Discipleship and Leadership

Discipleship and leadership are two things if separated would yield disastrous results. For how else can one be effective as a leader if he doesn’t know how to obey? A disciple of Christ is one who follows Him. He is given the task to proclaim the good news in order to lead others to faith in Christ (CCC 425).

How must he do it? The disciple of Christ must not only keep the faith and live on it, but also profess it, confidently bear witness to it and spread it (CCC 1816).

The manifestation of discipleship is service. Jesus said that if we are to be his disciples we must serve one another. Jesus, who is called Teacher and Master, bent down and washed his disciples’ feet, a very menial job of a slave during his time. Would not a disciple do the same whether he’s given the leader role or the subordinate? He also exhorts them to love one another. A leader, therefore, imitates the example of Jesus: serves his fellowmen in love regardless of their positions and conditions.

Jesus calls his disciples to “take up their cross and follow him” (CCC 618). Jesus knows how challenging this task would be, hence, after he ascends to the Father, the Spirit will now be with and in the disciples, to teach them and guide them “into all the truth” (CCC243). The only way then to be a disciple and leader at the same time is to be dependent on God’s grace not on one’s own limited human capacity.