We Need Leaders Who Lead Like Jesus
There is a real void of good leadership in our nation and world at this present time. In fact, I believe that the current leadership of the United States might be the worst in our history–with some of our key national leaders being either radical, egotistical, immoral, corrupt, deceptive, patronizing, not listening to their constituents–or in a phrase–devoid of godly character.
This is one reason why there is such fear, reaction, and distrust among the people as we enter the fall of 2009. We desperately need leaders with faith, wisdom, humility, skill, and insight to guide us through these perilous times.
There is no greater example in all the world of good and effective leadership than that of Jesus Christ. Twenty years I wrote a book on servant leadership, Leadership for the 21st Century: Changing Nations Through the Power of Serving, which concluded with a section by William MacDonald that described what made Jesus the greatest leader that ever walked the earth. It contains the most succinct principles of wise leadership I have ever heard or read.
I share them with you today to apply in your own life, to look and pray for in leaders that we need in America, and to point you to the Greatest Leader of all time who also invites you to follow Him.
Jesus – The Greatest Leader of Men
By William MacDonald
1. Jesus clearly envisioned the destination to which he was leading his people–the kingdom of God. The first principle of his leadership was that he knew precisely where he would lead the faithful and how to get there. Reversals and mid-course corrections were unnecessary under his leadership (Luke 9:51, 22:15,16).
2. Jesus led without forcing his values on anyone or coercing anyone into following. That is, he never drafted anyone in violation of individual autonomy. Much prayer preceded the call of those who would be his closest colleagues in ministry (Luke 6:12,13).
3. Jesus was not obsessed with gaining the psychological power of great numbers of warm bodies. Volunteers who would not pay the price of total commitment were turned away rather than being signed up on their own terms (Luke 9:57-62).
4. Jesus won the hearts of his followers by leading through friendship rather than fear. He shared with them his secrets and his strategy as rapidly as they could benefit from and implement them (Luke 18:26-30).
5. Jesus had no reason to hide his human finitude by impressive staging. Instead of barricading himself in inaccessibility (behind walls and many subordinates), he ate and slept with the troops, leaving them only for quiet times alone with his Father. Even little children had access to him (Luke 18:15-17).
6. Jesus was unafraid as all great leaders must be. The visible faces of clay could neither intimidate nor dissuade him from his objectives. Nor could the invisible powers of darkness deter him from accomplishing his mission (Luke 13:31-35).
7. Jesus never compromised his moral integrity in order to accomplish his objectives of his revolution. He operated above demeaning dirty tricks, back-door gifts, assassinations, rash unredeemable promises, or even flattery (Luke 11:52-54).
8. Jesus was patently selfless in his motives of leadership. He sought to bring believers to the depth of experience with his Father that he already enjoyed (Luke 10:22).
9. Instead of providing distracting entertainment for people to enable them to forget momentarily their confusion, guilt,suffering, loneliness, and unmet needs, Jesus provided solutions, corrections, and resources to meet those basic needs. The result for believers was lasting foundation for joy (Luke 4:40-44, 9:37-43).
10. Jesus did not squander nature and its resources; he took control as Adam was told to do, taking “dominion” without wasting or polluting, in order to utilize nature to bless and help humanity (Luke 9:17).
11. Jesus, a forceful public speaker, could hold the attention of large gatherings without taking advantage of people. His speech was spiced with colorful, unforgettable sayings and illustrations. When facing large crowds, he did not become superheated and tyrannical. There were no harangues, but always with them there was a deepening of his compassion. He gave clear and simple directions for finding one’s way into the kingdom of God (Luke 5:1, 8:4-15, 13:22-30).
12. Jesus was appropriately tough or tender in dealing with everyone and every crisis. He gained the respect and loyalty of men and women alike. His leadership style of personal relationships fit the situation with just the right amount of pressure being exerted in every case.
