[This is the journal entry for my quiet time today.]
Look: “...they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger’s voice.” (John 10:5)
Jesus calls Himself the Good Shepherd Who will lead His people to good pasture (life with God). He speaks of the connection that exists between Himself and His redeemed disciples. They won’t listen to other voices, only to the voice of Christ. Christ’s Word is spoken through the Scriptures, the proclaimed Word, the Sacraments, and in the fellowship of Christ gathered around Word and Sacrament.
Lately, with vacation and general busy-ness, I haven’t spent the time in God’s Word, listening to Jesus, that I need to spend. There are a lot of voices blaring at me (and everyone else) every day: the Internet, radio, TV, etc. etc., not to mention the incessant whispers and cries of the devil, the world, and our sinful selves. And there’s always some new guru of some kind or another, almost all not overtly religious.
But I wonder, am I listening for the voice of Jesus in the midst of all of this noise?
Not enough in recent weeks!
Listen: I know that unless I remain connected to Jesus (unless I abide in Him, to use Jesus’ phrasing), I will begin to forget Jesus’ voice. I become susceptible to following other voices--including the voice of my own sinful nature--that lead me away from Jesus. I become prone to allowing my reasoning to become, not a tool in Jesus’ hands, but a means to do what I want to do. (“There is a way that appears to be right, but in the end it leads to death.” Proverbs 14:12)
I’ve become a bit lax in maintaining my quiet time in recent weeks. I’ve been busy. I’ve forgotten Luther’s sage statement that he was simply too busy to spend less than three hours a day in prayer. (And I’m sure that for Luther, prayer was always saturated in reading the Word, listening for the voice of the Good Shepherd.)
The problem is that if I, as one of Christ’s undershepherds, don’t take the time to listen for Christ’s voice, I can lead people astray. (After all, I can only reflect that which I focus on.) That hasn’t happened in these recent weeks, thank God! But, in listening to Jesus today, I am reawakened to the risk of it all.
Saint Paul warned the young pastor Timothy, “...the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.” (2 Timothy 4:3).
In a hypermediated age, the time of “itching ears” of which Paul warns is a constant. (This is no slam on “the media.” I have no patience with people who use the media as a scapegoat for their own failures and those of society. Media are a neutral tool which can be used to convey any message. The problem isn’t “the media,” but the ideas we convey through them. And I say “we,” because in the Age of the Internet, everyone who has an account on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or whatever, is a media outlet.) People have “itching ears,” craving the “latest thing.” Earth-bound messaging is so pervasive that no one is immune from developing itching ears, even (or maybe especially) busy preachers who need to make important decisions each day yet fail to spend time in God’s Word each day.
Respond: Thank You, God, for this reminder from Jesus today. Luther is right in saying that, “We need to hear the Gospel every day, because we forget it every day.”
I know that this is true for me. It’s too easy for me to fall for following my own reasoning (Proverbs 14:12) or my own heart (“The heart is deceitful above all things…” Jeremiah 17:19) Both are blind alleys!
And if pastors aren’t engaged in daily, vital relationships with you, we become “blind guides,” relying on our own schtick or the “wisdom” of the world rather than on You, Who alone remains true (“...Let God be true, and every human being a liar…” Romans 3:4)
Today, Lord, I have met You in Your Word and been richly blessed. Let me, like the sheep in Jesus’ vivid images of John 10, be one of Your sheep Who “come in and go out, and find pasture” (John 10:9) as I listen to Your voice each day.
In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen
[By the grace of God, I'm the pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio.]
Showing posts with label leadership. Show all posts
Showing posts with label leadership. Show all posts
Wednesday, November 14, 2018
Sunday, October 14, 2018
Servant Leadership
[This was shared during the Service of Installation for Pastor Dwight Hanson as pastor of Grace Lutheran Church in Eaton, Ohio.]
Mark 10:42-45
Recently, someone asked me whether the term “Christian leader” wasn’t an oxymoron, an internal contradiction.
The question wasn’t unreasonable. After all, Jesus, the One we confess as our Lord and God, was a servant “Who,” [according to Philippians 2, despite 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...he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross!” This, the apostle Paul tells us, is how you and I are to be with each other in the Church, humble servants (Philippians 2:5-11).
