Looking for a Leader
John 10:1-18
Gettysburg Presbyterian Church
Rev. Daniel T. Hans
March 2, 2008

What kind of leadership is needed today?  The primary election season leads us to raise that question, as we wonder: Who can best lead this nation into the future?  What kind of leadership is needed today?  The current Congressional investigation into the lavish living of certain TV evangelists who claim tax exempt status for their organizations leads us to raise that question, as we wonder: Are they shepherding the flock or are they fleecing the flock? What kind of leadership is needed today?  A congregation looking for a new pastor raises that query as it wonders: What kind of shepherd can best lead this flock into the future?

I

This morning in speaking about leadership in the church, I turn to what Jesus says on the subject. Our Lord gives us a model of pastoral leadership in one of his “I am” memoirs in the Gospel of John: I am the good shepherd.
Jesus makes this claim on the heels of his healing a blind man. The religious leaders, the spiritual shepherds of the day, who should rejoice in this display of God’s love and power, harass the healed man and slander the healer. By calling himself “the good shepherd” Jesus contrasts his life-affirming and liberating leadership with the restrictive and burdensome leadership of the bad shepherds of his day.

The recurrent problem of poor leadership arises when leaders care more about the activity of their leading than the objects of that leading. Bad leaders are more interested in their identity as shepherds than in the needs of the sheep.  By calling himself “the good shepherd” Jesus fulfills a promise God made through the prophet Ezekiel to provide good leadership. God told the Israelites that He would become their shepherd and would lead them to the freedom and new life his grace offers.

Five centuries later, Jesus appears, having climbed down the ladder of success in his incarnation, and says: I am the good shepherd. Good leadership does not just happen. It must be developed. Good leaders are not born that way. They grow into their role. Jesus entered this world not as a great leader but as a little baby. He became a great leader by committing himself to the people he came to lead.

II

The Greek word for good describes something that is attractive and appealing. There was and is something attractive about Jesus as the good shepherd that draws people to him. The attraction lies in his style of leadership. With the good shepherd, the sheep come first. Jesus feeds, heeds, and leads his sheep, his followers.

First, he feeds us with accepting love. When Jesus says, “I have other sheep that are not of this fold, I must bring them also,” he reveals his leadership that seeks to feed everyone everywhere with God’s accepting love. Jesus shows that God’s love is not limited to a nation or race or religion or particular type of person. God’s love is accepting of all and welcomes whoever fill follow the Good Shepherd, whoever is open to God’s love in Christ. Wherever we are in our lives, the Good Shepherd has a place for us in his flock.

Second, Jesus heeds our needs with involved love. We see this action in Jesus’ words: “I know my own and my own know me.” The Hebrew words for shepherd and friend have the same root. One way to understand Jesus as the Good Shepherd is to see him as the Good Friend who is involved in our lives to the point of knowing us personally and loving us as unique individuals.

Interaction and identification between leaders and those being led lie at the heart of good leadership. In God’s eyes you are no less important than anyone else in the church but neither are you more important than anyone else. The same needs to hold true for those who lead in the name of God
Good shepherd’s then and now must love each person personally and equally.

Third, Jesus leads with sacrificial love. Three times in our passage Jesus says he lays down his life for his sheep. Such is the sacrificial love he offers to us as a whole flock and to us as individual sheep. Think of what Jesus could have done and been given his identity and power as the Son of God. He could have been a faith healer with his own TV show; he could have been a tenured seminary professor; or he could have been CEO of a huge non-profit charity. This one who could have owned the sheep ranch remains a shepherd and lays down his life for his sheep – not because this is what he wants but because this is what they/we need.

It is a good shepherd, an attractive leader, an appealing friend, who feeds the whole flock with accepting love, who heeds the needs of each individual with involved love, and who leads with sacrificial love that benefits the whole flock and the individual sheep.

The role of love in leadership is a forgotten building block of nations, organizations, and churches. During the American Revolution, George Washington led his troops and the colonies with a deep love for both. The heroic effort it took to get us through that crucial time arose from leaders like Washington who were committed to something much bigger than self. In his biography of Washington entitled His Excellency, Joseph Ellis presents a powerful scene. At the farewell dinner Washington held for his officers, he announced he wanted to greet each man personally before they separated forever.  The reception line formed to take his hand.

Henry Knox, one of his most trusted generals, was the first to come forward.  Suddenly, Washington was overcome with emotion. He ignored Knox’s outstretched hand and instead hugged him, weeping openly in front of his men.  And so it went down the line. He embraced each man and wept for all of them. If we wonder what it was that pulled his band of colonies together into a fledgling nation and held them together, we need look only to this man who cared enough about this place and its people to be called the father of our nation. Good leadership cares more about the objects of its leading than the activity of its leading.

