Henri Nouwen reflects on the nature and way of Christian leadership in his brief book, In the Name of Jesus. He recounts the experience and profound lessons he learned while living in a house for mentally challenged people. It seems that they were not impressed with Nouwen’s multiple degrees, accomplished skill as a priest, or his years of work. The experience caused him to reclaim his “unadorned self” and rediscover his true identity. He says …
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. The great message that we have to carry, as ministers of God’s word and followers of Jesus, is that God loves us not because of what we do or accomplish, but because God has created and redeemed us in love and has chosen us to proclaim that love as the true source of all human life.
Relevancy or the desire for significance in this world can quickly trumph the love of God toward us and our ability to love others. True leadership cannot be built on self-confidence or dominance and control of others. Nor is it made complete by our financial resource and ministry technique. Instead, we are called to lead in the Jesus Way. Jesus embraced the brokenness around him and took upon himself the suffering of humanity. In the Jesus Way, leadership is love revealed.
just want you to know i’m lurking here, reading your thoughts.
I would only add that the temptation to throw out relevancy entirely is also a bad idea. Although, I would have define relevancy differently than you do in this post. good stuff!
btw, when do you teach at the farm? hopefully we will see you soon.