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Leadership For Losers
In a few days I'll be in a leadership seminar. There will be hundreds of others in the room with me to watch speakers and consultants on the topic from all over the country via live feed. I know there will be some thought provoking content but I doubt this thought by G.K. Chesterton will be part of it. "Distribute the dignified people and the capable people and the highly businesslike people among all the situations which their ambition or their innate corruption may demand, but keep close to your heart, keep deep in your inner councils the absurd people; let the clever people pretend to govern you, let the unimpeachable people pretend to advise you, but let the fools alone influence you; let the laughable people whose faults you see and understand be the only people who are really inside your life, who really come near you or accompany you on your lonely march towards the last impossibility."
Yet, it is just those "laughable people" whom Christ sent out with the power to heal and preach the kingdom of God. He didn't surround himself, like David, with three mighty men and thirty champions. Of course, the disciples tried to be at times with their bravado about protecting Jesus from competitors and threats but they were, truly, laughable. In the kingdom Jesus described he surrounded himself with flawed men who were anything but heroes. They were not winners or champions or even particularly brave. Just the opposite oftentimes. They were fearful, risk averse, slow to understand, fickle and self-seeking. They were more like entrenched bureaucrats than mighty men. More like the top management of Ford Motor described in Bryce Hoffman's recent book, American Icon. Yet, that is who Jesus chose and those very same men became the martyrs of the Church.
Jesus was not a leader of great men. He was a savior of sinful and lost men. In a kingdom the world understands, the closer you move to the king the higher your rank and more people serve you. In the kingdom of God, the closer you move to the king the lower your rank..and the more people you serve.
| Brian Allen | May 29, 2012, 8:36 pm |
| This has been most enriching to read. Men of accomplishment, like yourselves, who not only quote the Holy Bible but truly embrace it. Many are of schievement but few, you very few, know where the grace for your achievement came to be. Fools and knaves believe that they have done it on their own, only the truly intelligent realize that all good things come from God, through his Son, our Savior, Jesus Christ. I have stumbled upon this blog only just today but I am thankful for the path. I wish to offer that not only does our Lord instruct us in the way to serve Him but also to embrace our cross as He did at Calvary and to take our sufferings in this life and offer them to Him, our Lord who still, especially in this sick world, is as much on the cross today as He was 2000 plus years ago. In accepting these challenges it's a way, I believe, of helping to carry His cross as Simon did lo' those many centuries ago. God bless all of you, blogster and commmentators alike, Brian Allen Sr. |
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| James Smith | May 22, 2012, 1:55 am |
| Great thoughts!! I have always been astounded by this part of the ministry of our Lord. He lead us by His own example. He did not come to be served, but to serve and give His life a ransom for many. I am so grateful that he has chosen the simple things of this world to confound the wise. I am grateful and humbled to be a subject in the Kingdom of God and a servant of the King of Kings. | |
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