Jesus on Leadership, Gene Wilkes
Jesus taught and embodied leadership as service.
Jesus led by serving.
Jesus was the Suffering Servant Savior.
Jesus’ Mission Statement was threefold:
- To preach the Good News (Luke 4:18-19).
- Not to be served but to serve (Mark 10:45).
- To seek and save that which is lost (Luke 19:10).
Seven Principles to Lead as Jesus Led:
- Humble yourself and allow God to exalt you (Luke14:7-11).
- Follw the Father’s will rather than seeking a position (Mark 10:32-40).
- Define greatness in relation to the degree of your servanthood (Mark 10:45).
- Risk serving others because of your trust in God the Father (John 13:3).
- Leave the place at the head of the table and serve the lowly (John 13:4-11).
- Share the responsibility and the authority of leadership with others (Acts 6:1-6).
- Build a strong team to aid you in carrying your vision (Mark 6:7).
The true place of Christlike leadership is out in the crowd rather than at the head of the table.
Sevant leaders:
- Serve the mission and
- Lead by serving those on mission with them.
Mission is everything for a servant leader, and passion is the critical variable.
Leadership begins when a God-revealed mission captures a person.
Servant leadership is entirely a passionate service.
Mission is God’s call upon your life, whereas vision is your unique interpretation to that call.
You must equip others to join you on your mission by training them.
To be truly Spirtitual means to:
- Be confident in God.
- Know God.
- Seek God’s will.
- Be self-effacing.
- Find delight in following God’s methods.
- Be delighted by obedience to God.
- Be motivated by love for God and people.
Submission to God is the first step to servant leadership.
You will never become a srevant leader until you first become a servant to the Leader.
Leadership is not something that you can pursue; it is something others give to you.
You are not the leader until the group you are leading says so.
If you truly want to be great, then you must go downward in direction; indeed, one must descend into greatness.
The grace of humility is worked out in our lives through the discipline of service.
Servant leaders humble themselves and let God exalt them.
If you assume more honor than you have, you will end up embarrassed before your peers (Luke 14:9).
Jesus lived the humility that He taught, and we do well to do likewise.
Philippians 2 may be the most countercultural chapter in the entire Bible.
Self-assurance plus humility gives confidence to those who follow the leader.
Humility allows God to work in a person’s life.
The difference between pride and confidence lies in its source.
Pride is arrogant self-worship.
Indeed does the ego stand for “edging God out”.
Pride will lead you to seek places you think you deserve rather than where God has chosen for you to serve.
By itself, pride will produce arrogance; but if the pride is in what God is doing in you, it will produce a quiet confidence.
Charater is the balance to pride and giftedness, both.
Those who truly follow Jesus find themselves treated like Jesus.
Reflection is a major way that leaders learn from their past.
You must wait expecting a promise to be kept.
Waiting, in the context of Jeus’ teaching, is is trusting that there is a season for everything.
Impatience leads to a reaction against events instead of waiting for events.
No one can be a servant without a master.
God is either spelt “E G O” or “G O D”All leaders must learn to follow if they are to successfully lead others.
Leaders must be comfortable with how others will respond to their decisions, be it good or bad.
Fear is often a by-product of those who see their leader as a provider only.
Jesus always clearly stated His intentions, as all good leaders do.
The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality.
Good leaders cultivate the ability to read current events and thus have a strong sense of what the future may bring, be it positive or negative.
Leaders learn to trust the “blessed impulse”.
If ever asked, ‘do you want to know what your problem is?’, respond, “Not really. But go ahead”.
Every leader has an agenda, and if they do not, they are no leader.
Servant leaders accept the honest requests of those that they serve.
Integrity is the basis of trust, which also is a product of leadership, and it is the only quality that can not be acquired, but only earned.
Trust operates on mutual respect.
Position does not gurantee that you are the leader.
Ambition is not the same thing as being willing to follow.
To learn from Jesus means to follow Jesus.
The overwhelming emphasis of Scripture is about following.
God never calls a person to do something that they can do on their own.
Leadership begins with God’s call, and the person’s willingness to follow.
Nothing precedes purpose.
To follow means to obey.
Obedience is a total obedience, an arrested attention, without hesitation or limitation.
Following Jesus is no normal or natural action.
Servant leadership begins by following Jesus, not your own ambitions.
As the taskmaster, you must keep your eyes on the task at hand, not on yourself.
Leadership is not fulfilled until the task is completely accomplished.
Jesus spent much of His time correcting His followers, which is a responsibility of every servant leader.
Leading the church as a pastor is much like leading a family as a parent.
Relationship is the key concept in the idea of a servant being the leader.
Parishioners refuse the leadership of those who they perceive do not care for them.
The paradox of leadership is that one must serve in order to be great.
Paradox is often a part of the leader’s style.
