What does good leadership look like?  I think we have all experienced or heard tales of poor leadership in our time.  As I’ve lately been pondering the problem of evil/suffering in the world and the daunting reality of death, I really want to be grappling with these issues from a healthy Christian perspective.  I want to be lead into the reality of Christ in these life situations.  I also would like to learn how to lead others (i.e. become a better leader myself) into this ultimate hope we have in Christ.

So I’ve been asking myself, "WWND?  What would Nouwen do?"  (I’m kidding!)

In all seriousness though, I did find a passage in Nouwen which has helped me gain some perspective on leadership and hope.  This week (next few days at least) I hope to highlight this passage from The Wounded Healer.  I’ve broken the passages into smaller paragraphs so that you can "chew" on this with me.

Here’s the first one.  A short paragraph with a unique take on Christian leadership:

"…I have–found that the very feeling which has seemed to me most private, most personal and hence most incomprehensible by others, has turned out to be an expression for which there is a resonance in many other people.  It has led me to believe that what is most personal and unique in each one of us is probably the very element which would, if it were shared or expressed, speak most deeply to others.  This has helped me understand artists and poets who have dared to express the unique in themselves" (Rogers, On Becoming a Person.  London, 1961).  It indeed seems that the Christian leader is first of all the artist who can bind together many people by his courage in giving expression to his most personal concern.

[italics mine.]