Jesus on Leadership

Timeless Wisdom on Servant Leadership

Gene Wilkes

• Publisher: Tyndale Elevate
• Year: 2011
• ISBN:
  9781414328072
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Church

Discover the essence of transformative leadership by studying how Jesus led. Gene Wilkes, a popular conference speaker, describes how Jesus led. He identifies seven practical principles for today's leaders, to assist them with everything from humbling their hearts to building a team for Christ.

VICTORY is only wrested by running risks.

WINSTON CHURCHILL Churchill on Leadership

IT IS still a great risk in our society to offer new rules for the game.

JOEL A. BARKER Future Edge

PARADIGM pioneers are always inquisitive, humble students. If they assume the status of expert, they can be the church’s greatest obstacle to growth.

DOUG MURREN Leadershift

BY AVOIDING risk we really risk what’s most important in life —reaching toward growth, our potential, and a true contribution to a common good.

MAX DEPREE Leading without Power

I RECENTLY interviewed a prospective staff member. At one point, the candidate turned the questioning to the interviewers. “Would you consider your church willing to take risks?” Silence. No one had ever asked us that question before. I held my tongue —and my breath. I had learned that interviewing potential staff and church members was a way to get a fresh read on our church.

As individuals began to speak, I was pleased to hear our search team say that we were willing to take risks. Each one had an experience in which he or she believed our church had risked something —or, at least, had refused the status quo —to accomplish our mission to make disciples. One of the members did say we did not take “the wild-haired kind” of risks. After each person had spoken, it seemed to me that we perceived ourselves to be moderate risk takers. That’s the way I, too, saw our church. As the leader, of course, I wanted to hear each person say we’d do anything to carry out our mission, but we were not there yet. We agreed that we took enough risks to stay on mission, but we were not known for our bungee jumping.

The candidate then asked, “What is the greatest risk you have taken personally?” I did not hold my tongue on that one. I told him and the group that my greatest personal risk was staying on the course we had begun to chart five years earlier. My greatest risk did not come in the form of building three buildings and acquiring more land or changing our worship style or addressing some moral issue in a Sunday morning message. I had faced my greatest risk at this church when I’d had to decide if I would indeed carry out the mission and vision I believed God wanted our church to live out. That decision had risked my comfort, future, and place of acceptance among my peers. Deciding to lead the church to carry out its mission without compromise was the biggest risk I had taken up to that point in my life.

Those two questions, I believe, are diagnostic questions for any church and/or church leader. “Do you consider yourselves risk takers?” and “What is the greatest personal risk you have taken?” reveal in a church and its leaders the desire (or lack of desire) to move ahead and risk everything for its mission. Refusal to take those risks prevents a leader from moving toward the goal.

NEXT to his death on the cross, washing the feet of his disciples was Jesus’ ultimate model of servant leadership. On his last night with his leadership team, Jesus chose to serve those who should have served him. Many of us don’t immediately see what kind of risk that was. Jesus was giving up his place at the head of the table. This is just the kind of risk he will require of us. But before we try to apply this to ourselves, we need to understand how Jesus could do what he did.

What was the source of Jesus’ willingness to risk his place at the head table to serve his followers? Where did Jesus find enough confidence to give himself such a glaring demotion? What can his actions and motives show us?

NEXT TO HIS DEATH ON THE CROSS, WASHING THE FEET OF HIS DISCIPLES WAS JESUS’ ULTIMATE MODEL OF SERVANT LEADERSHIP.

Every great leader takes risks —taking others to places no one has gone before. Since a leader sets the pace for his group, he is free to go out of the ordinary and to ask startling questions. But when a leader guides people to new places, he often risks his position, power, and provisions. After all, what if others in an organization aren’t feeling so adventurous? What if a follower worries about money a lot? What if the mission agency “doesn’t get it” when the leader is taking Christ’s followers into uncharted territory? What if the people with the purse strings have a different definition of success than the leader has? We can begin to imagine all kinds of situations in which good leadership equals risk taking, which could well equal losses. Kouzes and Posner describe leaders this way:

Leaders are pioneers —people who are willing to step out into the unknown. They are people who are willing to take risks, to innovate and experiment in order to find new and better ways of doing things.[69]

Leaders take risks because they see the future before anyone else can. This ability places leaders on the horizon rather than in the comfort of a settler’s home.

