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Leadership is one of the most under emphasized aspects of Christian Discipleship. Don’t get me wrong it gets plenty of attention and respect. Positions of Authority make instant celebrities in their organizations, people aspire to those titles and work hard to get and keep them. Those who hold positions like Scout Leader, Student Counsel President, Quarterback of the football team, Mayor, Governor, Senator, and President are often viewed as successful simply because they hold a position of leadership.

Just because someone does or does not hold a position of authority is no indication of that persons ability to lead nor is it a measure of their success.

So what is really being emphasized in those instances is the popularity of the positions and not the leadership itself.

John Maxwell, a leading author on business and leadership, identifies five levels of leadership and Position is the lowest and most basic level. The levels he describes are as follows:

1. Position - This is the most basic form of leadership in which people follow you based on your title and only reaches as far as your title has authority over.

2. Permission -  This is when people begin to follow you voluntarily perhaps because you have asked them to help you with something

3. Production -  This is where people begin to follow you based on the results that you get, people want to be part of something successful.

4. People Development -  This is when people follow you because of what you have done for others and what you could do for them

5. Personhood - This is when people follow you based on who you are and the things you represent.

(More information on those five levels of Leadership can be found in John Maxwell’s book Becoming a person of Influence)

I want you to think for a minute about the last one, “Personhood,” this is what the authority on the subject of leadership considers the pinnacle, the best you can achieve. Personhood, people are following you based on who you are and the kind of life that you live.

Now I want you to think for a moment about Jesus. Think about the life that he lived, think about how he led. Think about how he rejected the conventional image of a leader. He didn’t lead with a sword. He wasn’t like a Disney Hero, when he rode into Jerusalem for the last time it wasn’t on a white Stallion with a blond mane it was on a mule, a donkey! It was a sign of Humility when they were looking for someone with pride.

Remember they walked most places so feet were kind of a big deal, they were gross. Washing someones feet was not a glamorous thing, it was for the lowest of the low. Washing someones feet was a Slaves job, but that didn’t stop Jesus from washing the feet of the disciples and saying that he was doing it as an example for them to follow.

Jesus did not just do those two things, He didn’t just give his live for us on the cross. He LIVED his entire life treating others with respect. He loved people and was nice to them before they did the right thing. Look no further than the woman at the well, the adulterous woman, and Zacheus to see examples of his love and compassion. Jesus even prayed for his enemies and told us to do the same.

Jesus Lived over 2000 years ago and over 2 billion people in the world still FOLLOW him.

Jesus was the perfect example of Personhood leadership. The way he lived his life in service to others is the example for us. It is through service that we truly lead.

Leadership is being the first to act. Leadership is showing others how to accomplish something better. This means that Leaders don’t wait for others before doing the right thing. We don’t wait for someone to be nice to us before we are nice to them, we don’t wait for respect before offering it, we don’t wait for love or forgiveness or appreciation we just give it.

The word Christian literally means “like Christ,” or “little Christ,” CHRIST-ian. So to talk about being a Christian or about being a disciple is to talk about what Christ is like, and to try and live as he lived.

If Christ is the example of personhood leadership then to be like him I must also strive to live in a way that others would follow. If Christ did it then as a Christian I should aspire to it.

Peter (the disciple) understood this very much so from the beginning, I would argue even more than the other disciples. When Jesus said “come follow me” what he meant was I think you can do what I can do. Jesus even tells us in John Chapter 14 that we will do even greater works than He did. So when the disciples had left Jesus on the shore to pray and went out on the water to the other side and see a figure walking across the water, it only makes sense that Peter says “if it is you Lord then call me out to you.” This is often taught as a story of belief, or a story of trust, sometimes even a story of faith about how amazing it is that Jesus and Peter walked on the water (and Peter falling in). The part of this story that we do not often emphasize is that while Peter was being called “ye of little faith” for falling below the surface, there were 11 others who never left the boat.

When we begin to truly follow Jesus, it is only natural that we begin to lead. It is only natural that we live in selflessness and service to others. It is only natural that we begin to be the first to act, stepping out of the boat to do something unthinkable. When we begin to follow Jesus we suddenly find ourselves accomplishing much more than we ever expected.

Evangelism, The E-Word. Aside from a very few traditions this word is run from rather than embraced. How can a word that simply means “good news” cause such a negative reaction? Explore with me what has happened with this word, and how maybe we can see this concept in a different light.

Throughout the history of the Church, Christians have often approached their views on God as an I’m right and your wrong, this is what you should believe way of impacting others and increasing the number of those who participate in their religion. There is even language used to define such views as a right view (Orthodoxy) and a wrong view (Heresy). This language and this mindset has led to create a very insider outsider worldview that leads to hostility and not love. Not only has it done this with our views of Christians and Non-Christians, this hostility has translated itself into Catholic Vs. Protestant, Christain Vs. Jew, Methodist Vs. Baptist, Evangelical Vs. Social Justice, Conservative Vs. Liberal. Yet we wonder why and continue to condemn the actions of others when hostel language infiltrates media and politics? 