III

The question remains: How can we find this kind of good shepherding today? There are several ways to insure good leadership in the church. The needed qualities reflect a leadership style that, like the leadership shown by our Lord, loves those being led more than the activity of leading.  Here are three needed traits for church leaders today that arise from our biblical passage and are evident in Jesus’ ministry.

First, good shepherds must be responsible. Leaders in the church are responsible to insure balance between the needs of individuals and the need of the whole group. If the success of the whole group is the singular objective then the seemingly insignificant individual is overlooked. In many highly organized enterprises the “insignificant individuals” who are most often forgotten are the very old and very young. Jesus’ story of the shepherd who leaves the 99 sheep to seek the one lost sheep shows God’s concern for the one and the many. In God’s eyes, the one is as important as the whole group.

The flip side of this responsibility coin involves addressing an imbalance toward the individual to the detriment of the group. Here the welfare of the flock is jeopardized by undue attention to a few sheep the baa the loudest.
Every church has such people. They make congregational life interesting and pastoral ministry challenging. However, when one person or a few people get all the attention to the exclusion of the needs of the whole group, the group’s present health and future growth are threatened.

A leader does not love the people unless he/she leads them forward with a vision of what the church can become. The church needs responsible leaders like Washington who in his love for his nation lead it toward a goal of freedom.  The church needs responsible leaders like our Lord who in his love for humanity leads us toward the ultimate goal which is God. Leaders are responsible to love the individuals and the group as equally as possible and to work toward a balanced welfare for both M. Scott Peck in his book The Road Less Traveled writes: The best decision makers are those who are willing to suffer the most over their decisions but still retain their ability to be decisive. (p. 76)

IV

Second, good shepherds must be personable. For a time the church moved away from the biblical image of shepherd and sheep that stresses personal relationship between leader and people to a business systems image of CEO and organization that stresses efficiency and productivity. On the positive side, the managerial model addresses inefficiency and waste of resources and opportunities that plague churches; on the negative side, this model moves away from the heart of the spiritual shepherd’s relationship with the sheep. It replaces shepherd as friend with shepherd as manager.

Speaking of the inadequacy of impersonal management compared to personal leadership former NFL coach Bill Parcells has said:  You can manage inventories but you lead people.  You can manage from afar, with a fax machine or a cell phone, but you better be up close and personal when it comes to leading.
In his book Megatrends 2000 John Naisbitt writes: Any well-trained person could be a manager. A leader is an individual who builds follower-ship by ethical conduct and by creating an environment where the unique potential of one individual can be actualized. (p. 308) 
If the church tries to function only as an organization of efficiency rather than as a community of the Spirit it will lose sight of God’s will and God’s ways amid all its own charts and projections.

No modern leader better incarnates the qualities of the good shepherd than does Mother Teresa who labored so long and hard in a ministry of compassion to the poor and dying in India.  A couple of years before she retired from her work due to age and ill health, she was asked who might succeed her.  She said she hoped her successor would not be selected on the basis of management skills or on the basis of visionary drive.  She hoped they would pick the least likely person to replace her so that it would be clear to all that the fruit of one’s ministry and the origin of all good leadership begin not with human skills but with the grace of God.

V

Third, good shepherds must be guidable. This final insurance for good leadership is most important. Today’s shepherds must find their guidance from him who said: I am the good shepherd. Today’s leaders must be guided by eternity’s leader.  It is not enough to claim to be guided by the love of Christ.  One must show the leading of that love.  Leaders who offer Christ’s words can be found as easily as turning on the TV.  Genuine discernment is needed to find leaders who live and offer Christ’s love.

Former seminary professor Fred Craddock tells about an old man whose only close friend was his dog.  Both had begun to feel the pain and burden of age.  The dog, 12-years-old, could barely walk and was covered with an irritating rash.  The old man lifted the dog in his arms and carried it to the car where it lay on the seat beside him on the way to the veterinarian.  From the parking lot the old man carried the dog gently inside.  “May I help you?” asked the vet.  The old man, still holding his dog, said, “First, I must ask you a question.  Do you love animals above everything else?”  “Well,” replied the vet, “I love God first as Jesus said to love God with all your heart and soul and mind; then Jesus said to love your neighbor as you love yourself.  We must put first things first and then we can think about the animals.” 
“Then I must go elsewhere,” said the old man turning to the door.
“Why?  What’s wrong?” asked the vet.  “This dog is my friend, so special to me,” said the old man, “and I feel I can trust him only to the care of a veterinarian who is a Christian.”  (Overhearing the Gospel, p.36)

A congregation seeking a pastor for its beloved church is like that old man seeking a veterinarian for his beloved dog. A Christian vet must put his/her calling to serve animals first. What kind of leadership is needed in the church today? The church needs leaders who do more than mouth the right words.  The church needs leaders who in their love for God know that their calling is to love God’s people more than anything else.

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