To Know and To Love

What do you look for in a Christian leader?

As Christianity continues to decline in the West, what ought to be the priority for Christian leaders?

We live in the wealthiest nation EVER! Wealth of information, wealth of opportunity, wealth of stuff. And yet we are one of the most obese, medicated, lonely peoples ever. Within our swirling culture, what is the best contribution a Christian leader can make? As a priest - a mediator between God and humanity - what is our task in these confusing and turbulent days?

Henri Nouwen has this to say about the Christian leader of the future:

The Christian leader of the future is the one who truly knows the heart of God as it has become flesh, "a heart of flesh," in Jesus.

Knowing God's heart means consistently, radically, and very concretely to announce and reveal that God is love and only love, and that every time fear, isolation, or despair begin to invade the human soul this is not something that comes from God.

Knowing the heart of Jesus and loving him are the same thing. The knowledge of Jesus' heart is a knowledge of the heart. And when we live in the world with that knowledge, we cannot do other than bring healing, reconciliation, new life and hope wherever we go.

The desire to be relevant and successful will gradually disappear, and our only desire will be to say with our whole being to our brothers and sisters of the human race, "You are loved. There is no reason to be afraid."
~In the Name of Jesus, pg 25, 27

If you want to make a difference in your own home, if you want to expand your heart, you are invited to know Jesus. You must step forward and lead your self, your family, your friends into a new place of hope and healing. You must become a leader by actually leading - taking initiative, planning ahead, bringing others along with you, implementing change. Your home needs you to be a leader. Your church needs it. Your work needs it. Your school needs it. You need it.

To know Jesus - his words, his works, his way - is to know his loyalty to you, his faithfulness, his devotion and sacrifice and trustworthiness. He is to us what he wants us to be to others. To let him lead you is how you are able to lead others. This may be a new definition of leadership for you. In light of how things are going, I'd say we probably need a new kind of leader for the future. A different kind of Christian for tomorrow. One through whom others know and love Jesus.