“But when we are securely rooted in personal intimacy with the source of life, it will be possible to remain flexible without being relativistic, convinced without being rigid, willing to confront without being offensive, gentle and forgiving without being soft and true witnesses without being manipulative.”

Great short read with beautiful reminders

Nouwen observes that we hardly notice how secularized and worldly our churches and ministries have become. We have bought into the idea that being a Christian leader, pastor, teacher, or preacher is about being powerful, relevant, in control, and in some way spectacular. But those qualities have nothing to do with emulating Jesus or loving Jesus. Loving in the way of Jesus means giving up control, going places you would never choose to go on your own, and being a servant to Him and others. Nouwen essentially says that contrary to the world's view of success, maturity in a Christ follower results in downward mobility: letting go of control, power, and possessions. We are called to care for others with empty hands, living sacrificially in the name of Jesus.

12/6/2024 Reread
One of the best things about this small book is how Nouwen makes all his ideas vivid by relating them to his decision to move from Harvard to L’Arche, a community for mentally handicapped people. The text below includes quotes I extracted for a recent sermon entitled "Downward Mobility."

Allow me to also tell you about Henri Nouwen—Priest, author, and professor at Harvard. Having reached his fifties, Nouwen was living a life of independence, acclaim, and worldly significance. But he started to sense something was terribly wrong. He was feeling increasing distant from Christ and dissatisfied with his spiritual life. Nouwen dared to ask himself, “Did becoming older bring me closer to Jesus?” He could do whatever he wanted to do, whenever he wanted to do it, but he had less and less joy and even started having feelings of fear and dread. He suspected that his lifestyle was out of synch with the teachings and agenda of Jesus, and that he was at the very least headed for burn out.

Nouwen wrote: 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.

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, [I moved to] 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.
When I went to L’Arche, [my] individualism was radically challenged. There I was one of many people who tried to live faithfully with handicapped people, and the fact that I was a priest was not a license to do things on my own. Suddenly everyone wanted to know my whereabouts from hour to hour, and every movement I made was subject to accountability. One member of the community was appointed to accompany me; a small group was formed to help me decide which invitations to accept and which to decline; and the question most asked by the handicapped people with whom I live was, “Are you home tonight?” Once, when I had left on a trip without saying goodbye to Trevor, one of the handicapped people with whom I live, the first phone call I received when I had reached my destination was a tearful call from Trevor, saying, “Henri, why did you leave us? We miss you so. Please come back.”

Living in a community with very wounded people, I came to see that I had lived most of my life as a tightrope artist trying to walk on a high, thin cable from one tower to the other, always waiting for the applause when I had not fallen off and broken my leg.

The first thing that struck me when I came to live in a house with mentally handicapped people was that their 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.

end of quotations.

What Henri Nouwen learned by experience is that Our Lord Jesus points us towards the counter-culture model of “downward mobility”—that’s a term Nouwen coined.

Still well worth the regular reread! It’s crazy to revisit this piece as a professional in a field that is so relational. I would be really interested to hear what any fellow mft’s have to say about it!

Becoming a therapist and realizing the extent of my desire to be helpful, useful, and appreciated has been one of the most humbling experiences of my life.

I reread this every few years. The best book on “Christian Leadership” that I have encountered and I recommend to basically anyone for any reason.

Anything Nouwen deserves 5 stars. Reading between the temptation of Jesus in Matthew 4 and Peter’s recommission in John 21, he outlines three temptations of leadership, offers three challenges and encourages disciplines to overcome.

The subtitle of this book, "Reflections on Christian Leadership" says more about its contents than its main title. Leadership. Bookshop shelves sag under the weight of books on leadership, but this one, I suspect is rarely in stock. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if it has never been on any bestseller list, even within the niche market of contemplative Christianity. If you skip ahead to the concluding pages you might begin to see why. Nouwen asserts that being relevant, popular and powerful are not ingredients of an effective ministry: "The truth, however, is that these are not vocations but temptations" (emphasis mine). He flies in the face of contemporary expectations of successful and effective leadership and offers three essential disciplines for the Christian leader: contemplative prayer, confession, and theological reflection.

This short, gentle book is excellent fodder for a personal retreat for anyone engaged in Christian ministry or leadership. It is full of gentle yet provocative wisdom. I recommend you read it slowly and prayerfully with a pen and journal on hand.

One of the most startling reflections concerns Jesus' words to Peter at the close of the Fourth Gospel: "... when you are old you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go" (John 21:18). These were the words that enabled Henri Nouwen to leave his stellar academic career at Harvard to a life of chaplaincy among the disabled in Toronto. These words "touch the core of Christian leadership and are spoken to offer us ever and again new ways to let go of power and follow the humble way of Jesus." They encapsulate a different vision of maturity and of leadership: "a leadership of powerlessness and humility in which the suffering servant of God, Jesus Christ, is made manifest."

"I leave you with the image of the leader with outstretched hands, who chooses a life of downward mobility. It is the image of the praying leader, the vulnerable leader, and the trusting leader. May that image fill your hearts with hope, courage and confidence ..."

Inspiring. Challenging. Probably not so popular.

I’ve been talking about being a mystic wonderer since I first read this book four years ago. Re-reading it now, I am so struck by Nouwen’s exhortation to embrace a life of “insignificance.” The content of this book originally served as a talk given in DC, and living here now, I can only imagine how the call to insignificance must’ve felt to so many of the recipients. When I first moved here, a co-worker told me that the city operates off of power as currency. To that context, Nouwen talks about Jesus releasing divine power to become like us, with nothing to prove, and he says things like, “Dare to claim your irrelevance to enter into deep solidarity with the anguish underlying all the glitter of success.” It’s challenging and convicting.

Nouwen is writing to those in vocational ministry, but I still find his words so compelling. It rubs up against so much of me that is drawn to a culture drowning in ambition and success. And certainly these things are good and right in their place: I’m constantly inspired by how people in DC, specifically, leverage their passions to do great things. But to the weariness, to the parts of me that get tired of striving, this book is like a sweet salve.

In Nouwen’s writing, the role of the Christian is simple. It’s about “power constantly abandoned in favor of love” and falling into a humility that isn’t overly concerned with personal contribution. It stands in stark contrast to a world bent on self, and Nouwen knows this. But he also knows that something in our spirits wants to be small, and release a bit of the striving to just be beloved. The book serves as a challenge and invitation to just be small and loved, and to lead by modeling that release.

A shorter book from Nouwen in which he contemplates the future of Christian leadership. He surrounded his reflections on a central story where he spoke at an event alongside one of his mentally challenged friends from L'Arche community. The story was beautiful and exhibited so much depth in regards to the nature of servant leadership. Nouwen’s vision of what it means to be a christian minister shines through the pages as he explores elements of vulnerability, servanthood and living as an authentic human in a crazy world.

As with most of Nouwen's book this one is very short but to the point. He sees a need for 21st century leaders in the church to in much deeper relationships with those they serve. He is speaking out of his experience as pastor at Daybreak with the mentally challenged. Also I enjoyed his sharing his experiences with Bill who goes with him (two by two) to do ministry in Washington, D.C.

Written in 1989 and if every Christian leader had read it, the church would look totally different than it does today. Really enjoying Nouwen’s books/getting a peek into a very intimate relationship between God and a believer.

read this for my internship. it articulated a lot of feelings i’ve had but haven’t found words for. what would christianity look like if we were humble to accept the things we don’t know?

Still tears in my eyes from this one. More needed than ever in the church today. Very quick read, but savor it. Will return to it again as I am tempted to be relevant, spectacular, and powerful…instead of irrelevant, repentant, and weak for Jesus.