Following THE Leader to Life!

John 10:1-10
An old saying tells us that to find out if someone is a leader, just look to see if anyone’s following them. A real leader is one who has earned people’s trust. A real leader is someone who others voluntarily choose to follow because of their willingness to endure everything endured by those they lead.

Leadership of this kind doesn’t conform to the popular picture of a leader. You know, someone at a desk, far removed from most people:

• the CEO who gives orders to a work force he’s never met; 
• the college president who makes decisions that affect learning in classroom and lab settings she’ll never see; 
• presidents who send soldiers, sailors, and airmen into conflicts they’ll never experience. 

Folks like these can exert a kind of leadership, of course, especially in the case of larger, more complex entities like countries, corporations, and so on.

But leadership, from a biblical perspective, is intensely personal and relational.

It’s stunning when we see this kind of leadership in our everyday lives.

An acquaintance of ours, son of the congregation I formerly served as pastor, is General Curtis (Mike) Scaparrotti. Scap is now the commander of NATO. By training and experience, he’s a paratrooper, who has served in Vietnam and Iraq, among other places. During one tour in Afghanistan, although a general, he still jumped from aircraft, joining the men and women of his command in missions, subjecting himself to the same risks that he commanded them to take.

This exemplifies how the Bible understands leadership. In the Bible, a true leader will never ask those she or he leads to do anything the leader isn’t willing to do as well. In the Bible, a true leader is, above all, is a servant.

Leadership of this kind is built on and deepens relationships between people and leader.

Once, in Old Testament times, David was leading his “mighty men” in battle against the Philistines. David was in a stronghold while the Philistines controlled his hometown of Bethlehem. 2 Samuel 23:15 says: “David longed for water and said, ‘Oh, that someone would get me a drink of water from the well near the gate of Bethlehem!’" David was in the midst of a war that found him daily giving his all. He was feeling wistful, nostalgic for the springwater of his hometown. His words were only a wish, the kind of thing you say in passing.

But with David were men with whom he worked and alongside whom he fought each day. They loved David. “So the three mighty warriors broke through the Philistine lines, drew water from the well near the gate of Bethlehem and carried it back to David.”

Three men risked their lives to get water for David. David was moved. And his response shows why his men loved him so. “But he refused to drink it; instead, he poured it out before the LORD. ‘Far be it from me, LORD, to do this!’ he said. ‘Is it not the blood of men who went at the risk of their lives?’ And David would not drink it.” (2 Samuel 23:16-17)

The true leader never thinks that she or he is entitled to the allegiance of those being led, will not enjoy privileges that can’t be enjoyed by all, and honors the sacrifice, work, and loyalty offered by those that she or he leads.

David’s mighty men wouldn’t have undertaken their dangerous mission to get water for just anyone. They did it because David had become their leader. If you want to know if someone’s a leader, look to see if anyone is following.

Of course, David had his times of failure as a leader, times when he forgot what it meant to lead. One year, when he should have been leading his armies in battle, he stayed behind. On one particular morning, he caught sight of a woman named Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah, one of David's loyal soldiers. Bathsheba she was bathing and David liked what he saw. He brought Bathsheba to his royal home. She became pregnant. Then to cover things up, he had Uriah killed in battle. It was a monumental failure of David's leadership, for which he later repented.

Human leaders, even those who know what leadership is from a Biblical, Christian perspective, even those who seek to lead godly lives, sometimes fail. I know that I have. But, as followers of Jesus Christ, God enfleshed, we have a leader Who will never fail us, Who we can follow with complete confidence!

One of the most characteristic word pictures of a leader in the Bible is shepherd. This is a term applied even to God Himself. Our psalm for today, for example, begins with the words, “The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing” (Psalm 23:1).

And Israel’s ideal king, who would eventually be revealed as Jesus, the Messiah King, was to be a shepherd. Centuries before Jesus’ birth, God said through the prophet Ezekiel: “...I myself will search for my sheep and look after them. As a shepherd looks after his scattered flock when he is with them, so will I look after my sheep. I will rescue them from all the places where they were scattered on a day of clouds and darkness.” (Ezekiel 34:11-12)

No matter how confusing life in this fallen world can be, the good shepherd never tires of looking for those who will hear His voice and follow. 

No matter how far we may wander from God, when we hear Him call and return to Him, we belong to God forever. 

