The Jesus Model of Leadership

These were the names that were being tossed around at this leadership meeting that I attended recently. As I sat with the group of peope that I'd just met I looked at the paper and the first person that I could think of was...

"Jesus"

I looked up from my paper at the bubbly young woman sitting with me, and said "Huh, what did you say?"

"Everyone should just write Jesus down," she said, " He is hands down the best leader there is."

She had taken the words right out of my mouth. And I positioned my body to face her. I was glad to hear that-- I am often glad to be anywhere and hear someone "representing" Christ. She was right. He is the best leader and can't be topped. And I don't mean that people should have agreed with us in that "Name-3-people-in-history-that-you-want-to-meet-and-you-write-down-two-people-you-really-want-to-meet-and-then-write-Jesus-so-your-mom-is-not-mad-at-you" sort of way. I really believe that Jesus is the ideal model of leadership.

Here's why:

I have heard leadership defined as influence. Perfect definition. Think about it. If leadership means to lead and nobody follows you, then you are just taking a walk. I have been in management, leadership, and owned businesses and can tell you that your strength as a leader is not in how your subordinates act when you are with them, but how they act in your absense. You know what I'm talking about... When the boss is around you are looking extra diligent, but when he is away you are playing solitaire on company time. (Besides that speaking ill of your integrity, it also speaks to the lack of proper inspiration impartation of vision from the leadersip.)

Jesus came on the scene and he had literally thousands of people follow him and want to be where he was. They wanted the Words of his mouth. They believed in Him and what He was saying. Many left their jobs on the spot believing that what he was imparting was true. Granted, when he started talking about not doing any more miracles, he lost a few. When he said that he wasn't going to feed the masses any longer, he lost a few more. When he started talking about people eating his flesh and drinking his blood, lots thought he was insane and stampeded away.

But there were the few that stayed. Jesus looked at them and said, "Are you all going to go too?" and they said, "Where are we going to go? You have the words of life."

Jesus Leadership Principle #1
Jesus was able to model leadership in that he was able to identify who to invest the most time into. I suppose he understood the 80/20 principle which says that 20 percent of the people will do 80 percent of the work. Check this out. You will see that in most of the gospels when Jesus taught his disciples general things, but when he had special trips to make, or additional in depth teaching, he only asked Peter, James and John to go with him. (Matthew 17:1, Mark 5:37, Mark 14:33, Luke 8:51). These men went on to do great things because of the investment that was imparted into them.

Jesus Leadership Principle #2
Jesus was not afraid of criticism when He believed that His vision was right. When many of the ministers today that are catching criticism for teaching what is written directly on the pages of the Bible, they should not get too upset because they are in good company. Jesus was constantly criticized for his doctrine and his hanging out with people who they thought he should not be hanging with. Even when he "lost popularity" and everyone left he was still standing.

Jesus Leadership Principle #3
Jesus offered praise and correction. Jesus was constantly teaching his "staff." When they were thinking soundly, he was able to acknowledge that fact. When they were stepping away from the plan, he would admonish them. Remember when Jesus asked Peter, "Whom do men say that I am?" and then, "Who do you say that I am?" When Peter answered correctly, Jesus gave him great recognition in front of his peers. (Mark 8:27) Later on, Peter who had gotten all that praise was reprimanded. Jesus was instructing his staff that he would be taken and killed later and Peter over zealously said, "Boss, that is not going to happen if I have anything to do with it!" and Jesus got on his case saying, "Get behind me Satan! You are looking on the things that please men not God. (Mark 8:33)

Jesus Leadership Principle #4
Jesus coached his staff to be able to make decisions on their own. Recall the first time that Jesus was going to feed a multitude. He looked over the crowd and saw them tired and hungry and viewed this as a coaching opportunity for his staff. He called Philip over and said, "Where can we buy some food for these guys to eat? The Bible says in John 6:6 that Jesus said this to "prove Philip, for Jesus knew already what he would do." Philip responded that the amount of money that they were carrying at the moment wasn't enough to go over to KFC and buy that many buckets of chicken. So the staff put their heads together and Andrew came up with a start of the resources that were available. Andrew said, "A little boy over here has a 2 piece fish dinner with hush puppies from Long John Silvers" and Jesus took it, and multiplied it. He was always giving them opportunities to think about lessons that he had taught.

Jesus Leadership Principle #5
Although this isn't that last principle, it's an important one. I mentioned earlier that leadership equals influence. There is no one that has had more influence throughout history. Jesus had thousands follow him while he was walking the earth and two thousand years later, many of us are still following someone whom we can't even physically see with our eyes. That's influence. That's leadership.

-Live Intentionally, Die Empty