the weblog of Alan Knox

Leadership 101 – NOT!

Posted by on Mar 28, 2008 in blog links, discipleship | 3 comments

Jesus would flunk out of most modern “Christian” leadership training courses. Jonathan at “Missio Dei” does a great job pointing this out in a post called “Jesus was a terrible leader“. Jonathan says:

Jesus was a terrible leader, in the short run. He wouldn’t get a job in today’s church marketplace. Think about it. He spent three years with 12 people. He talked to a lot of people but his primary focus was on twelve people who didn’t always get a long and didn’t always get it.

“Where’s the growth” people would ask? “How are we gonna pay the bills” others would say, albeit quietly in from the other side of the room. “This guy just doesn’t seem to get it.”

Then, Jonathan concludes poignantly:

I wonder if those in leadership will someday follow the model Jesus developed. He followed His Father’s voice to transform the lives of twelve ordinary people.

Follow the voice of the Father… act like a servant, not a leader… pour your life into people… give up everything for those people. Perhaps its not the best paradigm for “church leadership”, but it seems to be “Jesus leadership”.

Related posts:

  1. Two Posts on Leadership
  2. Another good post on leadership
  3. Transforming leadership is mutual leadership
  4. An imaginary conversation with Jesus about leadership

3 Comments

Comments are closed. If you would like to discuss this post, send an email to alan [at] alanknox [dot] net.

  1. 3-28-2008
    bryan riley says:

    And oh how many of us younger (but growing older all the time – now 37) people are crying out for people to disciple us!!!

  2. 3-29-2008
    Sarah says:

    Thanks, Alan. I like your take on Jonathan’s post. So, I hope it’s ok that I just copied and pasted in onto my own blog. Thanks for being a blessing! 🙂

  3. 3-29-2008
    Alan Knox says:

    Bryan and Sarah,

    Thank you for the comments. My we continue to follow Jesus and imitate his “leadership”.

    -Alan