Jesus and Leadership Grace
by Viv Thomas
Jesus teaches us how leadership works. For leaders, Jesus is the orientating centre.
If you don’t know where you are or what you are doing, he is the one to watch. If
a leaders decisions, substance and style does not have a significant echo coming
back from within the person of Jesus then we are entering into zones of potential
tragedy. What are those areas which open up in front of us like huge bottomless
crevasses with the potential to suck us in when we take our next faltering or bold
step? Our desire for significance, celebrity, power, sex, success and money all
interact with how we work with media, political agendas, technology and contemporary
self-help techniques. These are some of our contemporary fissures in which we may
fall and from which we may never emerge ever again into leadership. Jesus shows
us the way to avoid these pitfalls.
In Luke chapter four Jesus showed us the way of leadership when he went back to
his hometown of Nazareth and became the centre of attention. He spoke in the Synagogue;
all eyes were fastened on him and people were captivated by his gracious words.
But it was only temporary. Before long, and after some tougher words from Jesus,
people tried to kill him by throwing him off a cliff. But in the process Jesus articulated
how leadership works. He laid out his vision, the things he considered important
and the grace he was going to bring to the world. What was this grace Jesus brought
to people through his unique leadership?
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The grace of community
Jesus demonstrates that leadership is a communal activity. Jesus returns to Galilee
in the power of the Spirit. Hence it is not an individual isolated Jesus who comes
to the world and calls for change but rather a Jesus in communion with the Holy
Spirit seeking to transform the world. Jesus looks to the Spirit. He declares ‘the
Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me’ (Luke 4: 18). The influence
Jesus is to wield as a leader comes out of this community of Spirit and Father.
His leadership grace is therefore a communal grace.
You do not see much of this sort of thing in the leadership literature. Most of
it has a picture of the leader as an individual, charismatic and focused on the
development of personal potential. Yet leadership is not just about individual potential.
It is about the way a community of leaders is able to shape a community of followers.
It is God as community, as Father, Son and Sprit, which shows us how leadership
grace works. We lead well if we lead out of a community of leaders. There is no
other way of doing the job of a leader if we want to reflect how Jesus graced us
with his leadership.
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The grace of goodness
Jesus’ intention was to bring ‘good news to the poor’. When someone is good we generally
anticipate that they will be generous, kind, loving and gentle. His plan was to
do them good. Likewise, leadership is intended to be good and to bring goodness
into the world. Is this what we see typically see in leadership? Do leaders go around
their world doing good and bringing goodness wherever they go?
Many churches and leaders look successful but do they do good? Some Christian environments
can be the most intimidating because of fear, unbalanced and unbiblical understandings
of holiness, strong doctrinal intimidation and Gnostic spiritualities. When these
characteristics come together they are enough to drive you to regular visits to
the nightclub or the pub, or alternatively the church down the road. These environments
produce such results because they are not good and they do not generate goodness.
This is in contrast to Jesus who was good and overflowing with goodness to all who
encountered him.
It is important to avoid a popular confusion here; goodness is not niceness. There
is another side to the goodness of Jesus as he supports the poor and is continually
letting us know that he is committed to justice. Goodness is not just kindness and
gentleness but generosity and love. This generosity and love lead towards justice.
This is what motivates Jesus to go into a temple and rip the money changing process
apart in an act of violent destruction. Sometimes goodness means bringing down the
house and destroying oppressive systems in the process. In this situation, violence
is an expression of wonderful grace and although it looks aggressive, it is fundamentally
good.
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The grace of freedom
Jesus uses three images in Luke 4:18 to express ‘freedom’. Prisoners set free from
prison, blind people recovering their sight and oppressed people being released.
Jesus is expressing his ability and desire to open doors, bring light into darkness
and give back to people control over their lives. This is what great leaders do.
They open closed doors so that people can walk through them; they persistently switch
on lights all over the house so people can see and be informed about the nature
of the world in which they live; and they delight in taking illegitimate pressures
and burdens off those they lead. Leaders do this so as to liberate those they lead
to be fully themselves in the context of all God wants them to be. Jesus did this
and he continues to take this role today, repeatedly bringing freedom. Our leadership
is legitimate to the extent to which we do this work of opening people up to be
fully themselves.
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The grace of timing
Jesus comes to ‘proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour’ (Luke 4:18). This is not
a calendar year but a period when salvation could be proclaimed. For Jesus salvation
is ‘right here and right now’ as he brings in the kingdom of God. Jesus came and
proclaimed liberation from sin and its personal, social and eternal consequences
declaring to all who would hear that this was Gods time.
Leadership is about power but it is also about timing. What do you do and when do
you do it are critical questions for leaders. You can see things go wrong at any
time and in any place. But if you misunderstand the time and season in which you
are working much can go wrong. So one of the greatest needs of the hour is discernment.
We need leaders who are continually working at understanding the nature of the world,
the seasons we are in and the ever mysterious nature of their own hearts through
which everything is interpreted.
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The grace of proclaimed truth
Jesus comes and he proclaims. He has something to say to us through his continual
explanation of the coming of the Kingdom of God and the good news he offers. Jesus
teaches us what it means to be blessed, how to pray, how to battle with dark forces,
how to live well, how to die well, how to walk in the Spirit and how to practice
resurrection. All this is his proclamation. Jesus’ message comes to us through the
spoken word, relationships with those who loved him and those who hated him, his
own flesh and his continual outpouring of love.
To have leadership grace like Jesus is to have similar articulation. We do not communicate
only when we are talking. The real ‘word’ to people is not the sermon or mid-week
message but the totality of all that we are as leaders and the church cultures we
develop.
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Conclusion
What can we say in conclusion? Jesus grace filled leadership came out of community
with Father and Spirit, showed itself in goodness, delighted in opening doors and
releasing people, emerged at the right time and had something wonderful to say.
This is great leadership and shows us the way we should go as followers of our leader
and Lord.
But there is one more thing I want to speak of; courage. Jesus was morally and physically
courageous. He said some things which made people speak well of him (Luke 4:22)
and within a little while – after some serious truth telling – their fury is provoked
(Luke 4:28) and they want to kill him. This courage does not come from suppressed
anger which works its way out in some supposed holy enterprise. It is courage which
comes out of love for people and love for the truth in which they must live if they
are going to live well. In an age of consumerism, political correctness and celebration
of the bland through all forms of media, this need for loving, courageous leaders
could be one of our greatest challenges.
These reflections are based around Luke 4:14-30
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