Jesus words on the cross

Yesterday, I received an email from a popular pastoral resource with the headline: "What Jesus' Words on the Cross Teach about Leadership: The seven leadership principles modeled in his last seven statements."

I have said this more than once, but it needs to be said again: this is NOT what the cross and resurrection is about. 

Turning Jesus' final moments into a leadership seminar or a corporate playbook is wrong. I consistently warn pastors and others in East Africa not to listen to North American leadership ideas - they are often so wrong, as they are here. There is a huge difference between "climbing ladders" and "carrying crosses." I think there is a book or at least an extended article in there. 

I and many others have long been concerned about the North American church's leadership fixation. But framing the cross as "leadership principles" is just so wrong - I have cancelled my subscription to that resource.

• The cross is the ultimate surrender;
  it is not a strategic leadership move.
• When Jesus said, "Father, forgive them,"
  he wasn't demonstrating conflict resolution skills;
  he was demonstrating mercy in the face of ultimate injustice. 
• "It is finished" isn't about project completion;
  it is the fulfillment of God's cosmic redemption.

The cross invites us to look upward in worship, inward in repentance, and outward in service—not to discover principles we can use for organizational success. 

The cross is the place where our striving ends and grace begins. 

The cross is the place where the language of human leadership falls silent before the language of sacrificial love.

Lent, and I think that much of North American evangelicalism misses this, is about entering into and experiencing the mystery of "the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory." Colossians 1:27