In the Name of Jesus: Reflections on Christian Leadership

by Henri J.M. Nouwen

Dealing with burning issues without being rooted in a deep personal relationship with God easily leads to divisiveness because, before we know it, our sense of self is caught up in our opinion about a given subject. But when we are securely rooted in personal intimacy with the source of life, it will be possible to remain flexible without being relativistic, convinced without being rigid, willing to confront without being offensive, gentle and forgiving without being soft, and true witnesses without being manipulative.

The leadership about which Jesus speaks is of a radically different kind from the leadership offered by the world. It is a servant leadership—to use Robert Greenleaf’s term*—in which the leader is a vulnerable servant who needs the people as much as they need their leader.

When ministers and priests live their ministry mostly in their heads and relate to the Gospel as a set of valuable ideas to be announced, the body quickly takes revenge by screaming loudly for affection and intimacy.

One thing is clear to me: The temptation of power is greatest when intimacy is a threat. Much Christian leadership is exercised by people who do not know how to develop healthy, intimate relationships and have opted for power and control instead. Many Christian empire-builders have been people unable to give and receive love.

I think we are only half aware of how secular even theological schools have become.