Leadership courses are quite fashionable these days.
The Gospels have nothing to do with organizational psychology, but they teach just as much about leadership as any course or seminar I’ve ever attended.
So let me save you some money – and, believe me, these courses don’t come cheap – and give you a crash course in liberation leadership. Most courses I’ve attended leave some hand outs to take home at the end. The hand out for this lesson today is the Scripture of the New Testament.
Usually the agenda of a leadership course is to describe what constitutes inferior leadership and contrast it with good leadership.
The Gospels tells us that the false leader loves places of honor at banquets, greetings in the synagogue and the salutation “Rabbi”. Liberation leadership does not separate itself from the people, lording it over them. Liberation leadership is careful not to associate itself with the oppressor, but it identifies itself with the oppressed. One can never completely forego their economic status to place oneself at service of the poor, because the element of choice is a luxury the poor can never have. But the liberation leader always can recognize his or her own inherent poverty, which is shared with every other creature of God.
The Gospels teach that false leaders “preach but they do not practice. They tie up heavy burdens hard to carry and lay them on people’s shoulders, but they will not life a finger to move them”. Liberation leadership peaches and practices integrity. The servant of the poor tries not to squander resources and pile up material possessions. The liberation leader does not oppress the people he or she lives with while decrying social injustice.
The Gospels say that all the works of the false leader are performed to be seen. Liberation leadership, on the other hand, is leadership for others.
St. Paul in his second letter to the Thessalonians is a beautiful summary of our course in liberation leadership:
Brothers and sister, we were gentle among you, as a nursing mother cares for her children. With great affection for you, we were determined to share . . . our very selves, so dearly beloved had you become to us. We worked night and day not to be a burden on you.
A leadership performed in the midst of the people who are lead, a leadership carried out with integrity, and a leadership for others, these are the key points of our outline for a liberation leadership. We have as model and ultimate leader the only One we can truly call Teacher, or Rabbi, our Father, or Master. The liberation leader is Jesus the Christ.
|