Critical Acclaim for In the Name of Jesus
“In the Name of Jesus draws provocative and stimulating conclusions about the meaning and significance of Christian ministry.”
—Christianity Today
“One of the most powerful books I have read in a long time.”
—Deacon Digest
“Anyone involved in Christian ministry needs to read this book.”
—The Theological Educator
“An incisive, moving book.”
—Review and Expositor
“Nouwen writes succinctly, with clarity and ease.”
—Sojourners
“An absolute treasure. There is more packed between the covers of this little book that adults will find helpful to living a Christian life than you’ll find in many a volume three times its size.”
—Our Sunday Visitor
“It will not take you long to read this excellent little book, but be prepared for it to occupy your thoughts for quite a while.”
—Chattanooga Times
“A small but powerful volume about ministry.”
—Catholic Book Club
“Although the book’s subtitle indicates that it is directed towards leaders, the message is more universal. . . . A wonderful book.”
—NPH
“He packs in more wisdom than most authors do in books ten times the size.”
—Leadership
“Although he is addressing those who in one way or another are in a leadership role, this simple, Gospel-based message is relevant to everyone.”
—Prairie Messenger
“With passion and intelligence, Nouwen speaks to the current ‘crisis in ministry,’ offering a powerful apologetic for Christian ministry.”
—Restoration Quarterly
“Nouwen’s trademark honesty and compassion permeate every page. . . . Every church library should have a Nouwen collection, and this title should be in it.”
—Church and Synagogue Library Association
“The overall message of the book is as touching and moving as we have seen before in Nouwen’s work. The image of the servant-leader among the people is one that needs to be pointed out again and again in the church.”
—Sisters Today
“A jewel.”
—Catholic Twin Circle
“Savor the insights of a gifted writer, a deep thinker, and, above all, a lover of Jesus.”
—Christian Home and School
“These reflections come out of his own openness to personal struggle and growth—in this case, recent experiences as priest at a L’Arche community for the mentally handicapped. . . . His message movingly conveys how his relationships with these broken people have touched him deeply in return. Heart-warming and provocative.”
—Library Journal
In the Name of Jesus
HENRI J. M. NOUWEN
In the Name of Jesus
REFLECTIONS ON CHRISTIAN LEADERSHIP
with study guide for groups and individuals
A Crossroad Book
The Crossroad Publishing Company
New York
The Crossroad Publishing Company
www.crossroadpublishing.com
© 1989 by Henri J. M. Nouwen
“Study Guide” © 2002 by
The Crossroad Publishing Company
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To Murray McDonnell
Contents
Acknowledgments
Prologue
Introduction
I. FROM RELEVANCE TO PRAYER
The Temptation: To Be Relevant
The Question: “Do You Love Me?”
The Discipline: Contemplative Prayer
II. FROM POPULARITY TO MINISTRY
The Temptation: To Be Spectacular
The Task: “Feed My Sheep”
The Discipline: Confession and Forgiveness
III. FROM LEADING TO BEING LED
The Temptation: To Be Powerful
The Challenge: “Somebody Else Will Take You”
The Discipline: Theological Reflection
Conclusion
Epilogue
Study Guide
Acknowledgments
In the preparation of this little book I have received invaluable help. I would like especially to express my gratitude to Connie Ellis for her secretarial assistance, to Conrad Wieczorek for his skillful editing of the manuscript, and to Sue Mosteller for her insightful comments on the content. I also want to say thanks to Bob Heller, the president of Crossroad, who was the first to suggest publication of this text in book form.
The most encouraging and life-giving response to In the Name of Jesus came from Gordon Cosby and Diana Chambers of the Church of the Saviour in Washington, D.C.
They told me that their new Servant Leadership School is trying to form Christian leaders based on the vision expressed in these pages. The Servant Leadership School wants to nurture a Christian leadership in which a life of prayer, confession, and forgiveness in community is intimately united with a life of ministry among the inner-city poor.
The Servant Leadership School offers a unique opportunity to pursue a spiritual journey in which unceasing prayer and committed service can be lived as the two inseparable qualities of the call of Jesus.
I am deeply grateful to know that what is written here is finding a very concrete expression in a new school of Christian discipleship.
