On being a gifted leader

            Today, I got around to reading some emails which are longer, and tend to be teachings.  One email I looked at was from my friend and missionary Don Davis, who relayed, from the blog www.preparehisway.com, the posting of April 25, 2010. This writer points out that Matthew 23:8-10, which begins by Jesus saying, “Call no man rabbi” was not merely his instructing the disciples not to use that word.  Some versions use the word “father” instead of rabbi, which I perceive to be a subtle shot at those denominations which have used that word as a title instead of “pastor.”  The point the writer is making, which is emphasized in the larger context, but which would naturally not be emphasized by teachers in the traditional western church system, is that Jesus was warning them against using any titles whatsoever in the New Covenant.  Whether they actually realized it at the time of its hearing, or not until the Holy Spirit came upon them in Acts 1, is a thing for God and them to know, and not us.

            I had been thinking about this situation for a couple of weeks.  If the gifts mentioned in Ephesians 4, along with Romans 12 and 1 Corinthians 12, are truly gifts of God, then no person or organization can give out titles rightly.  What I mean is this:  In our culture, most institutional churches call the head person pastor, a word they get from Ephesians 4.  Until a couple of years ago, I didn’t know that that word wasn’t used as a title until after the Reformation.  History gives us some inkling that the persons, including leaders, in the early church understood that word to be a modifier of “teachers”, in a way that in modern English would have been written pastor/teacher, pastor-teacher, or pasturing teacher.  Whatever way, today we have in some traditional churches that have wandered astray, pastors by title who are not even believers, and clearly, therefore, have received a title, but do not have the gift.  Here’s the opposite side:  If a person has that gift of God, and another believer, for whatever reason, doesn’t recognize it in that person, that gift is still is upon that person.  It doesn’t take my or any person’s recognizing the gift, and, therefore, certainly not that person sticking a title onto their name, to make the gift effective. 

            In the Old Testament, we consider Jeremiah to be a prophet, but we see that gifting brought him little but suffering, and the writings of the Old Testament do not show of anyone getting right with God, or growing closer to God, in his day through his ministry.  While many principles have changed from Old to New Covenants, usually  from a thing being in the physical realm among the physical Chosen People, to in the spiritual realm among the spiritually chosen of the New Covenant church, this aspect is equivalent, albeit more common in this era.  God’s gifting is not associated with people recognizing it.  In theory, the gifted person attempting to advertise it would come across as, in this one aspect, the opposite of spiritual maturity.  Part of the spiritual weakness in some parts of the church comes from a tendency of leaders, assuredly because they were taught to do this by the previous generation of leaders, is to attempt to lure as many people as possible into their program.  In John 6:60-71, Jesus showed the exact opposite interest when He said things that caused many to stop listening to Him and leave.

Thoughts on Leadership

            I will start with a disclaimer:  although I lived in the greater St. Augustine, FL area for a number of years, I do not personally know Tim Tebow or his family, although I cannot help but think I am one introduction away, but by who, I have no idea.  Today, it came across my mind, while watching sports news, that he must be the most divisive athlete in the U.S. since Jackie Robinson.  With Robinson, the issue was race, and this country has seen sufficient healing with this regard that the way it was then is unimaginable to those of us who didn’t live through it (that was about two decades too far back for my memory).  With Tebow, the divisiveness comes from his faith combined with what the media has told us is his exceptional leadership ability at a time where there is more open hostility to believers in Jesus. 

            I live in a military area, and what we hear in the recruitment ads speaks about leadership.  This concept of leadership is nearly totally based on discipline and training.  I occasionally read articles about a military unit, and it seems it always has to be mentioned that, for those in the unit, what they do is a job, and not a matter of passion for the ideals of this country.  The ideals are respected, and mentally saluted, but it isn’t a matter of passion, the way a football team gets worked up before a game.  Of course, that type of emotional excitement only is functional for certain short periods of time, and totally the opposite of functional for many endeavors.  I say this, as my son is in the military working on electronics, where getting excited (upset) is a reason to go take a walk for a minute.

            Leadership is a fascinating subject for me.  I had the honor to be around about two persons in high school and three in college who had a gift for leadership.  One of the persons I knew in college is a believer, and has been involved in leading in traditional churches during his adult life.  I can clearly say that his gifting for leadership was on his life at 19, long before the denomination he is connected to accredited him as a leader.  I didn’t know him before he was a believer, so I have no clue how believing increased his leadership ability.  I fully well know from the other persons that exceptional leadership ability appears in them to be a natural gift, not a learned thing.  At my age, I don’t really know how to separate a natural ability to lead, and the spiritual gift of leadership Paul speaks of in Romans 12:8.

            I can further say that, when I was in high school and college, a gift of leadership, whether natural or spiritual, was more obvious then than when I became an adult, where our society, be it business, politics, church, or whatever, attributes leadership to a position, so it is really hard to tell whether there is giftedness behind it.  First Corinthians 12:10 tells about gifts (plural) of healing.  Further, nothing is indicated in scripture that the spiritual gifts spoken in Romans 12, Ephesians 4, and First Corinthians 12 are the complete list.  Therefore, it is unsaid that there may be degrees of leadership ability.  One problem in the church in North America is the idea on both sides of the divide within the church on understanding spiritual gifts is that the discussion gravitates toward the gifts of tongues and prophecy, and doesn’t discuss the others much.  To that effect, when I walk over to the discussion of leadership, there is a problem on both sides of the previous controversy that leaders are oftentimes recognized by positions given by fellow humans.  One aspect about any spiritual gift is that, if it is truly given by God (I am not questioning God’s giving these gifts, I am using “if” in the sense of a logical if-then sentence), then the gifting upon a believer is not dependent upon whether an organization, or even any other believer recognizes it.  It is God’s gifting that makes one a pastor (Eph. 4), a discerner of spirits (1 Cor. 12:10), a giver (Rom. 12:8), or, possibly, one who possesses a gift God gives over and above the names he has elaborated for us. 

            A further problem with leadership giftings is beginning to show itself here in the West, with the rise of the megachurch, which could not have happened previously without the ability of most people to come many miles, experience the presentation called worship that is dependent on many modern technologies, and the highly able leader.  I avoided the word “gifted” there, in that we have seen such churches built around one person with extreme talent, or is it a spiritual gift, for leadership, and then the world has seen such organizations financially collapse if something happens to that person, and there is no other person who can fill his shoes.

            I come back, once again, to First Thessalonians 5:11, which tells us to edify each other.  Such a gifted person can speak to thousands, but it gets in the way, not only of those persons edifying each other, but in some cases even knowing each other.  I have come to believe that Jesus, who as God had more ability than any of us, chose to intensely mentor 12, and it appears mentor to a significantly lower degree, another 70.  Paul taught 24 young leaders in Ephesus.  We can have “iron sharpens iron” relationships with only a few others.  If you ask me a question that I haven’t thought about lately (or ever), it may take me a little while to think and study through it, and give a proper answer.  ESP is not a (Godly) spiritual gift, and to say that a traditional pastor preparing a sermon is answering the questions those listening to him/her have (knowingly or unknowingly) is implying that something like it is.  I have come to believe that the participatory Bible study, where everyone to wishes to knows what will be examined to examine beforehand for him/herself to prepare so as to help others, makes for a situation in which those who have not grown to the maturity to study for oneself, will ask spur of the moment questions which are far more likely to produce the “teachable moment” in which the right statement, which is actually the Spirit speaking into that persons’ spirit, happens.