Moving Towards What We Love
In today’s reality, there is an epidemic of church leadership failures-to the point where it has almost become the expectation rather than the exception. In this current climate, J.R. Woodward steps in with his Scandal of Leadership: Unmasking the Powers of Domination in the Church[1] with the intention of compelling church leaders to intentionally adopt an imitation of Christ in their leadership. Building off Alan Roxburgh’s concepts, he has developed a model he calls the three contours of leadership: identity (sense of self), praxis (the practice of leadership), and telos (the becoming, or end of leadership).[2]
In my blog last week, I wrote about the degradation of social contracts in our post-modern society, and with the downward trend of society’s level of trust in the Church,[3] the Scandal of Leadership is a continuation of the same theme.
We Move Toward That Which We Think About Love
One of the themes that I appreciated in Woodward’s work was focus on the aim (telos) of leaders impacting their practice. He references this quote from James K.A. Smith’s well-known work You Are What You Love:
“The telos to which our love is aimed is not a list of ideas or propositions or doctrines; it is not a list of abstract, disembodied concepts or values. Rather, the reason that this vision of the good life moves us is because it is a more affective, sensible, even aesthetic picture of what the good life looks like.”[4]
Where we aim is where we will head.
This concept of “the Good Life” or what we are aiming for as leaders pulls me back to a book we read almost exactly a year ago by David Rock titled Your Brain at Work, and his concept of this persona in our minds he labeled as the “director” that steered our activities. Of course, highlighting the relationship between of intentional meditation and leadership efficacy brings us back to similar observations discovered in Spellbound[5] and Rethinking Leadership.[6]
The overarching ideas of this book is that my leadership will be shaped by 1) from where I draw my identity, 2) what I am aiming towards and 3) how I exercise my skills makes a lot of sense to me. However, there were a few bothersome ideas that I want to share here in order to get some other viewpoints.
Satan or God: Woodward identifies that we have a choice of only two “arch models” for imitation: God or Satan.[7] While I appreciate the concept that we need to be intentional in how we live; modeling our lives after the ideals of God or the World, I think that this stark dichotomy could lead to confusion. The idea that God and Satan are equal options or are even on the same plane is oversimplifying the relationship between the two. Additionally, when I chose to ignore God’s direction and principles in my life, I may be following an idol of my own making, of which Satan played no part.
Yes, but CAN I model Christ?[8] As Christ is the one Son of God, the creator who spoke the universe into creation, a divine incarnation in human flesh, designed to provide a sacrifice for all of humanity and a member of the Trinity, I would say, true modeling of Christ is beyond imagination. Can I endeavor to embody and integrate his practices into my own behaviors to follow that north star? Absolutely, but I worry that the goal of modeling sets us up for false expectations and reinforces the wrong things. Maybe I would feel better about this if we said that this modeling was not ever to be to scale or proportion of what Christ has done for myself and humanity. It seems the dangers of setting up the expectation to model Christ are the same dangers that those temple leaders had in trying to follow the Law… by doing so, they were destined to create a system that rewarded showmanship and legalism. Would love a counter point on this from my esteemed colleagues.
What about everyone else? I wonder if Woodward is unnecessarily fixated on leaders. I think that the premise (not withstanding my concerns mentioned above) would be true for any believer. Is there danger in emphasizing this level of spiritual health for leaders and NOT the followers? Also, how can followers help our leaders by setting a culture of this how we should live… what we honor… what we reward… what we glorify? Today, in my own church, we had a sermon on spiritual practices. The challenge we were left with was this work is best done in community. If we could move into this concept of trying to embody the practices of Christ as a community, then imagine the societal problems we could solve.[9]
I suspect that a deeper read of The Scandal of Leadership as well as a more thoughtful review of Woodward’s other work would put to rest some of my concerns. For now, I am satisfied that his writing me has prompted me to remember the call to: “run with endurance the race that is set before us,looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith…”[10]
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[1] J. R. Woodward, David Fitch, and Amos Yong, The Scandal of Leadership: Unmasking the Powers of Domination in the Church (100 Movements Publishing, 2023).
[2] Woodward, Fitch, and Yong, 36.
[3] “War, Contracts … and the 2024 Election,” accessed April 6, 2024, https://blogs.georgefox.edu/dlgp/war-contracts-and-the-2024-election/.
[4] James K. A. Smith, “You Are What You Love: The Spiritual Power of Habit” (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Brazos Press, a division of Baker Publishing Group, 2016), 53.
[5] Daniel Z. Lieberman MD, Spellbound: Modern Science, Ancient Magic, and the Hidden Potential of the Unconscious Mind (BenBella Books, 2022), 141.
