300JesusonLeadership.pdf

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Jesus on Leadership—a must read for those who value their family! This book
is most inspiring and practical. I’m pleased to recommend it.

WILLIAM MITCHELL, author of Building Strong Families, founder of
Power of Positive Students

It was my opportunity to be led by God to enlist Gene Wilkes to write the
curriculum edition of Jesus on Leadership: Becoming a Servant Leader for
LifeWay Press. Gene’s message communicates the biblical servant leadership
demonstrated by Jesus and has helped equip church leaders to be more
effective. In the same way, I believe this tailored Tyndale House edition will
have incredible impact on leaders in business, industry, government, and
schools, as well as churches. This edition of Jesus on Leadership is simply
proof of how God’s energizing presence has brought together spiritual gifts,
experiences, relating style, and vocational skills in Gene Wilkes’s life to serve
all leaders who desire their lives to please and serve God. The quality of what
Gene has done is an example of how God can and does develop a person’s
capacity to understand and apply God’s servant leadership principles in the
daily walk of life. For God’s touch on Gene’s mind and heart in the writing of
Jesus on Leadership, I say, “Thank you, God!”

HENRY WEBB, director, Discipleship and Family Leadership Department,
publisher of LifeWay Edition of Jesus on Leadership: Becoming a Servant
Leader

Read at your own risk. Gene Wilkes may change your whole view of
leadership. While Jesus on Leadership is a practical tool kit, Wilkes’s unusual
writing gifts make it stirring devotional reading as well. And it is no book of
theory. This material flows from the heart and hands of an authentic servant
leader. Besides living these principles himself, Gene Wilkes has trained and
mentored scores of leaders, Jesus-style. I am delighted that he has now spelled
out his heart in print for the benefit of thousands. This refreshing book
deserves top priority on the reading list of every Christian. I predict it will be
around for a long time.

LYNN ANDERSON, president, Hope Network Ministries, author of They
Smell Like Sheep: Biblical Leadership for the Twenty-First Century

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Spiritual formation is the biggest issue for leaders in the church. The need is
obvious, most notably demonstrated by the lack of genuine spiritual vibrancy
in so many who occupy positions of influence among Christian congregations
and institutions. Help has now arrived! What Gene Wilkes says is right on
target at delivering a corrective for so much of what we see masquerading as
Christian leadership. Don’t read this book if you are unwilling to be
challenged—or even changed!

REGGIE MCNEAL, director of leadership development, South Carolina
Baptist Convention

Gene Wilkes’s description of leadership according to Jesus—“I am a mission
and I serve those who are on that mission”—has captured the heart and
passion of the mission-driven leader.

BILL EASUM, author of Growing Spiritual Redwoods and director of 21st
Century Strategies

I have known Gene Wilkes since he was eighteen. He has lived his life as a
servant leader. This has been his passion. The insights I have received from
reading this book will forever change the way I do my job and live my life.

GARY COOK, president, Dallas Baptist University

Gene Wilkes, my friend and fellow pastor, serves us lessons on leadership that
have been simmering for a lifetime. Centered around the meat of Christ’s
ministry, they are complemented by wise counsel for others and flavored with
experience. Although the truth is often hard to swallow, Gene’s recipe for
servant leadership is both delicious and nutritious. It’s a feast fit for a King,
coach, pastor, or parent. Enjoy!

GENE A. GETZ, author of The Measure of a Man, senior pastor, Fellowship
Bible Church North, Richardson, Texas

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Visit Tyndale online at www.tyndale.com.

TYNDALE and Tyndale’s quill logo are registered trademarks of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.

Jesus on Leadership: Timeless Wisdom on Servant Leadership

Copyright © 1998 by LifeWay Press. All rights reserved.

Cover photograph from the Private Collection copyright © Look and Learn/Bridgeman Images. All rights reserved.

