Leadership Jesus Style: The Master and His Mission

By Mark Ashton

The Reality Check series makes just one assumption: that you’re serious enough about your spiritual journey to investigate Christianity with an open mind. This isn’t about joining anyone’s religious club—it’s about being real with yourself and with the others in your group. Since no one has all the answers, there’s plenty of room for discussion. After all, if there is any truth to the Bible’s stories about Jesus, then one thing he’d welcome are questions and opinions that come from honest, earnest hearts.Whether you’re leading a corporation, a sports team, your family, or simply your own pursuits, issues such as mission, character, vision casting, and team building are critical to your success. Wouldn’t it be great to take lessons from a master leader? Here’s your opportunity. Nobody in history has surpassed Jesus of Nazareth in either methods or results. Find out his leadership secrets. They’re guaranteed to make you a better leader.Leadership Jesus Style includes these sessions: Upside-Down Leadership What’s Your Mission? Casting a Vision The Master Strategist Building a Team When Others FailFor the Group LeaderReality Check is for spiritual seekers of every persuasion. Uncompromisingly Christian in its perspective, it steers wide of pat answers and aims at honesty. This innovative and thought-provoking series will challenge you and those in your group to connect heart to heart as together you explore the interface between Jesus, the Bible, and the realities of this world in which we live.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Zondervan
• Release date: Feb 23, 2010
• ISBN: 9780310867852

Mark Ashton

Mark Ashton is the director of seeker small groups at Willow Creek Community Church. In addition, he supervises the staff for more than 40 new believer groups, 80 seeker groups, and Willow's Internationals ministry. He is also the director of TruthQuest - Willow's ministry that answers tough questions about Jesus and Christianity. Mark is a frequent speaker at conferences and is the author of Absolute Truth?

Book preview

Reality Check Series

Clear Evidence: Eyewitness Reports of Jesus

Future Shock: Jesus and the End of the World

Hot Issues: Jesus Confronts Today’s Controversies

Jesus’ Greatest Moments: The Week That Changed Everything

Leadership Jesus Style: The Master and His Mission

Sudden Impact: Powerful Encounters with the Real Jesus

When Tragedy Strikes: Jesus’ Response to a World Gone Wrong

Winning at Life: Jesus’ Secrets Revealed

ZONDERVAN

Leadership Jesus Style

Copyright © 2002 by Willow Creek Association

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of Zondervan.

ePub Edition September 2009 ISBN: 978-0-310-86785-2

Requests for information should be addressed to:

Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49530

ISBN: 978-0-310-31155-3

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible: New International Version®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked NLT are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

All rights reserved. The original purchaser of this product shall have the right to make unlimited print-form copies here of, provided such copies are not resold or distributed to the general public.

Interior design by Sherri L. Hoffman

To Steve, John, and Diane

Great leaders who believe

that students can change the world

CONTENTS

Title Page

Copyright Page

A Person of Influence

Discussion 1 Upside-Down Leadership

Discussion 2 Casting a Vision

Discussion 3 The Master Strategist

Discussion 4 Building a Team

Discussion 5 What’s Your Mission?

Discussion 6 When Others Fail …

What Is True Success?

Leader’s Guide

Introduction

How to Lead a Great Discussion

Notes for Each Discussion

Acknowledgments

About the Publisher

Share Your Thoughts

INTRODUCTION

A PERSON OF INFLUENCE

Why should you care about Jesus’ leadership style? He never held a political office. He never wrote a book. He didn’t command an army or sail to distant shores. For many years, he was homeless, dependent on the gifts of others for his survival. He taught and healed and loved. That’s it.

But is that really the extent of Jesus’ influence? Look around the world. Who has the most followers? Who has the most influence? Who molds and shapes more lives than any other person who has ever lived?

Jesus.

To this day Jesus stands alone as the most heralded, most honored, most criticized, most despised, most worshiped, and most adored person in world history. More songs have been sung, more books have been written, more hearts have been healed, more convicts have been freed, more blind have been given sight, more poor have been blessed, more rich have been challenged, more religious and prideful have been humbled, more immoral have been forgiven, more lost have been found by this one solitary life than by any other person in history. And because of him, the world will never be the same.

That’s why we should study him. Any leader would be foolish to miss the opportunity to explore the life of the greatest leader ever. Within pages of Leadership Jesus Style are the very things that marked Jesus as who he was … and is—the things that made him seem radical to the people of his day and even to us today; the things that gave his leadership its phenomenal vitality. You’ll find his message, some of his methods, and the results of his greatness as it spilled into the lives of others. His example can have a powerful impact on your own leadership style and methods.

In this guide, every discussion of Jesus’ leadership begins with an Icebreaker—a question or two that will stimulate your thoughts and also make it easy for you to share your ideas and opinions, even with people you may not know very well or at all. You’ll read words from the Bible that reveal Jesus’ leadership style and then have the opportunity to discuss them with others. Each topic ends with a Reality Check—a few questions that will help you apply what you’ve learned to your life and own leadership style. And you won’t want to miss the secrets of