Is it possible then for anyone to be a servant and a leader as a Christian?
In Romans 12, Paul gives a list of seven spiritual gifts God grants to individual Christians for the benefit of the church and how the people given those gifts should use them. “If [your gift] is to lead,” Paul says, “do it diligently.” So, it appears, one can be a Christian and a leader. (Romans 12:8)
The reason that the phrase Christian leader may seem like a contradiction, I think, is that we get confused by what the world says a leader is. The world tells us that a leader is a kind of dictator who always gets his or her way.
But even without delving into the Bible’s understanding of leadership, the world’s definition doesn’t pass muster. A friend of ours, General Curtis Scaparrotti, the son of the congregation I formerly served in Logan, Ohio and today the commander of NATO, once told me that even a general must rely on more than power to lead people. You can hold a title, but you only earn the right to lead others by being a servant. Leaders never ask those they’re called to lead to do things that they themselves are unwilling to do. And so when he was second in command in Afghanistan, General Scaparrotti regularly jumped out of aircraft with his paratroopers. Friends, nobody is worthy of designation as a leader who is not first of all, a servant.
That’s why I was happy to see the lessons from the Bible chosen for Pastor Hanson’s installation. It shows that he has a healthy, Biblical understanding of what it means to be a Christian leader who is a servant and disciple of Jesus Christ!
Our gospel lesson, Mark 10:42-45, teaches us all what it means to be a disciple and a leader in Christ’s Church. Just a few verses before, Jesus has told the disciples that soon, in Jerusalem, He’s going to be rejected, arrested, crucified, buried, and then, raised by God the Father. According to the gospel of Mark, this is the third time that Jesus told the disciples about His impending cross. They’re at least as oblivious this time as they were the previous two times. They don’t even react to the prediction. The idea that the Messiah--the Christ, God’s anointed King--would be overcome by opposition is so foreign to them that Jesus’ prediction of a cross doesn’t compute. “There He goes again,” they may have thought.
Just how little they thought of Jesus’ words can be seen in what happened immediately after He spoke them. Two of the twelve, James and John, brothers, make a request of Jesus: When He becomes king in Jerusalem, they want to become His right- and left-hand men. The vision that James and John, and apparently the other ten apostles, have of the kingdom Jesus has come to bring to earth is pretty much the same as all the other kingdoms in the world, only with Jesus and them in charge. They envisioned a reign in which they would have a piece of power, prestige, and patronage.
It’s in the midst of this confusion that Jesus brings clarity about what life in His kingdom is all about. Take a look at our lesson, starting at verse 42: “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.’”
“The Gentiles, the pagans, the people who don’t know God or His amazing grace,” Jesus is saying, “have their own ideas about what it means to be important, to be a leader. They go around barking orders, always seeking to get their way.” But this is not how it is when you belong to the God we know in Jesus Christ.
This God sets free all who dare to trust in Jesus Christ, the One Who bore our sin and the punishment for it we deserve, death, so that when He rose from the dead, He could offer new and everlasting life to all who repent and believe. The only sermon given by Jesus that is recorded by the author of today’s gospel lesson, Mark, is contained in just one verse. Jesus says, “The time has come. The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!” (Mark 1:15) That’s it!
We can do nothing to make ourselves fit for life with God. We can’t be good enough, influential enough, enough of a big shot, enough of anything. Only Jesus Christ and our faith in Him can make us fit for His kingdom. Only Jesus can justify sinners and make them forever new. And Jesus’ salvation can come to all kinds of people when they daily believe in and follow Him: big shots, little shots, no shots.
So, in the Kingdom of God, there’s no reason to push or shove. When I trust in Jesus Christ, I already have the kingdom of God and because of that I can be a servant, accepting whatever role that Christ has given to me. When you know you belong to the King of all creation, you’re not particularly concerned, as James and John were, with the seating arrangements. And speaking only for myself, I would say that in light of what a sinner I know that I am, I’m so content to be a saved child of God that I have long been cured of any human desire to be a big shot. That’s what it’s like to belong to a servant Savior in Whose kingdom the first are last and the last are first.
