LEADING GOD’S PEOPLE, THE JESUS’ WAY

By Olufemi Emmanuel PhD

The people of God need now, much more than ever before, leadership, and not manipulation or control. The reference to God’s people here is not necessarily to the Church bodies that are identified with some particular geographical confinements. It is rather in this context, referring to bodies of believers in Christ, irrespective of denominations or institutions.  It could be a people within a closed church denomination or a para-church organization that exists to serve the interest of the body of Christ. What I am advancing is that there is a way that God’s people ought to be led, although what is prevalent today is more of control than ideal Christ-like leadership.

Today, control is being dangerously practised in place of leadership. Somebody might take that as authoritarianism, but it is not. Control and manipulation are far worse than authoritarian leadership.  A controller or manipulator employs the driver’s model of leadership. A driver does not need to be authoritative to drive his car; he only knows the buttons and pedals to press in order to make the motion happen. He is a master ‘director’ who rather ‘leads’ by manipulation and turning things in the direction he wants to follow. It is unfortunate to lead God’s people this way.

How does God want his people to be led? Of course not by manipulation and control that cannot generate godly results. He wants his people led in his own way as revealed in the person of Jesus Christ. This calls for a thorough understanding of Jesus’ philosophy of leadership. It is interesting to note that in all of his teachings, Jesus never taught ‘leadership’ by mouth in the context of what is being discussed here, more than twice in the New Testament.

In all of the Gospels, it is only on two occasions that Jesus used the word ‘lead’ or ‘leader’. He used the term, hadegos which is translated ‘leaders’ and ‘guide’ in Mathew 15:14 and in 23: 16, 24 respectively, though it primarily means ‘a conductor’; ‘someone who shows the way’; ‘a guide’.

To Jesus, leadership is ‘guidance’, that is, ‘showing the way’. Interestingly, Jesus, in John 14:6 revealed himself as “the way, the truth and the life” whereas the Greek term he used for ‘way’ is hodos . This term does not only belong to the same family with hadegos , it is also a metaphoric indicator for leadership.

A way is a guide that leads to an end; hence Jesus is not just a leader, he is in essence ‘a leading’; his whole life, in all of its bits, provides a guide. For Jesus, leadership is almost entirely more of ‘life and limbs’, than of mere lips. There are more occasions in which he lived leadership than he spoke or taught it. In fact from his cradle to his cross, Jesus demonstrated what leadership is all about. Some of these are highlighted below.

A  Burden Bearing Leader

In Mt. 11:28-30, Jesus made an invitation, and is still doing the same today, to as many as would heed him: “Come to me all you who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest, Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light”.   Here, Jesus presents a very strong and deep insight into what his viewpoint of leadership is. Unlike the leaders who during his earthly days, “…bind heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers”  (Mt 23:4) , his own way of leadership is to yoke alongside the burdened and give them rest.  The people of God today need burden-bearer leaders like Jesus, not those who constitute burdens and unrests for their souls.

A Servant Leader

Jesus said to his disciples in Luke 22:27, “For who is greater, he who sits at the table, or he who serves? Is it not he who sits at the table? Yet I am among you as the One who serves”.  He did not occupy the highest position among his disciples. Most times, people think the first and only time Jesus taught servant leadership was in one of the nights before his arrest and crucifixion when he washed his disciples’ feet. Not at all; service was his consistent lifestyle, and by so doing he demonstrated ideal leadership.

“You call me Teacher and Lord, and you say well, for I am. If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet, for I have given you an example, that you should do as I have done to you”(Jn.13:15-13).

Erroneously, God’s people have been made to believe that Jesus was only establishing a feet-washing liturgy here whereas the essence of his teaching by washing his disciples’ feet is to point believers’’ attention to the positions they ought to occupy in their relationships to each other. From Jesus’ perspective, his followers should only be eager to be in the positions of service and ministry to each other.

Today, the Church and Christian organizations have been unnecessarily charged up with cravings for positions of significance, recognition, power and influence. Some Christians believe they cannot make contributions to the body except they occupy assertive positions, but this is a negation to the practices and teachings of Jesus and his disciples.