Edited by Vinita Hampton Wright

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version,®

NIV.® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Scripture quotations marked NLT are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996 by
Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188.
All rights reserved.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Wilkes, C. Gene
Jesus on leadership / C. Gene Wilkes
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 978-0-8423-1863-1 (sc : alk. paper)
1. Leadership—Religious aspects—Christianity. 2. Jesus Christ—
Leadership. I. Title.
BV4597.53.L43W55 1998
253—dc21 98-24160

ISBN 978-1-4143-2807-2 (ePub); ISBN 978-1-4143-2724-2 (Kindle); ISBN 978-1-4143-6244-1 (Apple)

Build: 2016-01-18 11:56:10

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http://www.tyndale.com

CONTENTS

Foreword

Acknowledgments

Down from the Head Table

Jesus’ Model of Servant Leadership

How Do We Lead by Serving?

Principle One

Humility: The Living Example

Learning to Be Humble; Learning to Wait

Principle Two

Jesus Led So That Others Could Be Followers

First a Follower: Are You?

Principle Three

Jesus Demonstrating Greatness

What Style of Greatness Do You Seek?

Principle Four

Jesus, the Great Risk Taker

How You Can Take the Risk

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Principle Five

Jesus’ Power— through Service

How Do We Lead as Servants?

Principle Six

How Did Jesus Do It?

How to EQUIP Others for Service

Principle Seven

The Team Jesus Built

How Does a Servant Leader Build a Team?

Contemporary Ideas about Servant Leadership

Bibliography

About the Author

Notes

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THERE are some books the world waits for without ever knowing it is
waiting. Jesus on Leadership is such a book. When such books are written,
they inevitably can have no more than one source. There is not a guild of
authors for the books that must be written and must be read.

For some time now I have known that Gene Wilkes was working on
this book. I have prayed for him throughout this long season of his
dedication. I have seen him emerge from his cocoon of creativity before.
Behind him, through the doorway of his study, can be seen the titles of
hundreds of different books that have been his companions and future for
his mental sojourn. But the fact that Gene Wilkes knows the literature of
leadership is not why this book is the finest of its kind in the marketplace.

There are four major contributors to Gene Wilkes’s greatness as a
scholar and teacher. These same four forces permeate this book and make
it a must for all of those who want to become informed and capable
leaders.

First, Gene Wilkes loves Jesus. Please don’t think this a mere
saccharine appraisal between friends. This simplicity provides Gene his
passion to serve both God and his congregation. Further, this love for
Christ carries a subtle and pervasive authenticity that makes Gene Wilkes
believable. Whether you read him or hear him lecture, you walk away
from the experience knowing that what you’ve heard is the truth—the life-
changing truth from a man who lives the truth and loves getting to the
bottom of things. All this I believe derives from his love of Christ.

Second, Gene is a practitioner of servant leadership. When he
encourages you to pick up the basin and towel and wash feet, you may be
sure it is not empty theory. He teaches others what he has learned in the

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laboratory of his own experience. Gene is a servant leader, and even as he
wrote this book, he directed his very large church through a massive
building program. His church leadership ability, which he exhibited during
this writing project, does not surface in this volume, but it undergirds and
authenticates it.

Third, Gene Wilkes knows better than anyone else the literature of
leadership. As you read this book, you will quickly feel his command of
his subject. Footnotes will come and go, and behind the thin lines of
numbers, ibids, and the like you will feel the force of his understanding.
No one knows the field of both secular and Christian leadership like this
man. So Jesus on Leadership is a mature essay. It has come from the only
man I know with this vast comprehension of the subject.

Finally, Gene Wilkes is a born writer. It is not often that good oral
communicators are good with the pen. But throughout this book, you will
find the paragraphs coming and going so smoothly that you will be hard
pressed to remember you are reading a definitive and scholarly work.
Books that are this critically important should not be so much fun. Gene
Wilkes is to leadership what Barbara Tuchman is to history. You know it’s
good for you and are surprised to be so delighted at taking the strong
medicine that makes the world better.

All in all, there is joy throughout the realm of leadership. The waiting
is over. Let the reading begin.

Calvin Miller
Fort Worth, Texas
April 1998

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THIS book is my confession that God is truly a gracious God.
Only divine goodness, not my abilities or desires, has
ultimately put this book in your hands.

