“Powerlessness and humility in the spiritual life do not refer to people who have no spine and who let everyone else make decisions for them. They refer to people who are so deeply in love with Jesus that they are ready to follow him wherever he guides them, always trusting that, with him, they will find life and find it abundantly.”- Henri Nouwen, In the Name of Jesus
I have been thinking about what it means to be a good and distinctly Christian leader, a leader after the example of Christ. I first read Henri Nouwen’s book, In the Name of Jesus, over ten years ago. I was in the midst of a great spiritual struggle and growing frustrated with my current church and felling like I was at a dead end in my Christian walk.
The great challenge of this book for me it the idea that the true Christian leader is not to consider his place at the head of the table, at the place of honor, but, rather, at the place of servitude. He is to consider himself last and the lowest priority. He exists only for the purposes of serving and equipping the Christians under his care for living the Christian life. He is to be the humble servant of all.
But he must also remember that humility and meekness does not equal weakness and deference. The Christian leader is to lead Christians and to do so with the confidence and passion that Christ modeled for us. The Christian leader is to be fearless before men and absolute in his convictions (in so much as they have their source in Scripture). Acts 4 gives us a good model of the bold Christian Leader. Peter and John answer the Jewish rulers boldly having put themselves in harms way for the sake of a lame beggar.
