One evening, after his young students at the underground seminary of Finkenwalde had finished their supper, Dietrich Bonhoeffer went alone to the kitchen to wash the dishes.
He began the work alone, then requested the help of his pupils. But the seminarians did not budge, leaving Bonhoeffer alone scrubbing silverware. When no one offered to serve alongside him, he locked the door. When the students realized what he had done, they felt badly and finally offered to help. The door, however, remained locked and Bonhoeffer finished the work alone. His lesson was simple: service and leadership go together, and true service does not stem from lazy pity.
Each of the students at Finkenwalde had a number of these experiences when, because of his intense desire to teach them, Bonhoeffer would do or command something unusual in order to underscore the radical nature of life within the kingdom of God. To make disciples of Jesus in this upside-down kingdom required hyperbole and dramatic expression. And on one occasion, it meant locking the door while washing the dishes.
Thinking and doing
My introduction to Bonhoeffer came through his small book entitled, Psalms: The Prayer Book of the Bible. My wife had taken it off her stepmom’s bookshelf when we were in high school and dating. Near the end of that little book, Bonhoeffer’s best friend, Eberhard Bethge, wrote “A Biographical Sketch” of the pastor and theologian. In this section, Bethge describes his friend’s time as a leader of the secret, underground seminary.
'[At Finkenwalde] he shared with them his personal belongings—material as well as spiritual—his time, and his plans. He was magnanimous … many students were at first startled by his strength and power of his thought but soon discovered that no one was able to listen to them so well and so completely, in order to be able to advise them and to make demands on them which none previously had been able to make with success. Here in the seminary everything was done in a fresh way."
This short passage piqued my interested in Bonhoeffer, leading me to read Life Together and his Letters and Papers from Prison. I even wrote one of my senior theses in college on the rhetorical significance of his letters from prison. What I didn’t realize then was that Bonhoeffer’s thoughts were just the precursor to something even more important: his actions.
Bonhoeffer was a paradoxical figure. He was non-violent, but participated in a plot to kill Hitler. He was cosmopolitan (he loved music, the theater, and literature of all kinds) and yet he was a monastic thinker who led students in solitude.
Bonhoeffer’s theology made him into a unique leader. His deep understanding of the Sermon on the Mount led him to practice it with his students as much as possible. His study of the Psalms led him to strive to understand the power of God’s word. It also led to his decision to not allow anyone at his secret seminary to speak before they heard God’s word at the morning Scripture reading.
These unique traits of Bonhoeffer’s are traits of leadership. At its very core, leadership is about being out front, seeing things others do not, and leading them there with care and conviction. Perhaps this is why Bonhoeffer remains incredibly popular. Seventy years after his death, he continues to inspire people through his writing and example.
My “Life Together”
About a year and a half ago, I was nearing a crossroads in my ministry. I had been serving the same students in my youth ministry for four years, and God had done so much. The group had grown, spiritually and numerically. We’d gone on fruitful short-term trips, and we were on the cusp of having a great group of seniors enter their final year of high school. I was getting the sense that we were done with one season, but God had something else ahead. However, for the first time in my short ministry life, I didn’t know what to do next. We had all the potential in the world—great student and adult leaders, a large group, a talented team—but I didn’t know what God wanted us to do next.
During this time I was re-reading Life Together by Bonhoeffer alongside The Spiritual Exercises by St. Ignatius of Loyola. I was reminded of the Jesuits’ influence on Bonhoeffer. He loved their commitment to reflection and prayerful meditation. As I read these books, I realized something. Though our group had embarked on some great service trips, I had never taken my students away to pray.
So at the start of that school year, I decided to ask the seniors to fast for a week (sun up to sun down) and accompany me to the Oregon Coast to pray for a weekend. As we went away, we practiced “Life Together,” praying in the morning, in the afternoon, and the evening. We heard God’s word in the morning and allowed Scripture to silence us as we contemplated who God is and what he has done. This simple schedule drew us closer to each other and to Christ. The next year was our most fruitful yet. And I don’t think it was because our prayers and discipline gave us some clear strategy. I think we grew in our trust of God and one another, allowing us, students and leaders alike, to practice better ministry together.
Where leadership lives
Bonhoeffer was extremely disciplined and maintained an impressive daily schedule. While he pastored two churches in a London suburb, he would arrange the days with daily devotional readings from the Daily Office, spend mornings reading, afternoons writing, and evenings visiting congregants and hosting or attending parties.
In a little book, Spiritual Care, Bonhoeffer writes: “The life of a pastor completes itself in reading, meditation, prayer, and struggle. The means is the word of Scripture with which everything begins and to which everything returns.”
Seventy years have passed since Bonhoeffer was executed outside a rural prison camp in Germany. On this anniversary, it’s worth considering not only on what he did, but how he was able to do it. What drove him to lead the way he did?
He wasn’t perfect. Like any of us, he was filled with contradictory motives and emotions. But despite his imperfections, he regarded reading, meditation, prayer, and adversity not as strictures to escape but as disciplines to embrace. From his time in what he called “the presence of Christ,” he would do everything, from locking the door as he washed dishes to whispering prayers as he was led to the gallows.
Chris Nye is a pastor and writer living in Portland, Oregon, with his wife, Ali. Connect on Twitter: @chrisnye
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