Leadership Jesus Style
Training ordinary people
to do extraordinary things
By Miriam E. Slagle, Special to The Layman, October 16, 2009
After decades of witnessing the patent failure of secular business models to create meaningful church leadership, Dr. Douglas Rehberg decided to try something different – Jesus’ leadership model.
Leadership Jesus Style
By Douglas Rehberg
Reformation Press
217 pages
ISBN: 978-1-934453-05-6
Retail Price: $18.95
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The Rev. Dr. Douglas A. Rehberg is senior pastor of Hebron United Presbyterian Church in Pittsburgh, Pa. Government policy experience and 24 years of ordained ministry inform his results-oriented approach to church leadership.
Leadership Jesus Style challenges the common Church practice of leader selection – which is often based on little more than willingness to serve – with a simple question: “What did Jesus do?”
Rehberg contends it is not enough to tell Christians to be disciple-makers – they must be taught how. In its initial chapters, the book lays the groundwork by clarifying complicated issues such as man’s insufficiency to save himself, the function of the law, the role of spiritual disciplines and the need for in-depth Biblical study.
After skillfully building his case, Rehberg provides a sound response – the Leadership Development Project (LDP) – along with essential steps of its replication. Begun in 1998, more than 100 new church leaders have graduated from the 80-hour program and almost a dozen churches are in the process of implementation.
LDP helps churches identify leaders who will last – outside the traditional profile. It takes a page from the model Jesus provided in making disciples: Choose disciples from many backgrounds, spend directed time with them, give them opportunity and they will lead effectively. The project brilliantly melds the secular idea of measurable achievement with less tangible spiritual objectives to produce unexpected leaders – with the foundation to recognize God’s role in effective leadership, to stay dedicated and to replicate themselves.
Rehberg’s action steps are clear; his evaluation measures are solid. “The record of the New Testament Church … is the record of ordinary men doing extraordinary things through the sovereign dispensation of Divine grace.” Leadership Jesus Style offers that early Church reality to the 21st century.
Miriam Slagle is a freelance writer and editor in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., who specializes in covering issues that affect the Church.