To be, or not to be … RELEVANT Reflections on Christian Leadership Using Henri J.M. Nouwen’s book In The Name Of Jesus
‌ I am deeply convinced that the Christian leader of the future is called to be completely irrelevant and to stand in this world with nothing to offer but his or her own vulnerable self. That is the way Jesus came to reveal God’s love. --Pg 30
-- Henri J.M. Nouwen
rel·e·vant adjective \ˈre-lə-vənt\ : relating to a subject in an appropriate way (Merriam Webster online)
we are called to be inappropriate in terms that the world would consider unacceptable, i.e. being: --politically incorrect --anti-“survivor” or anti-“win-lose” in our thinking --about problem-solving rather than symptom-solving --personally accountable --able to articulate our standards without apologizing or blaming --willing to love first and not judge so quickly --willing to acknowledge absolute truth
I think that we try so very hard to be relevant; and as a result the church blends into, and is almost unrecognizable, apart from the culture it is embedded in. We try in every way to look and sound like the corporate model we revere and imitate. Being irrelevant means “sticking out.� This is risky business.
“Lord,” Thomas said, “we don’t know where You’re going. How can we know the way? ” Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” --John 14:5-6
In a pluralistic and democratic culture, to say that there is one absolute truth, is itself a heresy. If all truths are equal, then there are no truths, but a multiplicity of equally valid opinions.
Q: Are all truths equally valid?
Introduction Everyone was saying that I was doing really well, but something inside me was telling me that my success was putting my soul in danger. --pg 20 Q: When should we begin to worry?
Henri Jozef Machiel Nouwen, (January 24, 1932 – September 21, 1996) was a Dutch-born Catholic priest, professor and writer. His interests were rooted in psychology, pastoral ministry, spirituality, social justice and community.
After nearly 20 years of teaching at academic institutions including the University of Notre Dame, Yale Divinity School, and Harvard Divinity School, Nouwen went on to work with mentally and physically handicapped people at the L’Arche Daybreak community in Richmond Hill, Ontario. --Wikipedia
Chapter 1
From Relevance to Prayer
Jesus’ first temptation was to be relevant: to turn stones into bread. --pg 30
Then the tempter approached Him and said, “If You are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.” But He answered, “It is written: Man must not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.” --Matthew 4:3-4
Q: What is your temptation to be relevant?
When you are in your real neighborhood, all that you have accomplished means very little. If you cannot offer hope, hope in Jesus Christ, then you are impotent ‌ effectively useless. Your relevance and my relevance just aren’t as useful as we once thought.
The question is not: How many people take you seriously? The question is: Are you in love with Jesus?
The leaders of the future will be those who dare to claim their irrelevance in the contemporary world as a divine location. --pg 35
What does it mean to lead?
Consider ‌ full reliance upon God being last, not first having great hope serving with a purpose feeding sheep fishing for men believing in glory loving only Jesus
The Christian leader of the future is the one who truly knows the heart of God as it has become flesh, “a heart of flesh” in Jesus. What does such a leader say? “Every time fear, isolation or despair invade the human soul, this is not something that comes from God.” To know God’s heart means “consistency, a radical nature, concrete and practical guidelines steeped in love and mercy.” --pg 38
A leader is someone who truly knows Jesus and has a personal relationship with Him. Q: Who do you know that qualifies? How do you know?
Leadership goes to being trusted, loved and believed because time itself has been a witness to that individual’s consistent walk and tenacious love of Jesus. Leadership may well be called and not made or cultivated. What if true leaders are called in the Spirit before time itself, and their calling has nothing to do with church size or individual charisma ‌ What if ?
Leaders are made by God Himself, anointed; not cultivated in, or by, seminars and weekend retreats. Leaders are led, in the final analysis, by Jesus Himself ‌ rabbi to disciple. Q: Does this resonate with you? why or why not? Q2: What does Jesus say to those who would make disciples, i.e. lead?
Jesus says, “If anyone is thirsty, he should come to Me and drink! The one who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, will have streams of living water flow from deep within him.� --John 7:37-38
For Christian leadership to be truly fruitful in the future, a movement from the moral to the mystical is required. -- pg 47
Q: What does that mean? (Hint ‌ legalism and grace)
‌ when we are securely rooted in personal intimacy with the source of life (this is mysterious), it will be possible to ‌ -remain flexible without being relativistic -convinced without being rigid -willing to confront without being offensive -gentle and forgiving without being soft -true witnesses without being manipulative --pgs 46-47
Chapter 2
From Popularity to Ministry
The second temptation to which Jesus was exposed was precisely the temptation to do something spectacular, something that could win Him great applause. --pg 53 Matthew 4:5-7 Then the Devil took Him to the holy city,2 had Him stand on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down. For it is written: He will give His angels orders concerning you, and they will support you with their hands so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.” Jesus told him, “It is also written: Do not test the Lord your God.”
Jesus refused to be a stunt man. He did not come to walk on hot coals, swallow fire, or put His hand in a lion’s mouth to demonstrate that he had something worthwhile to say. --pg 54 “Do not test the Lord your God.”
--Matthew 4:7
Q: Have you ever tested God? How? Why?
