Leadership and Followership

“Leadership is like the Abominable Snowman, whose footprints are everywhere but [he is] nowhere to be found.” (1)

I hear a lot about a lack of leadership, or poor leadership, or dysfunctional leadership. And these complaints are not just about politicians or bosses, but often about leaders in the church.

Unfortunately, often the complaints are justified.

We are told to consider our leaders, to consider the fruit of their lives and imitate their faith. While we all sin and fall short of God’s glory, if a leader’s life is bearing good fruit, then that’s a leader worth following. If not, maybe it’s time to look for another leader.

But instead of looking at those around me and pointing out others’ deficiencies , I realize that I need to spend some time following Jesus’ advice to take the log out of my own eye before worrying about the speck in someone else’s.

Whatever role I am in, whether leader or follower, the question remains: Am I doing this God’s way?

The reading this week was terribly convicting.

Do I really believe that my power as a leader comes from prayer? Or how much do I rely on my own talent?

Do I let my vision for what I am trying to achieve be cramped by my own fears and doubts, or I concentrate on the vastness and glory and might of the God I serve?

If my personal devotions are not what they should be, I won’t be praying or seeing the vision. And going through the motions isn’t good enough.

Am I letting the Holy Spirit guide me?

Do I have the faith to go against the majority opinion when God calls me to do so?

And do I recognize that I am expendable, and should be developing others to become greater leaders than I?

And what about when I am not in a leadership role? What am I doing to support those who are leading, to be a good follower? What I am doing to encourage, to support, to co-operate?

If I don’t think those I am following are leading well, maybe it’s because I am judging them by some other standard than God’s. Or maybe I am not being a good follower. Or maybe I need to do what I can to help the situation, starting by spending a lot of time in prayer.

Then maybe this elusive thing called leadership will be more easily found.

(1) Warren Bennis, quoted by R. Kent Hughes, in Disciplines of a Godly Life, Crossway Books, 1991.

A Christian in the Workplace

More and more our culture seems to value leisure time. The hours spent working are only put in so we can earn a paycheck so we can relax and enjoy the real part of our lives. But is this attitude one God would endorse?

We can take a cue from the example of our Creator. He worked to create all that is seen and unseen. He continues to do good works, and we can see the evidence of His works in creation and in the new creations that are those who put their trust in Him.

The first people He created were given work while they were still in paradise. So work isn’t something that is evil, but rather something God has created us to do.

Why? Scripture tells us we are Christ’s ambassadors. Most people, when they go to their workplace, aren’t going to a place dominated by Christians. Rather, they are more likely going to something more like a foreign country, and the believer is the ambassador who brings the message of the love of Christ to that environment.

What makes an ambassador effective? The way he relates to the people he meets with and works with, the way he communicates whatever message he has been sent to deliver. So the way we do our work will send a powerful message about the One Who sent us.

I think back many years and remember a Jewish man I worked for. Long before it became a management fad, he practiced servant leadership. Walking through the halls of the hospital we worked in, he would stop to pick up litter from the floor. If a poster was crooked, he’d straighten it. He regularly went in on the night shift to talk with the nurses and other workers, just to make sure their voices were heard by someone in management.

This man would have laughed and made a cynical comment if anyone had told him he was a servant leader. In his mind, he was just doing his job well. He didn’t need some management guru to tell him how to care for the people who worked for him. How much more we as Christians should aspire to that level of going the extra mile, to do the right thing, to be concerned about others, and to do little extras things that aren’t “our jobs” but contribute to the whole.

We are also told to work as if we are laboring for the Lord, and not merely for men. When I have a job to do, I am not just accountable to my boss, but also to God, Who sent me to that workplace to bear testimony about Him.

My integrity, honesty and kindness to others will bear living witness to the message of the gospel. Dishonesty, rudeness or gossip will undermine whatever message I try to communicate with words.

God desires to reconcile many to Him, that they may have peace with Him. We, as His ambassadors, are instruments in that process.

That is all very fine, you may think. But what if I hate my job? What if my boss is an ogre? I’ve been there. My feelings about the boss and the job didn’t give me an excuse for sloppy or halfhearted work. Even in the most difficult surroundings, I am still Christ’s ambassador. I am still called to bring glory to God in how I do my work by doing my assigned tasks for God, and not just the ogre over me.