Jesus said, “But he that is greatest among you shall be your servant” (Mt. 23:11) The Apostle Paul writes,”…but in love serve one another” (Gal 5:13) and Peter also writes: “As each one has received a gift, minister it to one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God” (1Pet.4:8). Position seeking and even unwillingness to relinquish it is not the kind of spirit with which God’s people should be led because it is not Christ-like.

A Suffering Leader

Referring to Jesus as a suffering servant is the popular understanding. But it is also important to see him as a suffering leader. This will help to reshape the understanding that leading God’s people primarily entails suffering and not enjoyments and indulgence. It also helps to correct the notion that those who have submitted themselves to the positions of services are not to be unjustly subjected to humiliation and derogatory treatment as it happens even among so-called Christians today.

“For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow His steps: ‘who committed no sin, nor was deceit found in his mouth, who when he was reviled did not revile in return; when he suffered, He did not threaten, but committed Himself to Him who judges righteously” (1Pet 2:21-23)

The term ‘suffer’ in the New Testament is translated from Greek. pascho which means ‘to experience a sensation or impression that is usually painful; to feel passion or suffer vex….’ This is an experience that is very difficult to associate leadership of today with because leadership is usually seen as a privilege and position of advantage, it is considered an aberration for a leader to suffer; he should rather utilize his position to avoid suffering.

This view is totally strange to Jesus’ perspective of leadership. Whosoever would lead God’s people in Jesus’ way must be willing and expectant to go through suffering in Jesus’ way. Ultimately, the self giving of Jesus for the sinful world, beginning from his choice to put on humanity, to the point of dying shamefully on the cross, is his hallmark as the suffering leader.

A Compassionate Leader

“Jesus…said, you know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave, just as the Son of man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many”(Mt. 20:25-28)

The phrase, “lord it over them” is translated from the Greek, katakurieuo; the Authorized Version, renders this phrase as “exercise dominion over them”. This term actually means ‘to subjugate’ which in common English means, ‘to forcibly impose obedience or servitude upon’.

This is not an attitude of compassion; it is not a befitting style for leading God’s people. Jesus also said, “…take my yoke upon you, for I am meek and lowly in heart….” A Christ-like leader should not forcibly impose or manipulate compliance to his views and intentions.

It is important to note that the self-giving sacrifice of Christ was compassion motivated. He did that for sinners to make them righteous, rather than subjugating them to obedience. Of Christ, it is written that “A bruised reed he shall not break, and smoking flax he shall not quench till he send forth judgment unto victory” (Mt 12:20 KJV).

It takes compassion to do that. It is not in a Christ-like spirit to cut off and kill in the name of solving problems. The lords of the Gentiles kill their sick subjects rather than patiently treat and nurse them to recovery. This pattern of leadership is obvious in the practice of selective superiority whereby in the spirit of utilitarianism, someone is considered as important as how he can be used; and when he seems to have satisfied the already predetermined usefulness, he is terminated. Arguably, this is the worst way of leading the people of God and the Christian community.

An Uncompromising Leader         

As compassionate as Jesus could be, he was never compromising the standard of holiness and righteousness. He is love personified and he would not eliminate the sinner, yet would not undermine judgment of sin. To the woman caught in the very act of adultery, Jesus said. “…neither do I condemn you, go and sin no more” (Jn 8:3-11).

This statement suggests a two-pronged approach: he is saving the woman and at the same time, disallowing her further sinful pleasures, irrespective of what it might cost her.  For Jesus, it is a matter of separating the wheat from the chaff; he would not mix issues with personalities except they are unrepentant as was the Pharisees and religious leaders of his days. He condemned the hypocrisy and hard-heartedness of the Jews but his hands were still ever opened to accept the repentant who genuinely sought his pardon; the thief at his right hand on the cross is a typical example.

In conclusion, there can never be enough space to express the leadership model that Jesus Christ demonstrated in his life here on earth. But it suffices to note that His practical living is the answer to the question of how God’s people and work should be led. The people of God as a Church or Christian institution or organization will never excel beyond the kind of leadership with which their affairs are being piloted.

Aside from, Christ-like leadership style, there is no other way God’s people should be led. It does not matter the ‘excellent’ leadership theories that may have been acquired from the best institutions around the world if they do not focus on Christ’s leadership ways and perspectives, they will only promote the garbage of humanism and secularism which are most dangerous for leading the people of God