Jesus and Leadership

Some old friends are preparing a Bible study on leadership, and asked me for some starter ideas about how faith informs leadership decisions. Here's a start. I'd be happy for your contribuitions to this discussion!

Jesus' views on leadership, as I understand them, revolve around the following ideas:

ready or not, the Kingdom is coming

Kingdom leadership is not like leadership as understood by the world at the time of Jesus (NB: Jesus' teaching has been leaking into the world for quite a while now. It shouldn't surprise us if Jesus' teaching shows up in secular writings from time to time today!)

leadership is an issue of stewardship (responsibility); that is, one leads because the Father has entrusted us with responsibility for the good of the world

leadership is not something to aspire to (it is not a status, position, or reward)

leadership is about serving others at the cost of your own interests

one leads by giving oneself to the call of God and by giving oneself to others

one leads by becoming vulnerable to risk (one might get killed or abandoned)

there is no protection promised to leaders (one might get stoned or killed)

there is no effectiveness promised to leaders (one might die alone, our organizations might dissove, our communities might disperse, our attempts might fail)

leadership is a spiritual discipline intended to transform the leader

leadership is not, and never will be, about authority or power

leadership looks more like a cross than a throne

leadership is more about character than skill

leadership is being like the Father

Jesus assumes that the Kingdom will come anyway

Faith informs leadershipship decisions by always asking whether one has these ideas in minds. Faith informs leadership by never permitting the end to justify the means, nor even the means to justify the end, but by centering decisions on the Kingdom-centered focus of Jesus.

Recommended reading for a non-Christian book on leadership that seems to reflect Jesus' views:
Leadership on the Line by Martin Linsky, Ronald A. Heifetz

This is my opinion. I could be wrong.

The Lord be with you,