Of course, this doesn’t mean there is anything wrong with looking for another job. The challenge still remains, that whatever we are doing, we do for the Lord.

The Fellowship of Believers

In the years I’ve been a Christian, I’ve met many people who say they are believers, but they have no need for the church. “I can pray and worship God by myself,” they say. “Why do I need to go to church?’

I can’t answer that question for anyone else. I can only answer it for myself.

And the best place to find an answer is in Scripture.

Over and over we read how we are one body, all members of the same whole with different functions and different gifts. My gift for organization does not always translate into the warm hospitality that others more gifted in that area can offer. I can learn much from their example.

Many times I’ve struggled with a problem, and just talking about it with someone else gives me the solution. Sometimes that person didn’t have to say anything. Just having someone listen to me put the issue into words helped me see the way out.

Many more times I’ve received valuable advice from others. Another person can bring a whole different perspective to a problem. What one person learned from going through a similar experience can keep me from repeating their mistakes.

Right now my mentally ill/mentally challenged niece is living with us, and I’ve needed the advice and counsel of many to cope with the daily challenges I am facing. I’ve needed every resource I can find.

One great blessing has been how easy it has been for me to find assistance. And why has it been so easy? Because of my long involvement with Central, I know or know of lots of people. I know at least vaguely some of the difficulties they have overcome personally or what they do professionally. And by tapping into their wisdom and experience, I find real help and encouragement.

The writer of the book of Hebrews is almost urgent in telling the believers to encourage each other “today.” Not tomorrow, or when it’s convenient, but today. We need to be ready and willing to encourage and stand with each other. Two are stronger than one, Ecclesiastes reminds us.

A great question this week’s topic raises is how are we stirring up others to love and good deeds. One way I see this worked out in my life is when I am working with my niece.

I’ve been trying to teach her to be more independent. So we’ve been working on her doing her own laundry. She got a bit anxious when it came to carrying the basket up the stairs. I coached her through it, showing her how to balance the basket on her hip so she could hold the railing with her other hand. With a little encouragement and praise, she stopped whining and got up the stairs.

I’ve sometimes felt like whining when faced with a task I’m not sure I can do. That’s when a little encouragement goes a long way. That’s when I need other believers to come alongside, to pray for me, advise me, or help me.

So while it’s true I can read the Bible and pray alone, if that’s my whole Christian life, I am missing out on the joys of living in relationship with the other members of the body of Christ.

Parenting

As Christians, we are called to be a different kind of people, people who live in imitation of Christ, people who try to manifest His love in all they do.

This holds true for Christians in parenting roles. We cannot fulfill this or any role the way our society tells us to. When I was growing up, Dr Spock and permissive parenting was the fashion. Too bad too many people bought into it. The wisdom of that age created a generation that believed the world revolved around them.

Making your children feel good is not the goal of Christian parenting. The goal is to raise the next generation of disciples, men and women who are committed to living as committed followers of Jesus Christ. How can we do this in the culture we live in?

Romans 12 gives us the overriding principle: Do not be conformed to the pattern of this present world, but let your minds be transformed by Christ.

Deuteronomy adds some practical advice. Impress the teachings of the Lord on your children. How? Talk to them about God’s word when you are hanging out at home. When you are driving somewhere. Work it into casual conversation during your daily life.

Twice in his letters, Paul cautions parents against exasperating or embittering children. How do we balance this idea against effective discipline?

Many people who go through DbD aren’t parents and never have been. How does this week’s topic apply to them?

I’ve never had the privilege of being a mother, but later in life found myself in the role of stepmother to two teenagers. I needed everything I had ever heard about being a Christian parent to help me through the years before the girls moved on. So some people who are not parents now may find this week’s discussion helpful in the future.

Others may think they have never been parents and never will be. But what about nieces and nephews? I have a cousin who never married. After his sister went through a messy divorce, he ended up taking on a fathering role to her children.

And we never know what life will bring. I am now caring for a handicapped niece. Even though she is 36, emotionally she is about 4. A parenting role I never expected has been given to me.

Many of my friends are caring for elderly parents, who because of diseases of aging have become childlike. My friends are becoming parents for their own parents. It’s not the same joyful task of raising a healthy child to adulthood, with the anticipation of what that child will become. But it’s a role of Christ-like service to protect and nurture and to help someone be as much as they can be.

