INVISIBLE

REAL CHRISTIAN LEADERS

ANONYMITY

CONTRAST

WHAT WE REALLY NEED

HOT TOPIC?

Leaders and Followers

GREAT LEADERSHIP

LEADERSHIP MODELS

HOW MANY?

WHAT IT MEANS TO FOLLOW

THE CHURCH TODAY

10 Barriers to Effective Followership

The Christian church is not in need of more leaders today. We are not having a crisis of leadership. We have a leader. He is flawless. He is marvelous. He is sufficient.

What we have today is a desperate need for more followers. We need people who will listen to our leader and put his words into practice.  Nothing else will rescue the Church from complete irrelevance.

Only this is required: Listen to Jesus. Do what He says.

Here are 10 Barriers to Effective Followership:

1. Focusing too much on being the leader.
2. Acting as if only trained professionals are capable of following Jesus.
3. Believing that average people are not “good enough” to be like Jesus.
4. Using the word “leader” too often.
5. Forgetting to be a servant to everyone.
6. Talking more than you listen.
7. Thinking your ideas and wisdom mean more than everyone else’s.
8. Reading books about “leadership” instead of remembering to serve in obscurity.
9. Staying in our comfort zones instead of going out into the world to serve others.
10. Accepting the lie that “good works” somehow nullify God’s Grace.

Please, let’s stop talking about leadership and focusing our attention on leaders. We have a leader. It’s Jesus. Let’s get on with the task of following Him today.

“Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.” (Matt. 7:24)

“Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.” (John 13:17)

It’s not that I don’t believe in leadership. It’s that we already have a leader and his command to us was not to “Lord it over” one another but to realize that we are all brothers and sisters. He modeled one thing to us: Love. He washed our feet and then told us to do the same for one another.

To be clear: I’m not talking about doing good works to be saved. Those who are saved will do good works. Or, as I often say, “Swimming won’t make you a fish, but if you’re a fish you’ll swim.”

Or, as Paul says:

 

“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” (Eph. 2:8-10)

Our job is to follow our leader. He is the shepherd. We are the sheep.

“Follow me.” – Jesus

 -kg

 

 

 

LEADER OR PASTOR?

Pastor Davis wanted more than anything to be great at his job. So, to be a better pastor, he got in his car and drove across town to the Christian book store. Using his pastor’s discount card, he purchased ten different books on Leadership written by various business-leaders, professional speakers, and motivational authors. After reading all of those books he was good at one thing: Leadership. Unfortunately for Pastor Davis, being a great pastor has absolutely nothing to do with leadership.

The problem here is that we have redefined the term “pastor”as it was intended in the new testament to reflect our modern day ideas of what church should look like. See, the noun “Pastors” only appears once in the new testament scriptures, and then it is used in the plural sense, not the singular. Not only that, the group of people called upon to “shepherd the flock”in the local assembly are called “Elders” not “Pastors”.

Beyond the obvious misuse of the word, the real danger is that we’ve completely redefined the verb “to pastor” so that it no longer has anything to do with loving people, caring for them, serving them, feeding them, strengthening them, making sure they are spiritually healthy, or anything remotely close to what a “shepherd” would do to take care of the sheep. Instead, we have reduced the term “shepherd” or “pastor” into the most narrow function – leadership.

Pastor Davis made the mistake of reading books and attending conferences and listening to audio books about leadership so he could inspire people to listen to him, or to motivate people to do stuff, or to convince people to invest in his church. What should he have done instead? Well, if the function of being an elder (who is part of a group of other elders) is to nurture the spiritual development and growth of his brothers and sisters in the church, maybe the first thing would be to spend time praying for those people? And then maybe you could spend time with them? Perhaps you might decide to read books about how to listen more, or how to encourage people? You might also want to try doing all of these things without an ulterior motive like wanting to use your influence on people to get them to do stuff, or to give you money, or to volunteer for something. Just love them and listen to them and bless them and encourage them because you love them, and because you genuinely feel called –and gifted – by God to care for people.

See, Pastors who are obsessed with leadership are like husbands who expect to improve their marriages by reading books about monster trucks. Not only is leadership not related to loving people, it will train you to become more self-focused and less others-focused.

