Leadership Revisited

I guess you could call me an emerging leader. It's more a default category than a chosen one. I fall somewhere between the church leadership paradigm of mega-church emergent college pastor, and post-mega-church emergent urban planter, whatever category that is.

It's a category of leadership where people are "reimagining" everything. From theology to church structure, from gatherings to community, some people are even questioning if the concept of leadership itself is still valid.

I have a suspicion that some of the criticism is warranted, but overplayed.

Maybe leadership doesn't need to be "reimagined" as much as it needs to be "revisited".

We need to revisit the foundation of leadership more than ever before, for a simple reason: God's vision for the church.

Gods' vision for His church is often different than ours and His requirements for this vision are too.

God's vision for the church is something beautiful; to be exact, something stunning. It's supposed to be a community of splendor, without spot or blemish or any such thing, holy and without fault.

Like a bride on her wedding day that causes the congregation to gasp at her appearing, the church is supposed to be a community that stuns the world with her life, vitality, purity and splendor. And that will not happen by accident.

As the pages of scripture declare, from the people of Israel to the community at Corinth, the Church won't drift into splendor.

The Church won't stumble into faultlessness.

The Church won't be holy and without blemish by accident.

It HAS to be led there.

That's why the guidelines for leadership found in the scriptures talk about it as a sacred trust. Because preparing a bride for her wedding day is delicate work - holy even - and its leaders must be prepared for the task. The passages in 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1 paint a picture of leadership not built on gifts, but on character; built with leaders who are continually living lives that are without fault, without blemish, in other words, holy and without spot.

1 Timothy puts it like this, "This saying is trustworthy: If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task."

Leadership in the church is more than just matching gifts with passion, or desire with opportunity. Leadership in the church is about nobility.

In other words, it takes that which is noble to produce that which is beautiful.

Many of us today don't think of leadership in this light. Power, yes. Influence, yes. But noble? That word seems kind of lost on us. Where is the church conference track on walking in nobility?

Later on Paul says, "He must manage his own household well, with all dignity."

Dignity and nobility are the grand ideas of the kind of people God wants to entrust his bride to. After all, you don't let just anybody get their hands on your bride.

Take a look at Gods vision for the leaders of His church:

1 Timothy 3.
The saying is trustworthy: If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task. Therefore an overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not a drunkard, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. He must manage his own household well, with all dignity keeping his children submissive, for if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God's church?

And from Titus.

If anyone is above reproach, the husband of one wife, and his children are believers and not open to the charge of debauchery or insubordination. For an overseer, as God's steward, must be above reproach. He must not be arrogant or quick-tempered or a drunkard or violent or greedy for gain, but hospitable, a lover of good, self-controlled, upright, holy, and disciplined. He must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it.

Now read these passages again slowly and you will notice something.

Most of the things associated with the popular ideas of church leadership in our time are missing. Apparently many of things considered essential for church leadership today don't even make it onto Jesus' radar. Charisma, great public speaking, lively personality and creativity don't really enter into the picture.

Nobility is rooted in who we are, not just what we do. Nobility and dignity are more about our character than our gifts.

One thing I have noticed in my reading of the scriptures is that churches were never known for how good a speaker their pastor was, or how many turned out to hear him, but how well the church was doing in living out Jesus' vision of splendor for the church.

Ephesians 5 says this...

That he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.

Leadership in the church is about our character, and it is this above EVERYTHING that needs to be revisited in our reimagining of the leadership task.

We have to be filled with the Spirit to wash our community in the presence of God; we have to be able to teach the truth, to cleanse her from the lies and filth of the world. We have to give our lives for its people so she knows that she matters.

In short. Our passion and conviction to have leadership influence must match Gods vision for the church.

As an emerging leader in the Church today, I believe it's essential that what defines our leadership in this - and coming - generations, is nobility and dignity - so that the Church becomes the community God has in mind.

My simple prayer for church leaders is this, that Jesus' vision of nobility and dignity make their way to the center of whatever category of church leadership you find yourself in.

Because the bride is at the door, waiting for His appearing.

1 Comment »

1. Thanks for the fantastic leadership insights. I had once been a part of a ‘John Maxwell’ kind of church & got sick of the ‘laws’..... Dignity & Nobility just dont sell as many books. I hope to fulfill Gods purity plan! Thanks!

   Comment by st. Mars - Sep 08, 2008 @ 02:16 AM

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