Thursday, March 23, 2006
Leading In Spirit
Unveiled Face had a great post yesterday in which he looks at five passages of scripture and asks us the reader to figure out what they are saying about Christian leadership.
I'd like to take a stab at summing it up in three words - humility - self-sacrifice - obedience. Those do not sound like leadership words do they? But consider the ultimate leader - Jesus Himself.
Think about that for a minute - Christ's "success" was not measured in the size of the crowds He preached to , but in His crucifixion. Christ's victory was not in the organization He built, but in His resurrection, witnessed but by the chosen few.
Frankly, the Christian leader I seek is the one that does not appear to want the job.
Cross-posted at How To Be A Christian And Still Go To Church
Related Tags: leadership, humility, self-sacrifice, obedience, church, Christian
I'd like to take a stab at summing it up in three words - humility - self-sacrifice - obedience. Those do not sound like leadership words do they? But consider the ultimate leader - Jesus Himself.
Phil 2:5-11 - Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore also God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those who are in heaven, and on earth, and under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.In that bit of scripture we see that Christ's path to acknowledgement as Lord lay in "humbling himself by becoming obedient to the point of death." How many declared Christian leaders these days exhibit those characteristics? Oh sure, they are self-deprecating and willing to "give God the glory," but how many are genuinely willing to follow the real example of Christ?
Think about that for a minute - Christ's "success" was not measured in the size of the crowds He preached to , but in His crucifixion. Christ's victory was not in the organization He built, but in His resurrection, witnessed but by the chosen few.
Frankly, the Christian leader I seek is the one that does not appear to want the job.
Cross-posted at How To Be A Christian And Still Go To Church
Related Tags: leadership, humility, self-sacrifice, obedience, church, Christian
