Choosing A Leader

In the spirit of the American elections when every citizen in America gets to help choose a leader for the nation I think I’d like to spend a little time on how we as Christians choose our leaders in the church. Or, to be more theologically correct, how our leaders are not chosen by us but by God and how we sometimes forget that.

I’m writing this post because several times in the past few weeks I’ve been in conversations that revolve around the topic of Christian leaders. I have many friends who feel a call to be a leader in the Church but they’re trying to figure out what that looks like. And whenever we talk it seems like they’re thoughts, worries and concerns always revolve around one thing; what God’s children are saying to them.

Either it’s “Yea my whole life people have been telling me I should be a pastor” or “This prophet told me that I was a prophet which is really cool” or “I’m worried because I’m a woman and there’s a lot of people in my life that I look up to that are telling me I can’t be a pastor” or “Well I never went to seminary” or “I’m more of a background person, not like those other people”. I also can’t tell you the number of girls I’ve talked to who say while they were growing up their dream guy was a youth pastor who wanted to be a missionary or pastor who strolled around with bare feet and ripped jeans and strumming an acoustic guitar while smiling at everything.

I’m pretty sure my friends aren’t the only ones who think this. Maybe not because we were dreaming of our future husband…maybe for most of us we just have an image in our mind of what a Christian looks like, what a pastor looks like, what a youth minister looks like, and everyone around us confirms these imaginings with the way they act and speak. The truth is that we as the Church have kind of gotten into a rhythm. Go do some mission work, be a youth pastor for a couple years while studying at seminary, then graduate seminary and leave the youth to become a full-time pastor under an older pastor and then eventually have a church of your own. Sure, the stories may vary a little because God does that, right? But still, if you want to be a leader in the church, this is the path you follow. I mean sure there are elders and deacons but pastors man, that’s where it’s at. A pastor is the epitome of our faith. They know everything there is to know about anything and they’re never wrong, at least not on the things that matter. They’re the hallmark of our faith, the ones who’s job it is to sell the message to the masses, Christians and non-Christians alike. They are appointed by God so what they say goes. You’re just a lost, stupid sheep and they are your shepherd. They have a lot on their plate so give them grace and just do what they say. If you disagree, just conceal, don’t feel, don’t let them know…well now I’m really off track. Let’s get back to the point.

Pastors are the be all end all. And if you’re a senior pastor? Yea, at that point everyone else should probably just keep quiet because you know what’s best. You’ve seen everything there is to see, you know the signs of someone who will fizzle out when the going gets tough. You know that everyone’s against you but without you they’d be lost. Your job is to herd sheep after all and at some point in the past you lost your patience for them so now you just tell them where to go and if they don’t follow that’s ok because they’re rebelling against God and not you.

Now I bet at this point you’re thinking “Wow, who spit in his bean curd?” (For anyone who imagined the grandma from Mulan when reading that you get 50 God points) But seriously man, aren’t you being harsh on pastors? The Bible does say they have a really hard job and that we should respect them at all times and that God will punish those who mistreat his leaders. Seriously man, don’t be like Israel and reject the ones God sends to you. They just want to help.

One time I was having a difficult conversation with a spiritual leader in my area. He had done something really hurtful. When we were praying for our school he used someone as an example in his prayer and named her name. You know the whole never share someone else’s personal struggles with an entire group of people that the person kind of knows but not really while the person isn’t even there? Yea he broke that rule. And did some other things too which I don’t have to get into. But it turned into me meeting with this guy over coffee/tea and me calling him out on these things. I did it in my usual respectful way, but the things this leader was doing were hurtful to many people and had been going on for months and he asked me to be up front with him so I did. A couple of nights later he called me up. He started with the whole flattery thing Christians were taught to do when they want to challenge someone like “I really appreciate how God uses you in…” and it’s always paired with a “but you’re wrong wrong wrong wrong” (personally I find this very disrespectful and unproductive but hey, everyone thinks that’s how God wants you to do it so I’m not even going to fight that battle). Then he acknowledged that what I had said was true and that it was from God and that several things I had challenged him on were things that God had been poking him about too. But then he said something I will never forget. “You can’t be so harsh when you’re speaking truth. You can’t speak to us like prophets in the old testament spoke. It’s hard being a Christian leader. And unlike people in the old testament, we in North America have feelings.” Now let me tell you this took all of my self-restraint not to burst out laughing. I mean I was in ministry mode and by God’s grace I was able to finish the conversation in a respectful manner. But as soon as I hung up the phone I died laughing. I couldn’t believe what I had heard. This guy seriously thought that I should give him a bunch of slack because he was a leader and because he had more feelings than the people in the OT. Even writing this I am shocked speechless that someone would say that to me in a serious tone as if God himself had spoke those words directly to him.

