Page 232: “It’s been said that your faith gets you to heaven, but your works bring heaven to earth. Lead Like Jesus leaders desire to bring heaven to earth in community.”
While I may not agree entirely with the theology here, the sentiment stands out to me: How I lead is a matter of bringing heaven to earth, of realizing God’s kingdom in the here and now. Also, leadership is matter of bringing the kingdom to earth with others. It’s about creating a world in a truly human way, as God intended from the beginning and then made possible through Jesus.
Page 246: “The change that Jesus came to introduce was not a minor adjustment to current thinking and behavior that would allow for better levels of performance within an existing system. The change he came to lead was radical and revolutionary. He came to turn the world upside down and then right side up by making love the preeminent standard for all aspects of relationships.”
I cannot think of the way of Jesus, the way of love, as one more tool for the leadership toolbox. It is the toolbox. Or perhaps the tool in the toolbox that makes the rest of the tools work. My analogy will break down soon, if it hasn’t already…. I suppose I’m asking myself: how is my own leadership revolutionary? How is it marked by love? How does it mirror Jesus’ leadership?
One final point of comparison. On the revolutionary nature of Jesus’ leadership, ethic, and love, I thought I’d share a brief video by David Bentley Hart, who speaks to the ways that Jesus and the Christian ethic was revolutionary in its own day and continues to be so today. I especially like his point about the importance of the slow-moving saturation of Jesus’ impact on the history of human notions of love and value and more.
Center for Christian Faith & Thought 