13. Jesus never “plead poverty” for the kingdom of God, “took” offerings by psychological jerks, or extracted monies legalistically from the reluctant. But likewise he never did refuse people the privilege of giving who offered their gifts prompted by love (Luke 8:1-3).
14. Jesus’ genuine wholesomeness was that of a man who was sure of himself. This made it possible for people to confidently put their faith in him and to gladly follow him. His winsomeness consisted of a perfect balance between self assurance and affability (Luke 6:20-49).
15. Jesus was the concrete expression of what he taught (Luke 6:20-49). If one could not clearly understand where he was leading by what he was saying, he could find the same truths expressed and reinforced in Jesus’ whole demeanor and activities. Those who were not abstract thinkers (four out of ten) could see the truth unfurled in his unforgettable actions and lifestyle (Luke 23:47).
16. Jesus was able to lead effectively and with full respect without the advantages of special identifying clothing and insignia that are universally recognized as symbols of authority. Royalty, the priesthood (Exodus 28:2), and the military must all step down to this leader dressed in ordinary clothes (and a special anointing) whose presence commanded respect wherever he was (Luke 4:18-22).
17. In decision-making, Jesus was neither indecisive nor rash. Prayerfulness was the fulcrum of his administration. Hence,the kingdom of God was never held back for want of resolute action, nor did it lurch forward on opportunistic whims and crash programs (Luke 6:12-16).
18. The power that Jesus tapped was not that whose source was in individuals; rather it was the power given him by God. This made it possible for him always to have something valuable to give freely to the people who followed him. Most worldly leaders aggrandize power by first taking it from people, abrogating some of their rights and confiscating certain of their resources; and later in a display of paternalism they return some of what was previously taken. Jesus did not need to do that for he depended heavily on divine resources to found the kingdom of God (Luke 3:22; cf. Acts 10:38).
19. Jesus was consistently resolute in that he followed through to the end with his goals for the kingdom. He would not surrender his aims for lesser ones when the going become difficult and his leadership was misunderstood. Thus he never backed off from the full-time responsibility of leadership (Luke 2:45-51).
20. Jesus knew well his followers and dealt with each one appropriately–not using the same patterns of assignment and expectation with such diverse men as Peter and John. He cultivated the development of the two talent man and one twice as talented by giving each the proper resources and relationship in which to develop (John 21:17-22).
21. Jesus knew how to pace both himself and the revolution, sensing when to advance and when to withdraw from the crowds of people, when to refuel, and when to face up to his most trying hours. In the words of the Old Testament, he knew when and how “to go in and out among the people,” and as a result his timing was never off (Luke 9:18-27, 19:28).
22. Jesus’ settled concept of his own identity and of the one who sent him made his leadership rise above popularity. Therefore, he was psychologically impervious to popular praise of himself–it did not inflate him–and to negative criticism of himself–it did not deflate him. Knowing at all times what the Father thought of him gave great evenness and steadiness to his leadership (Luke. 4:22,28,29 19:37-41).
23. Jesus had a uniquely positive revolutionary methodology (John 18:36):
- not arms, but faith, hope and love.
- not explosives, but mountain-moving faith.
- not sabotage of the enemy, but doing good to those hating you.
- not fear, but the love that crowds out all fear.
- not crowd-pleasing propaganda, but the truth.
- not firing squads, but raising the dead.
- not deceit and intrigue, but parables, proverbs and enigmas.
24. Jesus accomplished his revolution without dependence on the power structures of the world. He operated without any of the following standard foundations for kingdoms (Luke 29:1-8, 19-26):
- institutional backing
- political machines and party affiliation
- government support or anti-government patriotism
- class struggle exploitation–playing on desires for upward mobility.
25. Jesus met all of mankind’s deepest needs–those that only the Creator and Savior of man can supply. Consequently, he is the only leader of all time that when the deepest gratitude of followers wells up, and admiration calls for praise and exultation, it is not wrong to actually worship this leader as LORD AND GOD (Luke 24:52).