Because we know how much God loves us and all that He has done for us in the crucified and risen Jesus, the Christian can dare to pray the most revolutionary of prayer petitions, “Thy will, Your will, and not mine, be done, O Lord.”
That’s the prayer that Jesus teaches us to pray, of course. But, servant-leader that Jesus is, it’s also the prayer He offered in the garden as He prepared to go to the cross for you and me and for all who, without a relationship with Jesus, would face a Christ-less eternity.
Jesus has the authority to tell us to fall into the arms of God the Father because He dared to do just that on Maundy Thursday and Good Friday!
And, Pastor Hanson, you will have the authority to call this people to follow Christ when they see that you, however imperfect and human you are, seek to follow Christ yourself.
Dear people of Grace Lutheran Church, you’ve waited a long time for this day. I’ve been following your journey and praying for you and I know how difficult it has been for all of you. But God has blessed you with a servant leader. He clearly understands what it means to be a Christian leader.
Pastor Hanson, I ask you to be a servant of Christ to these people and this community as you seek to be faithful to the Lord Who has set you free from sin and death by grace through your faith in Him and has brought you to Grace Lutheran Church.
Galatians 3:28 tells us that in Christ’s Church, “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” Understanding that the only way to freedom from sin, death, and darkness is in following Jesus Christ as the Lord over our lives, Martin Luther once remarked that, “a Christian...is the most free lord of all, and subject to none; a Christian...is the most dutiful servant of all, and subject to every one.”
In the freedom that comes from belonging to Jesus Christ for all eternity, I urge you, people and pastor, not to be afraid to serve each other, to pray for each other, to listen to each other, to worship together, to confess sin and be absolved from sin together, to work together, to witness together, doing all of this knowing that while you may differ in the functions to which God has called you in Christ’s Church, you do not differ in status. You are all redeemed children of God called to join together in telling the whole world the good news of new and everlasting life through faith in Jesus Christ.
God has called this congregation and this pastor and his wife together in partnership for one purpose and one purpose only: to be and to make disciples of Jesus. Dear servants of Jesus Christ, the crucified and risen One, since that is your one and only mission: Have at it! Amen
[I'm the pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio.]
[Welcome to Pastor Dwight Hanson, installed today as pastor of Grace Lutheran Church in Eaton, Ohio. The clergy of our Southwest Ohio Mission District are incredibly supportive of one another and a contingent was able to be present there today. Clergy l to r: Brian McGee, Dean Haferman, Heidi Holst, Alan Knoke, Dwight Hanson, me, David Matevia, and Marv Hileman. (Thanks to my wife for snapping the pic.)]
Mark 10:42-45
Recently, someone asked me whether the term “Christian leader” wasn’t an oxymoron, an internal contradiction.
The question wasn’t unreasonable. After all, Jesus, the One we confess as our Lord and God, was a servant “Who,” [according to Philippians 2, despite 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...he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross!” This, the apostle Paul tells us, is how you and I are to be with each other in the Church, humble servants (Philippians 2:5-11).
Is it possible then for anyone to be a servant and a leader as a Christian?
In Romans 12, Paul gives a list of seven spiritual gifts God grants to individual Christians for the benefit of the church and how the people given those gifts should use them. “If [your gift] is to lead,” Paul says, “do it diligently.” So, it appears, one can be a Christian and a leader. (Romans 12:8)
The reason that the phrase Christian leader may seem like a contradiction, I think, is that we get confused by what the world says a leader is. The world tells us that a leader is a kind of dictator who always gets his or her way.
But even without delving into the Bible’s understanding of leadership, the world’s definition doesn’t pass muster. A friend of ours, General Curtis Scaparrotti, the son of the congregation I formerly served in Logan, Ohio and today the commander of NATO, once told me that even a general must rely on more than power to lead people. You can hold a title, but you only earn the right to lead others by being a servant. Leaders never ask those they’re called to lead to do things that they themselves are unwilling to do. And so when he was second in command in Afghanistan, General Scaparrotti regularly jumped out of aircraft with his paratroopers. Friends, nobody is worthy of designation as a leader who is not first of all, a servant.