Prologue
When my friend Murray McDonnell visited me at the Daybreak community near Toronto, he asked me whether I would be willing to speak about Christian leadership in the twenty-first century, the occasion being the fifteenth anniversary of the Center for Human Development in Washington, D.C. Although I had only recently begun my work as a priest at Daybreak, one of the L’Arche communities for mentally handicapped people, I did not want to disappoint Murray, who, as chairman of the board of the Center for Human Development, had given much of his time and energy to its growth. I also knew Father Vincent Dwyer, the Center’s founder, and had great admiration for his dedicated work in helping priests and ministers in their search for emotional and spiritual wholeness. So I said yes.
But after having said yes to the invitation, I realized that it was far from easy to come up with a sane perspective on Christian leadership for the twenty-first century. The audience would mostly be priests who were themselves deeply involved in ministry to their fellow priests. What would I be able to say to people who are thinking day in and day out about the future of the pries
thood and the ministry in the church? I also wondered how it would be possible to look ahead of me, into the new century, when I considered that nobody in the 1950s could have foreseen the situation of most priests today. Still, the more I said to myself, “I can’t do this,” the more I discovered within me a desire to put into words my thoughts about ministry as they had evolved since my joining the Daybreak community. For many years I had taught courses about ministry. Now, having stepped away from the academic life and having been called to be a priest for mentally handicapped people and their assistants, I asked myself, “How do I now live from day to day after having spoken for twenty years to young men and women preparing themselves for ministry? How do I think about my ministry and how do these thoughts affect my everyday words and actions?”
I also came to see that I should not worry about tomorrow, next week, next year, or the next century. The more willing I was to look honestly at what I was thinking and saying and doing now, the more easily I would come into touch with the movement of God’s Spirit in me, leading me to the future. God is a God of the present and reveals to those who are willing to listen carefully to the moment in which they live the steps they are to take toward the future. “Do not worry about tomorrow,” Jesus says. “Tomorrow will take care of itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own” (Matthew 6:34).
With these thoughts, I began to write down what I most deeply felt about my present life as a priest at Daybreak, trying carefully to discern which of my own experiences and insights could speak to priests and ministers who live in very different circumstances. The present work is the result.
Jesus did not send his disciples out alone to preach the word. He sent them two by two.
Before concluding these introductory remarks, however, I must tell you, the readers of this little book, that I did not go to Washington, D.C., by myself. As I was preparing my presentation, I became deeply aware of the fact that Jesus did not send his disciples out alone to preach the word. He sent them two by two. I began to wonder why nobody was planning to go with me. If my present life is truly a life among handicapped people, why not ask one of them to join me on the journey and to share the ministry with me?
After some consultation, the Daybreak community decided to send Bill Van Buren with me. Since my arrival at Daybreak, Bill and I had become good friends. Of all the handicapped people in the house, he was the most able to express himself with words and gestures. From the beginning of our friendship, he had shown a real interest in my work as a priest and had offered to help me during services. One day he told me that he had not been baptized and expressed a strong desire to belong to the church. I suggested that he join a parish program for those who desired baptism. Faithfully he went to the local parish every Thursday evening. Even though the long and often complex presentations and discussions were far beyond his mental capacities, he had a real sense of belonging to the group. He felt accepted and loved. He received much and, with his generous heart, gave much in return. His Baptism, Confirmation, and First Communion during the Easter Vigil became a real high point in his life. While limited in his ability to express himself in many words, he felt deeply touched by Jesus and knew what it meant to be reborn by water and the Holy Spirit.
Often I had told Bill that those who are baptized and confirmed have a new vocation, the vocation to proclaim to others the good news of Jesus. Bill had listened to me carefully, and when I invited him to go with me to Washington, D.C., to speak to priests and ministers, he accepted it as an invitation to join me in my ministry. “We are doing this together,” he said at different times in the days before we left.
“Yes,” I kept saying, “we are doing this together. You and I are going to Washington to proclaim the Gospel.”
Bill did not for a moment doubt the truth of this. While I was quite nervous about what to say and how to say it, Bill showed great confidence in his task. And, while I was still thinking about Bill’s trip with me primarily as something that would be nice for him, Bill was, from the beginning, convinced that he was going to help me. I later came to realize that he knew better than I. As we stepped on board the plane in Toronto, Bill reminded me again, “We are doing this together, aren’t we?”
“Yes, Bill,” I said, “we sure are.”
After telling you what I said in Washington, I will tell you in more detail what happened there and explain to you why Bill’s presence most likely had a more lasting influence than my words.