My greatest thanks go to the people who are Legacy Drive Baptist
Church. They have patiently waited for me to learn to lead. Their kindness,
encouragement, and love for me and my family have made my first ten
years as a pastor purposeful and fulfilling. I will be indebted to them for
years to come.

My heartfelt thanks go to Henry Webb, who came to me with the
idea of developing the Jesus on Leadership workbook. His friendship and
trust in me allowed me to believe this book was possible.

Thanks, too, to Ralph Hodge, the “Man Who Was Thursday” in
my life.

To John Kramp, author, friend, and leader, who believes in me and
has been a “Barnabas” to me.

To Ron Beers and the team at Tyndale, who trusted me to write this
book.

To Vinita Wright, my editor, who patiently mentored me through the
process of producing a readable manuscript. Her fingerprints are all over
this book.

To Calvin Miller, my hero, who has become a friend.
To my wife and best friend, Kim, who is the real servant leader in our

family. And to my daughters, who make me accountable for everything I
have held up as true in this book.

To my father, who models a servant’s heart, and to my mother, who
gave me a love of books and the dream to write one. And to my wife’s
parents, who have supported me as though I were their own son.

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ALL true work combines [the] two elements of serving and
ruling. Ruling is what we do; serving is how we do it. There’s

true sovereignty in all good work. There’s no way to exercise it
rightly other than by serving.

EUGENE PETERSON Leap over a Wall

ABOVE all, leadership is a position of servanthood.
MAX DEPREE Leadership Jazz

THE principle of service is what separates true leaders from
glory seekers.

LAURIE BETH JONES Jesus, CEO

PEOPLE are supposed to serve. Life is a mission, not a career.
STEPHEN R. COVEY The Leader of the Future

ULTIMATELY the choice we make is between service and self-
interest.

PETER BLOCK Stewardship, Choosing Service over Self-Interest

EVERYONE who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who
humbles himself will be exalted.

JESUS Luke 14:11

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I WILL never forget the second Tuesday evening of February 1996. We at
Legacy Drive Baptist Church had struggled to retool ourselves to carry out
the mission God had placed on our church: to make disciples who know
Christ, share Christ, and multiply Christ in the life of another. During the
transition, several core members left, attendance and giving went down,
and the current church leadership—and I—began to question my ability to
lead.

That evening, five men who loved God, our church, and me told me
they had lost confidence in me as a leader. After meeting several times
without my knowledge, these deacon officers had concluded that I was not
the person for the next level of growth in the life of our church. They said
it was not in their power or purpose to fire me, and they did not want to
bring the issue to a vote because they knew it would split the church. Their
job was to oversee the church and maintain its unity, not tear it apart. They
asked me to take two weeks to pray and consider their position. They
wanted to know my answer at the end of those two weeks.

As I walked from the house that evening, a strange sense
of exhilaration came over me. These guys had done me a favor. They had
put on the table what we all knew. I had stopped leading, and the church
was floundering because of my lack of leadership. It was not long,
however, before the elation turned to fear. I asked selfishly, “Why would
God allow such a thing to happen to me?” Interestingly, just one month
before, God had confirmed my call to and his vision for Legacy Drive.
Ronnie and Tina Young, members of our church, had given me a trip to
Robert Schuller’s Institute of Successful Church Leadership as a
Christmas gift. I went alone to recuperate and write. God began to confirm
his vision in my heart as I heard Dr. Schuller say that prayers he had been
praying for forty years were just then being answered. I listened as this
misunderstood servant leader told how he had followed God to a unique
mission field and had labored for forty years to see the call of God on his
life completed. I felt silly with my troubles, having been in my mission
field for only nine years!

On the third day of the conference, Dr. Schuller said, “I don’t know
who you are, but a dozen, maybe thirty [out of about 1,500]; but God just
planted a seed of a dream in your heart. I want to pray for you.” As Dr.
Schuller prayed, I wept. I prayed, God, help me. It was not a prayer of

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desperation but a prayer for God to help me complete the task he had
assigned for me to do at Legacy Drive and with my life. I wrote in my
journal that day, “I prayed not out of fear but out of a great sense that God
does want to do something with my life that I truly cannot do on my own.
It was a prayer of release to let God work however he would choose. It
was a prayer of confidence that God is love and answers prayer. I will be
obedient to his call—that’s what that prayer was about.”

