A dear friend spent a long time writing and rewriting a booklet on leadership. Every word in it is true. Yet, if I could get a hold of every copy I would burn them all. Recently I saw a finished copy of the writing. I picked it up. It turned my stomach simply holding it. I saw truth which could be twisted into "more of same" and bring the just released ones back into bondage. We need leaderless leadership.
Servant/Leader?
I hear the term "Servant/Leader" being thrown about. Are people changing and becoming more "servants"? For the most part, no, they are just taking a new "Title." Gary Linden in his book "Homeward Horses and Point Geese" tells this story: "A group of American Christians were visiting a Chinese Christian commune in mainland China. The Americans were looking for the leadership of the community. They were directed to see one particularly revered elder. After much searching of the commune grounds they found him, but even when they found him they had to be told that the leader was, indeed, the little old man with the large wheelbarrow full of human dung heading for the nearby field. The greatest among you will, indeed, be the servant of all." The medium is the message. A servant does only what the master says. His servanthood is apparent. I seldom see this style leadership in the United States. How often do we see this in action: servanthood with no ulterior motives? Too often the person wants to control the response to his service. This has ugly outcomes. We know control when it asks us to violate our conscience or to in any way cross our own spirit-led actions. Godly example and service(leadership if you must use the word) should leave us in awe of God, and wanting to walk humbly ourselves to receive all God has for us, and straining to hear all God says to us, and joyfully willing to become servants ourselves.
Mike Peters has written a book on Community and church which has what I consider a good description of "Leadership"
Careful/Prayerful Watchmen
We've been told we have great children. We give God any glory there. We'll take the blame for the bad parts! But, if it is true we've nice kids, then maybe how we raised them will illustrate good leadership(patient service). When our daughter was two she began to climb a ladder. In my studies of children I knew that even 6 month old babies will not simply crawl into open space. A two year old has a fairly good sense of distance, balance, and pain. Most mothers would simply remove the child from the ladder (strong, controlling leadership). Instead I simply moved closer to the ladder to help only in case I was needed. This takes guts. Especially when she was 5 years old and climbing higher in trees than I would go. In the case of the ladder, she climbed about 3 rungs, looked down, decided she was high enough and carefully climbed back down. If I had short circuited the learning on the ladder, she would not have had the confidence to climb the tree. To this day I love to take children to the playground and, using this "stand by" technique, help them to overcome a challenge. We have, in the pews and, unfortunately, in about a half of the house churches I know of, a large group of people being told they are not quite ready to try the ladder. First of all, there is no ladder, either you are on the floor with the rest of the congregation or up on the pulpit with the "leaders."
Even in home fellowships it is often no different; there is little place to say or do anything outside a very limited list. Except for leading a song or sharing a scripture, many attending would be slow to do many things: lead out in prayer, change the direction of the meeting, prophecy, teach, stand, or go over to pray for someone. And there are those who would say or in some unspoken way, reserve some of those things for "leadership". Any Christian of any spiritual age should be encouraged to do whatever they feel led to do and they feel capable of doing. It is not our job to judge the lambs, only guard them. Let them play among themselves, they won't hurt anything. Fellow believers simply stand by in case they are needed. Perhaps I feel we have not been radical enough is defining when and where "church" happens.
Guides on the Side
So, what do I think should happen? Well, I have to put some of the "blame" on Bob Fitts who disagrees with me on some of this, for it was in his writings that I finally fully accepted that where two or three are gathered, that is fully church. Since there is usually not a previously recognized leader in a chance meeting of 2 or 3, at what point do you need a "recognized leader." Only at the point where they are needed and only if there is a problem. And then, that believer, who knows God wants him to exercise some kind of gift as part of the functioning body, simply speaks up. If it's spiritually right, others will discern and yield to that anointing. If its wrong, well, we are responsible for what we do, I follow only as another follows Christ. His knowledge and walk can make the path easier for me, but since God almost certainly has a different path for me, the walk must always be step by step. No beaten paths please. Healthy children and healthy believers are self-disciplined quite early and don't need a heavy hand to hold or to hold them (down).
There will be "leadership," that is, someone more mature, going out a little further, or providing some protection in the spirit, but when we talk about it it awakens, reaffirms lousy "logismos." This is a term I first heard used by Harold Eberle. I believe it means a fortress of thought and opinion in the mind which has been built up over time. It is very hard to get around these former ways of thinking. These mindsets cause good, sound ideas to begin to be twisted and made into a dead form. As an example, I was talking to a brother about him possibly taking on an apprentice. We talked about the necessary attitude in an apprentice. My feeling was that the proper attitude would be built in the up and coming carpenter if he understood he was in the shop to build or help to build and thereby learn, rather than simply watching or receiving theory. He will learn in the process of building. We need to think in terms of apprenticeships. Think of encouraging others to follow footsteps, not words. Think of making others discipled as in self-disciplined. Almost everyone learns better by doing. The focus should be on the process and growth of the person learning, not whether the product meets our specifications. Some of the greatest artists of all time were great because they quickly went beyond the set ways of doing things, not that they ignored them, just that they were not bound by them. Does someone need in-depth or lengthy teaching? God can easily or if necessary supernaturally bring people together as in the case of Philip and the eunuch. In other words our only responsibility is to do what God tells us to do, we cannot go around meeting other people's expectations or teaching others to meet expectations. One of my favorite quotes from a friend is, "All the needs(of individuals in a group) will be met if the body is allowed to function." Once we lock anyone into a set way or place or time to function we have lost a lot of grace in this "allowing." We also lose 98% of our time to "be church" and 98% of the functioning "ministers" of the life of Christ.