A New Push to Play God from Washington
It’s interesting to me that last week both Thomas Sowell and I made similar comments about the government becoming “God” in the current health care debate. His comments made the evening news, and mine were published by a number of outlets. We must be on to something.
Actually, most of life relates to the concept of God. We can’t escape from it. When we act selfishly and do our own thing, we make ourselves God; When a secular worldview becomes ascendant in society, then government becomes God; But the best form of government is when we let God be God by structuring our institutions according to his principles and administering them through wise representatives.
For over two hundred years, America enjoyed the blessings of the latter and the freedoms it brings. As Thomas Sowell points out in this article, we are now “audaciously” moving toward option two with the Federal Government assuming the God-seat. It will be a hard taskmaster if we do not change course. RB.
Thomas Sowell is an American economist, social commentator, and author of dozens of books. He is currently a senior fellow of the Hoover Institution at Stanford University.
By Thomas Sowell – August 24, 2009
The serious, and sometimes chilling, provisions of the medical care legislation that President Obama has been trying to rush through Congress are important enough for all of us to stop and think, even though his political strategy from the outset has been to prevent us from having time to stop and think about it.
What we also should stop to think about is the mindset behind this legislation, which is very consistent with the mindset behind other policies of this administration, whether the particular issue is bailing out General Motors, telling banks who to lend to or appointing “czars” to tell all sorts of people in many walks of life what they can and cannot do.
The idea that government officials can play God from Washington is not a new idea, but it is an idea that is being pushed with new audacity.
What they are trying to do is to create an America very unlike the America that has existed for centuries– the America that people have been attracted to by the millions from every part of the world, the America that many generations of Americans have fought and died for.
This is the America for which Michelle Obama expressed her resentment before it became politically expedient to keep quiet.
It is the America that Reverend Jeremiah Wright denounced in his sermons during the 20 years when Barack Obama was a parishioner, before political expediency required Obama to withdraw and distance himself.
The thing most associated with America– freedom– is precisely what must be destroyed if this is to be turned into a fundamentally different country to suit Obama’s vision of the country and of himself. But do not expect a savvy politician like Barack Obama to express what he is doing in terms of limiting our freedom.
He may not even think of it in those terms. He may think of it in terms of promoting “social justice” or making better decisions than ordinary people are capable of making for themselves, whether about medical care or housing or many other things. Throughout history, egalitarians have been among the most arrogant people.
Obama has surrounded himself with people who also think it is their job to make other people’s decisions for them. Not just Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, his health care advisor who complains of Americans’ “over-utilization” of medical care, but also Professor Cass Sunstein, who has written a whole book on how third parties should use government power to “nudge” people into making better decisions in general.
Then there are a whole array of Obama administration officials who take it as their job to pick winners and losers in the economy and tell companies how much they can and cannot pay their executives.
Just as magicians know that the secret of some of their tricks is to distract the audience, so politicians know that the secret of many political tricks is to distract the public with scapegoats.
No one is more of a political magician than Barack Obama. At the beginning of 2008, no one expected a shrewd and experienced politician like Hillary Clinton to be beaten for the Democratic nomination for President of the United States by someone completely new to the national political scene. But Obama worked his political magic, with the help of the media, which he still has.
Barack Obama’s escapes from his own past words, deeds and associations have been escapes worthy of Houdini.
Like other magicians, Obama has chosen his distractions well. The insurance industry is currently his favorite distraction as scapegoats, after he has tried to demonize doctors without much success.
Saints are no more common in the insurance industry than in politics or even among paragons of virtue like economists. So there will always be horror stories, even if these are less numerous or less horrible than what is likely to happen if Obamacare gets passed into law.
Obama even gets away with saying things like having a system to “keep insurance companies honest”– and many people may not see the painful irony in politicians trying to keep other people honest. Certainly most of the media are unlikely to point out this irony.
America to Politicians on Health Care: Keep the Change!
