Lead Like Jesus Part 3/3

NEWSONG: Beautiful Lord by Leeland on the CD iWorship 24:7

VERSE: Phillipians 2:1-8
If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death – even on a cross!

THOUGHTS: Am I a leader? Yes. Am I willing to follow Jesus as my leadership role model? That was up for you to decide, but in the words of Joshua “as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.” If you in fact have decided to follow Christ as your leadership role model, if you want to learn to lead in the footsteps of the only one who knows and sets the path than this is your question. How do I lead like Christ? As I continue to talk about this I once again go back to the book from Ken Blanchard. There are two aspects that we must grasp at first.

The first is that an understanding that learning to lead like Jesus is a transformational journey. I remember a conversation I had with a pastor at my parents church named Doug Whittlef, “ministry is a marathon not a sprint.” And so it is with our walk with Christ and our growth as leaders. We must understand that this journey (oh and wait till our next series of devotionals, life is a journey and maybe this will click more) that we take is a transformational one. We must expect, we must long, we must work to become different people through learning from Christ. Blanchard tells us “learning to lead like Christ is more than an announcement; it is a commitment to lead in a different way.”

The second aspect is that we must learn to understand, examine, and internalize the four domains on leadership. Leading like Jesus involves four different domains all of equal importance: heart, head, hands, and habits. There are two internal domains, the heart and the head, and two external domains, the hands and habits. Heart: leadership is at its most basic a spiritual matter of the heart, in simple word its the character. If you want to be a Godly Christ-like leader of integrity, of matter, have the character of Christ. That once again takes us back to the question of “am I a servant leader or self-serving leader?” If you want to know how to lead like Christ in the heart, lead as he did, lead to serve others in serving your God. Head: Once you get your heart into a place of leadership as Christ did, your head will follow suit. But the enemy, that one we call Satan, is smart. He is strong, and he works hard. We must be constantly examining our leadership and making sure that our persepectives on our leadership is as our heart is, that our persepective is that of servanthood. Mark 10:45, Christ says “For even I, the Son of Man, came to not to be served but to serve others.” Keep your perspectives on servanthood. Hands: Others will observe where you heart and head are at by the works of your hands. This is a struggle for me to constantly check what my hands are doing to ensure they are in the same place and mind that my heart and head are. I know it may be cliché but you are the only Jesus some people will see, are you going to show them an example of servant leadership, or an example of self-serving, self-motivated leadership? Habits: This is how you renew your daily commitment to serve as a leader to serve others.

I leave you with this. Christ, the King of Kings, Hosanna, Jehovah Jireh, Prince of Peace, the one who sits at the right hand of the Father, God the Son, came to this earth, not to be served, not to get what was his, but came to serve others! He came to give all of himself for the work of the Father. If you want to know how to lead like Christ just follow his example, serve and love others.

What will change about how you lead? How you look at leadership? What will change about you?

It’s not about what you know, its about what you do!

Next week: Taking a Journey: life and all that comes with it (and above it)