Gene Wilkes - Jesus on Leadership: Timeless Wisdom on Servant Leadership

Jesus on Leadership a must read for those who value their family! This book is most inspiring and practical. Im pleased to recommend it.

W ILLIAM M ITCHELL , author of Building Strong Families, founder of Power of Positive Students

It was my opportunity to be led by God to enlist Gene Wilkes to write the curriculum edition of Jesus on Leadership: Becoming a Servant Leader for LifeWay Press. Genes message communicates the biblical servant leadership demonstrated by Jesus and has helped equip church leaders to be more effective. In the same way, I believe this tailored Tyndale House edition will have incredible impact on leaders in business, industry, government, and schools, as well as churches. This edition of Jesus on Leadership is simply proof of how Gods energizing presence has brought together spiritual gifts, experiences, relating style, and vocational skills in Gene Wilkess life to serve all leaders who desire their lives to please and serve God. The quality of what Gene has done is an example of how God can and does develop a persons capacity to understand and apply Gods servant leadership principles in the daily walk of life. For Gods touch on Genes mind and heart in the writing of Jesus on Leadership, I say, Thank you, God!

H ENRY W EBB , director, Discipleship and Family Leadership Department, publisher of LifeWay Edition of Jesus on Leadership: Becoming a Servant Leader

Read at your own risk. Gene Wilkes may change your whole view of leadership. While Jesus on Leadership is a practical tool kit, Wilkess unusual writing gifts make it stirring devotional reading as well. And it is no book of theory. This material flows from the heart and hands of an authentic servant leader. Besides living these principles himself, Gene Wilkes has trained and mentored scores of leaders, Jesus-style. I am delighted that he has now spelled out his heart in print for the benefit of thousands. This refreshing book deserves top priority on the reading list of every Christian. I predict it will be around for a long time.

L YNN A NDERSON , president, Hope Network Ministries, author of They Smell Like Sheep: Biblical Leadership for the Twenty-First Century

Spiritual formation is the biggest issue for leaders in the church. The need is obvious, most notably demonstrated by the lack of genuine spiritual vibrancy in so many who occupy positions of influence among Christian congregations and institutions. Help has now arrived! What Gene Wilkes says is right on target at delivering a corrective for so much of what we see masquerading as Christian leadership. Dont read this book if you are unwilling to be challenged or even changed!

R EGGIE M C N EAL , director of leadership development, South Carolina Baptist Convention

Gene Wilkess description of leadership according to Jesus I am a mission and I serve those who are on that mission has captured the heart and passion of the mission-driven leader.

B ILL E ASUM , author of Growing Spiritual Redwoods and director of 21st Century Strategies

I have known Gene Wilkes since he was eighteen. He has lived his life as a servant leader. This has been his passion. The insights I have received from reading this book will forever change the way I do my job and live my life.

G ARY C OOK , president, Dallas Baptist University

Gene Wilkes, my friend and fellow pastor, serves us lessons on leadership that have been simmering for a lifetime. Centered around the meat of Christs ministry, they are complemented by wise counsel for others and flavored with experience. Although the truth is often hard to swallow, Genes recipe for servant leadership is both delicious and nutritious. Its a feast fit for a King, coach, pastor, or parent. Enjoy!

G ENE A. G ETZ , author of The Measure of a Man, senior pastor, Fellowship Bible Church North, Richardson, Texas

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Jesus on Leadership: Timeless Wisdom on Servant Leadership

Copyright 1998 by LifeWay Press. All rights reserved.

Cover photograph from the Private Collection copyright Look and Learn/Bridgeman Images. All rights reserved.

Edited by Vinita Hampton Wright

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Scripture quotations marked NLT are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright 1996 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Wilkes, C. Gene

Jesus on leadership / C. Gene Wilkes

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN 978-0-8423-1863-1 (sc : alk. paper)

1. Leadership Religious aspects Christianity. 2. Jesus Christ

Leadership. I. Title.

BV4597.53.L43W55 1998

253 dc21 98-24160

ISBN 978-1-4143-2807-2 (ePub); ISBN 978-1-4143-2724-2 (Kindle); ISBN 978-1-4143-6244-1 (Apple)

Build: 2016-01-18 11:55:23

T HERE are some books the world waits for without ever knowing it is waiting. Jesus on Leadership is such a book. When such books are written, they inevitably can have no more than one source. There is not a guild of authors for the books that must be written and must be read.

For some time now I have known that Gene Wilkes was working on this book. I have prayed for him throughout this long season of his dedication. I have seen him emerge from his cocoon of creativity before. Behind him, through the doorway of his study, can be seen the titles of hundreds of different books that have been his companions and future for his mental sojourn. But the fact that Gene Wilkes knows the literature of leadership is not why this book is the finest of its kind in the marketplace.

There are four major contributors to Gene Wilkess greatness as a scholar and teacher. These same four forces permeate this book and make it a must for all of those who want to become informed and capable leaders.

First, Gene Wilkes loves Jesus. Please dont think this a mere saccharine appraisal between friends. This simplicity provides Gene his passion to serve both God and his congregation. Further, this love for Christ carries a subtle and pervasive authenticity that makes Gene Wilkes believable. Whether you read him or hear him lecture, you walk away from the experience knowing that what youve heard is the truth the life-changing truth from a man who lives the truth and loves getting to the bottom of things. All this I believe derives from his love of Christ.

Second, Gene is a practitioner of servant leadership. When he encourages you to pick up the basin and towel and wash feet, you may be sure it is not empty theory. He teaches others what he has learned in the laboratory of his own experience. Gene is a servant leader, and even as he wrote this book, he directed his very large church through a massive building program. His church leadership ability, which he exhibited during this writing project, does not surface in this volume, but it undergirds and authenticates it.