God had confirmed his call on my life in January. In February, God
turned up the heat to test and change my heart.

The Sunday following the meeting with the deacon officers, I flew to
Nashville to tape the training video to support the Jesus on Leadership
workbook. When I landed, I asked Sam House, one of the project leaders,
if they would still publish the work even if I were not a pastor. He didn’t
laugh. It was ironic that my denomination’s publishing house was about to
print a piece that I had written to help churches develop servant leaders—
when I had just been told I wasn’t leading!

As I was preparing to shoot the training videos Monday morning, I
read through John 13 again. As clearly as I hear any voice, I heard God
say, “Gene, I want you to wash their feet.” I thought, You’ve got to be
kidding. I read the story again. I sensed a moving of God’s Spirit in my
heart: Wash the feet of those who have called you to this time of decision.
As we drove out to the shoot, I told Sam what God had said. He laughed
this time and said, “Doesn’t God have a sense of humor!”

After a day of shooting and an evening of recording the audio version
of the workbook, I rode with Henry Webb and Ralph Hodge to Atlanta for
the first Promise Keepers Clergy Conference. While there, God changed
my heart. One evening we heard Wellington Boone speak on
reconciliation. He commented that while reconciliation between blacks
and whites was important, God could not bring revival until blacks were
reconciled among themselves. Wellington began to honor Tony Evans, a
black pastor in Dallas. I did not know that Dr. Evans had been catching
flack from the black community because he had reached out to whites.

Rev. Boone said in front of forty-two-thousand-plus clergy, “If I had a
cup of water, I would wash Tony Evans’s feet.” The men of integrity
would have nothing of idle words. Suddenly, a man jumped up and

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approached the stage with a glass of water. Almost immediately, another
man came running down the aisle waving a towel. Men began to cheer and
stand to their feet.

Another black clergyman on the platform, Bishop Porter, went to Tony
Evans, stood him up, and led him to a chair on center stage. Wellington
Boone took the towel and water, unlaced Evans’s shoes, and washed his
feet. The place erupted with emotion. Men began to cry at this display of
humility and honor. I began to cry because I knew God really wanted me
to wash the feet of those who had called me to decide how deep the
mission of God was in my life. That was it. I knew. My responsibility was
to wash their feet. God would take care of the rest.

I caught a plane back home before the conference was over. Jeff
Koenigsberg, a twelve-year-old boy in our church family, had died of
cancer while I was away. Jeff and my oldest daughter were the same age. I
could not imagine the pain of his parents, Tom and Kris. The ordeal I
faced was insignificant compared to what they had to endure. Washing feet
is nothing compared to burying your son. Jeff’s memorial service was
Saturday. God used that event to calm my heart and remind me of the
important things in life. On the flight home to Dallas, God had also graced
my life by placing me beside Bob Dean, a friend from college, who
listened to my story and encouraged me to do what God had told me to do.
He had his own stories of servant leadership.

That Sunday I preached three morning services, attended team
meetings in the afternoon, and preached a service that evening. The
officers and I met in the church offices after the evening service. No one
had approached me all day about our meeting two weeks earlier. They had
done what they said they would do and waited to hear what I had to say.

When we all got into the room, I thanked them for drawing a line in the
sand concerning my leadership and my commitment to the mission of God
on our church. I told them there was one thing God had told me to do
before I gave them my answer. I took a towel that I use to wipe the feet of
those we set aside for service in our church, and I walked over to Ted, the
chairman of deacons. I knelt before him and began to wipe the dust from
his shoes. I began to weep. God had humbled my heart. I asked his
forgiveness for not supporting him and allowing us to be drawn apart. I
prayed for him as I did what God told me to do.

