Leadership development is a ministerial necessity, extending beyond workplace interactions, conflict and stress management, and enhanced job performance. A ministerial necessity to lead like Jesus reflects the biblical vision of Jesus’ humanity. Missional practices for Christian leadership development, discipleship, and spiritual formation programs are best expressed in leading like Jesus. Leading like Jesus beyond emotional influence towards emotional output is not just about career success, role privilege, life satisfaction, and overall life success. Warfield rightly explained that “without an appreciation of his emotional life, Christ will always seem to be at a distance from us” (Warfield, 2022). Leading like Jesus is living and appreciating Jesus’ emotional life as a ministerial necessity for church and leadership renewal.

The development and benefits of Emotional Intelligence, although they appear universal, are more mission-driven and God-centred. For example, the application of Emotional Intelligence, as seen in the story of the fall in Genesis, reflects the ministry settings and mission research about ‘self-perception, self-expression, interpersonal relationships, decision making, and stress management.’ Leading like Jesus resonates as a biblical model of Emotional Intelligence, a ministerial necessity bearing in mind’ socio-emotional challenges with pastoral leadership.’ The minister’s emotional intelligence and wellbeing are grounded in Jesus’ emotional wellbeing and intelligence. Jesus is perfectly self-aware and responds to others in a way that fosters healthy, joyful, and flourishing relationships. The minister’s emotions of joy and peace are grounded in the joy and peace that Jesus Himself enjoys. However, leading like Jesus tells us that His wrath is real. Wrath is Jesus’ righteous reaction to sin.

Jesus draws His disciples closer to Himself through their experiential grasps of His emotional life; hence, Christian ministers are Jesus’ ambassadors and representative (2 Cor 5:20). Jesus Christ set as an example that His ministers should emulate, “I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you” (Jn 13:15). Missional practices for emotional intelligence points to living and leading like Jesus Christ, dead to the flesh and alive in the Spirit. The Bible says, The letter kills, but the Spirit gives life (2 Cor 3). Emulating Jesus’ example, being emotionally intelligent and alive in the Spirit, is a ministerial necessity for effective ministry.

Jesus, in His interaction with the Canaanite woman, displayed the strength and beauty of His emotional intelligence as a ministerial necessity for effective ministry (Matt 15:21-28; Mk 7:24-30). Jesus expanded the definition of God’s grace in response to the woman’s persistent faith, commended her great faith, and granted her request.

In the youthful years of Jesus Christ, at age 12, He was left behind at the Jerusalem Temple. Mary and Joseph, after a day’s travel, realised Jesus was missing. Finding Jesus three days later at the Temple in discussion with the elders, they were amazed at his learning. Jesus, in response to Mary’s rebukes and reference to Joseph as His father, stated that He was in His Father’s house, just where the Son should have been (Luke 2). Jesus was emotionally intelligent and alive, so the temple elders were amazed at His learning. It takes a minister to be emotionally intelligent and alive to lead like Jesus when He confronted the scribes and the Pharisees, the accusers of the woman caught in adultery (Jn 7-8).

Jesus was emotionally intelligent and alive, overcoming the Tempter three times in the wilderness during His 40 days of prayer and fasting (Matt 4:1-11).

On the Cross with the two thieves, Jesus did not overlook a significant moment in the biblical narrative, emphasising the importance of forgiveness and faith. He was emotionally intelligent and alive regardless of the pain and isolation on the Cross. He did not lose the hindsight to entrust His mother’s care to His disciples (Lk 23:39-43).

Leading like Jesus through Emotional Intelligence as a ministerial necessity beyond managing emotion calls us to ‘subdue the negative emotions of unrighteous anger and worry and cultivate the positive emotions of joy and gratitude.’ Christian ministers are warned ‘not to let the sun go down while you are still angry,’ and that unrighteous anger, and disrespecting others as “fool” brings God’s judgement (Eph 4:26; Matt 5:21-22). Leading like Jesus through Emotional Intelligence, as a ministerial necessity, commands us to find joy amid persecution and to rejoice that our names are written in heaven (Matt 5:12; Luke 10:20).

Beyond theological training and ministerial titles, the foundation of a healthy and growing ministry is the degree to which a minister abides in Jesus Christ. Ministry is relational as revealed and expressed through the fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22-23). Emotional intelligence relates to an understanding and practice of how our emotions, through Christ in us, impact others and our ministry. The expression of our emotional experiences has a daily impact on others, and to lead like Jesus, our emotional experience must start with a relationship with Jesus, enabling impactful spiritual discipline through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Leading like Jesus through emotional intelligence is a ministerial necessity that requires relational and encompassing self-awareness, empathy, motivation, self-regulation, and social connectedness. Emotional intelligence is a ministerial necessity for having a personal understanding and application of God’s redemption at Christ’s expense. Emotional intelligence is rooted in self-awareness, a personal reawakening that fosters an intentional relationship with Jesus Christ, which in turn overflows into our relationships with colleagues and church members.

Jesus, in His response to the question, “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” replied, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two” (Matt 22:36-40). Leading like Jesus through emotional intelligence as a ministerial necessity calls us to partake in God’s relational mandate, first to love the Lord with all our heart, soul, mind, and secondly, to love our neighbour as ourselves.

The foundation of every ministry is the degree to which the minister abides in Jesus. It is our abiding in Jesus that shapes our leadership like His, enhancing our emotional intelligence in planning our sermons and pastoral care (Ps 46:10).

The question for our reflection is whether we, as church members and leaders, are living the best in Christ-filled and abiding relationships? Leading like Jesus offers an opportunity to delve deeper into the factors, particularly Emotional Intelligence, that foster these qualities. Adverse behaviours require the support of the Holy Spirit, coupled with the need to cultivate awareness, discernment, emotional regulation, and renewal.

Leading like Jesus involves having a relationship with Jesus, bearing in mind that a lack of awareness is a missional obstacle and a contributor to a failed relationship with Jesus Christ. Awareness, as a ministerial necessity, calls for a spiritual reawakening, a renewed connection, and the ability to perceive, feel, or be mindful of things, situations, and events. Without awareness, one will remain in the dark, lacking genuine love and concern for others.

Leading like Jesus with an awakening ability as a minister resonates with emotional intelligence through the abiding presence of the Holy Spirit. John 14:26 tells us, “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.” Leading like Jesus is a daily growth in a relationship with Him.  Through the inspiration of the Helper, the Holy Spirit, our emotions are empowered to act on things as God intends, coupled with guidance through prayer and Scripture. It is the abiding presence of the Holy Spirit that enables us to become emotionally intelligent in Christ, thereby living in the awareness of Him and He in us —Christ in us, the hope of glory – (Col 1:27).