Rethinking "Leadership"

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?

Ponder these questions. Talk with other "leaders" in ministry. Talk with people in your congregation. Share some thoughts.

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.?

I don't know about you, but I'm really looking forward to getting into this topic, to hearing from you all, to asking difficult (but good) questions, and better understanding what we're about as ministers of and witnesses to the gospel of the cross of Jesus.

Are the youth in your church on the radar?

How are youth perceived in your church?

Are they kids to be entertained? Those unreachable ones that someone has to "connect with" so that they come to church on Sundays? Perhaps they're a group of people who are seen as being able to contribute, but in only rudimentary ways. Are they the ignored ones? Or are they well-loved?

Are they seen for their potential? How about as ones who have a legitimate voice? Are they considered leaders, or inexperienced?

Being a Rescue-Mission Angler

The past few posts have focused on defining discipleship. This is mostly because 1) it's important and 2) there seems to be a lot of not seeing eye to eye in churches when it comes to discipleship. I'm not attempting to give the final answer to the question, but rather to help focus some lines of thought about discipleship for you, church leader, who might just be talking about discipleship to a congregation of people who might not all be on the same plane. Maybe even you, church leader, are a bit confused about discipleship, or in your own mind the idea is not all that clear.

I've been suggesting we start with Jesus. Duh. Even saying "let's start with Jesus" does not clear the air immediately. There are probably many places one can turn as a starting point within the corpus of Jesus' teaching and example in the gospels. As a starting point, I'm suggesting we select one of the first things Jesus says when he invites soon-to-be-disciples onto his wagon: the call of disciples in Mark 1:17.

This week, the part of that passage we focus on is that discipleship is an invitation to be fishers for people as part of God's rescue mission.

Discipleship is for the Benefit of Others

Discipleship means...


In a previous post I pointed suggested we define discipleship according to Jesus' call to follow in Mark 1:17. I drew attention to four points:

1. Discipleship means we stop trying to be followed.
2. Discipleship is two-sided: following and fishing.
3. Discipleship is fishing as part of God's rescue mission.
4. Discipleship is about group fishing.

This post focuses on the two-sided nature of discipleship. Following and fishing.


So back to the "discipleship means" prompt. How do you answer this? What do people in your congregation think? How do their lives reflect an answer to this? Popular ways to complete or answer the "discipleship means" statement might be: Becoming more like Jesus. Or maybe it's growing closer to God/Jesus. Perhaps it's "spiritual growth" (whatever that might mean).


I wonder...how often do we think of discipleship as other focused, rather than focused on our own personal development?


I wonder if we should.

Discipleship: Leaving Behind (whatever it is that gave us identity and purpose)

Discipleship is a catchy word in church ministries these days. It's not a new idea, but it seems to have found a new level of popularity in recent years. However, not everyone is on the same page when asked what "discipleship" is all about or whether we're actually accomplishing this in our churches and ministries.

In last week's post, we looked at discipleship through the lens of Jesus' invitation to his soon-to-be disciples in the gospel of Mark. His invitation was:

Follow me, and I will make you into people who fish for people. (Mark 1:17)

Last week I drew out four points from this passage that might help us focus our understanding of discipleship and our efforts as leaders in ministry to "be and make disciples." The points were:

1. Discipleship means we stop trying to be followed.
2. Discipleship is two-sided: following and fishing.
3. Discipleship is fishing as part of God's rescue mission.
4. Discipleship is about group fishing.

This week, we'll focus on the first point: Discipleship means we stop trying to be followed.

Discipleship as Fishing

Among Jesus' first words to his would-be disciples was:

Follow me, and I will make you fishers of people. (Mark 1:17)

A recent article in Christianity Today suggests that church leaders and church-goers are not on the same page with how they understand "discipleship" and how to go about growing in discipleship. There is a difference between whether pastors think discipleship is taking place and whether church-goers do. And there is a diversity of words and ideas used to describe "discipleship": "becoming more Christ-like," "spiritual growth," "spiritual journey," "sanctification." Not all of these are mutually exclusive. But they do reflect diverse ideas and that maybe not everyone is on the same page.

Jesus' first words quoted above are an invitation to a life of discipleship--to a life of following Jesus. If a major part of Jesus' life included making disciples, Mark 1:17 gives us Jesus' most succinct phrase that tells us what it's all about.

The New "In" Thing...

"Discipleship" is all the rage these days. It's a main catchword for church activity.

It's even the title of IOLBC's Beyond Ministry website: www.everydaydiscipleship.org and our family blog: www.discipleshipkitchen.blogspot.com

There is good reason for this. Jesus' followers are called "disciples." Jesus invites them to be "disciples." And Jesus commanded disciple reduplication. In fact, it is the one main command Jesus gives the disciples at the end of Matthew's gospel:

As you go about your lives, make disciples of all peoples...(Matt. 28:19)

Still, it can be a little concerning when it gets mixed up with American consumer-Facebook-media driven-"what's in" culture. Or a lot concerning. A recent article from Missio Alliance reflects this concern. The article questions the use of "discipleship" as some sort of fixer to ignite more excitement and participation in church. Discipleship is not to be a church program or a catchy idea to get those people who are not quite "in" on the church thing.