Finally, allow me to provide a brief defence of the perspective I employ in seeking to derive leadership lessons of contemporary significance from the ancient biblical record of the life and experiences of Jesus and the Israelite leaders and prophets he referenced.
Our modern tendency is to interpret and judge the beliefs and actions of historical figures from the perspective of the beliefs, knowledge, and analytic methodologies of our own age. Thus the modern reader might ask, What can contemporary people, most of whom now believe that the universe is the product of natural forces and that God is a product of the human imagination, possibly learn from Moses, who believed that “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth”2 and that God is a real, omniscient being who communicates directly and indirectly with humanity?
Or what might the modern reader who may be persuaded that Jesus was a good man and an influential teacher possibly learn from the perspective of the Gospel writers that he was much more than that—that he was deity incarnate, resurrected from the dead by the power of God, and is eternally present and active in the world?
My own response to these questions is to say, let us—at least for a moment—not judge and interpret the lives and experience of Jesus and the Israelite leaders he referenced solely by the beliefs, knowledge, and analytic methodologies of our own age. To do so exclusively would render most of sacred and secular history largely irrelevant to our own times and circumstances. Rather—at least for a moment—let us examine and interpret these ancient lives and experiences as best we can from the perspective of their own beliefs, knowledge, and age. And let us see whether by so doing we might, as I believe we will, derive lessons still highly relevant to our own times and circumstances.
To guard ourselves against the hubris of modernity and postmodernity, would we not be wise to heed the counsel of Jesus himself on judging the motives and actions of others? “Do not judge,” he told his earliest followers, “or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”3
In future years, if and when posterity looks back on our lives and experiences to see what lessons if any they might learn therefrom, do we not desire that they would first of all seek to interpret our lives and actions through the perspective that actually guided us rather than through some future perspective, different from ours and largely unknown to us at this time? It is this desire to respect and learn, first and foremost from the perspective of the life and times of Jesus and the Israelite leaders he referenced, that has guided me in this study and that I encourage the reader to share.
And so, whether you are a person of faith seeking to learn more about how to conduct yourself at the interface of faith and public life or someone of a secular mindset simply seeking to better understand what can be learned about the interface of faith and public life from the Judeo-Christian perspective, please join me in examining Faith, Leadership and Public Life: Leadership Lessons from Moses to Jesus.
Preston Manning
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
September 2017
1 Much of the material in this book was originally prepared for lectures on the relationship of faith to politics. I have since been convinced that many of the principles and lessons derived therefrom have an even broader application—useful to any person seeking to be faithful to their most deeply held beliefs while operating in any public arena. Hence the reference in the title, and frequently throughout the following pages, to faith, leadership, and “public life.”
2 Genesis 1:1.
3 Matthew 7:1–2.
Part 1:
Leadership Lessons
from the Public Life of Jesus
Introduction
For 30 years, from his birth to early adulthood,
Jesus of Nazareth lived and worked in obscurity. Then for three short years he taught and worked in public, and his public life is well documented in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
Jesus never sought or held public office, yet he and his followers have been politically influential and controversial for twenty centuries. While his ultimate mission was a spiritual one, he nevertheless chose to use a political term—the “kingdom” of God—to define it.
Those of us who believe that Jesus was in fact the one he claimed to be—the Son of God sent by God to reconcile human beings to himself and each other—will tend to attribute the uniqueness and impact of his public life to the presence and power of the supernatural. But even those who do not acknowledge his deity should be drawn to examine the nature and lessons of his public ministry by virtue of its unique and enormous impact from that day to this.
In this regard, I once provided a small group of my political friends who were visiting Israel with a “sealed memorandum” to be opened, read, and discussed only after they had completed their first visit to the Galilean region where Jesus spent much of his life. The memorandum read as follows:
A Special Assignment
Imagine that you have just been parachuted into the Galilee region of Israel to carry out the following special assignment:
• Go into the towns and villages around the lake and recruit a team of twelve people.
• Persuade them to leave whatever they are doing and join you in a venture to change themselves, their community, and the world.
• By formal teaching and example, transform their pursuit of self-interest into the self-sacrificial service of others.
• Equip them to share with others what you will impart to them, so that 2,000 years afterwards more than one billion people will profess to be guided in some way by your teachings and example.
• Fiscal constraints require you to raise your own financial support for this assignment.
• Your initial base of operations will be a carpenter’s shop in a small town called Nazareth.
• You have three years to complete this assignment before you must leave the region and entrust the follow-up to your recruits.
Jesus of Nazareth undertook and successfully completed such an assignment, which is why, if for no other reason, I believe that his life and teachings deserve serious examination, especially by those of us who know from our own experience how difficult it is to create and sustain a public movement of any kind, even on a limited scale and for only a brief moment in time.
So, whether we are believers or not, if we are engaged in public life of any sort there is much to learn and profit from examining the public life of Jesus. And if we are operating at the interface of faith and politics this is doubly so.
1.1 INCARNATIONAL COMMUNICATION
To incarnate—to embody in flesh;
to