Books about leadership make you a better leader – in the worldly, CEO, “I’m the boss” sense of the word – but if you really want to learn how to please Jesus and be the best “shepherd” you can be, just focus on learning how to love people more, and to serve people more. It’s what Jesus did. It’s also what Jesus commanded us to do. He got down on his knees and washed the feet of this disciples, and then he said, “Now that you know these things you will be blessed…if you do them!” (Not if you read them, or if you know them, but only if you “do” them).

Biblically, a good shepherd or pastor is one who loves people and serves people and helps people to depend more on Jesus. Good pastors do not train people to depend on themselves. They constantly point others to Jesus and they teach them to hear the voice of the One, True, Good Shepherd who is more than capable of speaking to His own sheep and leading them where He wants them to go.

Pastoring is not about being a good speaker. It’s not about being a good marketer. It’s not about motivating people to do stuff. It’s not about being a smart business man. Simply put, pastoring is about loving and serving people.

Don’t be like Pastor Davis. Be like Jesus. Get on your knees. Serve others. Wash feet. Teach people to look to Jesus, and to cling to Jesus, and not to yourself. Then you will be a good pastor, and you know what else? You’ll also be a leader who sets an example worth following.

-kg

**

Thanks to Aaron [@CulturalSavage] for his Tweet that inspired this blog.

MOMENTUM: LEADERSHIP (Part 2)

What was Jesus’ model of leadership? [PART 2]

So, now that we know what Jesus' model of leadership was not about, let's look at what it was about.

Jesus did not model a CEO-style, top-down version of leadership, and forbade his disciples to do so either. Instead, he humbled himself and took on the role of a servant.

"The evening meal was in progress, and the devil had already prompted Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, to betray Jesus. Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him.” (John 13:2-5)

 

The meal they were sharing was the Passover meal. There is a ceremony near the beginning of the Passover where participants engage in a hand-washing ceremony. We believe that this foot-washing took place at this point in the meal.

When Jesus took off his outer garment and wrapped the towel around his waist he was dressed like every other slave dressed, and the disciples would've recognized this fact.

Foot washing was one of the most unpleasant chores you could possibly do in those days. In fact, I once read that if you were a Jew and you owned a Gentile slave and a Jewish slave, you would never ask your Jewish slave to wash feet - unless you really wanted to punish him.

So, when Jesus puts on the clothing of a slave and begins to do the very dirty job of washing feet, it set the disciples back, as you can see if you read the entire passage in John 13.

After Jesus washed their feet - even the feet of Judas - he puts back on his outer robe and says:

 

“Do you understand what I have done for you?” he asked them. “You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. Very truly I tell you, no servant is greater [more important than] than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.” (John 13: 12-17)

Washing his disciples feet wasn't just an object lesson in humility, it was meant to teach them something about being true leadership in the Church. It was meant to illustrate in the most indelible way possible that demonstrating actual love to one another was of utmost importance. In fact, it was more important than being important.

 

So, if everyone is commanded to love and serve everyone else, and if Jesus said that the greatest leaders were the servants of all, then every Christian is a leader.

Let me explain:
First of all, every follower of Jesus is commanded to love:  “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.” (John 13:34)

Secondly, loving one another means serving one another: “You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free, (therefore)…serve one another humbly in love. For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” (Galatians 5:13-14)

Third, those who are leaders in the Church must be servants: “The greatest among you will be your servant. For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.” (Matthew 23:11-12)

Therefore, if every Christian is called to be a servant, and if loving one another means serving one another, and if those who serve others are leaders in the Body of Christ, then every Christian is a leader.

That means Christianity is for leaders only.

So, the more we serve others in the Body of Christ, the greater we become. The greater we become the more authority we are given to serve others. The more we exercise our authority to serve by serving more people, the greater servants we become, and the greater we become in the Kingdom. It’s really very simple.

Those of us who are leaders in the church (and that’s all of us) are called to be just like Jesus, and even Jesus “did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life” for others. Paul the Apostle follows up these thoughts by pointing out that everyone in the Body of Christ is called to love – and to serve – everyone else. In short, everyone who calls themselves a Christian is, in fact, a servant, and therefore, a leader. This means that Christianity is for leaders only.

