Epiphany 8 Spiritual Gifts, Leading the Procession

[HKHaugan]

The best leader is the one who leads with Jesus THE leader in mind. Just how did He lead? “As the Father has sent me that is the way I send you,” He said. There are four basics to learn from Jesus.

First, after He called disciples He poured Himself into them. He held nothing back from them. His bearing was confident, determined, caring and patient. He was showing how the Spirit worked through Him.

Second, wherever He went He taught by word and example. His words were lived out in front of them. While He knew they wouldn’t really understand who He was and what they were to do until after His Resurrection, He maintained His faith in His Father before them.

Third, He trusted His disciples even though He knew they would leave Him when the going got rough. He lived by the promises of His Father not their inability. It was His Father’s will that He invest in them everything of Himself.

Fourth, and most significant, His was a spiritual mission. He was bringing the spiritual Kingdom of God into a polarized world dominated by the devil. The world was consumed in spiritual confusion. Thus Jesus was the disciples’ mission, He was their message and He gave them the Spirit to carry on the mission and ministry with which He gifted them.

While that is the Lord’s example there is a stark contrast between sinners who are called to lead and the sinless Lord who sets the example. The one truly vital realization necessary for fallible human leaders, whether pastor or elder, is to learn two levels of faith, first, trust in the Lord, His Word and Spirit and second, trusting the Spirit in the gifted members of the Body committed to their care. Pastors are not ‘lone rangers’ who alone hear what God wants for a local Body. Unless they recognize and lean on the gifts that the Lord gives to the whole Body they will only find the spiritual disarray of division, suspicion, distrust and confusion. When leaders have a spirit of control it
arises out of fear and distrust in the Lord’s message of faith in His Spirit’s
ability to transform the heart with His message and gifts. It also may mean
there are strongholds that block faith in others. They don’t trust the Spirit to speak through others. They tend to manipulate rather than affirm
in order to get their personal control agenda across. They tend to choose people who defer to them or are too timid to
challenge.

A true leader realizes he is in over his head before he starts. He doesn’t take control He gives over control to the Lord. He leads to the Leader. His leadership is to lead people to the Lord, to the Word, to the Spirit, to worship, to being disciples, to be ministers and to be missionaries. His trust is in the Lord to do through His Spirit what the Lord wants not what a leader thinks. If the Body is in worship, prayer and discipleship the Lord will reveal Himself and His will for them together. Leadership in the Body is not the same as that in the world. Leadership in the Body is to lead people to the Lord and let the Lord do the work through His gifts.

Now taking from that trust, teaching and personal investment, a leader in the Body of Christ does the same. However, the first thing he must recognize and realize is that before he even begins, he is in over his head and needs the guidance of the Holy Spirit through the Word. He also must realize he is just one in the mix of a people who have been called together to let the Lord lead them in the Spirit. He is as much dependent on them as they are on him. He has to spend time building trust between himself and others and, this most importantly, to trust them, learning and leaning on their gifts so that those in the Body grow
and mature. This means that he has to
spend time learning who the people are, what they respond to, their attitudes,
their level of faith and knowledge. But
He never sees himself as the only one who knows what God wants for them. He makes himself available and personally
accessible. He commits himself to the
task of spiritual ministry. Hear Paul’s
appeal in Romans 12,^“3I'm speaking to you out of deep gratitude for all that God has given me, and especially as I have responsibilities in relation to you. Living then, as every one of you does, in pure grace, it's important that you not misinterpret yourselves as people who are bringing this goodness to God. No, God brings it all to you. The only accurate way to understand ourselves is by what God is and by what he does for us, not by what we are and what we do for him.

^4-6In this way we are like the various parts of a human body. Each part gets its meaning from the body as a whole, not the other way around. The body we're talking about is Christ's body of chosen people. Each of us finds our meaning and function as a part of his body. But as a chopped-off finger or cut-off toe we wouldn't amount to much, would we? So since we find ourselves fashioned into all these excellently formed and marvelously functioning parts in Christ's body, let's just go ahead and be what we were made to be, without enviously or pridefully comparing ourselves with each other, or trying to be something we aren't.“

Next, more on gifts and their meaning for us. Stay tuned……….

[Troy Harvey]

" He also must realize he is just one in the mix of a people who have been called together to let the Lord lead them in the Spirit. He is as much dependent on them as they are on him." From your next to the last paragraph above. I think you are touching on something I believe is a key issue in most modern church structures. I believe many churches and their hierarchical organizations suffer from what I think is an unscriptural way of selecting a leader. I realize I may be going out on a limb here - and I am not sure how to get back to what I think the scriptural paradigm is, but I think many of the pitfalls and unhealthy tendencies of leaders which you have addressed so far in this series may well be avoided by what I think was the expectation in scripture - Acts 6:3-4 "Brothers, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the spirit and wisdom. we will turn this resposibility over to them and will give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the word." Although I think this scripture sets the precedent, it is a reoccurring theme whenever the selection of leaders is discussed. I think when we 'bring in' someone from outside our immediate family, we don't truly know them, and they don't know us. When a member of the family moves to a position of leadership there are no visions of grandeur on either side - we know their strengths and weaknesses. Although I realize this may have its own problems, I believe it is the better way in the long run.
...staying tuned....