Last Supper Leadership, The Three Methods

Leadership is a universal experience. Whether it be parenting a family, teaching a class, or supervising co-workers, all of us eventually find ourselves directing a small or a large group of people. Some leaders have natural talent to take charge, while others find leadership stressful and difficult. In Last Supper Leadership, the Three Methods, Mark Squires offers a friendly discussion about applying three simple methods of leadership that Jesus gave to His apostles at the Last Supper. Using scripture and sixty years of his own life experience as a construction worker, a high school English teacher, and a junior high school principal, Squires explains how the inspiring words of Jesus during that memorable meeting were not only for the apostles, but also for each of us who desire to better lead our families, our schools, our churches, and our businesses.

Divided into just three modest chapters, Last Supper Leadership breaks down the words of Jesus into three basic methods of leadership, one method for each chapter, starting, of course, with the washing of the apostles’ feet and the command to “love one another.” Service, then, is the topic of chapter one. Squires weaves personal stories with scripture to solidify the idea that a leader’s first priority is to serve the organization, not to aggrandize personal ambition.

Chapter two shows how Jesus promoted and expected belief in His organization and its people. Despite the uncomfortable need to reveal personal weaknesses in his apostles, Jesus was careful to rebuild their confidence in themselves and in the incredible message that would soon become the foundational ideal of Western Civilization. Again Squires uses personal experience to demonstrate the modern need for a successful leader to promote belief in people and a belief in the mission of the organization.

That night as Jesus hinted that His own death was near, the naïve apostles became discouraged. Several times during their final meeting together, Jesus paused his commentary to do one thing: comfort his downcast attendants with a vision of the future. Hence, the title of chapter three is “Promote Comfort.” So important is comfort to people and their efforts to sustain an organization, that Jesus implemented a continuous method of comfort after he was gone—the Holy Spirit, aka the Comforter. With more personal stories, Squires emphasizes that very idea—that great leaders have a vision, and they use that vision to comfort the members of their organization.

Last Supper Leadership contains three basic ideas of leadership that can be used immediately to build an effective and efficient organization where all members help each other succeed, where all members believe in what they are doing, and where all members overcome discouragement by the comforting vision of their leader.