I have a confession: I have and still do idolize Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls.
Jordan crosses, is doubled, raises up to…shoot…no…
He passes it to Thomas!…who shoots…at the buzzer…CHAMPIONSHIP! Bulls win! Bulls win!
That encapsulates my childhood as a kid growing up in Chicagoland – in my basement playing on my mini-hoop, winning championships along with Michael Jordan and the Bulls. My wall was full of so many posters of the Bulls players that my cousin once thought it looked like a temple of idol worship.
So you can imagine that watching The Last Dance on a weekly basis has been one of my greatest joys of this quarantine period. The show is a documentary miniseries about the career of Michael Jordan, with a particular focus on the 1997–98 Chicago Bulls season.
A large part of me would want to join the happy chorus on social media and write a word of praise and gratitude (and maybe someday I will).
Yet, I have also been watching the series with a particular lens and concern for myself and other Christian leaders who may consume this documentary with uncritical thinking. And here’s the important question that I think might get lost amidst our adulation of MJ.
Is the MJ I love, and even idolize, an example of leadership I should follow?
One of the major focuses of the documentary is on the mindset and leadership of Michael Jordan. We learn that he’s a fierce competitor with a “win-at-all-costs” mindset. What that meant often was berating, belittling, and bullying teammates to get them to be sharper and better so that ultimately they’d win championships.
In a sense, you could say it worked. The Chicago Bulls won six championships and had arguably the greatest team and dynasty ever. Many Bulls teammates still speak with gratitude and awe towards Michael Jordan, the GOAT who led the charge.
So, shouldn’t Christian leaders also have a “win-at-all-costs” mindset, especially when there’s so much more at stake for us?
Yet, as Christ-followers, when it comes to Jordan, I believe we have to learn when to “eat the fish and spit out the bones.” There is much to admire and apply from MJ’s work ethic, resilience, and willingness to challenge himself and others. But surely, there are splinters to spit out as well. Some of the recent hurts in the Church have come from Christian leaders failing to spit out these worldly leadership practices in their shepherding of the Church.
So, let’s attempt to separate fish and the bones with these three calls for Christian leaders:
- For Christian leaders, the end doesn’t justify the means. Instead, Christ calls us to pursue faithfulness in both means and ends.
- For Christian leaders, we are to be lion-like and lamb-like, remembering that with Christ, the order was first lamb, then lion.
- For Christian leaders, when we lead like Christ our impact doesn’t leave with us, but it continues beyond us.
1. For Christian leaders, the end doesn’t justify the means. Instead, Christ calls us to pursue faithfulness in both means and ends.
This is how MJ described his mindset: “My mentality was to go out and win, at any cost. If you don’t wanna live that regimented mentality, then you don’t need to be alongside of me, ’cause I’m gonna ridicule you until you get on the same level with me. And if you don’t get on the same level, then it’s gonna be hell for you.”
In this quote, we can clearly see MJ’s end, “Win, at any cost, ” and MJ’s means, “I’m gonna ridicule you until you get on the same level with me.”
Now, Paul also speaks of our mentality towards God’s “end” for the Christian:
“Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it.” (1 Corinthians 9:24)
So for Christians, our mentality, yes, is to “strive to win” (our end), but there are rules that govern our pursuit (our means), especially in leadership. We know from fallen leaders and toxic work cultures that there is a dangerous slope in which abuse of power, rebuke, and ridicule can become the norm and even seem justified because it is the “best” way to get results and “to win for God’s kingdom.”
Yet, Jesus qualifies for us that He is concerned not just about “the end”, but “the means” when He calls us to counter-cultural, counter-intuitive leadership:
“You know that those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. But it shall not be so among you. (Mark 10:42-43)
So, what is the “means” of Christian leadership?
2. For Christian leaders, we are to be lion-like and lamb-like, remembering that with Christ, the order was first lamb, then lion.
Basketball player-turned-coach Steve Kerr was a teammate of both Michael Jordan and NBA great Tim Duncan. In a podcast episode for The Ringer, Kerr talked about how playing with each superstar was a drastically different experience (emphasis added): “The difference between Michael and Tim (Duncan) is you always felt like you were playing with Tim and there were times where you felt like you were playing for Michael.” Jordan’s teammates were “scared to death” of him, which was not the case for teammates of Duncan.”
