True Leadership must be Rooted in Love

I am going to take a break from writing articles for The Southern Cross and will be back again in the new year. Before I take my columnist’s sabbatical, I thought I should leave those who read the Leadership in the Church column with some food for thought about the importance of the Bible to the Christian view of leadership.

We live in a world that is so dominated by secular laws and practices that we Christians take these as the norm. We can even go to the extent of believing that there are no Christian alternatives to the laws and practices we know. It is because we do not read the Bible that we remain ignorant of what our own faith expects us to practise.

A classic example I have referred to in previous articles is the Christian philosophy of servant leadership. When Robert Greenleaf, author of Servant Leadership: A Journey Into the Nature of Legitimate Power & Greatness, came up with the concept of servant leadership, this approach to leadership which has been described by some as the highest form of leadership appeared to be a new phenomenon.

A careful reading of the Bible reveals that Jesus did not want to leave his followers without a clear understanding of his teaching on leadership, and that the cornerstone of that teaching is towel leadership or servant leadership. A look at a number of passages from the Gospels, including John 13, in which we see Jesus wiping his disciples feet with a towel, will show the truth of this.

For our purposes in this article I will cite Jesus’ response to the sons of Zebedee and the rest of the apostles:

Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many (Mk 10:43-45).

Because Jesus teaching in these and other passages has not been followed down the ages, the leadership of domination is prevalent in most Christian denominations.

Instead of being guided by our manualthe BibleChristian leaders have followed the teachings of theorists like Niccolo Machiavelli who advised leaders that if one is to choose between being loved and being feared, one should rather choose to be feared. This flies in the face of the Christian law of love.

An important concept in current teaching about leadership is systems theory.

Authorities like Peter Senge, author of The Fifth Discipline, have correctly pointed out that in searching for solutions to national or organisational problems we should think systemically and see the connectedness of things instead of only looking at discrete entities, as the whole can exceed the sum of its parts.

This very useful principle is clearly articulated in St Paul’s teaching about the Body of Christ. In considering the roles of different groups in the Church such as priests, sisters, lay people and so on, we often do not see how these complement one another.

We might think, for instance, that the work of religious people is more important than the work of lay people. However, in 1 Corinthians 12, Paul reminds us that no part of the body can work effectively on its own, nor can the body work efficiently if one part is not doing its work properly.

The same is true of our ministries. The parents who raise Christian children are as important as the theologians who train priests in seminaries. The building of the Body of Christ entails a concerted effort: parents bringing up children who are firmly grounded in the faith; schools and parishes training the leaders of tomorrow; seminaries and convents developing religious leaders who are thoroughly trained in Christian leadership, pastoral care and spirituality.

The last issue I will look at is about how the Church and Christian institutions deal with employer/employee conflicts and other labour issues.

These days it seems to make sense to employ a lawyer or legal firm to deal with all such issues in terms of the labour laws of the state.

An examination of the teaching of Jesus (Mt 18) and Paul (1 Cor 6) will show that before we take brothers and sisters to the secular courts, we are expected to follow a process in the community of believers first.

The point here is that by surrendering all our authority in matters of conflict to secular institutions we are abandoning the Christian principles of love, compassion and forgiveness.

I have been told about a case where a religious congregation has gone to the extent of being vicious in trying to justify its case against a group of employees.

May we know the Bible well so that all our decisions are informed by the faith we profess!