That’s why I was happy to see the lessons from the Bible chosen for Pastor Hanson’s installation. It shows that he has a healthy, Biblical understanding of what it means to be a Christian leader who is a servant and disciple of Jesus Christ!
Our gospel lesson, Mark 10:42-45, teaches us all what it means to be a disciple and a leader in Christ’s Church. Just a few verses before, Jesus has told the disciples that soon, in Jerusalem, He’s going to be rejected, arrested, crucified, buried, and then, raised by God the Father. According to the gospel of Mark, this is the third time that Jesus told the disciples about His impending cross. They’re at least as oblivious this time as they were the previous two times. They don’t even react to the prediction. The idea that the Messiah--the Christ, God’s anointed King--would be overcome by opposition is so foreign to them that Jesus’ prediction of a cross doesn’t compute. “There He goes again,” they may have thought.
Just how little they thought of Jesus’ words can be seen in what happened immediately after He spoke them. Two of the twelve, James and John, brothers, make a request of Jesus: When He becomes king in Jerusalem, they want to become His right- and left-hand men. The vision that James and John, and apparently the other ten apostles, have of the kingdom Jesus has come to bring to earth is pretty much the same as all the other kingdoms in the world, only with Jesus and them in charge. They envisioned a reign in which they would have a piece of power, prestige, and patronage.
It’s in the midst of this confusion that Jesus brings clarity about what life in His kingdom is all about. Take a look at our lesson, starting at verse 42: “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.’”
“The Gentiles, the pagans, the people who don’t know God or His amazing grace,” Jesus is saying, “have their own ideas about what it means to be important, to be a leader. They go around barking orders, always seeking to get their way.” But this is not how it is when you belong to the God we know in Jesus Christ.
This God sets free all who dare to trust in Jesus Christ, the One Who bore our sin and the punishment for it we deserve, death, so that when He rose from the dead, He could offer new and everlasting life to all who repent and believe. The only sermon given by Jesus that is recorded by the author of today’s gospel lesson, Mark, is contained in just one verse. Jesus says, “The time has come. The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!” (Mark 1:15) That’s it!
We can do nothing to make ourselves fit for life with God. We can’t be good enough, influential enough, enough of a big shot, enough of anything. Only Jesus Christ and our faith in Him can make us fit for His kingdom. Only Jesus can justify sinners and make them forever new. And Jesus’ salvation can come to all kinds of people when they daily believe in and follow Him: big shots, little shots, no shots.
So, in the Kingdom of God, there’s no reason to push or shove. When I trust in Jesus Christ, I already have the kingdom of God and because of that I can be a servant, accepting whatever role that Christ has given to me. When you know you belong to the King of all creation, you’re not particularly concerned, as James and John were, with the seating arrangements. And speaking only for myself, I would say that in light of what a sinner I know that I am, I’m so content to be a saved child of God that I have long been cured of any human desire to be a big shot. That’s what it’s like to belong to a servant Savior in Whose kingdom the first are last and the last are first.
Because we know how much God loves us and all that He has done for us in the crucified and risen Jesus, the Christian can dare to pray the most revolutionary of prayer petitions, “Thy will, Your will, and not mine, be done, O Lord.”
That’s the prayer that Jesus teaches us to pray, of course. But, servant-leader that Jesus is, it’s also the prayer He offered in the garden as He prepared to go to the cross for you and me and for all who, without a relationship with Jesus, would face a Christ-less eternity.
Jesus has the authority to tell us to fall into the arms of God the Father because He dared to do just that on Maundy Thursday and Good Friday!
And, Pastor Hanson, you will have the authority to call this people to follow Christ when they see that you, however imperfect and human you are, seek to follow Christ yourself.
Dear people of Grace Lutheran Church, you’ve waited a long time for this day. I’ve been following your journey and praying for you and I know how difficult it has been for all of you. But God has blessed you with a servant leader. He clearly understands what it means to be a Christian leader.
- I ask you to pray for him and honor him for what he is for you, a gift from God. I ask you to pray for Kelly and him as they adjust to their life in a new place.
- I ask you to take it upon yourselves to be servants of Christ in serving and working alongside them.
