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The Leadership Model Of Jesus

By Donald L. Hughes

What management idea has been shaking the corporate world? It's the idea that hierarchies in corporate management
are dead, and that aspiring leaders are not hired out of business school, but emerge from the work force.

This concept is called "Post-heroic" leadership because the focus is off the single magnetic leader at the top of a
hierarchy (the "hero") who authoritatively sets policy. In the past, such a leader could expect his policy to be followed and
enforced by middle managers, and this would presumably lead to ever-increasing profits.

There are plenty of examples of such once-heroic but now-fallen leaders including the former heads of General Motors,
IBM, Kodak, American Express and Apple Computers.

{mospagebreak title=The Leadership Climate }

The Leadership Climate

Heroic leaders are out. The new focus is on creating a climate where employees are provided with a goal, then are
allowed to organize themselves to meet the goal. This includes allowing leadership to emerge from the work group, not
having outsiders imposed on them by absentee corporate managers. But there is a great deal more to post-heroic
leaders.

1. They don't pretend to know all the answers, but are willing to listen to all.

2. They are accessible, not closed-off from workers by sentry-secretaries and heavy mahogany doors.

3. Their authority does not come from symbols like corner offices, thick carpets, expensive company cars or the power of
professional life and death over subordinates.

4. Their power comes from the vision they carry and share. Above all, they are willing, as Time magazine says, to "walk
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the talk", to "live by the values they espouse."

This concept of leadership may be the new mode of leadership for the corporate world for the 21st Century, but many
Christians recognize it as a First Century idea. It's the "management program" set forth by Jesus, but a methodology
local churches have largely put on the shelf.

While corporations are ready to ride the coattails of the teaching of Jesus, the church has been using a Corporate model
of leadership in the past century, and the helpfulness of this model is questionable.

{mospagebreak title=The Rise of the Corporate Church}

The Rise of the Corporate Church

Do churches today rely on something other than biblical principles for leadership? The answer in many cases is a
resounding, "Yes." The church is filled with unbiblical "hero" pastors and evangelists among many other kinds of workers.
And local churches are seen purely as corporate organizations, not the spiritual organisms they are.

Local churches were not always seen as little corporations. This view of the church probably had its genesis in the United
States at the turn of the last century. The stimulus was John D. Rockefeller, Sr., a devout Baptist.

The corporation as a legal entity was evolving rapidly in America in the early 1900's, and Rockefeller was in the forefront
of it as head of Standard Oil. The corporation embodied several important characteristics. First it was a legal entity that
would survive the death of the founder. As a legal entity, the corporation was subject to financial controls dictated by the
establishment of Certified Public Accountants in 1896. Corporations had the power to create stock and own property, and
this led to regulation by the government, particularly in the areas of securities sales and taxation.

Corporations were run on a daily basis by a Chief Executive Officer (CEO) who stood at the top of a hierarchical pyramid.
It was governed by a board of trustees. This board had a unique function in that it had they stood outside the
organization, yet had control over it.

Individually, most trustees could not lead the corporation as a CEO, but together the trustees had the power to make or
break it. Rockefeller was a large benefactor to many Christian endeavors including a grant that enabled the founding of
the University of Chicago, several theological seminaries and homes for orphans. He required that each of these
institutions be operated with the same strict management and financial controls as his own companies.

By 1924 Rockefeller had moved from Ohio to New York City. He was prominent in the Park Avenue Baptist Church there,
but was unhappy with the leadership. He proposed that the church move to prime property uptown, and was ready to pay
for the move.
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He required several things before the move was made, first that the church be operated on modern corporate principles,
which included a Board of Trustees which had a secular rather than spiritual function, and that a new pastor be installed.

The new pastor, who functioned as the CEO was the well-known Harry Emerson Fosdick. The new church which was,
and is known, as Riverside Church, became the symbol for all that was modern in religious institutions. The leadership of
Rockefeller in building this "Cathedral of American Protestantism" - along with a proliferation of U.S. Federal laws
affecting organizations - caused other churches to follow the Riverside Church pattern.

This model of church organizational structure raced around the world even though change was not fueled by indigenous
corporation and tax laws as it was in America.

{mospagebreak title=The Corporate Mentality}

The Corporate Mentality

The corporate model had a special appeal to a certain element of church person: It allowed for order without the special
demand of spirituality. Under the corporate system the work of local churches could be defined by a comfortable
hierarchy where everything flowed from the top down, and the process had the oversight of middle managers like Sunday
school superintendents, youth directors and choir leaders.

Key to the corporate model was the Board of Trustees (sometimes labeled with other biblical titles) whose function was
to be responsible for financial matters, management of the church property, and were accountable to congregation and
government for tax and legal matters. Because of the power this corporate trustees held, their decisions often held sway
over the Board of Elders or Deacons who held the spiritual portfolio.

