
Leadership: Divine and Human – Insights from Bonhoeffer
Are we to live extraordinary lives? Bonhoeffer, says no. Is the core purpose of the church to make this world a better place? Bonhoeffer, says no. Should pastors and leaders be ambitious? Bonhoeffer, says no. What then does he propose? To help us discover that we will have Bonhoeffer in conversation with Willow Creek and Bill Hybels.
This course considers the life and written work of Dietrich Bonhoeffer who has been variously described as theologian, pastor, pastor-theologian, writer, activist, pacifist and martyr. In the face of such diversity we attend to the continuities in Bonhoeffer’s thought and practice as a Christian leader.
More specifically, this course will explore Bonhoeffer’s personal quest to understand the plight of ego and power in leadership and their solution in the notion of discipleship and freedom.
Further, this course integrates the insights of Dietrich Bonhoeffer with a contemporary case study of Bill Hybels, the former pastor and leader of Willow Creek. Willow Creek proves to be a valuable case study in which issues of ego and power in leadership surface. It is important to understand them rightly and posit how Bonhoeffer’s thought on, and practice of, leadership provides a needed corrective.