Is Leadership bad? Not at all. In fact, Paul lists “Leadership” as one of the spiritual gifts given to the Body of Christ. [see Romans 12:8]

But, what does true Kingdom/Church Leadership look like? It's not a guy in a power tie who is “in charge”; Leadership looks like a guy on his knees washing feet.

REMEMBER: Great Christian leaders don't constantly talk about being a leader. They concentrate on following Jesus.

"In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death — even death on a cross!" (Philippians 2:5-8)

[END PART 2]

MOMENTUM: LEADERSHIP IN THE CHURCH

NOTE: For those of you who weren’t able to join us at the Bay Area Momentum on Oct. 6/7, here’s a look at my presentation notes on the topic of “Leadership”.

MOMENTUM: Leadership – The Most Important Thing? [PART 1]

I want to thank all the other presenters for allowing me to speak on the most important topic of all – Leadership.

Really, is anything more important than leadership? Obviously, nothing is more important than leadership in the Church. We know this first of all because everywhere we look we see the evidence. We have Leadership conferences, Leadership study bibles, Leadership sections of our book stores, we have Leadership guru’s everywhere.

Another way we know that Leadership is the most important thing in the Church is because the Twelve Disciples were very interested in this topic. In fact, no one in the New Testament is more interested in Leadership and Hierarchy than the disciples of Jesus.

"An argument started among the disciples as to which of them would be the greatest." (Luke 9:46)

Even at the Lord's Supper, when Jesus announced that one of them would betray him, and that he would suffer in order to establish a new covenant between God and man, the disciples took a break from discussing which of them might betray Jesus in this way in order to discuss the very important topic of leadership:

"A dispute also arose among them as to which of them was considered to be greatest." (Luke 22:24)

Earlier on in Jesus' ministry the mother of James and John came to him to engage in a dialog about leadership, saying:

“Grant that one of these two sons of mine may sit at your right and the other at your left in your kingdom." (Matthew 20:21)

Of course, James and John themselves were also quite eager to move up in the hierarchy of the Kingdom and so they also came to Jesus to talk about leadership issues when they said:

"Let one of us sit at your right and the other at your left in your glory." (Mark 10:37)

Even when they traveled from town to town, the disciples loved to pass the time by talking about which of them was the greatest of all.

“They came to Capernaum. When he was in the house, [Jesus] asked them, 'What were you arguing about on the road?' But they kept quiet because on the way they had argued about who was the greatest." (Mark 9:33-34)

 

WHO'S THE GREATEST?

Now, I believe that every person has a God-given desire to be great. The problem comes when we confuse “Greatness” with “Being Important.”

Jesus said that the greatest would be the servant of all, not the most important, or intelligent, in the room.

Yes, the disciples were extremely fixated on the topic of leadership and hierarchy. But Jesus wasn't. In fact, in every single one of these cases, Jesus took the time to stress to His disciples that, in the Kingdom of God, leadership didn't have anything to do with being top dog. In fact, if they wanted to be great in the Kingdom of God, they would have to get used to washing feet, being everyone's servant and acting like simple, humble children.

Let’s look at how Jesus responds to the disciples obsession with leadership and hierarchy:

Jesus points to both a secular and a religious hierarchy and says, “Not So With You!”

SECULAR HIERARCHY: "Jesus called them together and said, “You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them.  Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Mark 10:42-45)

He sternly warned his disciples not to “lord it over” one another as the Gentile rulers did.

RELIGIOUS HIERARCHY: But you are not to be called ‘Rabbi,’ for you have one Teacher, and you are all brothers. And do not call anyone on earth ‘father,’ for you have one Father, and he is in heaven. Nor are you to be called instructors, for you have one Instructor, the Messiah. The greatest among you will be your servant.  For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted. (Matt 23:8-12).

He also commanded them not to follow the example of the Jewish leaders who loved the praise of men and built their own kingdoms to glorify themselves.

-kg

[END PART 1]

Anatomy of an Open Meeting: Creating Experts?

Part 4: THE DANGER OF CREATING HEROES AND EXPERTS

I've written about this before on my blog and shared my concerns about elevating leaders within the House Church/Organic Church movement to become our own versions of "Pastors" and "Bishops". If we do that we've now become as guilty as the rest of the traditional church we left behind in order to pursue Christ as our only Head.