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When I finished praying, I stood up. Ted stood, too. Talk about a
pregnant pause. I had talked to none of the officers since my return. I
didn’t know if they had already put my termination package together or if
they were really waiting to see what God had led me to do. Ted put his
hands on my shoulders and turned me around to where he had been sitting.
He took the towel from my hands and knelt before me. He, too, wiped my
shoes and prayed for me. I could not hold back my emotions. I did not
know what was next, but I now knew what reconciliation felt like.

After he finished, I returned to my chair. I told the group that God had
confirmed my call to this church and its mission. I sensed I was the one to
lead in the days ahead. I was convinced God was not finished with me and
the church. I then turned to each man with whom I had been entrusted to
carry out this mission and asked if he would continue to lead with me.
Two said yes. Two said they would serve out their terms as officers but
could not say what they would do after that. One said he didn’t think he
could continue. We talked into the night, agreeing upon what needed to be
done to address the needs of the congregation and what I would do to serve
them and the church to meet those needs.

Within the next two weeks, two more families left the church. We told
the other deacons of our conversations. Since that time, God has blessed
our church. He had changed the leader’s heart through testing; God could
now transform the church. By the way, Ted was the chairman of deacons
the next year! The other officer who took a wait-and-see position is a
deacon officer again even now.

Why do I tell you this story? I tell it because it is the crucible in which
I learned the heart of Jesus and the power of servant leadership. I began to
understand what Jesus did when he washed the feet of his disciples. I
learned that the power of leading as a servant comes from God’s using a
person who humbles himself (on his own or through the actions of others)
to God’s call on his life and who serves those who were entrusted to him
in order to carry out that call. I learned that my greatest test of servant
leadership may be to wash the feet of those who have the ability to ask for
my resignation. That event has become a watershed in my relationship
with God and with Christ’s church.

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This book grows out of my personal journey of learning to lead. The
information on these pages comes from a personal crisis of choosing how I
should lead among God’s people. This book also grows out of the need to
find and develop leaders who can carry out God’s mission with me. This is
not a complete picture of what I am learning, but it serves as a primer for
those who want to learn to lead like Jesus.

Converse with the ideas on these pages. Let them challenge your
presuppositions about leadership. Above all else, let them test your faith
about who Jesus really is. That will make the difference not only in how
you lead but in how you live your life.

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WHAT did I learn when I laid aside every model of leadership I had read or
heard about? Who was this Jesus I became reacquainted with when I took
off my shoes and walked with him through the pages of the Bible? Let me
tell you.

The essential lesson I learned from Jesus on leadership was that he
taught and embodied leadership as service. Jesus was a Servant Leader in
every sense of the concept. I would describe him as one who served his
mission (in biblical language, “the will of [his] Father”) and led by serving
those he recruited to carry out that mission.

FOR JESUS, THE MISSION WAS TO BE THE MESSIAH. He was sent to bring
salvation to the world as God’s Sent One. He served that mission by living
as the Suffering Servant Messiah. This mission was everything for Jesus. It
was his purpose and direction for all he did while on earth—including his
death.

IF WE TAKE A HIGH-LEVEL LOOK AT JESUS’ LIFE, WE SEE
THAT EVERYTHING HE DID WAS IN SERVICE TO HIS MISSION.

FOR JESUS, THE MODEL OF LEADERSHIP WAS SERVANTHOOD. He was
never self-serving. He led first as servant to his Father in heaven, who
gave him his mission. If we take a high-level look at Jesus’ life, we see
that everything he did was in service to this mission. His personal mission

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was to serve not his own will but the will of his Father. He said, “For I
have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him
who sent me” (John 6:38).

THE MISSION—AND THE VISION

And what was the will of his Father? How did that translate into Jesus’ life
mission? At least three times Jesus provided what we would call a mission
statement:

When Jesus stood in his hometown synagogue, he read his mission
statement from Isaiah: “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he
has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to
proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind,
to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
Isaiah 61:1-2; Luke 4:18-19

When Jesus stood among his disciples and defined greatness and
being a leader in the kingdom of God, he couched his mission
statement this way: “For even the Son of Man did not come to be
served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” Mark
10:45

When Jesus stood in tax collector Zacchaeus’s home, he stated it
another way: “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was
lost.” Luke 19:10

Jesus articulated his mission in order to define what he was as
Messiah. Where and how he led flowed from a clear sense of why he had
come in the first place.

