In the Name of Jesus: Reflections on Christian Leadership

With his customary simple and passionate prose, Nouwen writes here about Christian Leadership. Nouwen takes the leadership attributes encouraged by the World and uproots them, turning them around, and showing how the Servant-Leadership of Christ Jesus is different. He illustrates this by examples from his own failures and struggles as a leader – going from the hallowed halls of Harvard to a community for mentally and physical disabled people where all his leadership skills suddenly became pointless and useless. It is from that place of humility he speaks to the Christian Leader, encourage and admonishing.
Although this book is simple and short, it is powerful. I would strongly encourage any Christian to read it – but in particular show more Christians who find themselves in a position of leaders, church or secular. Although written over 20 years ago, the message is still true and still needing to be heard. If leaders wish to be strong in the Kingdom of God they cannot lead the way the World does. They must lead the way Christ did. Nouwen’s book encourages this and is vital for any Christian. show less

I am always challenged when I read Nouwen and this time especially so. His short book on Christian leadership is 180 degrees from everything we hear and everyplace we want to go. I agree with him. "The most important quality of Christian leadership in the future. ...is not a leadership of power and control, but ...of powerlessness and humility in which the suffering servant of God, Jesus Christ, is made manifest." It is a short book - it can easily be read in a half hour. But to be inwardly digested will take more time, and will be worth the effort.

This was a short read and had some good content, but just wasn't what I was expecting. I didn't feel like there was any real "meat" until the end when he said:

"Powerlessness and humility in the spiritual life do not refer to people who have no spine and who let everyone else make decisions for them. They refer to people who are so deeply in love with Jesus that they are ready to follow Him wherever He guides them, always trusting that, with Him, they will find life and find it abundantly."

Those sentences jumped off the page for me and I wanted the author to expand on it more. Right now, I don't see many spiritual leaders taking this Biblical stance of humility and that needs to change.

Through the lens of Jesus' temptation in the wilderness, and his commissioning of Peter at the end of John's gospel, Nouwen sets a trajectory for Christian leadership. He wrote this book after leaving academia for L'Arche and one of the best parts of the book is his description of how Bill, a developmentally disabled man, shared in Nouwen's ministry in presenting this material in Washington, D.C.

Nouwen questions contemporary leadership culture and the chasing of relevance, popularity and power. I wonder how Nouwen would critique social media. This short book is one of my favorites from Nouwen.

Christian leadership can get tangled in the charisma of a high profile individual who has all the skills to function well and be effective within the community. Nouwen regards self-actualization -- that desire to be relevant, spectacular, heroic or powerful as temptations. The quest for self-direction, personal efficiency and effective leadership habits, however, still leaves many individuals empty over the long run. Effective leadership centres itself in Christ. Nouwen's wisdom is grounded in the foundation that we are a people 'called'. He acknowledges that it is the real presence of the Holy Spirit who motivates us toward a life that is lived not merely 'with' but 'for' others. According to Henri Nouwen, all principles by which we show more live, whether it be honesty, integrity, integrity, fairness, excellence, service, etc., pale in their capacity for effectiveness if LOVE is not at the root of them. Love is the first principle and finds its origin in what Nouwen refers to as God's first love - that creative extension of God's self into the life of the world. show less

Henri J.M. Nouwen shares his insights from his life with people with a mental handicap, in hope that they will give you some kind of inkling of the direction to take when wondering about Christian leadership in the future. In sharing his reflections with you, he uses as his guide two stories from the Gospels: the story of Jesus' temptation in the desert (Matthew 4:1-11) and the story of Peter's call to be a shepherd (John 21:15-19).

This is a powerful book (although short at only 107 pages) written by a Catholic priest on Christian leadership in the 21st century. He emphasizes that leaders can only lead if they have a living, active and intimate relationship with the One they are teaching about, Jesus Christ. It's not your typical "how-to lead people" but more reflections on what a godly leader should look like according to Scripture. And for all of us Protestants out there, we can learn many things from our Catholic brothers so don't automatically rule this book out because it's written by a Catholic priest.