This is a two way street, by the way. It can be the Leader who seeks the fame and the name, or it can be the people who seek after a guru who will tell them what to believe and how to behave. Or, it can be a little of both.

As someone whose personal sin is Pride, I have to admit that I'm very aware of this tendency in myself and I work very hard to sit in the background of our own church family and not take the Lord's place in the Body. I used to limit myself to only two "soap box moments" every meeting. Then my goal was to try not to share a comment on what every person shared during the meeting (which created a sort of conversational ping-pong where someone would share and then I would comment and then another person would share and then I would comment again, etc.). Now my goal is to keep silent unless the Lord really prompts me to share something. Otherwise, I sit quietly and I listen.

I know that sometimes people who read my blog or my books will visit our house church and they'll expect that I'll have some cool teaching to share every time. But that's not what happens. If anything, I'll rarely talk at all unless the Lord has given me something to teach or to share.

I'll never forget when one brother visited our group for the first time after reading my blog. He came on a Thursday evening and after I played the guitar during the shared worship time, I got up and left the room. He told me later that he thought it was very weird that I would do that, but the group didn't miss a beat and people were sharing and teaching and praying for one another spontaneously without me in the room. Eventually he did notice that I had returned to the room when I spoke up and shared something, but until that moment he was oblivious to my presence, which is sort of the point, really.

My goal is really to encourage everyone else to share. I really want to hear what my two teenage boys have to say. I want to hear from those quiet wives who never speak out. I want hear what that five year old boy has to say about Jesus. Those are always the most profound things, really. I've learned so much from the most unlikely sources. It's amazing, really.

This kind of thing is a movement of God. No man can take credit for this. When I hear from people all over the nation, and even the world, that God is leading them in this same New Testament model of "being Church" it excites me. Because we're not moving in this direction because we read a blog or a book or attended a conference. Every one I've spoken to shares their story about how God did this to them. God called them to step outside the traditional model of Church and they obeyed Him and followed His leading, even at a great cost - usually friendships, or salaries, or the respect of others, etc. But when I hear those testimonies I rejoice because I know that God is purifying His Bride and He's doing something marvelous that no man can dare take credit for.

In our final installment we'll look at a few other things a leader in an open meeting might be called upon to do.

-kg

[END PART 4]

FOR LEADERS ONLY

Today’s article is directed only to the leaders among us. We all know how important leaders are in the Body of Christ, and that’s why I want to take this moment to address all of those who are leaders in the Church.
However, this article is also – at the very same time – addressed directly to everyone who calls themselves a Christian.

Let me explain:

First of all, every follower of Jesus is commanded to love:

“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.” (John 13:34)


Secondly, loving one another means serving one another:

“You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free, (therefore)…serve one another humbly in love. For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” (Galatians 5:13-14)

Third, those who are leaders in the Church must be servants:

“The greatest among you will be your servant. For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.” (Matthew 23:11-12)

Therefore, if every Christian is called to be a servant, and if loving one another means serving one another, and if those who serve others are leaders in the Body of Christ, then every Christian is a leader.

That means Christianity is for leaders only.

The more we serve others in the Body of Christ, the greater we become. The greater we become the more authority we are given to serve others. The more we exercise our authority to serve by serving more people, the greater servants we become, and the greater we become in the Kingdom. It’s really very simple.

WHAT ABOUT NON-LEADERS?

Simply put, lack of leadership in the Body of Christ is a disease. Some call it “Diotrephesia”.

“I wrote something to the church, but Diotrephes, who loves to be first among them, does not acknowledge us. Therefore, if I come I will call attention to the deeds he is doing – the bringing of unjustified charges against us with evil words! And not being content with that, he not only refuses to welcome the brothers himself, but hinders the people who want to do so and throws them out of the church!” (3 John 1: 9-11)


The symptoms of Diotrephesia are:
*Always seeking to be first
*Strong desire to do all the talking
*Tendency to "Lord it over" others
*Fixation with literature, conferences, and titles that imply leadership is about being in control rather than being a slave.
*Tendency to assume the entire church fellowship is under his authority and control.
*Continually finds ways to exploit the talents of others for his own gain.
*Keeps others dependent upon himself for spiritual health

There is no room in the Body of Christ for any so-called “non-leaders”. The New Testament has nothing to say about followers of Christ who do not serve, or embrace the greatness of being humble. Those in the Church who refuse to serve must be taught how to serve, or be served themselves by everyone else until they either become so ashamed of themselves for their lack of leadership that they also begin to lead by serving.

