Books on
leadership often appear on best-seller lists. Most of them tell how to become a
powerful and effective leader. But Henri Nouwen’s book In the Name of Jesus:
Reflections on Christian Leadership is written from a different
perspective. The former university professor who spent many years serving in a
community of developmentally disabled adults says: “The question is not: How
many people take you seriously? How much are you going to accomplish? Can you
show some results? But: Are you in love with Jesus? . . . In our world of
loneliness and despair, there is an enormous need for men and women who know
the heart of God, a heart that forgives, that cares, that reaches out and wants
to heal.”
John
wrote, “In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His
only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. In this is
love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the
[atoning sacrifice] for our sins” (1 John 4:9-10).
“The
Christian leader of the future,” writes Nouwen, “is the one who truly knows the
heart of God as it has become flesh . . . in Jesus.” In Him, we discover and
experience God’s unconditional, unlimited love.
God’s
love in our heart gives us a heart for others. (RBC)
