{"id":11856,"date":"2013-04-09T09:14:33","date_gmt":"2013-04-09T14:14:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/?p=11856"},"modified":"2013-04-09T09:21:05","modified_gmt":"2013-04-09T14:21:05","slug":"the-strange-case-for-meek-leadership","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/the-strange-case-for-meek-leadership\/","title":{"rendered":"The Strange case for Meek Leadership"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"franciswashes\"<\/a>As new Pope Francis makes bold statements through actions (washing the feet of inmates, taking residence in the papal guest house, etc) the word I hear tossed about concerning his leadership is MEEK<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Too often lumped as a quality of weakness, Meek Leadership has secret powers!<\/p>\n

So what is the word “meek” about and how can it be so influential?<\/strong><\/p>\n

My leadership professor, Tim Valentino, wrote some comments I’d like to share with you.<\/p>\n

(You can read more of Tim at his blog<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/strong>)<\/p>\n

Leadership and Meekness?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The biblical word for this is \u201cmeek\u201d (praus). A related word is \u201cgentle\u201d (prautes).<\/strong><\/p>\n

The semantic range of this word cluster includes the following: humble, gentle, considerate, unassuming, courteous, and restrained. In some contexts it means, \u201cthe absence of pretension.\u201d By way of contrast, it\u2019s the opposite of harsh, arrogant, or braggadocios.<\/p>\n

As used outside the New Testament, this word has in it the idea of \u201clying low.\u201d It was a word originally used, for example, to describe a low-lying river\u2014one that cut through a valley. A river, of course, is a powerful thing, but a low-lying river is one that doesn\u2019t impose its power on you. You have to go out of your way to go see it because it\u2019s unobtrusive.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s important to keep in mind, I think, that \u201cmeek\u201d does not mean \u201cweak.\u201d Unfortunately, these two words rhyme in English, but they are not synonymous.<\/strong> Nor does this word mean timid, shy, bashful, cowardly, indecisive, or unwilling to serve. Perhaps the best definition comes from William Barclay, who defined meekness as \u201cpower under control.\u201d<\/p>\n

Again, as used outside the Bible in the first century, this word referred to:<\/p>\n

\u2022 Tame animals (cf. an elephant with its foot on a circus lady)<\/strong>
\n \u2022 Soothing medicine (cf. buffered aspirin or anti-anxiety drugs)<\/strong>
\n \u2022 A gentle breeze (cf. not a tornado, but wind that is refreshing to the body)<\/strong><\/p>\n

All of these items can have tremendous, destructive power, but \u201cmeekness\u201d brings them under control to serve a good purpose. Significantly, Jesus, who has all authority in heaven and earth, quintessentially displays meekness. He said in Matthew 11:29:<\/p>\n

\u201cCome to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jesus, of course, was a great leader. He was also meek. Apparently God thinks the two should go together.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Questions to ponder:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a7 Do you know anyone who is powerful yet meek?<\/strong>
\n \u00a7 Do you know anyone who is authoritative yet gentle?<\/strong>
\n \u00a7 Could your leadership be described as \u201cmeek\u201d in the sense used here?<\/strong>
\n \u00a7 How would our work environments improve if our leaders were meek?<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So what is the word “meek” about and how can it be so influential?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5626],"tags":[132,6118,223,293,5325,6,5143,4596,4047,5659,4802,4377,1472,1503,1608,4686,1742,4716,1763,4640,41,4763,42,5974,4904,6206,6207,2496,6204,4798,6135,2860,6002,5646,5611,6205,4597,3711,5010,4641,3742,89,4600],"class_list":["post-11856","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-spark-my-muse","tag-actions","tag-adjective","tag-animals","tag-authority","tag-best","tag-bible","tag-biblical","tag-burden","tag-classes","tag-comments","tag-control","tag-do","tag-god","tag-good","tag-heaven","tag-humble","tag-i-am","tag-if","tag-in","tag-influence","tag-jesus","tag-leaders","tag-leadership","tag-learn","tag-matthew","tag-meek","tag-meekness","tag-pastoring","tag-pope-francis","tag-power","tag-professor","tag-rest","tag-secret","tag-share","tag-taking","tag-washing-feet","tag-weary","tag-will","tag-wit","tag-word","tag-words","tag-work","tag-yoke"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11856","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11856"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11856\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11861,"href":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11856\/revisions\/11861"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11856"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11856"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11856"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}