We recently announced that ILSE will be collaborating with you in a number of areas. Could you introduce yourself and share a bit about your background?
I am Johan Reijenga, 59 years old and live in Zwijndrecht (The Netherlands). I am married to Jacky and together we have 3 adult children. We are members of the Nederlands Gerformeerde Kerken in Dordrecht, where I also served a term as chairman of the church council.
What is your professional background, can you share a bit of what you’re busy with?
I’ve worked in education for 38 years. For the past eight years, I’ve been a senior researcher and senior lecturer in strategy and leadership at the Business Innovation Knowledge Centre of Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences. Within the university, I previously held the position of program manager and dean of a faculty.
As a senior researcher, I conduct practice-based research, primarily within SMEs, in the areas of strategy, innovation, and leadership. I focus specifically on strategic leadership, which aims to bridge the gap between the past, present, and future. I also conduct research in family businesses and work one day a week on a five-year national study at an academic medical center on circular healthcare.
Outside of my work at the university, I occasionally work on projects in my coaching and consulting firm, which focuses on leadership issues faced by entrepreneurs and management teams. I also serve as an external confidential counselor for De Hoop Groep (mental healthcare) throughout the Netherlands.
What draw you particularly to ILSE for cooperation?
I wasn’t particularly drawn to ETF, even though I’d known about it since the late 1990s. A colleague from college had mentioned my name and research in a conversation with Steven van den Heuvel. We connected afterwards, and we both quickly felt it would be more than just an acquaintance. From 1998 to 2005, I studied theology alongside my work, although various circumstances prevented me from completing it. In my work, whether with students or now with entrepreneurs and employees, my faith and theological knowledge are a foundation upon which I strive to build, especially in my professional life. I strongly believe that, even though faith and theology often remain overlooked in the business world, people, and therefore organizations, need genuine attention to the existential questions and answers that underlie the things they do or encounter in their daily and professional lives. No one lives “without context.”
Who are some of the theologians or thinkers that have influenced you the most so far, and why?
A visiting minister from the classis who visited the church council of the church where I grew up and was a youth elder during those years described my thinking as someone who stands for “unity in diversity.” And I believe, looking back, that’s also an apt description of my faith. I grew up in the Nederlands Hervormde Kerk. When I made my confirmation with friends, it was in the Gereformeerde Kerk, only to return to the Nederlands Hervormde Kerk in 1998. In 2005, my wife and I decided to move with our children to the Nederlands Gerformeerde Kerk. In my younger years, I was a member of a gospel choir and we performed in Protestant churches, Roman Catholic churches, evangelical churches, and Pentecostal churches. My faith development has been “expanded” by all these experiences. I’m a huge bookworm and read a lot. So, I could name a long list of names. I’ll limit myself to those who have most influenced me in recent years. Henri Nouwen particularly touched me with his psychological perspective on how to deal with what happens in a person’s life. I was immediately drawn to the work of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, because, through my interest in history, I discovered him in my quest to learn about World War II. His book The Cost of Discipleship was an additional incentive to realize, as he put it, that being a Christian requires a sacrificial lifestyle.
In recent years, I’ve become more interested in the Old Testament and the people of Israel. I’ve come to appreciate the Torah more deeply through the books in Jonathan Sacks’ “Covenant and Dialogue” series. I see the five books of the Torah as a development the people of Israel underwent that also seems to serve as a blueprint for companies and organizations. I therefore enjoy drawing inspiration from these books when grappling with issues I encounter in businesses. And I’m always struck by how many of these issues can also be found in the development of the people of Israel.
In these books, Sacks often writes about “time and space.” And so I come to a number of thinkers who have influenced me in recent years. Not coincidentally, all of them Jewish thinkers.
The work of the philosopher Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy concerns the workings of time and space, with a focus on the Christian faith and humanity’s role within it. He sees the (Christian) future as “a call from the future.” This links to my work in the field of strategic leadership: time forming a bridge in history and to the future.
And then, almost automatically, I also come to a good friend of Rosenstock’s. The work of Franz Rosenzweig concerns the relationships between God, humanity, and the world. He explored the connections between creation, revelation, and redemption.
Finally, as a Jewish thinker, I mention Emmanuel Levinas. The core of his philosophy is the infinite, unconditional responsibility we have for the Other, even for those we do not know. This responsibility is not something we choose, but something imposed on us by the encounter with the other. It speaks to me in two ways. First, because for me, it brings together the two greatest commandments: loving God and your neighbor. Second, it evokes memories of the conversations and good advice of my now 93-year-old mother. For as long as I’ve known her, she’s pointed me toward the Other.
What motivates you for doing the things you do and what are your hopes for the future?
I just finished with responsibility for the Other. With the encounter with the Other. When I stepped down as a manager and dean in 2008 after about 10 years, I went through a difficult period and had to rediscover the meaning of my working life. After a while, I had a long conversation with a good friend. He also asked me the same question about why I do the things in my life. And almost automatically, the words came: “… because I want to contribute to people’s development.” And that has stayed with me for the past 17 years. It applies to every aspect of my life. In my family, where we have one child with autism, in caring for my mother, in my work with colleagues and sometimes students. And with all those entrepreneurs and employees in companies and organizations who are struggling in the present, grounded in the past and with a hopeful call for the future.
My hope for the future?
It is the text that my mother chose 36 years ago for the thanksgiving service after my father’s death: “And He who sits on the throne said, ‘Behold, I am making all things new.’ And He said, ‘Write, for these words are faithful and true.’” (Revelation 21: 5, NASB).
