Lessons in Leadership for the New Year

Re-framing how I think about Christian leadership

Happy new year, dear subscriber.

I am well aware that we are fully halfway through February, but I find myself in the position of posting for the first time in 2025. It is long overdue, but I want to share some reflections on a re-read I did over my Christmas break. The book is In The Name of Jesus, written by the Dutch priest, professor, writer and theologian Henri Nouwen.

The central premise of the book is that true leadership is not about ego, power, or even success but rather humility, vulnerability, and a deep relationship with Christ. Nouwen demonstrates that although it is tempting for modern Christian leaders to pursue relevance or spectacularity, we are at our most effective when we imitate Christ in his servanthood, weakness, and love. He begins the book by tracing his own journey from the lofty lecture halls of Harvard university to living, learning, and serving alongside people with disabilities at L’Arche.

These lessons aren’t just relevant for ministry leaders, nonprofit CEOs, or pastors, but rather any of us who have any degree of leadership at our places of work, in our communities, or at home.

I pulled three ideas from the book that stood out to me because they spoke to some aspect of hope I have for my own development as a leader this year.

Rootedness

“When Jesus commissioned Peter to be a shepherd, he asked him, ‘Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these others do?’ He asked him again, ‘do you love me?’ And a third time he asked, ‘Do you love me?’ (John 21-15-17). We have to hear that question as being central to all our Christian ministry because it is the question that can allow us to be, at the same time, irrelevant and truly self-confident” (p.36).

“Dealing with burning issues without being rooted in a deep personal relationship with God easily leads to divisiveness because, before we know it, our sense of self is caught up in our opinion about a given subject” (p.45).

Any exercise of leadership ability is drawn from somewhere. Perhaps we lean on formal training, experience, or advice from wise counsel. Each of these are good, but naturally limited by the breadth and scope of our ability or connections in each area. When we draw upon a well that is finite, we will inevitably hear the clang of the pail as it runs out of water and strikes bottom.

When Jesus asks Peter “do you love me” three times, he is asking him the most important question for Peter to answer on a daily basis for the rest of his lifetime in ministry. Essentially, he is asking Peter “why are you doing this?” Is it for your own gain, ego, or other surface-deep reason? Or is it because you love me?

Nouwen’s counterintuitive claim is that we need to pursue irrelevance in our leadership to be truly effective. When we pursue a close relationship with and realize our own dependence upon Christ, we no longer need to be at the center and we obtain the confidence of knowing that we are simply instruments of God acting under the power of the Holy Spirit. What a freeing thought.

When confronted with challenges in my leadership, my tendency is to process with myself or a friend before taking it to God. I want to flip that dynamic this year.

Collective leadership

“What makes the temptation of power so seemingly irresistible? Maybe it is that power offers an easy substitute for the hard task of love. It seems easier to be God than to love God, easier to control people than to love people, easier to own life than to love life. Jesus asks, ‘Do you love me?’ We ask, ‘Can we sit at your right hand and at your left hand in your kingdom?’ (Matthew 20:21)” (P.77).

Power is easy. Love is hard. These two dynamics are often at odds with each other, as power leads us to think in a curved-inward way. How can I leverage my power to achieve the outcome that I want? How can I frame this conversation so that I don’t look bad? What do I need this person to do so I can look better for my bosses?

The radical life of Jesus was to flip the tables of power and authority to instead lead from a place of servanthood and love. Washing the feet of your disciples isn’t a publicity stunt or face-saving move (nor is crucifixion, for that matter). Rather, it is an outward manifestation of Jesus’ heart towards those he led. Even still, some of his disciples sought to leverage their relationship with Jesus to obtain the kind of facially significant power and authority that they had been taught to seek by the world around them.

It’s tempting to scoff at such folly, yet I do this all the time. A better alternative that demonstrates love is Collective Leadership - leadership that attempts to catalyze growth and improvement by using leadership positions to empower others to run with their ideas and offer perspectives that otherwise might be overlooked. There might be things I could accomplish on my own. But how might it be better by asking some else to lead it, thereby moving closer to honoring their God-given abilities?

Willingness to be led where you would rather not go

“But Jesus has a different vision of maturity: It is the ability and willingness to be led where you would rather not go.” (P.81)

Of the three lessons I’ve drawn from re-readingNowen’s book, this one might be the most difficult for me. Possessing both a willingness and an ability to be led where I do not want to go is an extraordinary difficult combination. I think I’m willing to be led. After all, If I’m being led, that implies that I have some sort of awareness that going to that place is the right thing to do or that I am somehow being prompted to make that decision.

On the other hand, the ability to allow Christ to lead me where I don’t want to go is altogether a different matter. Do I follow through on that to which I am feeling led? Or simply assent to the idea that I’m theoretically willing to go? The daylight between these two ideas is where Christian leadership is made or broken.

It’s only possible to do both if I am deeply engaged with God and rejecting self-centered leadership. If I do these things, I place myself in a position that is much more likely to a) hear God’s prompting and b) be willing to follow it because I am not so self-absorbed in the way I think about myself and those I lead.

Wrap-up

None of these ideas are particularly profound on their face, but put together they really challenge me to think more deeply about why I am doing what I do when I lead. I’ve had leadership successes and leadership failures, and when I think about what led to success it is usually the work of other people, and what led to failure was over-indulgence of my own insecurities. I’m trying to work on these things this year.

I’ve got some ideas I really want to write about in the next couple months: I’ve been fascinated by the ongoing debate over the loneliness epidemic, phones in schools, and a couple of other topics that I want to dive into more deeply.

As always, thanks for reading, and for your feedback!