Quotes about Leadership
The beginning and the end of all Christian leadership is to give your life for others.
— Henri Nouwen
The way of the Christian leader is not the way of upward mobility in which our world has invested so much, but the way of downward mobility ending on the cross.
— Henri Nouwen
The Christian leader cannot simply be persons who have well informed opinions about the burning issues of our time.
— Henri Nouwen
Christian leadership is a dead-end street when nothing new is expected, when everything sounds familiar and when ministry has regressed to the level of routine.
— Henri Nouwen
The leaders of the future will be those who dare to claim their irrelevance in the contemporary world as a divine vocation that allows them to enter into a deep solidarity with the anguish underlying all the glitter of success, and to bring the light of Jesus there.
— Henri Nouwen
Community thus is obedience practiced together. The question is not simply, "Where does God lead me as an individual person who tries to do his will?" More basic and more significant is the question, "Where does God lead us as a people?"
— Henri Nouwen
I leave you with the image of the leader with outstretched hands, who chooses a life of downward mobility. It is the image of the praying leader, the vulnerable leader, and the trusting leader. May that image fill your hearts with hope, courage, and confidence as you anticipate the new century.
— Henri Nouwen
Often I have the impression that priests and ministers are the least confessing people in the Christian community
— Henri Nouwen
The loud, boisterous noises of the world make us deaf to the soft, gentle, and loving voice of God. A Christian leader is called to help people hear that voice and so be comforted and consoled.
— Henri Nouwen
We need you to be a father who can claim for himself the authority of true compassion.
— Henri Nouwen
As Father, the only authority he claims for himself is the authority of compassion.
— Henri Nouwen
It is truly enough said that a corporation has no conscience; but a corporation of conscientious men is a corporation with a conscience.
— Henry David Thoreau