Today Christ our Lord says whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all.  I invite you all to reflect on Christian leadership today. This leadership is centered on relationship. It is modeled after Christ’s teachings and example and this leadership is empowered by the gifts of the Holy Spirit and Christian leadership is directed by God’s kingdom vision.

Once a group of nuns who were sent to do higher studies from mother Teresa’s order came back as medical doctors, nurses, teachers and engineers and they all came to Mother and said, “Mother, where is my office and where is my private place to practice my position and do you know what Mother Teresa did, she sent them all to the dying and sick and asked them to hold their hands and serve them for six months saying they are your office and your masters and learn from them. Be a servant and then you become first.

1.     The priority of relationship in Christian leadership: Our God is one in essence but three in person. There is a dynamic and mutual self-giving of three persons. We cannot separate the father from the son or the son from the third person. They are all connected with each other mutually and we are created in the image of God and in order to realize that image and that likeness, we need relationship with one another. How can I become a leader? The only Christian way is serving others and being with others and realizing that others are also divine image and likeness. Yes, Christian leadership is centered on relationship.

2.     It is modeled after Christ’s teachings and example Christian leadership is so unique because it is based on the servant-leadership of Christ Himself. Christian leadership is both counter-cultural and counter-intuitive. Unlike secular leaders, we do not hold any prominent place among people instead we serve and look after the needy. Christ is the center of Christian leadership and they have to lay down their lives for their sheep. They have to have courage and strength to go before the sheep and face dangers and difficulty like Christ our Lord did. Christ-centered leadership brings Christ to others not like the secular leaders.

3.     Christian leadership is empowered with the gifts of the Holy Spirit:  All those reconciled to the Father in the incarnation of Christ our lord have received the gifts of the Holy Spirit and the primary function or action of the gifts of the holy spirit is transforming people into loving community through shared service to one another.  All Christians have received a Charism to serve one another. We are all members of the same body and our head is Christ our Lord and Every member of the body has to work together achieve harmony and unity.

4.      The Vision and Mission that Drives Christian Leadership

5.      Christian leadership is unique because its mission derives from the kingdom vision of the Lord Jesus Christ.

6.      The church is a product of mission -- a sign of God’s saving purpose. God’s eternal purpose is to reconcile humanity to himself through Jesus Christ (Eph. 3:11). The church is the first-fruits of this universal redemptive mission, existing solely because of God’s divine initiative demonstrated in his saving work through Christ. As God’s new creation, the church is a sign of God’s grace and love to a lost world, consisting of people reconciled to God and one another and liberated to love God and others.

7.      The church is a people of mission -- sharing in God’s saving purpose through witness. The church exists for a greater purpose than the good of the church. The church is not only a sign of God’s saving purpose in the world, but also shares in God’s saving purpose through her witness of God’s grace in word and deed (Matt. 28:18-20). For this reason, the church is not called to depart from the world, but rather, to be a witness in the world of God’s saving grace offered to all people (John 17:14-26).

8.      Because of this great responsibility, every member shares a leadership role, for all are called to lead others to Christ through the corporate witness of the faith community sustained by the personal faithfulness of each member. Making the Gospel attractive to outsiders is a prominent part of the church’s witness (Matthew 5:13-16; Titus 2:7-10; 1 Peter 2:11-12). This can only be done when the church recognizes her larger purpose and seeks to testify by word and deed to the reality of God’s grace, acceptance, and love.

9.      In light of the church’s participation in God’s kingdom mission, two practical principles are offered:

10.   Christian ministry is driven by the kingdom vision of Christ. Like all organizations, a vision drives the mission. In the case of the church, the vision that drives the mission is God’s ultimate intention and goal revealed in his saving purpose, namely, a completely transformed cosmos filled with people reconciled to God and one another to the glory of God. Or, put more compactly, the vision is a kingdom vision. The church recognizes that God’s purposes will be fulfilled. It is impossible to thwart God’s kingdom purpose because God’s kingdom presently exists through Christ and in the Spirit, guaranteeing a future glorious consummation. Therefore, only things done in accordance with God’s redemptive purpose have any real lasting value. For this reason, the church “seeks first his kingdom” (Matthew 6:33).

11.   The priority of the kingdom in shaping Christian vision and mission cannot be lost or else the church will be tempted to substitute a human vision for God’s kingdom vision. Christian leaders fully realize that human sin, selfishness, and lovelessness will always hinder the corporate “seeing” of the divine vision of the kingdom. As Williams and McKibben write, it is easy to “follow human tendencies to substitute another ‘vision’ for the vision we choose to ignore or can no longer discern. Then we have replaced the vision of the Kingdom with ‘our vision.’”[11] It is in light of this danger, that the following (and final) principle is offered.

12.   Christian leadership must continually articulate the vision of God to those inside and outside the community of faith. Due to human sin, God’s kingdom vision is easily forgotten by those within the community of faith, and easily disregarded by those outside. Because of this, Christian leaders must continually articulate God’s kingdom vision in order to reorient those within and to reach those without. Christian leadership that does not continually articulate the missional stance of the church runs the danger of becoming withdrawn, inbred, and powerless.[12]

13.   For those within the Christian community, the kingdom vision of Christ is needed to focus, guide, and direct efforts. Vision is vital for “[v]ision is the picture that drives all action. It conveys an image of where you want to go and how you want to get there... vision is the source for a person’s sense of purpose and goals… ‘For the secret of man's being is not only to live but to have something to live for.’”[13] In short, “[v]ision focuses effort; it inspires action, and it validates decisions.”[14] Once the vision is firmly entrenched in the community, the Christian leader must seek to articulate strategies, goals, and activities to implement and achieve the vision.

14.   In order to maintain focus and direction, a Christian leader must clearly, concisely, and continually present the corporate vision to the church. A clear sense of identity and mission cannot be sustained without this constant reminder. “Planning and implementation (no matter how well done) cannot compensate for knowing who we are, why we're doing what we're doing, and for whom we are doing it.”[15] FOUR PEOPLE
This is a story about four people named Everybody, Somebody, Anybody, and Nobody.

15.  

There was an important job to be done and Everybody was asked to do it. Everybody was sure Somebody would do it. Anybody could have done it, but Nobody did it. Somebody got angry about that, because it was Everybody's job. Everybody thought Anybody could do it but Nobody realized that Everybody wouldn't do it. It ended up that Everybody blamed Somebody when Nobody did what Anybody could have done.