Christ, Leadership and Holy Week

As I reflect on Holy Week this morning, I am seeing Christ through the lens of leadership.  As a leader in corporate America, my perspective was that leadership was about action, it was demonstrating what was to be done and doing so in a kind manner.  I always felt leadership was meeting someone where they were and guiding them to deeper knowledge or insights. Sadly, I was surrounded by many that believed leadership was about dictating actions with severe penalties if instructions were not followed. 

Through His passion, Christ showed us how to live, He also showed us how to lead.  He was the consummate leader, even if the path can be difficult at times.  I think of His humility, His willingness to serve, Him trying to carry the cross. I reflect on Him considering others, even as His pain seemed so unbearable. In doing this and so much more, people followed, they spread His word, and many, many have died in defense of Christ.

Why do I offer thoughts on leadership today?  Our Marketing God podcast for the week focuses on The Role of Leadership.  You may not believe me, but this was not planned!  As we were trying to figure out our podcast schedule, it seemed to make the most sense to end with topics on marketing leadership.   When starting the podcast, we were in a hurry to get things going before some travel started.  We never mapped it out to see which topic would fall on which week.  Yet, here we are, with our topic of leadership occurring during Holy Week.

As I pulled up the Marketing God podcast schedule for the week, I was really struck by the topics as they relate to Christ’s passion.  We start off the week with Truth 10 Ego: Danger Ahead.  Goodness, Christ demonstrates what humility is for us all the time, and certainly in profound ways through His passion.  The second podcast for the week is based on Truth 12: Jeweled Treasures.  This topic considers complaints and how to find the treasures that they may be offering us.  I think of all the complaints around Christ, and yet those very complaints give us insights into the challenges of our humanity.  They are treasures for us if we are willing to listen.  Our third topic this week is from Truth 23: Brand Drive Culture.  I just smile at this one for truly Christ has led everyone, who is Christian, to strive for a way of life based in love.  Using our marketing lingo, He wants us to create a “culture” of love in society. 

The topic this week that started me considering Christ and leadership occurred through Truth 13: Stewardship Starts with You.  Yes, we consider this topic in terms of leadership for your parish or ministry.  Yet, I consider how Christ’s entire passion, is one example after another of how we are to live and love.  He was willing to die for us, and in doing so offer us lessons in how to live.  We end the week, and this part of the Marketing God podcast series, with the topic from Truth 3: No One Will Love Your Brand As You Do.  I reflect that no matter how deep I believe my faith to be, I know it is not nearly there yet.  I can always love Christ and God more and more.  Christ, in His passion showed us how dearly He loved the Father.  I can only continue to pray for a deepening of my faith with each and every day.

The reason for the Marketing God podcast, from the very beginning, was to offer parishes, ministries, schools, organizations with insights and tools that can help you engage with and bring more people back to you, our faith, and ultimately to God.  To do that, the podcast aligned with the book Marketing God and was intended to provide deeper insights and considerations.  The worksheets for each Truth were designed to provide opportunities for reflection for the topic at hand as you seek to support your parish or ministry.

We continue to invite you to listen to the podcast at media.donnaaheckler.com and join our Marketing God Facebook group so that together we can learn from each other and assist each other in reaching and engaging with more people.  We hope to continue the podcast in the coming weeks by taking live calls to discuss the marketing challenges that you, your parish or ministry may be facing.  If you would like to be a part of that discussion, we welcome that and invite you to reach out to Donna@marketing-god.com to schedule a time to participate.

In the meantime, we pray you have a blessed Holy Week.