Romans 5:8 reminds us of how much God loves us: “God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

You can tell that Jesus is the good shepherd, a true leader in the Biblical mold, and the King of kings by how His love moves people to follow Him. This is what Jesus says in the opening verses of today’s gospel lesson from John 10: “Very truly I tell you Pharisees, anyone who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber. The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger’s voice.” [John 10:1-5]

In the Middle East of today, as in Jesus’ time, sheep of different flocks may sometimes be held in common pens for a time. But when it’s time for one flock to move on for watering or feeding, the sheep in one flock will not follow another shepherd. They know their shepherd’s voice. They trust him. He calls them each by the names he gives to them. He cares for them. When the shepherd calls, his sheep fall in line behind the shepherd. He leads the way, out front, protecting them.

That’s Jesus! When Jesus calls us to take up our crosses and follow Him, He isn’t asking us to do anything He hasn’t already done...for us. The Savior Who calls us to submit our sinful selves to daily crucifixion so that we might rise, made eternally new by God’s grace, has already voluntarily taken on Himself the condemnation of our sins by dying on the cross, then rising again to open up the way of life to all who follow Him. 

Jesus is our good shepherd. Hebrews 12:2 says that Jesus is: “...the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” 

Jesus is willing to be out front, blazing the trail for us, no matter the pain or the cross, in order to lead us to life with God. And Jesus is the only shepherd, the only leader, who can do this for us!

There are bogus voices in our world that will lead us down the path to death. These voices belong to thieves: humanly-imagined gods and godlets, none of them like the living God we know in Jesus Christ. They tell us that all religions are the same, that all religious systems are roads to the same God.

But Christian faith isn’t a religious system. Christian faith is an intensely personal and eternal relationship that God grants by His grace to all who follow Jesus.

In Jesus’ days, the Jewish sect of Pharisees had boiled faith in the living God of the universe down to a set of rules. They had some 600 rules and basically told folks, "Keep these and you're good to go."

Like the fake religions of our day--from Islam to Mormonism, from Scientology to Hinduism, from Buddhism to Jehovah’s Witnesses--the Pharisees told people that if they behaved in certain ways, good things would happen.

The lying voices of today’s false idols promise people everything from prosperity to satori, from eternal kingdoms on their own planets to the supposed tranquility of nothingness.

They all sell different forms of what we call “works righteousness,” programs for earning your worth or your blessings or your better life.

But the true leader, Jesus, the high priest who can empathize with our weaknesses and has been tempted in every way, but without sin, doesn’t sell a religious program. 

Jesus offers Himself, as an act of charitable love from God. 

Jesus and His righteousness, not us or our religious works, are what earn us life with God. 

Our job is to surrender our sins and our lives and trust in Him as our only God, our only hope.

To all who hear as Jesus calls us to follow, Jesus gives us life. As He says at the end of today’s lesson: “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” (John 10:10)

Some may ask, “What does Jesus mean by a full life?”

Well, He doesn’t mean that we’ll be wealthy necessarily. Some Christians are wealthy, most aren’t; but they’re all blessed.

Some Christians are powerful, some are good looking, some are influential, some lead healthy, long lives. But even the powerless, the unhealthy, the also-rans of the world who confess Jesus as Lord have life and have it to the full.

How much fuller a life can one have, after all, than eternal life with God?

It’s a life lived with God not only through the joys and sorrows of this life, but a life lived as it was meant to be lived by people created in the image of God in the first place...then made new by the Savior King Whose voice daily calls us to follow and believe.

We live in the promise Jesus first shared with Martha: “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die.” (John 11:25-26)

May we follow our shepherd king, Jesus, always heeding His voice as He calls, and so, live with Him forever. Amen

[Blogger Mark Daniels is pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio. This message was shared during Living Water's worship services yesterday morning.]

What exactly does a "people leader" do?

I happened across something called the 'People Strengths Quiz' online. As the title implies, it's supposed to tell you about your biggest strength as a person. The possibilities were people pleaser, people leader, people guru, and people persuader.

This was a test I couldn't "psyche out" the way you can with some instruments like Myers-Briggs, where one can figure out what they're going for and, if you were so inclined, push the test toward the outcome you want. So, whatever the result of this simple instrument, I was going to be a bit surprised, I guess.

The test told me that I'm a "people leader." Fortunately for me, that's what the work I've been called to do entails.