The message coming from grassroots America to the DC politicians in town halls across the country and is loud and clear:
We don’t want government-run health care. This is change we don’t believe in–so don’t vote for it, or you will do so at your own peril. I’m proud of the American people for rising up and speaking out on this issue over the past few months. Every opinion poll shows that everyday Americans believe we’re going a wrong direction –with the average margin on all health care polls being 54%-46% against the government getting involved. A new American revolution has begun that could bring great renewal and blessing to a nation that’s been torn between two opinions for at least a generation. Those two differing opinions, or worldviews, are ultimately what the health care debate is all about.
On one side is the secular or humanist worldview which is promoting government health care. Why? Because when you reject the God-factor, the true basis of human rights, and our Creator’s defined roles for individuals and spheres of society, a God-substitute must take its place which is normally an enlarged state. The call for universal, government-run health care might take place under the guise of compassion and caring, but it’s ultimately about power–the government controlling the masses through assuming the ultimate Provider role that enlightened civilizations have always ascribed to the God of the Universe. This is the road to tyranny–as evidenced by every socialist revolution in history.
The American Revolution of 1776 represented the opposite revolution–an amazing configuration of the Judeo-Christian view of God and government in human society. According to biblical faith, it is God who is our Provider–and through personal faith, morals, character, ethics, community, creativity and industry, we can reap the blessings of his provision in every area of life. The early American concept of the God-given rights of men and limitations on human government, limiting its role to the proper sphere of protection of not provision for its citizens, was the Christian expression of political and economic ideas. That view created the greatest amount of freedom and prosperity in the history of the world. This is the surest path to liberty or human freedom.
But as Thomas Jefferson wisely stated during those days, “the price of liberty is eternal vigilance.” In the 20th century a rebellion against Christian values began to eat away at the foundations of the American family, work ethic, sexuality, and finally the role of government in society. The engine of this secular revolution was the government schools and universities which began to toss out all remnants of the faith and character that made America great. The secularists knew what Abraham Lincoln had predicted in the 19th century, that “the philosophy of the schools in one generation will be the philosophy of government in the next.”
Which is where we stand today. For a generation, the teaching of the government schools has left out God, morals, freedom, limited government, the basis of human rights, etc. and replaced these sacred pillars with an all powerful-and-providing centralized government. They’ve even invented the “right” to health care–and it is the responsibility of the government to provide it through a single payer system.
But thanks be to God!–the American people are waking up and realizing that their very civilization is at stake in this boondoggle called national health care reform. For the past couple of months, the American people have been speaking out loudly in town halls, e-mails, letters to the editor, and various rallies around the nation that we Americans don’t want to go down the road to socialized medicine. Here are some of the many reasons for the outcry:
- Both the House and Senate bills under consideration are loaded with ambiguities and lack of details–yet the bills are being “rushed” through Congress. At the very least this is bad government process which will give us very dubious results. Read Chuck Norris’ recent commentary on this.
- The “government option” will, of necessity, lead to to many people leaving their private policies for the government plan which will decrease competition and choice–thus raising costs.
- The senior citizens of the nations–including 70,000 people who left the AARP in July over their disastrous flirting with the national health care plan–understand that the government take over of health insurance will be the end of Medicare as they’ve experienced it.
- The “crisis” under which the national health care balloon has been floated is way overblown. During these necessary months of debate we’ve learned that actually 80% of Americans are satisfied with their current health care plans and don’t want to see them changed.
- The number that have been used to justify the move to socialized medicine is that there are “47 million uninsured people out there that need insurance.” That number has now been thoroughly analyzed and soundly rejected. The reality is that nearly ten million of this number are illegal aliens, fifteen million are those who live above the median American income of $46,000 and simply choose to spend their money on other things, and another ten million are eligible for current government programs but don’t sign up for various reasons. That leaves under nine million citizens that can’t afford health coverage out of 304 million Americans–or 3%. Hardly a crisis–simply an opportunity to improve our help for the poorest among us.
