Disciples, Apostles, and Saints!
Perhaps the most common way we conceive of leadership is in the singular. There is a leader. They do things, say things, and otherwise have responsibility to at least one other person or some group of people. In this vision, there is a leader and followers.
This narrow vision of leadership is confounded by all the other things we know about leadership and community-building. Such as the participation of the community, the development of leadership with in the group, and the sharing of authority throughout the group. In other words, if we merely define leadership as the act of one and the following of the rest, we aren’t describing leadership; we’re describing authoritarianism.
The style of leadership that Jesus cultivates is entirely different. He describes the quality of leadership by the fruits which spring from it. So, how many leaders are grown? How many people are encouraged? And how capable is the group to handle itself without the leader?
We seem to be going through a moment today in which we expect more from our leaders. Not to make us better leaders, but to “show up” and tell us what to do. Which is another way of saying be conspicuously effective. This, however, tells me far less about our leaders than it does about our institutions and ourselves.
We are awfully comfortable blaming our leaders or the inadequacy of our institutions. But we, however, struggle to see it as having anything to do with us.
With love,
Drew