Introduction
The request to reflect on Christian leadership in the new century has created quite a bit of anxiety in me. What can I say about the twenty-first century if I feel at a loss when people ask me about next month? After a lot of inner turmoil, I decided to stay as close to my own heart as possible. I asked myself, “What decisions have you been making lately and how are they a reflection of the way you sense the future?” Somehow I have to trust that God is at work in me and that the way I am being moved to new inner and outer places is part of a larger movement of which I am only a very small part.
After twenty years in the academic world as a teacher of pastoral psychology, pastoral theology, and Christian spirituality, I began to experience a deep inner threat. As I entered into my fifties and was able to realize the unlikelihood of doubling my years, I came face to face with the simple question, “Did becoming older bring me closer to Jesus?” After twenty-five years of priesthood, I found myself praying poorly, living somewhat isolated from other people, and very much preoccupied with burning issues. Everyone was saying that I was doing really well, but something inside was telling me that my success was putting my own soul in danger. I began to ask myself whether my lack of contemplative prayer, my loneliness, and my constantly changing involvement in what seemed most urgent were signs that the Spirit was gradually being suppressed. It was very hard for me to see clearly, and though I never spoke about hell or only jokingly so, I woke up one day with the realization that I was living in a very dark place and that the term “burnout” was a convenient psychological translation for a spiritual death.
In the midst of this I kept praying, “Lord, show me where you want me to go and I will follow you, but please be clear and unambiguous about it!” Well, God was. In the person of Jean Vanier, the founder of the L’Arche communities for mentally handicapped people, God said, “Go and live among the poor in spirit, and they will heal you.” The call was so clear and distinct that I had no choice but to follow.
I was living in a very dark place and the term “burnout” was a convenient psychological translation for a spiritual death.
So I moved from Harvard to L’Arche, from the best and the brightest, wanting to rule the world, to men and women who had few or no words and were considered, at best, marginal to the needs of our society. It was a very hard and painful move, and I am still in the process of making it. After twenty years of being free to go where I wanted and to discuss what I chose, the small, hidden life with people whose broken minds and bodies demand a strict daily routine in which words are the least requirement does not immediately appear as the solution for spiritual burnout. And yet, my new life at L’Arche is offering me new words to use in speaking about Christian leadership in the future because I have found there all the challenges that we are facing as ministers of God’s Word.
So I will offer you some images from my life with people with a mental handicap. I hope that they will give you some inkling of the direction to take when wondering about Christian leadership in the future. In sharing my reflections with you, I will be guided by two stories from the Gospels: the story of Jesus’ temptation in the desert (Matthew 4:1–11) and the story of Peter’s call to be a shepherd (John 21:15–19).
I
From Relevance to Prayer
“One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.”
The Temptation: To Be Relevant
The first thing that struck me when I came to live in a house with mentally handicapped people was that th
eir liking or disliking me had absolutely nothing to do with any of the many useful things I had done until then. Since nobody could read my books, the books could not impress anyone, and since most of them never went to school, my twenty years at Notre Dame, Yale, and Harvard did not provide a significant introduction. My considerable ecumenical experience proved even less valuable. When I offered some meat to one of the assistants during dinner, one of the handicapped men said to me, “Don’t give him meat. He doesn’t eat meat. He’s a Presbyterian.”
Not being able to use any of the skills that had proved so practical in the past was a real source of anxiety. I was suddenly faced with my naked self, open for affirmations and rejections, hugs and punches, smiles and tears, all dependent simply on how I was perceived at the moment. In a way, it seemed as though I was starting my life all over again. Relationships, connections, reputations could no longer be counted on.
This experience was and, in many ways, is still the most important experience of my new life, because it forced me to rediscover my true identity. These broken, wounded, and completely unpretentious people forced me to let go of my relevant self—the self that can do things, show things, prove things, build things—and forced me to reclaim that unadorned self in which I am completely vulnerable, open to receive and give love regardless of any accomplishments.
I am telling you all this because I am deeply convinced that the Christian leader of the future is called to be completely irrelevant and to stand in this world with nothing to offer but his or her own vulnerable self. That is the way Jesus came to reveal God’s love. The great message that we have to carry, as ministers of God’s Word and followers of Jesus, is that God loves us not because of what we do or accomplish, but because God has created and redeemed us in love and has chosen us to proclaim that love as the true source of all human life.
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