon "leadership"? That's silly.
Yes, this might seem like a foolish set of questions. You've gone a little overboard with this following Jesus stuff, Mr. Fever. Just ease up a bit, now.
I understand. But, let's see where this goes. What's the worst case? We get a better understanding of how Jesus and the cross should shape our thinking. Seems like a good thing to me.
So, if, as Paul suggests, all forms of human knowledge and understanding -- indeed all human wisdom -- are made "foolish" by the message of the cross, and if as the early church fathers suggest, Jesus and the cross must be the beginning and end of knowledge and all human pursuits, then what do we do with the concept of "leadership"? Is there even a concept of "leadership" in the New Testament? If "leadership" is birthed out of human "wisdom" and human attempts to lead and manage in human ways, out of the non-cross defined cisterns of old-Adamic human thinking, what does the message of the cross do about that? How does the cross reframe the discussion?
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Over the course of the next few weeks, we are going to look at these questions and try to sort out some ways we can think about and approach "leadership" as Christ-centered people who are witnesses to the earth-shattering message of the cross.
For now, you who are "leaders" in ministry, think about your ministry. Reflect on the questions below, and maybe share a thought or three in the comments. I'd love to hear your thoughts. So, on to a few questions to prime the pump:
- Do you consider yourself a "leader"? (What's this tell you about how you define "leader" and "leadership"?)
- How do you exercise "leadership" in your role?
- How is your leadership actually different than leadership anywhere else--in occupations that have nothing to do with Jesus Christ?
- In what ways does the message of the cross define your leadership?
- How do people in your congregation think about leadership? How do they perceive you as a "leader"? What ides of "leadership" inform their expectations?
We'll continue next week. Here is a peek at some of the things we'll address in coming weeks:
- The New Testament writers seem to intentionally not use language of "leadership" that was common to their culture. Why does the New Testament seem to have an aversion to language of "leadership" known at the time?
- Can we impose modern ideas of "leadership" onto Scripture and say, "See...'leadership' is there"? Can we say, "Paul/Moses/David was a "leader" because he exercised traits we now identify with modern ideas of "leadership"? Or, alternatively, can we take examples or principles from Moses/David/Paul/Jesus and, assuming that "leadership" is an appropriate Christian concept, use these figures to teach us about "Bible-centered" leadership? Or, is doing this a bad idea?
- How do we talk about and practice "leadership" in a way defined by the message of the cross?
- If we don't use the word or modern concept of "leadership," what do we use, then? How shall we talk about pastors, Christian ministers, teachers, etc.?
