Last weekend, I was among about 35 people who spent 12 hours over two days in a workshop entitled, “Lead Like Jesus.”
It was set up by Judge Keith Starrett, who recruited participants with a pitch that if more people worked together and based their efforts on Biblical lessons, Pike County would be better off.
In all honesty, I had never thought of Jesus as a leader, in terms of managing people and working toward goals.
When you’re a child, you hear Biblical phrases like, “Come with me, and I will make you fishers of men,” and you think it’s just the story of how the Apostles began following the son of God.
I had never considered that “fishers of men” moment as one of the first steps Jesus took to set up an operation that would spread his word for a long time. But it worked: the 267th pope, following in the shoes of the fisherman, St. Peter, began serving this month.
At first, I found it hard to compare the Gospels to the concept of developing modern leaders of integrity, but Steve and Jan Rubado, the two leaders of the workshop, did a good job of getting that point across.
Their demeanors were perfect. “I’m very comfortable with awkward periods of silence,” Steve remarked when no one offered a response to his question. It helped get the conversation going, and I am grateful that the couple provided a new way for me to look at how Christianity began.
Here are a few things that crossed my mind during our two sessions at New Covenant Presbyterian Church:
• The people who are turning so many things upside down in Washington need a workshop like this. On Page 52 of the workbook was an exercise in “The Seven Dynamics of Change.” Most of it is the exact opposite of the way Elon Musk and his DOGE teenagers have gone about their business.
Good strategies for leading people through change, it said, include “Help people know what to expect,” “Focus on a few things to change at a time,” and “Give grace to those who are struggling with the change.” Nowhere did it say to lock everyone out of the building without notice.
My opinion of the Trump administration is that it’s not so much what they’re doing, it’s the way they are doing it. I was surprised this workshop said the same thing.
• The only thing I strongly disagreed with was the recommendation for solitude — being alone and out of human contact on occasion. There are several Bible passages where Jesus did exactly that.
It just would not work for me. Maybe I’m overcaffeinated or have too many things bouncing through my brain.
They had us spread out through the building for a 15-minute period of solitude, and I wondered if a quick nap would be better. Sure enough, I fell asleep. That was much more mind-clearing than being alone and silent.
• A favorite moment was on Saturday morning, when I got a text from a friend complaining about Saints quarterback Derek Carr. I checked the internet, and that’s how I learned Carr had decided to retire. For me, at least, he left in style.
• The single best leadership story involved a bad night for President Abraham Lincoln. The wife of a colonel stationed in Washington during the Civil War had drowned in a steamship collision, and the officer could not get permission from the War Department to attend her funeral.
Somehow, he got in to see Lincoln, the last visitor on a Saturday night. And the president really let him have it.
“Am I to have no rest? Is there no hour or spot when or where I may escape these constant calls?” Lincoln demanded. “Don’t you know we are in the midst of a war? That suffering and death press upon all of us?”
Lincoln’s full reply was much longer than that, and we had a good discussion about whether he had acted like a self-serving leader or a serving leader.
The story has a surprise ending, which I will leave out, but it was the workshop’s best example of great leadership.