But the result got me to thinking about leadership, my experiences with it, and my reflections on it.

Some people misunderstand leadership, I think. It's not about being the BMOC (or BWOC), the person who barks orders out to others.

A leader is, above all, a servant, who strives to help people move from today's point A to a better and preferred point B and beyond.

Leaders are also persuaders. Persuasion isn't manipulation from afar. It is, in fact, intensely personal and collaborative.

[Clockwise: Winston Churchill, Martin Luther King, Jr., Abraham Lincoln]

This is true even when the leader has coercive power over those being led. Years ago, I heard Pastor Bill Hybels tell the story of a new member of his church, a retired colonel. The colonel told Hybels that pastors' claims to be leaders were laughable. "When I gave an order," he told Hybels, "people did what I told them to do." Hybels answered, "That may be. But when people don't do what I tell them, I can't order them to get down and give me 150 pushups."

There's something to that, of course. But when I told the story to Curtis "Mike" Scaparrotti, now the commander of NATO forces and a son of Saint Matthew Lutheran Church in Logan, Ohio, where I formerly was pastor, he smiled and pointed out: "You still have to be able to persuade." (That's probably why Scap is a general!) He understands something I first heard said by Pastor John Maxwell about leadership: "First people have to buy into you. Then they will buy into where you want to lead them." Once trust is earned, leaders can be persuasive.

Another way of describing persuasion is teaching. Franklin Roosevelt said that one of the primary tasks of a president is to be a teacher. Presidents (and all leaders) have to take the information they have, distill it, weave it into a vision, and communicate it in accessible ways.

The most challenging lesson FDR had to teach the country during his presidency was about its need to prepare for the possibility of war in light of the rise of fascist Germany and Italy and Imperial Japan.

[Franklin Roosevelt]

This wasn't an easy lesson for the country to accept. After World War I, the country wanted "a return to normalcy" and isolationism was the rule of the day. Roosevelt slowly taught the country the need for preparedness. Miraculously, during this period, he convinced Congress and the country to adopt the Lend-Lease Program, which helped the British fend off a German invasion of their nation.

While the country's military preparedness wasn't where it needed to be when Japan attacked the country on December 7, 1941 and Germany quickly thereafter declared war on the United States, America's teaching president had moved the country closer to being ready for the fight than it would have been had he remained passive.

One of the things I learned from my student teaching experience and have continued to learn from my thirty-two years as an educator of all ages in the Church is that the teacher only has to be one lesson plan or two ahead of the students. Leaders have to try to think one to four steps ahead, far enough ahead to cast a vision, but not so far ahead as to lose people.

All of which means that leadership is a collaborative process. Leaders who don't vision with those they lead and leaders who don't recruit other leaders to help them implement that vision will soon find that they're leading nobody.

Finally, a "people leader" who wants to have a lasting positive impact on others really needs to be in constant touch with God. I think that's true whatever one's field. I try to begin my day five days a week in Quiet Time with God, seeking what God wants to show me, teach me, and call me to do and be that day by digging into His Word. I also pray for guidance. What I've learned is that when we rely on God, He helps us to do what we are incapable of doing in our own power.

I'm not sure I entirely understand or agree with the "people leader" categorization in this test, but it caused me to reflect a bit on my role as a leader in Christ's Church and, occasionally, in other contexts.

One thing I know for sure is that I've failed many times as a people leader. Some of my mistakes have cost me the trust of people I loved and trusted. I try to learn from my failures and mistakes, seeking God's forgiveness and help to do better tomorrow than I did today.

This lifestyle is what Martin Luther (a great leader) called "daily repentance and renewal," turning in trust to the God we meet in Jesus Christ in order to own our sins, receive God's forgiveness, and be reshaped by the Holy Spirit. It's a way of life that can help any of us: people pleasers, people gurus, people persuaders, or people leaders. And everybody else.

[Martin Luther making his defense before emperor and church officials at the Diet of Wurms]

[Blogger Mark Daniels is pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio.]

General Scaparrotti Takes NATO Command

Mike Scaparrotti, who grew up in Saint Matthew Lutheran Church in Logan, Ohio, where I pastored for six years, is a great leader and a fine man.

Saint Matthew, Logan, and the Scaparrotti family are justly proud of him!

