XXI) JESUS AND THE EMERGING LEADERSHIP MODEL

I will wrap this series up with a comparison of the leadership style of Jesus with the model that Jimmy Long proposes for the emerging/Postmodern culture. Long isn’t pushing an “emerging leadership style” as being better than, or more valuable than the modern style. All Long is saying is that a survey of the emerging culture suggests that the leadership style which will be most effective in reaching this culture will most likely have to consist of these particular qualities and that the old model will be less effective for leading the new generation.

With that said, I looked at the list of leadership qualities that Long proposes and I feel that perhaps this model does, in fact, reflect the leadership model of Jesus more closely than the modern model. I know that most of us who value the Bible as “the” Word of God would like to believe that what we are doing, and the way we are doing it, come closest to the biblical model. (If it didn't, presumably we'd change.) However, most of us operate with only a vague understanding of how profoundly we have been impacted by our culture. The modern culture, which emerged out of the Enlightenment, has tended to overshadow the Hebraic/Eastern Worldview in which Scripture was written. The Western worldview of rugged individualism and the heroic figure have impacted the church and have elevated certain positions out of the community and insolated them from the community. As such, leadership, in the modern paradigm, almost always operates with a certain disconnect and therefore often fails to build consensus, but operates from a dictatorial model. In fact, I’ve read leadership material put out by the church only twenty years ago that stated that the pastor was to function as a "benevolent dictator".

There was a day when the position alone was enough, but no more. Now the leader of a church, and even in the business world, has to employ a model that places him or her within the community and his or her role is more that of a servant than a master. This does not mean that no one is at the helm steering the ship, but that everyone on the ship understands where they are going, why they are going there, and how they are going to have to work together to get there.

Returning to Long’s emerging leadership paradigm and the leadership model of Jesus let me suggest the following:

1. Team Leadership—It is obvious that Jesus was building a team to work together to advance the Kingdom of God. Jesus practiced the “see, do, be” mentoring approach. He called the men to Him to be His disciples. SEE: They walked with Him and saw Him perform great miracles. DO: Jesus sent them out into the villages and cities to preach the kingdom, to heal the sick and to cast out demons. BE: Then, before He ascended He told them that He was sending them, even as the Father had sent Him, and that they would do the works that He had done, and even greater than He had done.

2. Community Oriented—Jesus was a man of community. We often see Him alone in prayer, but more often we see Him in with the disciples, with the crowds, even with sinners and publicans. He knew the heart and soul of the people. He understood their frustration with the religious establishment and He was offering them a “better covenant.”

3. Earned Authority—Jesus was unique in the fact that He is God in the flesh. And yet, this authority alone did not gather crowds to Him. It was as He performed miracles, as He did those things that revealed His authority that people believed and followed Him. It is doubtful that even with all His authority, that Jesus would have gathered a following on the power of His words alone. Even His disciples believed after seeing water turned to wine, or seeing Him calm the waves. Likewise, in the emerging community, words alone (regardless of how well we may think we preach and teach) are not going to be enough. It will be by our good works that our faith is revealed and God is glorified—so says Jesus and James.

4. Vulnerable Leader—This is obvious. Jesus made Himself of no reputation. He became human and walked in our skin. He was tempted in all points like as we are, yet without sin. He allowed them to take Him by force, beat Him, and nail Him to a cross naked. One doesn’t get much more vulnerable than that!

5. Developing Vision—Jesus consistently reminded the disciples of His destiny, though they didn’t seem to get it until after the resurrection. He spoke often of the kingdom of God and what it was like. He told them of their roles and challenged them with both the Great Commandment and the Great Commission.

6. Empower—Jesus empowered the disciples with the authority of His name, and promised them power in the Holy Spirit once He ascended to the Father. Talk about delegating! Jesus came to earth with a mission, called a team around Him to complete the mission, mentored them, empowered them and then sent them to the uttermost parts of the earth while He ascended to the right hand of the Father. True enough, His position at the right hand of the Father further empowers us.

7. Journey—Jesus’ entire ministry illustrates the journey. He was constantly on the move. Unlike foxes that have holes, He said that He didn’t even have anywhere to lay His head. His entire life was a journey toward Calvary, and then to ascension to the Father. He likened the Christian experience to entering a narrow gate and walking on a narrow road.

8. Inspire to Leadership—There were not many who would have been willing to give their lives in martyrdom for the sake of a carpenter’s son. But Jesus inspired these men and women with His words and with His life. He gave them a vision of something far better and eternal than what they had known.

Perhaps I’m pressing the point, but I feel that we need to go back to the future, to reclaim the leadership model of Jesus and that in so doing we will be better equipped to reach the culture that is emerging out of the false security and self-delusion of the modern culture. One of the characteristics of the emerging culture is the loss of a meta-narrative. A meta-narrative is an overarching Worldview which sums up human existence. In the Postmodern culture the meta-narrative is rejected favor of the micro-narrative. In other words, they would maintain that there is no “one” story and that all stories (religions) are equally valid.

The problem with this view is that it is self-deluding. It's fallacy is soon revealed when competing world views, which claim exclusivity, are brought into conflict. If all micro-narratives are equally valid, then each one is right in saying that it is the only one that is right. This creates a logical paradox that eventually dawns upon even the Postmodern. They may claim to hold this tension unresolved, but it creates a vacuum, a void into which Christianity has the opportunity to flow. It cannot be forced, but the macro-narrative of the kingdom of God has something to offer those who become dissatisfied with the void created the multitudinous micro-narratives.

The emerging culture is nothing to be feared, nor should the church allow the culture to dictate the agenda of the church. That agenda has already been established by Christ in the Great Commandment and the Great Commission. However, as fishers of men we should be wise enough to cast our nets where the fish are, to use bait that they will bite on, and to be ready to fill our boats to the overflow with the catch.

During a time when the liturgical tradition church is declining, there are many examples of those who have caught the vision of the opportunities of the emerging culture and whose churches are rapidly growing. It takes leadership, it takes a Jesus kind of leadership, but it can and does happen.