I think I’ve made my point that the way we Christians view leaders in the church today is unhealthy at best. And no, I’m not saying let’s rebel against the leadership and make their lives more difficult than they already are. And yes, we should respect all of God’s leaders at all times as they work diligently in the difficult task that God has appointed them to. What I’m saying is that I’m not surprised so many of my young friends are having difficulty finding the path that God is leading them down as he calls them to a position of leadership in the Church.

So let’s start at the beginning. Forget everything you know about Christian Leadership. Let help you build a foundation, and then you can go from there and readdress the things you learned previously from a place of solid ground that will allow you to interact with these ideas in a way that builds you and the Church up.

Because I have addressed several of these concepts in previous blogs and in my “About” and “Home” section I won’t go into full detail but I’ll briefly summarize what I’ve said before. Christian leadership is put in place by God to first draw us into a deeper understanding of God, Christ and the workings of the Holy Spirit. It is there to equip the Church as a whole to fight the coming battles against darkness and lies. It equips with truth and tools that help us interact with the world and those who reside in it. It is not there to fight the battles for the congregation, but rather to equip the congregation to fight for themselves on whatever battlefield God leads them to.

But how do we know if we’re called to leadership or not?

As in most things I’d say God makes it pretty clear in our hearts. That is the job of the Holy Spirit…to teach us how to live as God wants us to, to nudge our hearts to let us know what he wants us to do when he wants us to do it and where he wants us to do it, whatever it is. the Holy Spirit lives inside of us…it isn’t some passive presence that makes us feel all warm and tingly inside, it is a consuming fire that drives us forward and as we learn to listen to those nudges we grow in both faith and power as the Holy Spirit moves through us more and more each day. And don’t get me wrong, the Holy Spirit tinglies are definitely a plus. But they’re given to us not for us to chase how they make us feel, but rather as an affirmation that we’re on the right track and that God is moving through us.

So in short, listen to your gut.

But why do I have to say this? Why do I feel like I have to write an entire blog post on this?

I’m writing this because too many people are asking what others think or are paying attention to what others are saying. Others. As in other people. As in humans. They are looking around them for affirmation and answers when the only being in the universe that can answer questions like what is your calling is the God of the universe, and he just happens to be living inside of you through the Holy Spirit. Scripture says multiple times that the Holy Spirit is given to us to reveal the secrets of God so that we can learn to see the world through his eyes. This includes ourselves. Your journey is a personal walk with God which means it’s something you and Him figure out together. God doesn’t just dictate his orders to us, he ultimately wants to work with us. That means that you and him need to talk more than just when you’re about to eat or about to go to sleep. This also means that you are responsible for hearing God. Not your pastor, your teacher, your family or your friends. These people can help and certainly some have gifts that allow them to help others hear better, but God ultimately wants a relationship with you.

But too many people don’t trust themselves.

This goes back to something I blogged about before, but it is just incredibly apparent to me that somewhere along the line our modern church decided to teach its members that we are so messed up that we can’t trust ourselves to hear God. We are so incredibly sinful that no matter what we do we’re going to mess things up at some point so it would just be better for everyone involved if God did everything and we sat back like an audience and watched. Which to most modern Christians makes perfect sense, I mean why would you want a little child ruining a Shakespeare performance by having them play Romeo or Othello?

The thing is that’s not how God thinks. That’s not how God works. If you believe this you seriously need to get it out of your system. Maybe that means asking your friends what they love about you. Maybe that means you stare in the mirror every morning and say the words “I am beautiful.” Whatever it takes you seriously need to start seeing yourself as God sees you. If God commands us to “Love your neighbors as yourself” and you don’t love yourself like God loves you then you can never love your neighbors the way God wants you to. It’s as simple as that.

God does not want a bunch of Christians who sit on the sidelines. He hates seeing you mope around wallowing in self pity. Everyone’s like “Ahhh we’re so sinful how can we ever measure up to you!” and God’s like “Yea, I know, that’s why I sent my son to die on a cross. That was two thousand years ago…can we move on and like save the world since it’s falling apart?” I’m not belittling the work on the cross…I’m reminding you that what’s done is done and God wants us to move forward in the grace and blood that he covered us with when Jesus died on the cross. He wants us to pick up our cross and go. Not sit at the foot of our cross crippled for life thinking that that’s what’s going to make us righteous.