LEADERS, SERVANTS, AND FOLLOWERS
Those of us who are leaders in the church (and that’s all of us) are called to be just like Jesus, and even Jesus “did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life” for others. Paul the Apostle follows up these thoughts by pointing out that everyone in the Body of Christ is called to love – and to serve – everyone else. In short, everyone who calls themselves a Christian is, in fact, a servant, and therefore, a leader. This means that Christianity is for leaders only.

See you at the Leadership Conference on Sunday.

-kg

Raising Up Leaders in House Church

Over the last few years I've been corresponding with a brother in Christ, Vilbert Vallance, who lives in India. Recently he emailed me asking for help in raising up leaders within his house church family. As I was sharing it with him I thought it might be beneificial to others who might also want some advice about this.

Vilbert,

What I do in our group is to not do anything, or to do as little as possible. Really, the secret, if there is one, I'd say is to get out of the way and allow the Holy Spirit to do as much as possible. At first our house church always looked to me or to my wife to do everything - answer every Bible question, lead the communion, baptize the people, etc. So, sometimes I would just leave the room during prayer or after worship to let them figure things out together. Other times if someone asked me a question about the Bible I would lean back and say, "I don't know. What do you guys think?" and allow people to discuss this question without my interference. Sometimes I would ask another person, maybe even a child or a teenager, to lead us in communion, or to read a scripture to everyone. You can do this on the spot, or you can ask them ahead of time if they would do this when the time comes. That way you don't have to be the one to ask them but they will just do it because you've already asked them in advance. The hope being that, eventually, they will feel confident to read scriptures on their own and to take initiative when it's time for communion, or prayer, etc.

One thing that really helped our group in this respect is that we are a group of leaders. You may not have that in your group, I realize. If they are all mostly new christians then this will take more discipleship, but as they begin to grow in Christ you can begin to set them free and empower them to do more because they are all priests in God's Kingdom, just like you.

Maybe they don't know the Bible as much as you do, or have as much experience...but then how did you get your experience? Didn't someone allow you to lead? Didn't someone ask you to teach? These are the ways we raise up leaders, by allowing them to serve (not to lead). Because in the Kingdom of God the leaders are the servants of all.

If somone wants to be the leader (or the boss) then do not allow them to do this. If they want to serve, then let them do that because this is what a leader looks like in the Body of Christ. "The greatest among you is the servant of all," Jesus told us. So, everyone has the potential to be great in God's Kingdom because anyone and everyone can serve another person. It does not require skill or wisdom, only humility and love.

Another thing we did in our group was to start meeting in other homes besides ours. This allowed people to take ownership of the church and to see that there was nothing special about my house. Any house can be special because God's people meet there. Even if we meet under a tree, it does not matter. After awhile I would sometimes not even show up to those meetings outside of my house so that they could also learn that they do not need me to have fellowship or to "be the Church". They really don't need me (or you) they just need Jesus and each other. Maybe down the road you can do this with your group as they grow in Christ?

Does any of this help you? Please let me know if I'm not answering your question properly. I do want to help you grow leaders in your group.

Blessings to you as you serve the Lord and His Church.

Peace,

kg

**
You can learn many more practical things about house church at MOMENTUM 2012 on March 30 and 31. This practical and interactive gathering will feature plenty of dialog, discussion and hands-on experience with organic church dynamics. Our event will include insights from practitioners like Neil Cole, Ross Rohde, Bill Faris, Ken Eastburn, Joe Chebat, Jeanne O'Hair, Bob Sears and myself. Scott Underwood will lead us in worship. Hope you can be there!
MORE INFO AND REGISTRATION > 

THIS IS WHAT LEADERSHIP LOOKS LIKE ACCORDING TO JESUS

Like this....




Not like this....