The Life for Leaders

Scripture — John 10:10; 14:6 (NRSV)

“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.”
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

Devotion

Today I’d like to take a short break from our Psalms for Lenten Devotion series in order to share with you some thoughts about Life for Leaders. In a moment you’ll understand why I’m doing this today.

Exactly ten years ago, on April 1, 2015, the first Life for Leaders devotional appeared. It was posted on the De Pree Center website and emailed to a bunch of my friends. By the end of the day, several dozen people read the devotion online and we had a few dozen subscribers. I was pleased and grateful for this beginning.

Today, on April 1, 2025, the 3,454th Life for Leaders devotional has appeared. In fact, you’re reading it right now. It has been posted on the De Pree Center website and emailed to more than just my friends. By the end of the day, hundreds of people will read the devotion online and we now have over 10,000 subscribers to the daily email. I am amazed and grateful for the flourishing of Life for Leaders during these past ten years.

Though it’s impossible to know exactly how many people have read a Life for Leaders devotion at one time or another, when you consider both email opens and online visits, we could say conservatively that someone has read a Life for Leaders devotion at least ten million times in the last ten years. Again, I am amazed and grateful to God for the way in which God has used and blessed this ministry of the De Pree Center.

I began Life for Leaders for two main reasons. First, consistent with the mission of the De Pree Center, I wanted to serve leaders, helping them grow in their relationship with God and in the expression of their faith through their work as leaders. Second, because I had written a daily devotional in my previous job with the H.E. Butt Foundation (Laity Lodge, The High Calling), it made sense for me to continue doing so in my new role at the De Pree Center. April 1, 2015, the first day of Life for Leaders, was also my first day of full-time employment at Fuller Seminary.

In time, with foundation grants and generous gifts from many donors, we were able to grow the team of Life for Leaders writers. I was glad to have more diverse voices in the mix. Plus, writing fewer than seven times a week was good for my own sustainability in this work. Moreover, as I read the devotions written by my colleagues, I was regularly encouraged, challenged, educated, moved, and blessed. That is still true, by the way. I am so thankful for my co-writers. Life for Leaders is truly a team effort, with wise contributions from several faithful writers as well as excellent editing and support from folks who work behind the scenes to make Life for Leaders possible.

Our faithful readers are also essential to the flourishing of Life for Leaders. In the past ten years, hundreds of you have written to the other writers and me to offer words of affirmation and gratitude. Thank you! Your encouragement makes such a difference. Many of you have shared stories about how Life for Leaders has influenced your life and leadership. You have also let your friends and colleagues know about Life for Leaders, which has enlarged our audience. Plus, many of you have chosen to support Life for Leaders financially by making gifts to the De Pree Center. Your generosity enables us to produce Life for Leaders without charging a subscription fee. For all the ways you help Life for Leaders thrive, my De Pree Center colleagues and I thank you.

As I mentioned earlier, we produce Life for Leaders in order to serve leaders like you, helping you to live and lead in distinctively Christian ways as you grow in your relationship with God. The name of this devotional reveals an assumption we make that guides everything we do. This assumption is based on something Jesus said in the Gospel of John. Unlike the thieves who steal, kill, and destroy the sheep of God’s flock, Jesus, the Good Shepherd, came “that they may have life, and have it abundantly” (John 10:10-11). Through Jesus, through his teachings, actions, death, and resurrection, we have life. And not just life, but abundant life . . . full, meaningful, fruitful, joyful, and eternal life.

Jesus is able to offer such life to us because of who he is. In John 14:6 Jesus said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life.” In a way that stretches and exceeds our imagination, Jesus is not just the source of life. He is also the life. As it says in the opening chapter of John, in Jesus “was life, and the life was the light of all people” (1:4). Through Jesus we have eternal life that begins now and continues without end. We can begin even now to receive the abundant life that God offers through Jesus.

Thus, we offer life to leaders, not because we are anything special, but because we are followers of Jesus. By regular, thoughtful, and faithful devotional exposition of God’s Word in Scripture, we help the leaders we serve to grow in the life of Jesus. We want to equip leaders to share this life with the people entrusted to their care at work, at home, in church, and in the wider community. The life Jesus gives us is not to be clenched selfishly, but rather to be given away freely and generously.

So today, on the tenth anniversary of the first Life for Leaders devotion, I want to thank you for being on this journey of life with us. Thank you for all the ways you share in this work. And thanks be to God for the extraordinary honor of being able to point leaders to the One who is the way, the truth, and the life. Yes, Jesus is the Life for leaders!

Find all Life for Leaders devotions here. Explore what the Bible has to say about work at the unique website of our partners, the Theology of Work Project. Reflection on today’s Life for Leaders theme can be found here: Jesus’ Sacrifice (John 10-12).