Stardom and individual heroism, which are obvious aspects of our competitive society are not at all alien to the church. There too the dominant image is that of the self-made man or woman who can do it all alone. --pg 56 Jesus never said He could do it alone; on the contrary He always pointed to the Father. That, I believe, is a healthy way to be accountable, but not take responsibility for that which we do not have a hand in. Leadership should be healthy for all, not just leadership. All should be fed, not just followers. Nouwen speaks into balance ‌
… it is clear that a whole new type of leadership is asked for in the church of tomorrow … Notice that there is not a suggestion that the church should be dismantled or cease to exist … but that it should be transformed in the way individuals are by grace. This will, indeed, require a new breed of leadership!
Q: What will this new leadership look like? (Hint: an organizer is not always a leader)
It is Jesus Who heals, not I It is Jesus Who speaks words of truth, Not I It is Jesus Who is Lord, not I It is Jesus Who sends us, not I It is Jesus Who heals, not I It is Jesus Who gives life, not I --from pgs 58-61
It is better that we do things together so that we are not tempted to take responsibility or credit ‌ that Jesus is glorified. If there is a downside to the established body within the church it is that Jesus quickly gets taken out as the head. We decapitate the body ‌
A body without a head cannot survive. We must reestablish or reattach the head so that the body will function, and that it will not be a corpse.
Q: What did Jesus say about corpses? “Where the corpse is, there also the vultures will be gathered.� --Luke 17:37
I, for one, will not be a vulture. How about you?
How will we do this? Confession and forgiveness are the concrete forms in which sinful people love one another. --pg 64
the downside:
It is precisely the men and women who are dedicated to spiritual leadership who are easily subject to raw carnality. --pg 67 Q: what exactly does that mean?
I think it can be a separation from our spiritual lives by means of temptation. The more spiritually inclined we are the more of a problem this is for the enemy. Conventional wisdom would tell us that the more spiritual we are the better off we will be. Better off, but not “an easier row to hoe� using the agricultural metaphor.
Paul tells us this story:
Therefore, so that I would not exalt myself, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to torment me so I would not exalt myself. Concerning this, I pleaded with the Lord three times to take it away from me. But He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” Therefore, I will most gladly boast all the more about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may reside in me. So I take pleasure in weaknesses, insults, catastrophes, persecutions, and in pressures, because of Christ. For when I am weak, then I am strong. -- 2 Corinthians 12:7-10
All leaders need to have a place where they can share their deep pain and struggles with those who do not need them, but can guide them. This is a mystery. --pgs 69-70 note: where Nouwen uses the word mystery, try substituting grace.
Chapter 3
From Leading to Being Led
The mystery is this:
leadership, for a large part, means being led. --pg 75 And why? Because the third temptation was the temptation of power.
Again, the Devil took Him to a very high mountain and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. And he said to Him, “I will give You all these things if You will fall down and worship me.” Then Jesus told him, “Go away, Satan! For it is written: Worship the Lord your God, and serve only Him.” Then the Devil left Him, and immediately angels came and began to serve Him. --Matthew 4:8-11
Q: What is the greatest leadership irony in the Christian faith? A: In its history Christianity leaders have succumbed to the temptation of power ‌ political, military, economic, moral and spiritual. -- see pg 76 The very thing Jesus emptied Himself of on the cross.
Q: What makes the temptation of power so attractive and strangely irresistible? A: Maybe that power offers an easy substitute for the hard task of love. It seems easier to be God than to love God. --pg 77
Q: To Nouwen what one thing is crystal clear? A: The temptation of power is greatest when intimacy is a threat. --pg 79
Much Christian leadership is exercised by individuals who do not know how to develop healthy intimate relationships and have opted for power and control instead. Many Christian empirebuilders have been those unable to give and receive love. --pg 79
Jesus has a different vision of maturity: it is the ability and willingness to be led where you would rather not go. --pg 81 “ I assure you: When you were young, you would tie your belt and walk wherever you wanted. But when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands and someone else will tie you and carry you where you don’t want to go.” --John 21:18
As a leader where will you be led? Where are you willing to go? Leadership must constantly be abandoned in favor of love. –pg 82 To lead is to be a servant first.
The Christian leader of the future needs to be radically poor, journeying with nothing except a staff— He instructed them to take nothing for the road except a walking stick: no bread, no traveling bag, no money in their belts. --Mark 6:8 --pg 84
Christian leadership seems to have nothing to do with charisma, events, church size or attendance. What makes the real difference over time is a life lived consistently for Christ so that those of us who wander, being the prodigals that we are, have a place to return to and individuals residing there who demonstrate the hope of Jesus Christ by living it out in real time in “fear and trembling.�
If there is any hope for the church [in the future] it will be hope for a poor church in which its leaders are willing to be led. --pg 84 Note: it would appear that Pope Francis is attempting to address this very issue of leadership 26 years after Henri’s book was published.
Theological Reflection ‌
What, then is the discipline required of a leader who can live with outstretched hands? --pg 86 A: Think with the mind of Christ.
God’s presence is often a hidden presence, a presence that needs to be discovered. The loud, boisterous noises of the world make us deaf to the soft, gentle, and loving voice of God. --pg 90
CONCLUSION “Do you love Me?” --pg 91
‌ I hope and pray that you have seen that the oldest, most traditional vision of Christian leadership is still a vision that awaits realization ‌ I leave you with the image of a leader with outstretched hands, who chooses a life of downward mobility. Pgs 91-93
The Christian leader thinks, speaks and acts in the name of Jesus. --pg 107
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