[6] Annabel Beerel, Rethinking Leadership, 1st edition (London ; New York: Routledge, 2021), 109.
[7] Woodward, Fitch, and Yong, The Scandal of Leadership, 226.
[8] A disclaimer here, that I know I can tend to be too literal.
[9] Aaron Doerr, serrmon to Rolling Hills Community Church, Portland, Oregon, April 7, 2024.
[10] Hebrews 12:1b-2, ESV
About the Author
Jennifer Vernam
5 responses to “Moving Towards What We Love”
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Hi Jennifer,
Great post and questions. You wrote, “In today’s reality, there is an epidemic of church leadership failures-to the point where it has almost become the expectation rather than the exception.”
I would extend that expectation to our political leaders as well. I am at a quandary when it comes to our political leaders. I am at the place of either voting for the “lesser of two evils” or not voting at all.
Leadership in its many forms has taken a hit. I wonder what credibility I gain when I say I have a Doctorate in Leadership. The study of failures?
But then that is too pessimistic. You end on a high note, run with endurance the race that is set before us,looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith…”
We do the best we can…guided by the Spirit.
Shalom…
All three of your concerns are interesting to me, but I’ll pick just one (ok maybe two) to comment on. I wouldn’t have thought of aiming to imitate Christ as potentially problematic, but I think I understand your reasoning. I tend to think of a process more like 1.) identify what values/attitudes Jesus demonstrated then 2.) discern how to practice those values in a given situation. So for example while I probably won’t ever die for another person (and even if I do it certainly won’t save them from anything beyond this life) I can still emulate Jesus’ example of self-sacrifice. I don’t know if that’s helpful nor if it’s what Woodward intended, but that’s how I think about it.
Secondly, you mention that many of this books’ principles should be for all Christians, not just leaders. I feel that way about much of what we read.
Anyway, thanks for a thoughtful post!
I’m with Kim in saying that each of your concerns were very interesting to me as well, but I’ll focus a comment upon just one, and that’s the focus upon leadership. While I wholeheartedly concur with your assessment, I’m left with the thought that it simply wasn’t his focus for writing (of which, I’m sure you’d agree with as well). But more than just focussing his topic to that of leadership, I think there is the principle of Matthew 26 in which Jesus says “when you strike the shepherd the sheep are scattered.” I think there is (and again, I actually agree with you deeply) a manifold potential for health in the body of Christ but narrowing his focus upon the leader, understanding that so much blessing, and conversely, damage, flows from that leader.
Of course, I could keep typing my way into a twisted knot…again, you are right, perhaps the whole systemic deal is broken and we’ve placed far too much upon that singular leader in the first place, and it’s produced such damage.
Uggg. I’m gonna keep wrestling with this. Thanks for that Jenn! 🙂
Glad I could help, John!
You have captured the point my question was getting at. We must have leaders, and when their integrity crumbles, the impact is disastrous. And, I agree, this was the scope of the book. That said, I think we need more spaces to discuss how to hold up leaders to protect them from such moral crises. The Mars Hill example was a great one: would the outcome have been different, if people had been more discriminate in who they followed? Or, in other, less dramatic instances, can we as followers allow spaces for leaders to be less than perfect, and thereby help them grow?
Since you asked for a counter point Ill give my two cents (even though it really is not a challenge to what you said). I actually think you are finding a healthy balance in your post between Christ’s nature and our own while we attempt to follow Jesus, which is what I have been looking at a lot in the last few years. “Follow me” is repeated by Jesus consistently. He certainly says this more than worship me and he also felt the need to teach and preach for several years. If “follow me” means replicating the long lists of things depicted in the Bible in the first century then that is a tall order and it could lead to despair and legalism like you mentioned. However, if it means catching the heart, Spirit, and hermeneutic of Jesus and living that out in my context like followers have been doing through church history then mabye we can manage a degree of that.
On a separate, but related not, I’ve been at a workshop at the Holocaust Museum all week and noticed a wall of names and pictures at the end of the tour. This wall showed the names and some highlighted people who hid, transported, fed and protected Jews during Hitler’s reign. A small percentage of Germans helped Jews in a country that was considered a “Christian nation” during this time. It prompted some questions in me? What prompted some Christians to follow Jesus in loving their neighbour and what allowed others to stay apathetic or hostile to their neighbour? Why did some Muslims follow Jesus more in loving (hiding, helping, protecting) these people more than Christians? This certainly isn’t to say that they have had a perfect religious history either. Some who helped had no religious affliction at all or at least it wasn’t listed. These are things on my mind this week.
Thanks for another great post, loved that you posed this question.