Joel Barker compares pioneering leaders to settlers:

What’s the difference between a pioneer and a settler? It is the settler who always is calling toward the horizon, “Is it safe out there now?” The voice calling back, “Of course it’s safe out here!” is the pioneer’s. That is because the pioneers take the risk, go out early, and make the new territory safe.[70]

Winston Churchill was known as a man who took huge risks. Steven Hayward has observed, “Churchill’s refusal throughout his career to practice bland, risk-averse politics stands out as his most striking leadership attribute. Churchill’s audacious and risk-taking character was at the core of his genius.”[71] Hayward also noted that his risk taking “also constituted the chief liability of his long career and nearly led to his ruin.” But Churchill overcame that liability by learning from his mistakes. Great leaders take risks.

Max DePree reminds us that “by avoiding risk we really risk what’s most important in life —reaching toward growth, our potential, and a true contribution to a common goal.”[72] DePree says it takes a special kind of risk to join an organization purely to serve. “Wherever or however we serve,” he concludes, “we can’t avoid the central conundrum of risk: to risk nothing is perhaps the greatest risk of all.”

Standing on the edge

A leader is a pioneer because she goes to the edge of a current reality and takes the next step. Upon seeing the new reality, she invites others to join her on the edge. Not everyone is drawn to the edge, but most people admire those who stand on it.

Doug Murren reminds us that the great leaders in the Bible — Moses, Joshua, Jesus, Peter, and Paul —were all paradigm pioneers. “All paradigm pioneers have a different spirit from the naysayers about them. They have the ability to see a new thing, to perceive a bright future, to tap into the power of God.”[73]

By the power of God

What distinguishes leaders under Christ’s lordship from those who merely lead by their natural abilities? The difference is simple: Christ’s servants tap into God’s power. Otherwise, how could they see the future and have the courage to pioneer their way into it? God’s power enables them to see the vision and help others toward it. How does a person —leader or otherwise —gain access to such power? Through faith, of course. After all, faith is the confidence in things promised by God —but often not yet seen by others.

CHRIST’S SERVANTS TAP INTO GOD’S POWER. OTHERWISE, HOW COULD THEY SEE THE FUTURE AND HAVE THE COURAGE TO PIONEER THEIR WAY INTO IT?

Hebrews 11:1 defines faith as being “certain of what we do not see.” The people described in that chapter are heroes of faith (servant leaders, I would call them) because they trusted God at his word and “saw” what God promised them. Although Abraham could not see the Promised Land, he trusted God enough to pack up his camels and leave home. He became the “Father of Faith” and leader of God’s people because he trusted God enough to step out on the edge. What was the source of his ability to risk? His trust in the God who called him to follow. It becomes clear that God’s people have the capacity to be visionaries, pioneers —leaders. With faith, we see God’s reality. And since we see it and are confident of it, we are able to go there and take others with us.

If taking risks is inherently part of leadership, what does Jesus teach us about the unique nature of risk taking?

John’s Gospel is a reflection on the life of Jesus. The elder apostle chose seven sayings and seven signs of Jesus to give his readers an opportunity to trust that Jesus was the Son of God (John 20:30-31). John is the only Gospel writer to tell about Jesus’ washing his disciples’ feet. This act was prophetic. It was as important as equating himself with the bread and wine of the Passover meal —and it involved a purpose we will explore in the next chapter.

Leading from power

We commonly visualize a leader standing before his troops on the eve of battle, making the speech of a lifetime. We see President Roosevelt standing before congress declaring war on Japan. We envision President Kennedy prophesying that we would put a man on the moon by the end of the decade. We see President Bush unleashing the nation’s military power during Desert Storm. We expect leaders to lead from positions of power. We want them to stand before their people and call upon the best in them to carry the torch on the next leg of the journey.

Leaders ofte...