Leaders Are Lifetime Learners (Jesus)

Children are naturally inquisitive, and my son was no exception. When we lived in Poland, Caleb traveled extensively with me and our family.

He rode trains, buses, trams, and flew across the Atlantic many times. When he was four or five, he became intrigued by airplanes and flying. He was curious about how an airplane could rise off the ground and fly.

I remember taking off from the Frankfurt airport with Caleb next to me, peppering me with one question after another. I was trying to communicate the Bernoulli Effect to a five-year-old, but it only led to more questions.

Like children, effective leaders are learners and therefore are prone to asking questions.

Leaders ask Questions

The Bible does not provide significant information about Jesus’ childhood, but Luke 2 does give us a glimpse into His world. His parents traveled regularly to Jerusalem for Passover, and did so when Jesus was twelve years old.

Mary and Joseph were separated from Jesus, and when they discovered his absence, they returned to Jerusalem and found Him in the Temple courts. Luke describes what they found.

After three days they found him in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. (Luke 2:46)

As a young man, He was asking questions and listening to the answers of those responsible for teaching the Law. Jesus had developed an understanding of a good many things, as evidenced in the statement that follows, “Everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding and his answers” (Luke 2:47).

However, as an emerging young leader, He took the posture of a learner, asking questions and listening to the answers. I am sure that He did not agree with all that was said, and this was part of His education regarding the Jewish leaders’ understanding (misunderstanding) of the Law.

Leaders are learners, and learning requires questioning. We see this leadership quality in Jesus. Unfortunately, many leaders grow comfortable in their knowledge base and lose the questioning nature that is so essential to effective leadership.

In my fifties, Every Generation Ministries had developed work on three continents in multiple countries and was expending considerable sums of money on international travel and phone bills.

We had adopted Skype to save on our phone bill, and then we were introduced to Zoom. Relational ministry has always been a key ministry value, and video calls were not a substitute in my mind.

Fortunately, some of our younger leaders had the vision for using the new emerging technology, and I finally saw the light. In what many considered a miracle 😊, I adopted the technology and began questioning how to use it most effectively.

Today, thousands of dollars in travel money have been reallocated to other important ministry initiatives, many of the national ministries spawned by EGM use the technology in their local ministry work, and I have embraced the technology in my own personal consulting ministry and even in grandparenting 😊.

Effective leaders ask questions to maintain their learning posture!

Learning the Will of the Father

Asking questions is a crucial learning tool, but it has limited value if you are not a listener. One of the great leadership learning qualities evident in Jesus' leadership life was being a listener.

Peter is a goldy man, church elder/leader, business leader, and servant leader in his family. One of his greatest qualities is that of being a skilled listener. Peter not only exhibits the leadership learner quality of questioning, but he is also an avid listener.

The Christian leaders I have known are often best known for talking. They are adept at speaking, communicating vision, and influencing people through the spoken word, namely their own! I confess that this tendency runs in my veins as well.

Peter, on the other hand, questioned, listened, and learned. His leadership skills are well known, and he certainly has considerable influence at home, in the church, and in the wider community. He is respected among Christian leaders around the world through his extensive philanthropy.

One of the keys to his lifetime learning posture is listening. There are two ways you know he is listening.

First, he asks clarifying questions, indicating he is tracking what is being said. Second, he restates what he heard, inviting further insight or clarification.

Peter is a leader with a lifetime learning posture and is a voracious listener. We see this evident throughout Jesus’ leadership life, particularly regarding listening to His Father.

There are a myriad of issues related to Jesus’ divinity, not the least of which is the nature of His relationship to the Father and His awareness of His vocation.

However, once one understands those issues, there is a consistent portrayal of Jesus, particularly in the Gospel of John, regarding Jesus “listening” to the Father. If effective leaders are lifetime learners, then listening is involved.

The following passages, all in the Gospel of John, indicate that Jesus was constantly listening to the Father.

Not until halfway through the festival did Jesus go up to the temple courts and begin to teach. The Jews there were amazed and asked, “How did this man get such learning without having been taught?” Jesus answered, “My teaching is not my own. It comes from the one who sent me. Anyone who chooses to do the will of God will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own. (John 7:14-17)

Who are you?” they asked. “Just what I have been telling you from the beginning,” Jesus replied. “I have much to say in judgment of you. But he who sent me is trustworthy, and what I have heard from him I tell the world.”  (John 8:25-26)

Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves. (John 14:10-11)

Jesus replied, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me. (John 14:23-24)

For I did not speak on my own, but the Father who sent me commanded me to say all that I have spoken. I know that his command leads to eternal life. So whatever I say is just what the Father has told me to say.” (John 12:49-50)

“I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word. Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you. For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me. (John 17:6-8)

In these passages and others, Jesus is described as listening to the Father. In most of these passages, the listening is for the purpose of communicating what is heard to others.

Implied in that process is Jesus’ hearing, understanding, and then passing on truth regarding God’s purpose and plan for his people. This was a characteristic feature of His leadership: listening for and learning the Father’s will and communicating that to others.

We see this desire to understand God’s will in the final hours of His life, preceding His ultimate leadership act at Calvary. In the garden, Jesus questions the Father specifically regarding the Father’s will.

Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.” (Matthew 26:39)

This is repeated in Matthew 26:42, and after discerning the Father’s reply, Jesus sets His face against the coming torture, suffering, and death.

This narrative in the garden is packed with theological issues, but one thing remains clear: that at the end of His leadership life, He maintained a posture of learning, listening to, and submitting to the Father.

Effective learners have a lifetime learning posture regarding God’s will.