A Thought about Leadership

I finished re-reading Henri Nouwen's book on leadership, "In the Name of Jesus." It's good stuff. Of course it is! It's Nouwen.

Toward the end of the book he talks about Peter's restoration, recorded in John 21. Jesus asks Peter 3 times to affirm his love, and then he tells Peter "follow me." Jesus also reveals in the conversation that Peter will die in service to the Lord.

Here's part of Nouwen's conclusion:

Too often I looked at being relevant, popular, and powerful as ingredients of an effective ministry. The truth, however, is these are not vocations but temptations. Jesus asks, "Do you love me?" Jesus sends us out to be shepherds, and Jesus promises a life in which we increasingly have to stretch out our hands and be led to places where we would rather not go. He asks us to move from a concern for relevance to a life of prayer, from worries about popularity to communal and mutual ministry, and from a leadership built on power to a leadership in which we critically discern where God is leading us and our people.

I leave you with the image of the leader with outstretched hands, who chooses a life of downward mobility. It is the image of the praying leader, the vulnerable leader, and the trusting leader. May that image fill your hearts with hope, courage, and confidence...

I feel like I've been moving through some of this in the last few months. It is very painful and humiliating (could have used "humbling" but didn't).

It's also liberating. I think.