Abraham Lincoln exemplifies the paradoxical nature of leadership:
- He was charismatic, yet unassuming.
- He was consistent, yet flexible.
- He was the victim of vast amounts of slander from the general populace, yet was immensely popular with those who were serving him directly.
- He was trusting and compassionate, yet was also demaninding and tough.
- He was a risk taker, yet was calculating in his movements.
- He claimed not to have any particular policy, yet he was extraordinarily decisive.
Jesus Christ also exhibited the Paradoxical style of leadership:
- He was as gentle as a lab, yet courageous as a lion.
- He was yielding, yet aggressive when faced with injustice.
- He was gregarious, yet spent much time alone.
- He was meek, yet in control at all times.
- He never gained a formal education, yet taught with great authority.
- He was a non-conformist, yet not iconoclastic.
A leader’s character should never change.
Jesus started leading people where they were, and did not expect them to “be there” yet.
Part of the power of Jesus’ teaching was that He understand and articulated the culture around Him.
Effective leaders help their people to experience the future before it occurs.
Too many churches are warehouses of well-planned, well-managed programs for stroing and shipping out believers.
Authority does nothing for the leader until the followers understand what he is talking about.
The spiritual authority of Jesus was not found in a position or a title, but in a towel instead.
Stewardship is giving order to the dispersion of power.
Leading is the opportunity to make a meaningful difference in the lives of others.
We have forgotten that greatness among God’s people begins by service without accolades.
The leader could be viewed as the “first among equals”.
When we choose to be a servant, we give up the right to be in charge.
We live in a culture where the individual has been moved to the center of the universe.
Jesus came to show us what life in the Kingdom of Heaven looked like, not to modify how the world thinks.
Churchill wrote that, “victory is only wrested by running risks”.
Paradigm pioneers are always inquisitive.
By avvoiding risk, we avoid reaching our potential, and a true contribution to humanity.
Jesus chose to serve those who should have served Him.
Leaders are pioneers, those willing to step into the unknown; they go to edge of reality and take the next step.
When we trust God, we can take big risks.
Servant leaders can risk serving others, because God ordains it.
A servant leader trusts that in their relationship with God in Chrst, He has placed all power under their control, that they have come from God, and that they are going to God.
Places earned by self-effort only are places that others can take from you by greater self-effort.
Spiritual gifts are from God to be used for the body of Christ, not for yourself.
God extends His call to leadership beyond those who have the gift of leadership, so as to demonstrate His power.
God makes leaders out of those that He calls.
If God has called you to a mission, He will provide the leadership resources for you to complete that mission.
Become the master of your life and desires, and not their servant.
Failure is as vital as it is inevitable.
A “spiritual marker” identifies a transition period of time when God clearly leads you.
The mercy of God swallows the evil of people as though it were a live coal in the sea.
God does not look for leaders; He looks for obedient people that He then makes into leaders.
Price alone does not determine value.
Jesus was the Suffering Servant of God.
Unfortunately we still make Jesus into the person we want Him to be, but those who follow a popular Messiah are soon dissappointed when He asks for something in return.
Some wanted a Popular Messiah.
Some wanted a Political Messiah.
Some wanted a Military Messiah.
Jesus Christ was none of the above, but a Suffering Messiah instead.
Jesus Christ not only taught Servant Leadership principles to His disciples, but He also modeled them.
Most parents today, if they teach at all, belie their teaching by not modeling that behavior before their kids.
A leader often must reveal the need in followers before they can supply it.
Servants who live out the will of their Father in Heaven need not worry of human schemes.
The greatest test of a Servant Leader, assuredly, is to wash the feet of the one about to betray you.
Modeling is the way in which leaders make their vision tangible.
If all you have to offer are words, few people will follow you.
A leader must lead without giving personal preference to anyone.
Leaders are to lead from a kneeling position.
Since teaching is the education of the mind and preaching is the education of the heart, 2/3 of Jesus’ work was education.
Good equippers recruit 12, graduate 11, and focus on 3, just like Jesus did.
Good leaders never give their leadership away, but they do share its rewards.
Responsibility without authority does not empower anyone, but inhibits them instead.
Responsibility must be paired with authority.
EQUIP:
Encourage them to serve.
Qualify them to serve.
Understand their needs.
Instruct them.
Pray for them.
A leader should not invite another into ministry with them and then leave them alone to figure out what to do.
Those who follow need to know where they are going and what is expected of them.
No leader should stand to lead until they kneel to pray with those they serve.
There is no success without a successor.
You must delegate accountability as well authority.
Servant Leaders multiply their leadership by empowering others to lead.
Committees control, but teams empower.
Leadership of a team is the highest expression of Servant Leadership.
Empower others with Authority and Presence.
Often those who have knowledge have no power, whereas those that have the power have no knolwedge.
Leaders wear themselves and others out when they attempt to lead solitarily.