To stretch the point even further, I think back to my days supervising 12 employees. At times I felt like I had 12 children. My role there was to make sure the job got done, but also to teach and to encourage them to develop their professional skills.

Just as the principles of Christian marriage can teach us much about other relationships, so the principles of Christian parenting can help us when we take on roles of authority.

Marriage

Before I got married, I sometimes wondered why so many women seemed to struggle with the concept of submission. How hard could it be? How often would I be called on to submit to my husband? And if he loved me, wouldn’t he always want to listen to my point of view and accept my advice? And as I got older, I began to think of submission as a small price to pay for being married, that the gift of marriage would far offset whatever a submissive heart would cost.

It’s been interesting putting this into practice. Most of the time we can come to some kind of agreement. But sometimes we can’t. And I learned pretty quickly when my husband was not going to yield; it was obvious to me when it was pointless to continue the discussion. So we did things his way. My call was to support the decision that I didn’t agree with.

And it was a good thing we did. Most of those times, he was right. We were much better off with his plan than mine. Submitting my will to his in those times I didn’t agree usually meant we made a better decision than I would have made on my own.

I Peter 3:1 tells us that a wife submitting to her unbelieving husband can win him to Christ. I think that verse also applies to a wife submitting to her believing husband. By doing so, by not trying to get my way or impose my will, (no matter how much I think I am right), I am getting out of God’s way for whatever work He happens to be doing in my husband.

In verse 8 Peter tells us not to give way to fear. Why would he say this? Fear can make submission harder. Fear of not getting my way. Fear of something going wrong. Fear of losing control. When I think about those fears specifically, I can see that they are not going to provide any good guidance.

Along with submission, wives are called to respect their husbands. In my long years of singleness, I was constantly amazed at the way women talked to their husbands or mocked them in social settings. The women may have thought their jokes were all in good fun, but it was clear to me their husbands were not equally entertained.

We are also called to love. I find myself squirming as I read I Corinthians 13. Am I patient and kind? Am I not rude? Not easily angered? Keeping no record of wrongs? It’s a high standard to live up to, only attainable through Christ who strengthens me.

What does this mean for the single person? Learning to practice submission, respect and love can help in any relationship. Having a submissive attitude to your boss, rather than one of combativeness can be a good skill to learn. Treating others with respect and kindness, even when they act like they don’t want or deserve this treatment can teach us all much in walk with Christ.

Integrity

Hypocrite. That’s an accusation no one wants to hear. But what does being a hypocrite really mean?

According to dictionary.com, the work hypocrite means “a person who pretends to have virtues, moral or religious beliefs, principles, etc., that he or she does not actually possess, especially a person whose actions belie stated beliefs.”

It is pretty easy to open myself up to being called a hypocrite. Any time I sin I fail to make my actions match up to my beliefs. What makes the difference between a sinner and a hypocrite is that the sinner repents and admits the sin, where a hypocrite may express remorse but has no intention of changing.

The challenge is to be conscious of living in a way that is consistent with what we say we believe. Simple demonstrations of honesty, like avoiding what we call white lies and not stealing our employer’s time by taking long lunches or conducting personal business at work can be powerful tools for demonstrating the presence of Christ in our hearts.

One way I am especially tempted in this area is that in my desire to keep the peace, I have been known to tell others things that are not true. We’ve seen this worked out several times around my home recently. With two sisters-in-law, a niece, and at times a brother-in-law living with us, I’ve often been less than frank with them. And I’m not the only one trying to play nice.

What happens is the inevitable conflict eventually boils over, and then we are all outraged that the others were not more honest and direct. Had we all been a bit more truthful, things would have worked out much easier.
But it’s easy to call these little cover ups “white lies,” considering them small sins. No one had any intentions of hurting someone, in fact the deception was meant to avoid hurting their feelings. But feelings were hurt when the deception was exposed.

Psalm 15 tells us that we should speak the truth from the heart. I find it interesting it doesn’t just say speak the truth with your lips, but from the heart. Is the writer saying the truth comes from deep within us; it’s not just a surface or causal thing? Or perhaps he is saying that when we speak the truth, it needs to come from the seat of our emotions. The truth spoken should not be uttered coldly, without concern, but truth spoken in love, desiring the best for each other.

In any case, others around us know one way or another whether our actions match what we say we believe. The good news is that when we admit our sin, we are acting in a way that is in accordance with our words.

And that’s one way we can show the power of Christ to those around us.