Now, it would be unbalanced to say that in Christian leadership that there is no place for challenge and rebuke. Jesus rebuked his disciples. Paul rebuked Peter and challenged Timothy.
But we have to ask ourselves if our leadership creates a culture of fear in which people are “serving for” their pastor or boss, rather than “serving with” them and ultimately out of love for the Lord.
One of the most helpful paradigms for understanding Christ is to see him as both “lion” and “lamb.” Jesus is majestic, powerful, just, and righteous, like a lion. But Jesus is also meek, lowly, merciful, and forgiving, like a lamb.
“Behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah…has conquered…and…I saw a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain” (Revelation 5:5-6)
Now while Jesus is both Lion and Lamb, the framework of the Gospel is that in Christ’s First Coming, He came to us as a Lamb to sacrificially bear our sins and reconcile us to God. And then in Christ’s Second Coming, He will come as Lion to bring final judgment.
Now, leadership and relationships are not so mechanical as to say there is a strict ordering to all our interactions. But the general paradigm and shape of our leadership ought to follow the pattern of Christ in that our foundation of leadership is to be Lamb-like — sacrificial, loving, tender. And then, on that foundation of Lamb-like leadership, people experience us being Lion-like, not as someone to fear, but someone they willingly embrace, trust, and follow.
But the skeptic may still be tempted to ask, what is the result of this sort of leadership and its impact on actually “winning?”
3. For Christian leaders, when we lead like Christ our impact doesn’t leave with us, but it continues beyond us.
There’s not much doubt that when it comes to talent, drive, and winning, Michael Jordan can be argued to be the greatest athlete of all time, influencing millions. But what we also see in the documentary is a string of ongoing and growing brokenness in his personal life — broken relationships with past teammates, friends, and, though the documentary doesn’t get into it, even in his family life.
What I think we might surmise from this is that in Michael Jordan we find a type of “individual greatness,” which tends to come by force of one’s personal drive that prickles those nearest and yet brings admiration from those watching at a distance.
Yet in contrast, there’s a type of “leadership greatness” achieved not so much because of one’s personal giftedness, but through one’s ability to bring out the gifts of drawing the close ones near.
In Good to Great, author Jim Collins examined CEOs of major companies and assigned them “levels” based on their leadership styles. Let’s examine two in particular:
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Level 4 leaders:
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“concerned more with their own reputation for personal greatness, often failed to set the company up for success in the next generation. After all, what better testament to your own personal greatness than that the place falls apart after you leave?” (26)
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Level 5 leaders:
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“Builds enduring greatness through a paradoxical blend of personal humility and professional will.” (20)
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“Level 5 leaders set up their successors for even greater success in the next generation” (39)
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What is interesting is that Level 4 leaders were often the ones seen as generational leaders – written about, interviewed, and praised in business magazines – even though internally they were often experienced as narcissistic. Level 5 leaders often went unnoticed, yet their greatness was only understood later through the healthy company culture they had built and the enduring success that lived beyond them.
Of course, this business wisdom finds its roots in the wisdom of God. Jesus Himself models this humble succession plan (although Jesus is unique in that He is the only leader who ought to be worshipped and remembered!). This relatively obscure Galilean carpenter and leader of mainly 12 men spoke these words to his disciples, who would go and raise up the early Church to change the world in a way that Jesus never would do while physically present on earth:
“Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you (John 16:7)… “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father.” (John 14:12, emphasis added)
In the upside-down kingdom of Jesus and His followers, we recognize that it is in “losing” — in which people will think much less about us and infinitely more about Christ — that we experience the joy of “winning.” And in that, by God’s grace, our hope is for an influence that outlives us.
Lead Like Mike?
I still love and appreciate the greatness of Michael Jordan and in his realm of an NBA team, that form of leadership may be acceptable and obviously it led to success. But, as a Christ-follower, as a pastor, as a leader — we operate under different ethics and definitions of success, and thus, I cannot “lead like Mike.”
Yet, the Gospel compels me to evaluate MJ’s style, not with haughtiness, but with humble broken-heartedness and contrition which says, “But, I do lead like Mike.” I am often driven by my goals and ambitions more than I care about God’s glory and patiently loving and shepherding God’s people.
But I must go on to say, “I do lead like Mike…and that’s why I desperately need Jesus.” And that’s the heartbeat of Christian leadership — it’s the ones most needy for Jesus who are found to be most qualified to lead. May it be true of us, and I pray one day it will be true for MJ too.