- I ask you to honor his work here, the same work which the young pastor Timothy was reminded to do in our second lesson: “Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction.” (2 Timothy 4:2)
Pastor Hanson, I ask you to be a servant of Christ to these people and this community as you seek to be faithful to the Lord Who has set you free from sin and death by grace through your faith in Him and has brought you to Grace Lutheran Church.
Galatians 3:28 tells us that in Christ’s Church, “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” Understanding that the only way to freedom from sin, death, and darkness is in following Jesus Christ as the Lord over our lives, Martin Luther once remarked that, “a Christian...is the most free lord of all, and subject to none; a Christian...is the most dutiful servant of all, and subject to every one.”
In the freedom that comes from belonging to Jesus Christ for all eternity, I urge you, people and pastor, not to be afraid to serve each other, to pray for each other, to listen to each other, to worship together, to confess sin and be absolved from sin together, to work together, to witness together, doing all of this knowing that while you may differ in the functions to which God has called you in Christ’s Church, you do not differ in status. You are all redeemed children of God called to join together in telling the whole world the good news of new and everlasting life through faith in Jesus Christ.
God has called this congregation and this pastor and his wife together in partnership for one purpose and one purpose only: to be and to make disciples of Jesus. Dear servants of Jesus Christ, the crucified and risen One, since that is your one and only mission: Have at it! Amen
[I'm the pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio.]
[Welcome to Pastor Dwight Hanson, installed today as pastor of Grace Lutheran Church in Eaton, Ohio. The clergy of our Southwest Ohio Mission District are incredibly supportive of one another and a contingent was able to be present there today. Clergy l to r: Brian McGee, Dean Haferman, Heidi Holst, Alan Knoke, Dwight Hanson, me, David Matevia, and Marv Hileman. (Thanks to my wife for snapping the pic.)]
Wednesday, May 30, 2018
Real Leaders Don't Take Themselves Seriously
We should be wary of any would-be leaders who take themselves and their “dignity” seriously. That's part of what God is teaching me today.
Today, during my quiet time, I read the account in 2 Samuel of King David bringing the ark of the covenant to Jerusalem. The ark was the place where God dwelt on the earth. In later centuries, it would be housed in the temple, behind a curtain that shrouded “the holy of holies.” (Later still, at the moment Christ died on the cross, the perfect sacrifice for our sins, the curtain tore, meaning that God’s holiness and power were no longer confined to a particular place, but can go out to all who turn from sin and trust in Christ as their Savior and God. And, as Jesus said would happen, this God we know in Christ can be worshiped and known anywhere by anyone. [John 4:21-25])
When the ark arrived in Jerusalem, David took off his royal robes--though he was still clothed in the common garb men wore in those days--and put on the ephod. The ephod was a sacred vestment worn by priests (and a few kings) while worshiping or offering sacrifices to God. Wearing a commoner’s attire and the ephod, David danced through the streets of Jerusalem, honoring, praising, and worshiping God.
But 2 Samuel 6:16 says that one of David’s wives, Michal, the son of his predecessor, Saul, was unimpressed by David’s behavior: “As the ark of the Lord was entering the City of David, Michal daughter of Saul watched from a window. And when she saw King David leaping and dancing before the Lord, she despised him in her heart.”
Why did Michal despise David? A few verses later we learn why: “When David returned home to bless his household, Michal daughter of Saul came out to meet him and said, ‘How the king of Israel has distinguished himself today, going around half-naked in full view of the slave girls of his servants as any vulgar fellow would!’” (2 Samuel 6:20)
Michal’s words are sarcastic and untruthful. She thought it unseemly, as her father before her would have, for a king to be one of the people, to divest himself of royal robes, even to honor and worship God.
The hubris that Michal commends to David is precisely what led her father Saul to have such a disastrous kingship. Leaders who are more concerned with their own dignity, power, and position than with honoring God or identifying with their people are worthless.
Michal didn’t know the difference between humility and humiliation.