Ok, long post I know, there’s just so much ground to cover on such an important topic. Quick Recap: Christians as a whole have an unhealthy view of leadership. We’re not so broken that God doesn’t want to use us. This is all foundational though. When push comes to shove, it comes down to faith. If God puts something on your heart, will you follow through?

Remember that night in summer camp when you felt like God broke your heart for something and it was almost like you could hear his voice in your head saying “GO!”? What if you had listened to that voice? What if you listened every time your heart was nudged? What if every time God said “Go!” you responded by jumping up and running wherever he was pointing until he said to go somewhere else? What if you based your whole life on following those gut feelings inside of you that really are the Holy Spirit poking you? What if I’m really not that crazy and this is what we call faith? Following his pokes and prods down a crazy winding path that we can’t see the end of is one of the scariest things we can do in life, especially when everything falls apart. But we have to remind ourselves that we are God’s and everything in our life is God’s. Success and failure through human eyes is immaterial. You win some you lose some. What’s important is always following the footsteps God plants for you.

If you’ve never felt these nudges, if you’ve never heard his voice, ask. Start praying. And don’t stop until you get an answer. Be it one day, fifty days or fifty years, keep praying. If you really truly seek his voice, he’ll answer. Because, to put it simply, this world is falling apart. God needs all the workers he can get. He won’t sideline you, he needs you, and he’s tired of lukewarm Christians who give up as soon as they get bored or the going gets tough.

That’s why all that matters are the words God is speaking to you.

So in wrapping up I want to make myself clear by bringing it all back to the original question I posed: How do we Christians pick our leaders?

It doesn’t matter how many doctorates you get. It doesn’t matter what college you did or didn’t graduate from. It doesn’t matter how many times you failed a math test or how many verses you memorized. It doesn’t matter if you know Greek or Hebrew or Latin. It doesn’t matter if you grew up with nothing or grew up with everything. It doesn’t matter if you’ve been a Christian for five, ten or twenty years. It doesn’t matter how much you’ve “given up” to become a leader. It doesn’t matter how many years of service you did, even as a kid. It doesn’t matter how eloquent or pretty or clean you are. It doesn’t matter if you’re black or white, Asian or Hispanic, Jew or Gentile,  slave or free, man or woman or any label that you or anyone else ever puts on you. I don’t want to know how many pastors there were in your family, I don’t want to know what seminary you graduated from, I don’t want to know what title you’ve been given or what pope’s hand you kissed. I don’t even want to know what you think God’s calling you to.

I want to know what God calls you.

Does God call you a prophet? Then you are my prophet.

Does God call you a teacher? Then you are my teacher.

Does God call you a pastor? Then you are my pastor.

Does God call you a worker of miracles? Then you are a worker of miracles.

Does God call you a prayer warrior? Then you are a prayer warrior.

I know, I know, it’s a lot of writing for such a simple answer. But I’ve learned how to see the world through God’s eyes. And you can too because it’s not about anything you do or don’t possess on your own. It has everything to do with listening to the Holy Spirit and conforming your heart to God’s. Learn how he sees other people through His eyes and you won’t be surprised when a college girl who’s been quietly sitting in the corner pew for weeks comes up to you after a service and says “Can we pray a little? I think God wants me to be a pastor but I’m so confused. Can you help me hear his voice?”

God says “My sheep know my voice.” Maybe instead of rationalizing everything with a strengths and weaknesses list we should teach people how to hear His voice and ask Him where He wants them to go. Maybe instead of trusting our human institutions we should start trusting his children to know his voice. Maybe, just maybe, the person you think should never set foot in a pulpit is actually the person God is raising up to save the church from this coming darkness. Maybe instead of listening to what others think, we should just follow our hearts, providing we have taught our hearts to listen to Him and be conformed to His heart.

I’ve met pastors who act like I can never question anything they do because God appointed them to their role while it was painfully obvious to me that they were in it for themselves and really far from what God wants for his children. I’ve met people who were crippled because of how they and others viewed themselves while it was painfully obvious to me that God was calling them to leadership in the church. We as Christians need to hold our leaders to a higher standard while also nurturing and encouraging those who are just stepping up into the role that God is calling them to.

God is raising up a generation of young people to lead the Church into the night that is fast approaching. It is God who appoints the leaders of his Church. It is between the child and their Father. The child’s job is to obey the Father alone. And I think most of us can tell when someone truly is obeying God alone.

The question is, will the Church accept these leaders?

Will you?