One of the books I've read this month is titled "You Don't Need a Title to be a Leader." The author is Mark Sanborn. One of the reasons I read the book was that he was kind enough to respond to a post on my other blog after I mentioned his book, "The Fred Factor." Mark, like most who read these words, is a believer. The version of "You Don't Need a Title to be a Leader" I read was an expanded Christian version of the book.
I read the book about three weeks ago, but some of the message sunk in this past weekend after an incident on my job. In the business world, as well as the church world, there are many managers and administrators. But sadly many of these managers and administrators are not leaders.
Seeing that I am writing this on my faith based blog, I will deal with the church aspect of this. I was saved in June, 1980. Having been baptized some two years prior to that, I had some trying to tell me that it wasn't salvation at that time, but Satan telling me that I wasn't really saved. Some of these folks were deacons in the church that I had attended, and one of these folks was the pastor. In looking back at that, I feel that the consul coming from these "leaders" in the church was to make them look good and not from the leadership of the Holy Spirit. I've heard others get the same counsel and accept it. Some who did are no longer in church. Others heard the Holy Spirit again and came to accept Him and now are being used in a mighty way.
Sometimes a young Christian in a small established church has little room to grow, because these churches are steeped in tradition and those in "leadership" roles do not want to give way for anyone who might do things contrary to the way it's been done for years and years. The folks who can't find an area to serve either find somewhere else to serve or fall by the wayside. The small churches, steeped in tradition, eventually die of old age. Churches that don't have a free flow of leadership become stagnant.
One of my most frequent observations in the past couple of years is that some give the impression that arrogance is a spiritual gift. I've had Christians tell me that they know more about things of the church than I do because they've been a Christian longer. I don't think God regards seniority when he uses us. I think He looks at our hearts.
You don't need to be a deacon, elder, trustee, teacher, or a pastor to lead one to Christ. Peter Led many to Christ. Andrew led Peter to Christ. Which leader was more important? The answer to that one is this is a trick question, as the most important leader is the Holy Spirit as without Him, we can't lead anyone to the Lord. Without the Holy Ghost, no other office in the church is necessary because with Him we have no church.
No matter what job you have in the church, do it under the leadership of the Holy Spirit, and He will help you to be the leader you need to be.
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8 comments:
Aman!
One of the great complaints against the church is that there often seems to be little or no difference than secular organizations. Paul says that Christians, and the true "Chruch", are help to a higher standard so it is discouraging to hear of your negative experiences, Cliff. It is great that you are choosing the leading of the Holy Spirit over imperfect leadership (and any human leadership, no matter how good, will always be imperfect). I am fortunate in that I attend a church where the pastor is clear: if you feel what the pastor is saying is at odds with the Bible, go with the Bible. His intellectual honesty and lack of need for personal aggrandizement is inspiring. His mission is to see Christ advance.
Thank you for your kind comments, Mark.
GREAT post, Cliff!!!
I once heard my brother, who's active at church, had a fallout with other "senior" guys who thought that my brother hadn't respected them even though it was only a trivial matter (I forgot what it was about). But it's true what you said: people who are "seniors" at church sometimes feel that they have more "rights".
There is an award waiting for you at my blog.
I agree, all leadership in the church needs to fall under the leadership of the Holy Spirit.
Very nice post, Cliff.
Sir Laurens van der Post once wrote that he felt too many churches had "stuck" (as in come to a halt) with Jesus and forgotten the Holy Spirit. My mom always taught me to check things with the Holy Spirit first and always.
My opinion... I've had dealings with one church and two different sets (different churches) of missionaries and found way too much "I/me" and far too little "What does God/Holy Spirit want of me".
Thankfully, within even those three examples there were those people who looked deeper, demanded more spiritual integrity of themselves, but it did prove the point that there can only be one leader in your life... and that leader is NOT another human being on Earth, regardless of whether they have earned a title of Bishop, Elder, Pope, Father...
Your posts are like a breath of fresh air!! I have noticed so much competition in the church and in doing so we hurt the people in the middle who are just trying to live day to day and desperately need a place to go to be loved, inspired, filled so they can strongly attack the following week in faith. We hurt so many by our idea's of labels and seniority. We all should be ministers of the gospel by our actions and how we live. So many should see something in us that says to them..I want that!! Thank you..I sure enjoyed reading this.
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