David’s response to Michal is telling: “It was before the Lord, who chose me rather than your father or anyone from his house when he appointed me ruler over the Lord’s people Israel—I will celebrate before the Lord. I will become even more undignified than this, and I will be humiliated in my own eyes. But by these slave girls you spoke of, I will be held in honor.” (2 Samuel 6:21-22) [Italics mine.]
Those who are jealous for their own “dignity” think nothing of elevating themselves above others, ignoring the will of God, refusing to repent or take responsibility when they make mistakes, even denying that they make mistakes. Even if, rarely, they do express regret for wrongs, it has more to do with regret for getting caught than it is for doing wrong in the first place. (In the Bible, Saul and Judas, the one who betrayed Jesus, have this latter trait in common, by the way.) They bully and are afraid of being bullied. They’re coarse and condemnatory, animated always to prove themselves to be the best. It was for all of these behaviors that God, with sorrow and regret, rejected Saul as Israel’s king (1 Samuel 15:10).
You cannot be an effective, useful, or godly leader if all you can think about is yourself and your “dignity.” This is what cost Saul the favor of God. In fact, the Spirit of God totally left for Saul because of his self-obsession (1 Samuel 16:14.)
But leaders who are jealous for the Lord are unafraid of appearing “undignified” in the eyes of the world. They know too, like David, that those who humbly seek to follow the Lord themselves won’t regard a humble servant leader with contempt, but with respect.
David understood that he owed everything--his salvation, his calling, his life--to God. Like John the Baptist referring to Jesus, God-enfleshed, David’s humble worship of God said, “He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30).
David understood what Jesus later taught: “You know that the 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 your slave--just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." (Matthew 20:25-28) (David, of course, wasn’t always a faithful servant leader. But he knew how to repent.)
If even the Creator of the universe is a servant-leader, then how could I presume to “lord it over people” as though I’m “all that”? Jesus says that the first will be last and the last will be first (Matthew 20:16).
My dignity doesn’t come from whether people bow and scrape to me, or whether I have loads of money, or whether I impose my will on others. My dignity comes from being a human being created in the image of God and, by God’s grace, from being made a part of His new and everlasting creation through Jesus Christ.
King or president, powerful or powerless, if I trust in and follow Christ, nothing can separate me from the love of God or from the dignity that comes from being, through Christ, a child of God.
[I'm the pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio.]
Today, during my quiet time, I read the account in 2 Samuel of King David bringing the ark of the covenant to Jerusalem. The ark was the place where God dwelt on the earth. In later centuries, it would be housed in the temple, behind a curtain that shrouded “the holy of holies.” (Later still, at the moment Christ died on the cross, the perfect sacrifice for our sins, the curtain tore, meaning that God’s holiness and power were no longer confined to a particular place, but can go out to all who turn from sin and trust in Christ as their Savior and God. And, as Jesus said would happen, this God we know in Christ can be worshiped and known anywhere by anyone. [John 4:21-25])
When the ark arrived in Jerusalem, David took off his royal robes--though he was still clothed in the common garb men wore in those days--and put on the ephod. The ephod was a sacred vestment worn by priests (and a few kings) while worshiping or offering sacrifices to God. Wearing a commoner’s attire and the ephod, David danced through the streets of Jerusalem, honoring, praising, and worshiping God.
But 2 Samuel 6:16 says that one of David’s wives, Michal, the son of his predecessor, Saul, was unimpressed by David’s behavior: “As the ark of the Lord was entering the City of David, Michal daughter of Saul watched from a window. And when she saw King David leaping and dancing before the Lord, she despised him in her heart.”
Why did Michal despise David? A few verses later we learn why: “When David returned home to bless his household, Michal daughter of Saul came out to meet him and said, ‘How the king of Israel has distinguished himself today, going around half-naked in full view of the slave girls of his servants as any vulgar fellow would!’” (2 Samuel 6:20)
Michal’s words are sarcastic and untruthful. She thought it unseemly, as her father before her would have, for a king to be one of the people, to divest himself of royal robes, even to honor and worship God.
The hubris that Michal commends to David is precisely what led her father Saul to have such a disastrous kingship. Leaders who are more concerned with their own dignity, power, and position than with honoring God or identifying with their people are worthless.
Michal didn’t know the difference between humility and humiliation.
