Heads and Tails: Following and Leading in Kingdom-Formed Organizations

Your life depends on organizations. God created you in his image for purposeful relationships. No human can thrive, or ultimately even survive, in isolation. From the small groups like a nuclear family, church, or school to large secular companies, and the government, every such purposeful group of people is, by definition, an organization where everything is done by someone who is following or leading, and often both. These interdependent roles are equally important heads and tails of the organizational coin. The Kingdom of God has two realms of organizations. The heavenly realm is perfectly organized, so when Jesus taught his followers to pray, he told them to pray for God's Kingdom to come soon on earth as it is now in heaven. Later he repeated that instruction even more strongly and with a promise: seek the Kingdom of God above everything else, and he will give you everything you need. How do you bring Kingdom principles into every kind of organization, with following and leading equally valued under the perfect leadership of King Jesus? The heavenly realm provides the organizational and relational ideal for all organizations in the earthly realm, so the following and leading roles can be filled with maximum effectiveness. In the present earthly realm, Kingdom-formed organizations function as much as possible like the ideal model of the coming Kingdom of Jesus Christ. Thus, in a heavily leader-centric world, extra-intentional effort must focus on the development of highly effective followership and truly humble leadership. Heads and Tails provides principles, illustrations, a practical framework, meditations, and challenging questions for a mindset that guides actions great and small to make following and leading in any kind of organization more like the coming Kingdom of God.