- The arrogance of our current political leaders has stunned the electorate. Rep. Anthony Weiner D-NY told an August town hall meeting that he didn’t care what his people wanted–he knew what was best and would vote for government care. Now that’s representing the people! It appears that the current administration and Congress might just be the most arrogant collection of leaders that the US has seen since the Nixon administration (arrogance is non-partisan). After the August recess, the Senate is considering passing the “hell care bill”, against the will of their constituents, using a parliamentary procedure called “reconciliation” which avoids the normal sixty votes necessary to stop a filibuster. So much for representative government.
- A national health care plan will give the Federal Government control of an additional sixteen percent of the multi-trillion dollar US economy. The folks aren’t buying this power grab of their liberty. We don’t need another “Freddie Mac of Health Care” to bring down our medical system as they did to the housing and real estate industries.
- Everybody knows by looking around the world that socialized medicine or national health care options increase the cost of health care through government waste and lack of competition and lead to the greater rationing of goods and services. The UK and Canada are prime examples. We don’t want to repeat their mistakes.
- The people’s greatest concern right now is the burgeoning federal deficit–which is due to the dubious 787 billion stimulus package, the omnibus bill filled with thousands of earmarks, and the refusal of the current administration to use tax cuts to create jobs and economic recovery. The people know that nationalizing health care will add trillions of dollars in the coming years to an already precarious national debt load.
- The mammoth 1000 page bills floating through the halls of Congress are loaded with both labor and insurance company perks, will lead to tax-payers footing the bill for abortions (against their will and conscience), and contain provisions that–thank you, Sarah Palin!–look very much like “death panels” to most of us. It was interesting to see the liberal press ridicule the former VP nominee on this one while at the same time the Senate quietly pulled out the sections dealing with “end-of-life counseling.” If this wasn’t about pulling the plug on Grandma, why the deletions?
Many diverse voices are making sense and generating momentum for rejecting national health care in America. The best article I’ve read in the past month was featured in the Seattle Times written by Dave Herbold, the retired COO of Microsoft and Scott Powell, the director of capital markets for Clarus Capital. You can read this excellent article here. It concludes with these words:
“More bureaucracy, greater dependence, higher taxes, more debt, fewer choices, lower quality. Get real. Fool us once with the stimulus plan, shame on us. Fool us twice, shame on our political leaders. This is less about reform and more about collectivist political power to redistribute wealth, expand federal government control, weaken individual and states’ rights, and create a permanent power base through entitlements and dependency.”
“It is time to take the first step in restoring the primacy of personal choice and responsibility. It is time to say “no” to Washington elites and “yes” to the people who deserve real reform based on a competitive system with incentives to contain costs while assuring choice, quality, and flexibility.”
Amen and amen.
So what is needed to improve health care in the best health care system in the entire world? Here are a few positive suggestions that have emerged during the debate:
1. Pass extensive tort reform currently affecting up to 16% of all medical costs. Doctors need to be set free from fear-based practice so that they can truly “do no harm.”
2. Allow health plans to go national like car insurance and other services. This will greatly increase competition and lower costs for all.
3. Do away with the politically-driven state mandatesthat drive up the costs of local insurance policies. In the state of Washington there are nearly fifty medical insurance mandates that stifle choice, competition, and the cost of various medical policies. One size doesn’t fit all. You don’t need the same coverage in your twenties that you do in your eighties.
4. Adopt the best practices of private business such as utilized by Whole Foods in the business sector or Group Health in the medical portion of society.
5. Encourage personal, portable Medical Savings Accounts through a variety of tax incentives.
6. Take responsibility for your own health and that of your family through good eating habits and lifestyle choices.
And continue to prayerfully and respectfully speak out until government-run health care is a thoroughly discredited topic of a wise and free people.
After the August recess, there will be an attempt to jam this legislation down the throats of the American public in both the house of Representatives and the US Senate. So, before your representatives return to Washington D.C., make sure they understand that you want them to read your lips on the subject of national health care.
If they don’t, make sure they read your votes in 2010 and 2012.