Even in the darkest days of a bloody 20th century, the world had a moral leader to look up to. Gandhi. Mother Teresa. Pope John Paul II.

But who is it today? Who is the world's moral leader?

No one comes immediately to mind.

It's not as if we don't need one. The world seems as crazy as ever some days, and radical Islam has replaced communism as the chief threat to peace and human freedom. And it seems more intractable than Marxism.

It is ironic and uplifting to consider that, in one of mankind's most violent centuries, it's people of peace and nonviolence who seem to tower above the din.

But who shall replace them?

Well, it may help to know that some folks right here in Augusta are working on it.

They may not find the next Mother Teresa - but the folks at the Augusta-based "Lead Like Jesus" ministry have set a goal of spreading the leadership values and behaviors of Jesus to every one of the world's 6.8 billion people by 2010.

It's an audacious goal, to say the least. But consider who's behind it all: Management guru and mega-bestselling author Ken Blanchard of One Minute Manager, Leadership by the Book and Gung Ho fame.

And consider the product.

It's downright jaw-dropping that no one, to our knowledge, had ever before held Jesus up as a management guru. But His humility, His servant-leadership model and His call to his disciples to be "fishers of men" are all perfect leadership traits that translate beautifully into the work and even family and personal relationship areas of life.

That alone is a huge paradigm shift, says Phyllis Hendry, the woman heading up the ministry from Augusta for Blanchard and co-creator Phil Hodges. Most people have put up walls between their spiritual and secular lives, she notes, which not only isn't necessary, but also can hold people back, because the keys to success in life flow from Jesus' actions and teachings. Why not tap into that?

And what if Lead Like Jesus only managed to spread Jesus' principles to a fraction of the world's people? How much better would the world be?

Why Augusta?

Well, if you ask Blanchard or Hendry, they'd probably tell you it was God's handiwork. If so, He worked through the Augusta Metro Chamber of Commerce: Hendry was tasked with getting a speaker for a chamber fund-raiser back in 2000. She'd just read Leadership by the Book, and went after Blanchard. While he was here, he participated in a teleconference with a "troubled" company elsewhere in the country - and Hendry watched as Blanchard led the company in prayer. That moved her, as did his spiritually laced talk to the chamber.

"It was perfect. It was perfect. It was," she recalls. "I knew God was up to something from the moment I started to engage Ken in coming to Augusta."

Blanchard told her of the Lead Like Jesus idea, enlisted her in the effort and agreed to her heading it up from Augusta.

Now, the ministry is publishing books and workbooks, providing leadership training and planning a huge teleconference Oct. 19 from San Francisco that will be joined in by churches and other groups from around the country.

There's also a master's level college curriculum being tested for rollout in 15 colleges in every region of the country this fall.

Even preachers have told Hendry that the Lead Like Jesus ministry is an eye-opener. "I've had pastors tell me that they came out of seminary prepared to preach, not prepared to lead," she says.

This is definitely not the garden-variety management concept, either. Consider: Hendry says the greatest management training tool ever invented is the shoe mitt - a hands-on reminder that the keys to leading are humility and servitude. Indeed, she has a statue of Jesus washing the feet of a disciple on her credenza.

If the only people Lead Like Jesus ever trained were Augusta commissioners, we'd be happy.

But we think the ministry's goal of exposing everyone in the world is worth a shot.

Somewhere in that jungle of 6.8 billion souls there just might be another John Paul II just waiting to step out - and to serve humanity.