Despite misinformed talk from the campaign trail this year, NATO and other similar alliances and arrangements remain important not just or even primarily for others' security, but for the security of the people of the United States. General Scaparrotti is a wonderful choice for this command.

Please keep him in your prayers, asking God to give him wisdom and safety. Please also pray for his wife Cindy, who is a great person in her own right.



[Blogger Mark Daniels is the pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church, Centerville, Ohio.]

"Mike" Scaparrotti, a Great Nomination by President Obama

President Obama has made a great decision in nominating General Curtis "Mike" Scaparrotti to serve as NATO commander.

General Scaparrotti is a son of Logan, Ohio and of St. Matthew Lutheran Church there, where I served as pastor for six years.

He is a great man of integrity, the kind of leader who never asks those he leads to do things he doesn't. He's smart, wise, and humble.

This is a great appointment.

The 4 Hardest Jobs in the US

Most people have probably heard of or read work by Peter Drucker. Drucker, who died in 2005, was the most respected student and philosopher of leadership in his time. His book, Executive Leadership, was, for many years, the book that every leader in business, academia, social services, and the church had at least heard of, if not pored over.

That's why this citation of Drucker appearing at the beginning of an article on the secret pain of pastors struck me:

Peter Drucker, the late leadership guru, said that the four hardest jobs in America (and not necessarily in order, he added) are:

• The President of the United States

• A university president

• A CEO of a hospital and

• A pastor

Wow! Most pastors I know would neither complain nor brag about their work. It is, after all, a privilege to be called by God and the Church to proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ, to engage in the ministry of Word and Sacrament, and to be a servant/leader of some of God's people.

But no pastor will be surprised by Drucker's list either.

It doesn't surprise me not only because I am a pastor, but also because I've studied US presidents and the presidency my whole life. I've read biographies of most of the presidents, even of Chester Alan Arthur, Rutherford B. Hayes, and Warren G. Harding. What's amazing is how often I've been able to draw lessons on how to pastor (and how not to pastor) from reading and pondering these biographies. I believe that the arts and skills that make for being an effective president are exactly what is required of someone who would be an effective and faithful pastor.

The two big differences between pastors and presidents is that presidents have more worldly tools at their disposal and that the stakes for which pastors play are much greater than those for which presidents play. The worst a president can do is initiate a nuclear Armageddon resulting in the physical deaths of billions of people. Small potatoes! A pastor prays, works, visits, preaches, and teaches each day to so present the good news of Jesus Christ, introduce the possibility of faith in Christ to others, and so prevent an eternal Armageddon in the life of every person they meet. Pastors play for far higher, more enduring stakes than any president ever has or will.

But like presidents, pastors cannot (and should not) coerce people into supporting their initiatives. In the end, no one who truly leads can coerce engagement in the common mission of the entities they lead. Nor should they! All you have to do is look at North Korea, whose people live in constant terror for their lives, and see that dictatorship is not the same as leadership. For leaders of any kind, persuasion is the coin of the realm.

A few years ago, I was talking with General Curtis (Mike) Scaparrotti, a son of the congregation I serve. We were talking about leadership. He pointed out to me that even in the military, ordering people to do things will only go so far. In the end, even a general must help those he or she leads to understand the advantages of the directions in which they lead and the common and fulfilling roles each person can play in pursuing them. As Pastor John Maxwell rightly says, "First, people must buy into the leader. Then, they'll buy into where the leader wants to go."

Two of our greatest political and military leaders, Abraham Lincoln and Dwight Eisenhower, hated giving direct orders. This wasn't for lack of confidence. They weren't fearful for their positions. Nor did they doubt that they had the authority to give direct orders, which, of course, they occasionally did. But they preferred persuading and arguing logically to telling people what to do. People who are persuaded of the wisdom of a course of action don't need anyone telling them what to do! They'll follow that course because they themselves believe it's the right one.

The leadership of a pastor, of course, is almost entirely persuasive. We can't coerce people to believe in Jesus Christ as their God and Savior, attend worship, pray, share their faith, serve their neighbor in the Name of Christ, or accept the authority of God's Word over their lives. That's why pastors cheat: We pray.

Although I love it and count it a privilege, the job of pastor can be hard. (Although I have to say that working in a factory and some of the other jobs I've held were harder for me.) But, whatever its challenges, being a pastor is made significantly less difficult when pastors (and the congregations they serve) "take it to the Lord in prayer."