Workshop 1: Leadership and the kingdom of God

Dr. Albert BoeremaRomanian Administrator Conference

Lake Surduc, RomaniaMarch 20-22, 2014

A leadership development journey

Leadership issues

• The problem of evil – Hitler’s ghost

• “Intellectual kitsch”

• An instrumental approach

• Reductionism

New direction in Orlando

critical policy analysis and

critical leadership theory

Using critical theory-Hess and Kelly • Why have the concepts of diversity, multiculturalism, and

social justice been framed as being ideologically loaded and politically correct?

• Why is test-based accountability a topic which should not be opposed?

• Why are the concepts of accountability and the focus on standards-based testing presented as ideologically neutral?

• If schools of education are not teaching “ideologically loaded, politically correct concepts” what are they teaching?

• Why were topics related to learning and teaching not part of the leadership development program reading?

What agenda lies underneath the effectiveness and efficiency movement?

The thorny issue of eschatology

The leadership problem

• The role of the leader is to link goals, resources, concerns, and minds.

• development of vision and strategies, the alignment of relevant people behind those strategies, and the empowerment of individuals to make the vision happen, despite obstacles.

• a leader is a person who influences people to accomplish a purpose.

Luke 4: and the challenge to the status quo

• Temptation: “I will give you all their authority and splendor; it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. If you worship me, it will all be yours.”

• Manifesto: “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”

• Demon: “Come out of him!”• The sick: and laying his hands on each one, he

healed them.

The leadership continuum

Status quo <------------------------> kingdom of God

Processing time

• Take a few minutes and write down some notes about what you understand to be the kingdom of God.

• Talk with those around you about what they wrote down.

The kingdom of God

• Biblical scholarship• No definition, no propositions, relationship• Building a framework runs counter to the

kingdom teaching• Temptation to substitute the framework for

the knowing and loving God• We are invited into the kingdom of God, we

do not build it

Big idea one

• Conventional understanding of the way things are is reversed.

Parables

• Stories that illustrate aspects of God’s kingdom

• Three parts: a commonplace scene, a surprising twist, a shocking truth

Commonplace scene, surprising twist, shocking truth

• Luke 14:15-24• Luke 15:1-8• Luke 15:11-32• Luke 18:1-8• Luke 18:9-14• Luke 19:11-27

Some other reversals

– Become like a child– Hard for the rich to enter the kingdom– The one who serves is the greatest– The kingdom belongs to the poor– The kingdom is extravagant with its resources– It is not an earthly kingdom

Big idea two

• The kingdom of God is near– The kingdom is both present and not yet– The battle is not complete– History has meaning– First fruits

Big idea three

• Repentance is required for entry into the kingdom

– Turning to a new direction– Righteousness is required

Big idea four

• The good news of the kingdom is a confrontation with the power of evil

• That confrontation will not be ignored, we can expect resistance and suffering

Big idea five

• The centrality of Jesus and his mission comes first

• Even when committed to the mission of Jesus we can slip into alternative agendas:– Social justice– Environmental sustainability– Peace– Emotional healing

Processing time- Implications

1 The logic of the Kingdom of God reverses conventional understandings and cultural assumptions.

2 The kingdom of God is near, but the final battle is still to take place.

3 The third theme is that repentance is required to enter the kingdom.

4 The good news of the kingdom is linked to a confrontation with the power of evil.

5 Jesus and his kingdom agenda are at the center

• “Jesus did not set up a rigid model for action but, rather, inspired his disciples to prolong the logic of his own action in a creative way amid the new and different historical circumstances in which the community would have to proclaim the gospel of the kingdom in word and deed.” (Echegaray, 1984, p. 94)

• “Now as then, it should make all the difference to society if there is within it a group of human beings who, focusing their minds on the reality of God’s reign and praying for its coming, advocate for its poor, serve those on the periphery, raise up the oppressed and broken, and above all ‘proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor’. Mission in the perspective of God’s reign includes putting ‘poor, neglected, despised people on their feet again as having recovered before God and people their full humanity” (Bosch, 1991, p. 34).

Leadership by outrage

• Distinction between technical leadership and moral leadership.

• Outrage when purposes ignored

Processing time

• What three things are you taking away that will help you change your practice?

• Share what you are taking away with someone near you.