Leadership #2
From the best book on leadership I’ve ever read, Henri Nouwen’s In the Name of Jesus: Reflections on Christian Leadership
After twenty years in the academic world as a teacher of pastoral psychology, pastoral theology, and Christian spirituality, I began to experience a deep inner threat. As I entered into my fifties and was able to realize the unlikelihood of doubling my years, I came face to face with the simple question, “Did becoming older bring me closer to Jesus?” After twenty-five years of priesthood, I found myself praying poorly, living somewhat isolated from other people, and very much preoccupied with burning issues. Everyone was saying that I was doing really well, but something inside was telling me that my success was putting my own soul in danger. I began to ask myself whether my lack of contemplative prayer, my loneliness, and my constantly changing involvement in what seemed most urgent were signs that the Spirit was gradually being suppressed. It was very hard for me to see clearly, and though I never spoke about hell or only jokingly so, I woke up one day with the realization that I was living in a very dark place and that the term “burnout” was a convenient psychological translation for a spiritual death.
In the midst of this I kept praying, “Lord, show me where you want me to go and I will follow you, but please be clear and unambiguous about it!” Well, God was. In the person of Jean Vanier, the founder of the L’Arche communities for mentally handicapped people, God said, “Go and live among the poor in spirit, and they will heal you.” The call was so clear and distinct that I had no choice but to follow.
So I moved from Harvard to L’Arche, from the best and brightest, wanting to rule the world, to men and women who had few or no words and were considered, at best, marginal to the needs of our society. It was a very hard and painful move and I am still in the process of making it. After twenty years of being free to go where I wanted and to discuss what I chose, the small, hidden life with people whose broken minds and bodies demand a strict daily routine in which words are the least requirement does not immediately appear as the solution for spiritual burnout. And yet, my new life at L’Arche is offering me new words to use in speaking about Christian leadership in the future because I have found there all the challenges that we are facing as ministers of God’s word.
So I will offer you some images from my life with people with a mental handicap. I hope that they will give you some inkling of the direction to take when wondering about Christian leadership in the future.
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When I first read that, it tipped me off that what would follow would likely sound much more like the vision of leadership one might get from Jesus than anything that might spring from corporate board rooms.
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Now: what would you say is the best book on leadership you’ve ever come across?
Reggie McNeal’s Revolution in Leadership. “Leadership quality will not improve unless the process for developing leaders is transformed. Academic institutions are organized to reproduce scholars, not leaders. Traditional training methodologies are not producing competent leaders with the requisite skills for leading God’s people into the third Christian millennium. Unless something is done to address this leadership deficiency, the Christian movement in our culture faces marginalization as a player of any influence.”
“Authentic renewal will come to the North American church when God’s people are led to accept their commission to live on mission with him in the world.”
I know it’s going a little different in direction on leadership than what you’ve talked about, but when I read Steve Farrar’s Point Man, as a young father and husband, it pointed me in a direction I needed to go. Other than a battle with cancer, Point Man help me re-prioritized my life as a young immature minister. It helped me realize that success wasn’t in big churches and speaking engagements, but in fatherhood and being a great husband.
Today I look back as an older husband, father and minister, and I’m thankful for the direction in leadership that book gave me.
Andy Stanley’s Next Generation Leader.
Halftime, by Bob Buford.
You stole mine. I read it for the first time about three years ago when I was going through a rough spot in ministry. I had read a lot of Nouwen’s stuff before but just read In The Name of Jesus recently. I was also reading Gene Edwards – Tale of Three Kings: A Study in Brokenness.
On a side note, I lived and worked (and grew up as well) near L’Arche in Richmond Hill and Aurora Ontario 17 years ago, right after he went there. Didn’t know about any of that until later. I was working in addictions doing family therapy at the time. I needed my own form of rescue. I went into youth ministry!
Peace, Canuck Jim
I have a big announcement about two new long-hoped-for-but-never-really-expected blogs. I’ll post the links here either this afternoon or tomorrow morning.
The best…not sure there are several great leadership books.
What comes to mind right now is “Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us” by Seth Godin.
“Tale of Three Kings” changed me. I (try) to read it at the beginning of every year.
Any of the four Gospels!
DU
Hands down: this one by Nouwen. Many of the others could just have easily been written without reference to Jesus at all. qb