Leadership 1, Good Values Attract Good People (Bot9 #139)

"Good Values Attract Good People" John Wooden's Leadership Lesson #1 by Keith Wahl

John Wooden wrote 12 Leadership Lessons that enhance our understandings of leadership and success. These 12 lessons will be the focus of Bottom of the Ninth for 12 weeks.

Wooden's first leadership lesson, "Good values attract good people," seems to hold true in the world. The simple idea here is that if you are a leader of value, you'll attract people with the same values. Values are to operate as a magnet in this regard. It seems that when you make your values visible, you allow others to join you.

When applied to the life of Jesus Christ, this principle seems to become problematic. If you're reading Bottom of the Ninth, you recognize that Christ is the ultimate example of great values. He supersedes values that are merely "good." Did Christ's values attract many people?

The simple answer here is no. In John 6, "many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him." While Christ had attracted a lot of people early in His ministry, many ran for the hills as soon as He started talking about being the "bread of life." By the time he was arrested, He was alone.

What about Christ's disciples? Would their "good values attract good people"? Not so much. In Matthew 10 and John 15, Jesus warns His disciples that they "will be hated by all for my name's sake" and that the world hated Him first. Encouraging, right?

In some ways, we look for our values to be deemed as "good" by our peers in a course of desiring acceptance. Our tendency is to desire acceptance from those around us instead of adhering to the teachings of Jesus Christ. That's natural - no one intentionally seeks to be persecuted.

In application of this lesson, if we desire to attract those with "great values" - the values of Christ, we must learn what Christ says and hold true to His teaching. When we surrender our lives to Him and His teaching, we will find others who desire His will in their lives at the same level. In that way, we can accept that "Good Values Attract Good People." Let us continue to strive for the "great" values prescribed by Jesus Christ.