Providing a Compass

Several years ago I was sitting in a theater watching Mr. Holland's Opus, an inspiring tale of a frustrated musician working to write his orchestral masterpiece, his opus, only to realize in the end that the students' lives he had touched over the years were truly his opus.  It remains one of my favorite "teacher movies."

However, right in the middle of this thoroughly secular movie came a statement with profound worldview implications.  Mr. Holland is talking with his principal, explaining that he is doing his job, arriving on time, and doing the best he can to teach his students.  His principal responds, "A teacher is two jobs. Fill young minds with knowledge, yes. But more important, give those minds a compass so that that knowledge doesn't go to waste."

I almost came out my chair.  I wanted to turn to the audience and exclaim, "Did you hear what she just said?  She is stealing bricks from my worldview to build her own!"  The over-riding theme of our time, reflected again and again in our culture, is the denial of anything resembling absolute truth.  The spirit of the times is a very post-modern view, one which says "Everyone must find their own truth.  Your truth doesn't necessarily apply to me; it is just your truth.  What is true for you is not true for me."  Of course, Biblical claims of truth are simply one man's idea in this view.

Yet, Principal Jacobs above, whether she realized it or not, was proudly proclaiming the existence of absolute truth.  You see, of what value is a compass if "true north" does not exist?  If there is not a true north for my compass to point to, then I might just as well be staring into my coffee cup for direction.  The truth of the matter, in a post-modern world there is no use for a compass.

But viewed from a Biblical perspective, Principal Jacobs' statement makes perfect sense.  There is a "true north" found in the person and character of God himself.  As parents and Christian school teachers, our job is to point our students to Him, daily.  The "compass" that Principal Jacobs talks about is called "wisdom" in Proverbs.  In chapter 2 Solomon exhorts his son to "make his ear attentive to wisdom and incline his heart to understanding" so he can "walk in integrity, guarding the paths of justice and understanding righteousness and justice and equity, every good path."

That is a compass pointing to "True North"!!

Character Based Leadership

He who thinketh he leadeth and hath no one following him is only taking a walk.

John Maxwell

In his book Developing the Leader Within You, John Maxwell identifies five levels of leadership and the way in which influence is exercised within each level.  At the lowest level, Positional leadership, people follow you because they have to.  Your influence does not extend beyond the lines of your job description.  He extends the leadership ladder through Permission (people follow you because they want to), Production (people follow you because of what you have done for the organization), People Development (people follow you because of what you have done for them) and concludes with the highest level of leadership, Personhood.  At this level people follow you because of who are are.

As I read this, I reflected on the leadership style of Christ.  Certainly some people followed Christ because of what he had done for them; he was clearly interested in People Development.  But ultimately, he is the perfect example of Personhood leadership.  His disciples followed him because of who he was.  Think of Peter's words in John 6.  Jesus had identified himself as the Bread of Life, alluding to his death for man's sins.  This was clearly not a People Development leadership; in fact this message drove some away.  But when Jesus asked his disciples, "Will you also go away?", Peter responded, "To whom shall we go? ... We have come to know that you are the Holy One of God."  Peter was affirming his personhood ... the disciples were following him because of who he was.

Personhood leadership is, at its core, character-based leadership.  It is based upon the respect the followers have for the leader based upon the character they see in his/her life.  It is those kinds of leaders we are striving to develop at Heritage Christian Academy.  Our Student Outcomes state that we "seek to develop Christ-like behavior in the lives of all student" so that they can "display biblical leadership concepts in church, civic, political, or social organizations.  Toward this end, we have a special school-wide emphasis this year on developing the specific character qualities identified in our Student Outcomes throughout our student body - commitment to Christ, respect of all people, courteous and socially competent, responsive to authority, trustworthy and honest, optimistic and encouraging, responsible, diligent and persevering, thoughtful and discerning, and compassionate toward others.

To quote Maxwell again: The best investment in the future is a proper influence today.