Imperishable Inheritance

In the con­tin­ual devel­op­ment of cul­tural impact upon Chris­tian­ity, the role of lead­ers in the church con­tin­ues to take march­ing orders from our soci­ety. The church now has a view that a ‘true leader’ is some­one who is the fig­ure head of a group that oth­ers fol­low due to their abil­i­ties. A leader is seen as one who has charis­matic abil­ity, one that has skills of ora­tion that make them pleas­ant to fol­low, one that has a per­sonal vision that he can effec­tively sell to oth­ers, and an indi­vid­ual that has an exis­ten­tial world­view that pro­nounces that we can ‘make a dif­fer­ence that wouldn’t have been made otherwise.’

Is this what makes a true leader? Do the only qual­i­ties that make an effec­tive leader truly come from what they posses and not what has been given to them? Accord­ing the cri­te­ria above, Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, and Fidel Cas­tro would fit that image. I’m here to present a view on lead­er­ship for­eign to the post­mod­ern, exis­ten­tial, anthro­pocen­tric view that the world has of a leader. I will fol­low in my the­sis that a true leader con­sists of the fol­low­ing qualities:

1. A true leader is one that can effec­tively follow.
2. A true leader is fore­most con­cerned with their per­sonal devel­op­ment over the group.

A True Leader Follows

“Do not be called lead­ers; for One is your Leader, that is, Christ.
Jesus Christ (Matthew 23:10)

Fol­low­ing The Leader will allow for the mark of some­one who can orga­nize oth­ers. Our one leader is Christ. He was hum­ble enough to come to earth, and what model did He demon­strate? He fol­lowed (Philip­pi­ans 2:5–11). The Cre­ator of the heav­ens and earth is not look­ing for humans to start, build, and some­times restore His church’He does all of that. We are but ves­sels in His glo­ri­ous plan (Romans 9:22–24; Philip­pi­ans 2:13).

Fol­low­ing allows us to lead. Oth­ers will fol­low when you are fol­low­ing Christ. The church, in its state of com­bin­ing the vis­i­ble and invis­i­ble church, is mov­ing toward Him. The church is not being built by men but by The Cre­ator Him­self. In recog­ni­tion of this, we can effec­tively see where in our com­mit­ment lies to a Leader.

There are qual­i­ties that the Bible attrib­utes to a leader of a con­gre­ga­tion (1 Tim­o­thy 3, Titus 1), but none of those pas­sages pro­claim that the over­seer is the one that is to be the one being followed.

A True Leader Is Con­cerned Fore­most With His Per­sonal Development

This con­cept seems for­eign to our ideas of what a ‘true’ leader is. We think of a leader of one that is ready to throw away every­thing that they have for the inter­est of the group (Util­i­tar­ian). But in fact, how can one lead if they in fact are not in con­stant aware­ness of their own spir­i­tual and per­sonal con­di­tion and how that effects those around him (1 Tim­o­thy 3:5)?

One that does over­see oth­ers does have a respon­si­bil­ity to care for the con­cerns of his con­gre­ga­tion, please don’t con­strue me as say­ing that they do not. What hap­pens is that we tend to worry so much about oth­ers that we put aside our own spir­i­tual con­di­tion and we crum­ble as a result. This view on lead­er­ship is com­pletely anti­thet­i­cal to the one the world embraces. One that leads fol­lows, and is most con­cerned, of his own sub­mis­sion to the Lord­ship and author­ity of Jesus Christ.

What Hap­pened?

It is fair to ques­tion how the church got to this state of affairs. In today’s Chris­t­ian soci­ety, indi­vid­u­als like Joel Osteen (with his ‘Jesus-less’ Chris­tian­ity), T.D. Jakes (who denies the Trin­ity), and Rick War­ren (who can’t decide which Bible to read) are reflect­ing this worldly view of one that ‘leads.’

The­olo­gies that pro­mote our own self-determining will above the glo­ri­ous foun­da­tion of God’s fore­or­di­na­tion and sov­er­eignty have lead to a sharp decline in our recog­ni­tion of Christ’s lead­er­ship of the church.

Do you know how many times the Apos­tle Paul rec­og­nized Christ as his pri­mary leader in his epis­tles? All 13 and all in the first verse.

• Romans: ‘Paul, a bond-servant of Christ Jesusâ?¦’
• Philip­pi­ans: ‘Paul and Tim­o­thy, bond-servants of Christ Jesusâ?¦’
• Gala­tians: ‘Paul, an apos­tle (not sent from men nor through the agency of man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised Him from the dead),’

My Wish

I hope to fol­low Christ in all areas of my life. I hope and will strive to include Him as the com­plete Lord in all areas of my life. I hope that the church returns to see that a leader is not one that leads’but follows.

And He said to another, “Fol­low Me.” But he said, “Lord, per­mit me first to go and bury my father.” But He said to him, “Allow the dead to bury their own dead; but as for you, go and pro­claim every­where the king­dom of God.“
Luke 9:59–60