There are many who are a part of any one of those groups that would disagree with what I am saying and many in those same groups that see a contradiction.

I am not here to say that one is right and one is wrong, I am not here to say I am right or that I know more than you about it. I am simply writing about what I have seen and heard in my experiences with various peoples and you are welcome to not only disagree but also to tell me about it and share your opinion.

I have grown up in the Methodist tradition and with that I have experienced people from other traditions telling me that my relationship with God is not valid because I do not participate in their tradition. I have been guilty of assuming the same of others at one point or another.

You see when others have told me that I am wrong and that I should believe as they believe, it only serves to detract from both our faiths and not to build up either one. I take it as an attack on what I believe and in turn attack another. We are all guilty of this no matter if you are post modern or fundamental.

The Jesus I know was not like this. The Jesus I know lived in the midst of contradiction and embraced it instead of distancing himself and demonizing the oppressors (specifically speaking of the Romans). The Jesus I know taught a different way, a way that I still have trouble comprehending. The Jesus I know said I should love those who hate me, and to hate no one. The Jesus I know was concerned with truths and un-truths not “I’m right”s and “your wrong”s. The Jesus I know was not sent to condemn but to redeem. The Jesus I know followed the Law and the Spirit. The Jesus I know lived deeply and spoke simply(parables).

So When Gandhi says “I like your Christ, but not your Christians” I can’t simply agree. I have to realize that I contribute to that.

In a world where Christian Media has become so main stream that people identify Christians more with what we hate than what we love, then Evangelism has become a bad word.

In a world where we get more upset with a teenage girl having an abortion than we do about all those children that are born without a positive influence and support system, then Evangelism has become a bad word.

In a world where we blame our neighbors for their problems as an excuse not to help instead of meeting their needs and guiding them through troubled times, then Evangelism has become a bad word.

We see injustices, and out of fear of offending, or not being heard, or contributing to the “I’m Right! You’re Wrong!” mentality. Out of Fear we too often remain Silent! Because Evangelism Has Become A Bad Word.

You see the God I know is Big enough.

You see the God I know loves You and there is nothing you can do to change that!

The God I know is a good God

The God I know Plans to prosper and not to harm

The God I know will never leave us

You see the God I know created ALL Things

You see the God I know knows ALL Things

The God I know is Big Enough

So when I share with you these things I share with you my faith. I may not have it all figured out but I have seen things and I have experienced things. I have witnessed love and I have witnessed hate. All around me I hear people talking about things as if they were true and although I cannot say you are wrong, I can say that I know something else to be true.

I know that people look for fulfillment and/or escape by drowning their sorrows in alcohol. I have seen how that simply leads to further destruction and even more pain.

I know that people seek sex and the approval of others to validate their lives and to give them a feeling of importance. I have seen how that leads to confusion about who they are and only causes them to feel even more insignificant.

I know of many other situations like these where people are looking for truth in places I have never seen it found. I have seen myself too often stay silent about the value and the truth that God has been for me.

Isn’t that really all we can do anyways?

All I can offer you is what I have seen and what I have experienced. I cannot Convert you, nor should that be my goal.

What I can do is I can share my faith

I can tell you about my life and what God has been and done for me

I can only provide you information

It is for others to decide what to do with the information.

You see Evangelism has become a bad word….

…… and when I keep my mouth shut, I only contribute to the problem.

Share your faith with anyone you can in every way you can as often as you can. Live your life as an example for others, but don’t forget the challenge that Saint Francis gave us “Preach the Gospel at all times, when necessary use words.”

If we only remember the first part and fail to use words when the situation calls for it, when our life experience can benefit our neighbor, then we continue to make Evangelism a bad word.

What are you doing to spread the good news?

What are you doing to share your faith?

What are you doing to show others about the God you know?

There are so many instances in which I find myself in a situation 100 times better than I could have ever imagined, either in specific moments or life situations in general.

I’ll give you an example of each then I would love to hear some from my followers of how you have been blessed.

I am a youth minister and I am currently on the way home from a ski trip. I can’t believe it’s part of my job to take a group of the coolest teenagers I know and my wife to Colorado for a week of fun in the snow. I couldn’t have imagined how great my career life is turning out to be!!!

Great moment happened on the trip… I threw a snowball at a youth and he tackled me into a huge pile of several feet of snow it was fun… We were waiting for the winter park shuttle to take us to the grocery store…. While checking out at the store over an hour later I noticed I did not have my white iPhone in my pocket but I did earlier… After freaking out we decide to at least try and find it… Guess what I’m typing this on? Seriously who finds a white iPhone at a bus stop in at least 2 feet of snow over 2 hours later and the phone still works perfectly!!!

Surely God is great and I am blessed. Surely God has blessed you too!!! What’s your story?