“If church can be this simple, John, how do leaders fit in all of this? Don’t we need elders and pastors and apostles?”

“For what?”

“Doesn’t someone need to be in charge and organize things so people will know what to do?” Marvin was almost beside himself. I cringed inside knowing he wasn’t going to hear what he wanted.

“Why, so people can follow someone else instead of following Jesus? Don’t you see we already have a leader? The church gives Jesus first place in everything and it will refuse to let anyone else crawl up in his seat.”

“So leaders aren’t important either?”

“Not the way you’ve been taught to think of them. One can hardly conceive of body life today without an organization and a leader shaping others with their vision. Some love to lead; others desperately want to be led. This system has made God’s people so passive most can’t even imagine living without a human leader to identify with. Then we wonder why our spirituality falls so painfully short. Read through the New Testament again and you’ll find there is very little focus on anything like leadership as we’ve come to think of it today.”

“But there were elders and apostles and pastors, weren’t there?”

“There were, but they weren’t out front leading people after their personal visions, they were behind the scenes doing exactly what you have on your heart to do, Marvin — helping people to live deeply in Christ so that he can lead them! Elders won’t end up managing machinery, but equipping followers by helping them find a real relationship with the living God. That’s why he asked us to help people become his disciples and why he said that he would build his church. Let’s focus on our task and let him do his.“

“But where do we find this kind of leader today?”

“Don’t look for leaders as you’ve come to think of them, think of brothers and sisters who are a bit further along the journey than you are. They’re all around you—in this city and this yard.”

“But how do we know who they are if they’re not designated?”

“My question would be, how do we know if they really are servant leaders just because they have a title? Haven’t you known many so-called pastors or elders who didn’t have the spiritual maturity to back it up? Didn’t Jesus tell us that those who facilitate within this family are not those who exercise authority over others, but those who serve? Is it really that difficult to tell who they are?”

posted by alexander @ 1:18 PM    3 comments

3 Comments:

I like this book! It helped us a lot on our journey :-)

By  .:unterwegs:., at 8:54 PM  

Great post, very helpful. I am reminded of the story in Exodus when God wanted the whole nation up the hill but they sent Moses, or when they asked for a king. Maybe there's a theme of God wanting a different kind of leader.

By  David, at 10:02 PM  

Bang on David. various authors like stuart murray go on & on about the evils of constantine and christendom etc but for me it goes back to something inherent in mankind which as you rightly identified is exposed through those 2 examples way back in the OT.

By  alexander, at 8:24 AM  

Post a Comment

---