David’s response to Michal is telling: “It was before the Lord, who chose me rather than your father or anyone from his house when he appointed me ruler over the Lord’s people Israel—I will celebrate before the Lord. I will become even more undignified than this, and I will be humiliated in my own eyes. But by these slave girls you spoke of, I will be held in honor.” (2 Samuel 6:21-22) [Italics mine.]
Those who are jealous for their own “dignity” think nothing of elevating themselves above others, ignoring the will of God, refusing to repent or take responsibility when they make mistakes, even denying that they make mistakes. Even if, rarely, they do express regret for wrongs, it has more to do with regret for getting caught than it is for doing wrong in the first place. (In the Bible, Saul and Judas, the one who betrayed Jesus, have this latter trait in common, by the way.) They bully and are afraid of being bullied. They’re coarse and condemnatory, animated always to prove themselves to be the best. It was for all of these behaviors that God, with sorrow and regret, rejected Saul as Israel’s king (1 Samuel 15:10).
You cannot be an effective, useful, or godly leader if all you can think about is yourself and your “dignity.” This is what cost Saul the favor of God. In fact, the Spirit of God totally left for Saul because of his self-obsession (1 Samuel 16:14.)
But leaders who are jealous for the Lord are unafraid of appearing “undignified” in the eyes of the world. They know too, like David, that those who humbly seek to follow the Lord themselves won’t regard a humble servant leader with contempt, but with respect.
David understood that he owed everything--his salvation, his calling, his life--to God. Like John the Baptist referring to Jesus, God-enfleshed, David’s humble worship of God said, “He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30).
David understood what Jesus later taught: “You know that the 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 your slave--just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." (Matthew 20:25-28) (David, of course, wasn’t always a faithful servant leader. But he knew how to repent.)
If even the Creator of the universe is a servant-leader, then how could I presume to “lord it over people” as though I’m “all that”? Jesus says that the first will be last and the last will be first (Matthew 20:16).
My dignity doesn’t come from whether people bow and scrape to me, or whether I have loads of money, or whether I impose my will on others. My dignity comes from being a human being created in the image of God and, by God’s grace, from being made a part of His new and everlasting creation through Jesus Christ.
King or president, powerful or powerless, if I trust in and follow Christ, nothing can separate me from the love of God or from the dignity that comes from being, through Christ, a child of God.
[I'm the pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio.]
Friday, April 06, 2018
Let me lead others where You lead, Lord
This morning, for my quiet time with God, I read Joshua 1-3. There, God calls Joshua to lead the people in the way God leads him. It incited me to this prayer:
[I'm the pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio.]
God, help me to always lead those you've called me to lead where You direct. In Jesus' name I pray. AmenAs a called servant-leader in Christ's Church, called to the ministry of Word and Sacrament, this is my highest aspiration and most frequent prayer.
[I'm the pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio.]
Monday, May 08, 2017
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:
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.]
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.
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.]
Wednesday, January 18, 2017
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.
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.
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.
[Blogger Mark Daniels is pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio.]
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.]
Monday, November 21, 2016
Leadership, servanthood, communication
#Leadership is, first of all, #servanthood. If you don't want to serve, don't presume to lead.— Mark Daniels (@MARKJDANIELS) November 21, 2016
If they're tired of hearing you say it, you may be starting to get through. #parenting #preaching #leadership #marketing— Mark Daniels (@MARKJDANIELS) November 21, 2016
If they're tired of hearing you say it, try to say it in a different way. #parenting #preaching #leadership #marketing— Mark Daniels (@MARKJDANIELS) November 21, 2016
If they're tired of hearing you say it, ask God & yourself if they're justified. #parenting #preaching #leadership #marketing— Mark Daniels (@MARKJDANIELS) November 21, 2016
[Blogger Mark Daniels is pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio.]
Sunday, October 12, 2014
Saturday, August 16, 2014
A Good Parent Caught in the Act
The good moms (and dads) never do for their kids what their kids can do for themselves.
And it would break their hearts to leave even one behind. (And it really breaks their hearts when tragedy intervenes and their children, despite all their good parenting and prayers, are taken from this world.)
