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Up to the Challenge
Nowhere are the demands and rewards of leadership greater than in the church.
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Who wouldn't be? As church leaders, what do we tell prospective church members? "You're a depraved, degenerate sinner who's in trouble for all eternity unless you get squared away with Christ." (And that's the good news. We call it the gospel.) Then we say, "We're going to ask you to commit five or six hours a week to service and two or three additional hours for training and discipleship. We're going to ask you to get in a small group where your character flaws are going to get exposed and chiseled at. We're going to ask you to come under the authority of the elders of the church and give a minimum of 10 percent of your money. Oh, yeah, you get no parking place, no reserved seats, no special privileges, no voting rights, no vacation or retirement program. You serve till you die. But trust us: God's going to make it right in eternity." In church work, people must be motivated internally. The Scripture says unless the Lord builds the house, unless people have an internal want to, leaders have no power, no leverage, no buttons to push. When business people in our churches give free advice—how we should be doing it right—we need to say, with no malice, "It's not that easy, and it's not the same. It's apples and oranges." 2. I believe there is a spiritual gift of leadership.Some people have it, some people don't. In one of the spiritual gifts lists, Romans 12:8, the apostle Paul essentially says, "If you have the spiritual gift of leadership, lead with it, and lead with all diligence." God alone decides who gets this gift and in what measure. I've come up with a partial list of what spiritually gifted leaders do if they develop and use their leadership gifts. -They cast a God-honoring vision. Spiritually gifted leaders live in such a way that God invariably ignites within their hearts a compelling idea, a heartfelt yearning for some part of God's kingdom to advance. They start thinking about it, dreaming about it, and praying about it. Pretty soon, they start talking about it. They have lunch with someone and say, "Could you imagine what this part of the kingdom would be like if … ?" Not long ago, I took the board of directors at Willow Creek to some inner-city ministries that we're funding and providing volunteer help for. We were in an empty warehouse; it must have been 95 degrees. The humidity was incredible. But the person leading this ministry stood and said, "Imagine that corner of this warehouse filled with electrical supplies. A skilled worker from a church could stop here, pick up all the supplies he or she needs, then go over to the home of someone in need and fix the wiring. |             |
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