Thus, in many churches throughout the United States, and later the world, institutionalism grew, but spiritual progress
waned. The corporate mentality and the corporate hierarchy within the institution known as the church was often able to
extinguish spiritually driven impulses for relationship, growth and change.

Too often Trustees thought of themselves as corporate executives whose sole task was to perpetuate the institution of
the church. They did not recognize that churches which were not actively meeting human needs through spiritual means
might not be worth perpetuating. They felt that the ultimate administration of the institution was in their hands, not God's
hands, and the spiritual dimension was not given priority.

As a result of these and other influences, churches moved away from the style of leadership taught by the founder of the
church, Jesus Christ. They adopted the corporate system, which is now being abandoned by business corporations
themselves.
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The corporate system is losing it's place because business is learning that the hierarchical system is designed to serve
the institution itself, not the people related to the institution. Local churches must learn this lesson also and return to
biblical patterns of church leadership.

{mospagebreak title=What Jesus Taught}

What Jesus Taught

Jesus taught that you did not have to be a hero to be a leader. He taught just the opposite; that to be leader you must be
a servant. He taught that there is no need for Christians to pull rank on each other, whether in pulpit or pew, and "the
greatest among you will be your servant" (Matthew 23:8ff).

Jesus was willing to "walk the talk" when he demonstrated his commitment to this principle by washing his disciples feet
(John 13:5).

Perhaps the most relevant example of what Jesus thought about Corporate leadership versus Servant leadership is
found in Matthew 20. The mother of James and John came to Jesus and asked that her sons be permitted to sit at the
right and left of Jesus in the Kingdom. Obviously, the mother of these two men had a very corporate view of the kingdom.
She wanted her sons to be at high points on the executive ladder, Executive Vice-presidents of the Kingdom of God.

Jesus did not agree with this management style. He pointed to the Gentiles as a bad example of those who "lord it over"
people, and wanted no part of this plan. Instead he pronounced a dictum he repeated on many occasions: "Whoever
wants to be great among you must be your servant."

And the model of this management style of Jesus himself? As he said,"The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to
serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many (Matthew 20:21ff).

This biblical passage gives us a great deal of insight about how Jesus expects us to lead.

1. He expects that servant leaders be relational. We are to be among people, not over them.

2. The servant does not bark orders, but instead simply goes to work and demonstrates how others may join in.

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3. The servant leader is a catalyst for behavioral change in the lives of those he or she leads.

It is not enough that followers obey commands in the Christian realm, but that they experience a sense of community and
divine purpose in the process.

{mospagebreak title=Leadership is a Spiritual Passage}

Leadership is a Spiritual Passage

As we think about the life of Jesus and what he is teaching in these passages, one word come to the forefront. That word
is humility.

A leader must possess humility. Humility seems to be a largely lost grace among Christians at the dawning of the 21st
Century, but it is one that requires revival.

John Milton said there were two kinds of humility, "The humility of a servant who looks down and the humility of a son
who gazes up." It is this ascending humility Christians need to recapture today. Jesus said he was "meek and lowly of
heart" (Matthew 11:29) and indeed he had no pride or pretension.

The reality of his statement is seen in his life beginning with his birth in a manger, his entrance into public life in the
hands of his cousin John the Baptist, his constant rejection of honor or fame after accomplishing a healing or miracle,
and his appreciation of any offering or service.

This attitude of humility is the challenge to the church and all its leaders today.

Servant leadership may be a style of management to corporations, but to Jesus it was an attitude of heart. In part it is the
recognition that no amount of organizational structure will help if the Lord himself is not a part of the process.

Power play and manipulation are leadership methods of we see often in churches, but they acts of people who do not
fully trust Jesus Christ. Our only hope for effective leadership rests in the hands of the Lord. It is our obligation to be
obedient to the method for leadership he has provided, then leave the results to him. Leaders need to recognize anew
that we are involved in a supernatural struggle where organizational principles or heroic management will not win.

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Spiritual leadership in a secular society is going through a radical change. There is a very definite shift from the Judeo-
Christian tradition in values to those based upon the principles of secularism. Power is shifting away from moral
leadership and the rights of individuals to small vocal special interest groups.

These developments will force church leaders to reassess leadership styles. There will be no point to be a powerful CEO
or Trustee of an institution whose values are held in disrepute by society at large.

While a secular society may not respond to an institutional expression of Christian ministry, individuals will respond to
Servant leadership no matter where the winds of culture may blow. We can be sure people will respond because Servant
leadership is an integral part of God's larger plan of the redemption of the human race.

The call to Servant leadership is a call to self-examination and confession of sin for those who would be leaders. It is a
matter of putting away ego and looking at the needs of people through the eyes of Jesus Christ. It is about shared goals,
spiritual intimacy, about caring for people, listening to them, acting on their behalf, praying for them and with them.

It is a radical form of leadership, but it is the one in which Jesus Christ is able to glorify himself.

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