What should Christian leadership look like… or more to the point, what should the heart of a Christian leader be? Henri Nouwen offered some thoughts on that question in a little book he had published back in 1989 – In the Name of Jesus. Nouwen’s ‘In the Name of Jesus’ consisted of a few talks he gave to a group of Christian leaders and offers some profound thoughts on the nature of Christian leadership.
I know I’m probably late when it comes to absorbing this book and many of you have probably already devoured it, but I have to rave about it because it captures all of my own thoughts on Christian leadership, goes deeper with them and says it more succinctly.
In the age of the executive Pastor or the Priest as the business manager, with the local church being the business, the words of Nouwen in this little book desperately need to be heard. The church has too often become a business entity and product needing strategic planning, defined vision, mission and values and marketing plans. Alongside this, big salaries for ‘Executive’ Pastors of large churches are justified by comparing them to market values in comparative businesses. The hallmarks of such an approach are the pursuit of relevance, a longing for popularity, the desire to be spectacular and attain power and a top down leadership that isolates the Pastor as the fountain of church life by which success or failure will flow. With these things at the forefront the desired strengths of the Pastor have shifted.
Hear me though, I’m not saying there is no place for a local church to define a mission, vision and values unique to it, that help shape it as a community and define how people can engage it, but the first call of the Christian leader is not to create a successful market entity. In the Name of Jesus is an antidote to such a push and an antidote to a push from any church to hire and fire based on things that should not be at the heart of the pastoral role. It doesn’t discount all this, but it places something else at the center.
Turning to scripture Nouwen uses the temptations of Christ prior to the beginning of his ministry, the calling of Peter following the resurrection, and the sending of the disciples two by two as the touch-points for shaping his vision of the Christian leader.
The pursuit of relevance and its accompanying popularity is a disease in the modern world. The need to achieve, make a difference, contribute, be competent and successful are the things we derive our value from and if one can’t compete then one’s value diminishes. According to Nouwen there is an anguish underlying our glitter of success and it is here that the Christian leader is needed, but we can only shine the light of Jesus into such a space by shunning the need for relevance ourselves. If we’re craving the same drug, we can’t help other victims of it.
As the antidote to that need Nouwen offers contemplative prayer – that discipline that sidelines all the urgent needs around us and takes us to that place where we hear that voice asking ‘do you love me?’ and where we are reminded that we are loved – not because of any sense of relevance we may attain through what we do, but simply because we exist. This love should fuel us.
Nouwen says that it is not enough for Christian leaders to be moral people – directing, guiding and shaping morality, rather, we must be people who dwell in the presence of God and who live from that presence. Contemplative prayer places us in that presence. Christian leadership must have a foundation that is nothing more and nothing less than a relationship with Jesus.
The other big temptation Nouwen addresses in the writing of ‘In the Name of Jesus’ is the desire to be spectacular. Again this is accompanied by a desire for popularity and also power. The temptation here is to be the self-made person who can do it all – the person everyone else looks up to – the person others need. We desire to be people who draw converts, meet the needs of others, the people that crowds flock to listen to. In contrast we’re simply called to love. Nouwen offers confession and forgiveness as the antidote to the desire to be spectacular. It’s being vulnerable, open and honest and doing ministry together.
Accompanying these is the last thing Nouwen addresses, his view that we should move from leading, to being led – a movement from power and control, to powerlessness and humility. His encouragement is theological reflection where such a thing is not merely an abstract intellectual exercise but is rather ‘thinking with the mind of Christ’ which necessarily involves the shaping of a whole person’s being.
It’s this humility, vulnerability and unceasing desire to live in and from the presence of Christ that should be the hallmarks of the Christian leader (and if we’re honest, the Christian). When appointing leaders, these should be the hallmarks that should be looked for rather than one’s ability to manage the operational functions of the church or it’s growth as a market force. If the latter is desired these can be added around the Pastor (but done so with a critique of their place and value for the Christian community) but Nouwen’s vision captured in ‘In the Name of Jesus’ should be the heart.
I read ‘In the Name of Jesus’ and see so many challenges to myself, my own desires and insecurities. It’s far too easy to be shaped by the prevailing culture and what it deems to be important. Humility is not a natural way of being, which is why the spiritual disciplines such as contemplative prayer are so important. my wrestle with the need to feel relevant and influential is a daily one and I can’t live properly without engaging the practices that I have found to be valuable for putting those things where they should be and seeking the presence of Christ.
I would highly recommend this book to everyone. I think if we can (re)capture the sense of what Nouwen is framing in ‘In the Name of Jesus’ we, ironically, will find what the Church’s true relevance is, but that can only be found by giving up on trying to be relevant.