If Jesus was a servant to his mission, he led with a vision of what
things would look like when he completed that mission. “What things
would look like” was his vision of the Father’s call on his life. Jesus cast a
vision of how things would look for his followers—if they allowed him to
be the Messiah God sent him to be. Jesus often described that vision of
things to come as “The kingdom of God/heaven.” Jesus painted word
pictures in the form of stories to show people the vision of God for their
lives. These stories, or parables, let people see the implications of Jesus’

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being the Sent One of God in their lives. Chapters 13 and 25 in Matthew’s
Gospel are collections of vision stories. Luke 15 is also filled with stories
about why Jesus came and what lives looked like when God’s love ruled in
people’s hearts. Jesus led others by casting a vision of how things would
look when he completed his mission.

SEVEN PRINCIPLES TO LEAD AS JESUS LED

After seeking to understand the elements of Jesus’ leadership style, I
sought out timeless principles that described how Jesus led and that could
be applied to my needs as a leader among God’s people. Here are seven
observations I discovered that describe how Jesus led as a servant.

1. Jesus humbled himself and allowed God to exalt him.

2. Jesus followed his Father’s will rather than sought a position.

3. Jesus defined greatness as being a servant and being first as becoming
a slave.

4. Jesus risked serving others because he trusted that he was God’s Son.

5. Jesus left his place at the head table to serve the needs of others.

6. Jesus shared responsibility and authority with those he called to lead.

7. Jesus built a team to carry out a worldwide vision.

These seven observations about how Jesus led are the foundation for
our seven principles of servant leadership. Each principle is based upon a
teaching or an example of Jesus as he lived out his mission and led those
he recruited to join him. Before you can lead as Jesus led, you and I must
move beyond what I call a “head-table mentality.”

HEAD-TABLE MENTALITY

One day, I found myself at a head table. My job was to introduce the
speaker after the musician sang. As the speaker began his talk, everyone at
the head table stood and moved to sit among those attending the
conference. Everyone but me! The speaker, who picked up on those
leaving the head table, said, “If you are at the head table and would like to

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move, you can at this time.” Alone, I stood and said, “I’d love to!” We all
laughed, and I walked red faced to sit at a table with those who served in
the kitchen. From head table to kitchen-worker status—in front of my peer
group! What a demotion!

As the blood returned to the rest of my body, Jesus’ story about where
to sit at big meals came to mind. He taught:

When someone invites you to a wedding feast [or conference], do
not take the place of honor [at the head table], for a person more
distinguished than you may have been invited. If so, the host who
invited both of you will come and say to you, “Give this man your
seat.” Then, humiliated, you will have to take the least important
place. But when you are invited, take the lowest place, so that when
your host comes, he will say to you, “Friend, move up to a better
place.” Then you will be honored in the presence of all your fellow
guests. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he
who humbles himself will be exalted.

LUKE 14:8-11

As I reflected on my social blunder and the speaker’s words about
leadership, I realized that I had done what was typical of many who sit at
head tables. When given a position, we happily accept the status that goes
with it and somehow believe we no longer need to go near the kitchen. I
was suffering from head-table mentality. I had accepted the myth that
those who sit at the head table are somehow more important than those
who serve in the kitchen. I even had perpetuated that myth by nonverbally
resisting a place among the servers. I wondered if the people in my church
suffered from this mentality.

WE WHO LEAD OFTEN OVERLOOK THAT THE TRUE PLACE OF
CHRISTLIKE LEADERSHIP IS OUT IN THE CROWD RATHER

THAN UP AT THE HEAD TABLE.

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I realized that we who lead often overlook the fact that the true place of
Christlike leadership is out in the crowd rather than up at the head table.
People who follow Christ’s model of leadership would never be
embarrassed to find themselves among the kitchen help. Such a leader is
comfortable working with those who serve in the background and gladly
works alongside them until they complete …