Much of what animals do from instinct, we human beings can opt to do or not, which is why so many kids are hurting these days. Too many parents opt for what's convenient or easy, be it over-protectiveness, insensitivity, or both.
But the good parents choose day to day, moment to moment, to do what is best for their kids--from the womb to near-adulthood. It's dazzling to watch them do their parenting thing. They amaze me. They raise kids who are strong and kind, resourceful and at peace with themselves, able to reach for the achievement of all that their gifts will allow.
If you don't have such dazzling people in your lives and you want to be a good parent, watch this video. You could learn a lot from this mother duck.
PS: I don't draw the same exact lesson from this video as the person who posted it on Facebook. To me, it's the mother duck who's doing the hardest work in this video. Any parent, manager, volunteer coordinator, or leader of any kind knows that sometimes, it would be a lot easier to do things for the people they lead, but then those we parent or lead wouldn't learn or experience the sense of accomplishment that goes with completing a task, facing a problem, making a decision.
And it would break their hearts to leave even one behind. (And it really breaks their hearts when tragedy intervenes and their children, despite all their good parenting and prayers, are taken from this world.)
Much of what animals do from instinct, we human beings can opt to do or not, which is why so many kids are hurting these days. Too many parents opt for what's convenient or easy, be it over-protectiveness, insensitivity, or both.
But the good parents choose day to day, moment to moment, to do what is best for their kids--from the womb to near-adulthood. It's dazzling to watch them do their parenting thing. They amaze me. They raise kids who are strong and kind, resourceful and at peace with themselves, able to reach for the achievement of all that their gifts will allow.
If you don't have such dazzling people in your lives and you want to be a good parent, watch this video. You could learn a lot from this mother duck.
PS: I don't draw the same exact lesson from this video as the person who posted it on Facebook. To me, it's the mother duck who's doing the hardest work in this video. Any parent, manager, volunteer coordinator, or leader of any kind knows that sometimes, it would be a lot easier to do things for the people they lead, but then those we parent or lead wouldn't learn or experience the sense of accomplishment that goes with completing a task, facing a problem, making a decision.
Post by Mabel Katz.
Wednesday, February 26, 2014
True Leadership
“The question is not: How many people take you seriously? How much are
you going to accomplish? Can you show some results? But: Are you in love
with Jesus? . . . In our world of loneliness and despair, there is an
enormous need for men and women who know the heart of God, a heart that
forgives, that cares, that reaches out and wants to heal.” (Henri Nouwen, HT: Our Daily Bread)
Thursday, October 31, 2013
Bryan Price on Managing the Reds
In the first of a two-part interview, new Cincinnati Reds manager talks about his philosophy and vision for the team. This guy is incredibly thoughtful and understands that leadership is about relationships. Looking forward to the 2014 baseball season!
Tuesday, October 08, 2013
"Being authentic [is] far more important than being perfect."
Leaders, we need to take off all our masks. (That includes spiritual leaders, pastors.) Check out the Harvard Business Review blog post in which the following informative video is embedded. I don't think that Peter Fuda, the author of the blog post and narrator of this video is necessarily encouraging disclosing things that only God and you need to know about. But I do think his commendation of being one's self as a leader is important. Great food for thought and prayer here.
What was that Jesus said about, "Let your yes be yes and your no be no"? Here.
UPDATE: Reading this book years ago was a help to me.
What was that Jesus said about, "Let your yes be yes and your no be no"? Here.
UPDATE: Reading this book years ago was a help to me.
Saturday, May 04, 2013
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:
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."
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: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.
- The President of the United States
- A university president
- A CEO of a hospital and
- A pastor
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."
Sunday, April 07, 2013
Leadership Tidbit #10
Leaders humbly believe that in times of both surplus and surfeit, they "can do all things through" Christ "Who strengthens" believers in Him (Philippians 4:13).
Saturday, April 06, 2013
Leadership Tidbit #9
Leaders humbly accept Jesus' words, "apart from Me you can do nothing" (John 15:5).
Friday, April 05, 2013
Leadership Tidbit #8
Leaders know that they're neither as good as their biggest fans suggest nor as bad as their harshest critics claim.
Thursday, April 04, 2013
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