What about the Lambs?
Jeff is a 17 year old, just off the streets, with hair so red it seems dyed. He is hungry for the Lord and a delight to walk with in Jesus. When we met him at Green Oaks Ranch, I sensed a special call on his life. God told at least 3 of us that He has plans for this guy. A new "race" to meet many young people entering the kingdom. A quick stop at a promise box confirmed that 1) God will feed His lambs (including Jeff) and 2) that Jeff was a man like Moses. Well, heavy stuff for a just saved 17 year old. He was adopted and a runaway, like Moses. During the night and the next morning I received several things for Jeff and for those surrounding him. One was that we should all keep our "theological" hands off him, because only God knows His plan for Jeff. Another was that Jeff was like a rough cut diamond that we were allowed to make an early cut on. Intimidating stuff actually. I was almost afraid to talk to him. One of the strongest things I heard was that Jeff needs to learn quickly to hear the voice of the Lord for himself. I am trusting those around him can discern early when he is walking as he is because he hears The Drummer or walking in a way that shows his past habits of rebellion. It's not that easy to tell the difference unless you are walking in the spirit yourself. Jesus and all his disciples were seen as rebels at some time.
Woe to those who would train according to rules rather than the spirit. You will get what you train for: Legalism or Grace. Did you ever notice how seldom our Lord did the same thing the same way twice? Anyway, for Jeff I sensed us pushing him up as far as our fingertips will reach and trusting God to take him from there. If we try to bring him to where we are we have just exercised controlling, limiting leadership.
Listen
We must mostly be guides on the sides rather than sages on the stage. Think of opening doors for others into the spirit life. Think of two or three with Jesus in the midst. Who "leads" them? What is the goal of our instruction? People learning to discern counterfeit from real money don't start with fake money, they handle real money so they know the fake. Let's not play church, in a "let's play church house," let's be The Church, everywhere. Why waste time we don't have? "Leadership" in all forms I've seen it in any kind of recognized way still perpetuates a bad system and wastes a lot of time. We don't need that kind of leadership. We need servants to carry the waste out. Provide spiritual oversight (seeing over in the spirit, with seldom a word spoken-travailing in the spirit world and protecting by spiritual battle). On this earth He may use one of His servants to speak the next step. As in hearing any voice, the individual must discern the spirit. If there is no peace, do not follow; It's that simple.
Again, leadership will happen. But there is nothing we can do in the flesh to enable it to function as God wants it to (I believe this, you are free to have your different opinion). Any attempt to explain it, plan it, simply frustrates God's plan (in my opinion). A waste of words. There is now no doubt in my mind that as each tunes in, as in Ephesians 4, people will find themselves arrayed in marching order and efficiently doing whatever the will of God is for specific places and times. There is only one leader Christ. We're not to look to anyone except Him. OBEY HIM. In other words our only responsibility is to do what God tells us to do.
I was going over the pieces of armor in Ephesians 6. The sword is the word of God. The Greek word there is "Rhema," meaning specific to the individual, rather than the written word. Unless we have attuned our hearing to KNOW HIS VOICE, we cannot be fully armored. There are too many "division chiefs" trying to get soldiers to shape up and follow them rather than simply helping them to "tune in" to their own unique battle orders straight from the captain. Why waste time teaching people to hide in sheepfolds when they can and should be learning to walk freely and safely in all the world as fully armored and ready-to-fight warriors under the direct command of the supreme commander?
Let God put it together
The most amazing times of experiencing the body of Christ functioning have happened in my sight when there was no expectation except a focus on the Lord Jesus. The Holy Spirit seems to move best and most freely when we simply wait on what He has for us. I've seen physical healing, emotional healing, prophecy, incredible revelations all happening in odd places and times and no one looking at anyone but simple waiting on the quiet, gentle nudging of His spirit. And if we would only gather with NO prior plans we will, I believe, see glorious things, and be filled with a glory we often only hope for.
A friend told me recently he feels he's being prepared for a time that is not yet.
Early one morning, early in our trip to California I had a very vivid vision. There were a band of people trying to blow up a cadaver in a tomb. They were giving it their all. There was no escape route, a river had taken their car away, there was injury, one man had lost an arm by setting off a bomb too early. It didn't matter, they were going for it. The tomb didn't seem to be getting destroyed, so they decided to make a trade. They brought out an infant coffin. It was three sided and the sides were like a carved screen so you could look inside. I didn't want to look, for coffins usually contain dead bodies. Anyway, this little structure was poorly carved and of a soft wood. The pieces were barely holding together and there was a part missing. Visible inside were pieces of what looked to be a similar structure if it were assembled. These pieces were made of a hard, dark wood. They were finely carved, with precise edges, and they gleamed. Some of the pieces were touching each other as they lay there.
Is this The Church? Untouched by human hands. Not to be put together by any but the master craftsman. I hope so.
JM
