A Summary of Christian Leadership⤒🔗

There are many definitions of what it means to be a leader. There’s a book called Leaders: Strategies for Taking Charge in which 850 definitions of leadership are given. Well, Christian leadership is going to be a bit narrower, obviously. I like Joel Beeke’s definition: “Spiritual leadership is moving people by biblical means, in dependency upon the Holy Spirit, to do God’s will.” Here’s my own definition: A Christian leader serves God and His people by exemplifying godly character and conduct; by communicating God’s Word to everyone with wisdom and love; by excelling in vocational responsibilities; by uniting, equipping and inspiring God’s people for worship and works of service; and by preparing them for eternal life.” I am going to split that up to expound it for you a little.

He Serves God and His People←↰⤒🔗

He serves God and his people. Thus, the fundament of the Christian leader: he sees himself not as ruler, but as a servant. But as a servant of God first, then of his people. Some of these definitions will be further expounded as we look at some of the models.

He Exemplifies Godly Character and Conduct←↰⤒🔗

He exemplifies godly character and conduct. Notice, the internal life comes first. Without a Christ-like core, everything else we do will rot and decay. But character does issue in external conduct. And maybe that modeling of holiness is one of the most powerful, yet most neglected, elements of spiritual leadership. So we don’t want to skip over this.

He Communicates God’s Word←↰⤒🔗

He communicates God’s word. The Christian leader’s handbook is the Bible, obviously, and we have to read it and study it in order to not just learn how to be a leader, but to communicate it wisely and lovingly to Christian and non-Christian alike as opportunity arises. The Christian leader is concerned to speak God’s Word far more than his own. So the Christian leader’s leadership begins with that inner core of godly character and conduct. It’s nourished and sustained by God’s word.

He Excels in Vocational Responsibilities←↰⤒🔗

He excels in vocational responsibilities. The Christian leader does not over-spiritualize leadership by thinking that prayer and Bible study will cover a multitude of incompetencies and inefficiencies in everyday life. I’m sure we’ve all known people like that, and maybe even known pastors like that (I have), where there was this sense of “The more inefficient and incompetent I am, the more godly I am,” and a veneer or a facade of prayerfulness and theological knowledge really set forward as an excuse for all kinds of basic failures in administration and organization. That’s not the true biblical leader. He recognizes a duty to be organized, to be efficient, to keep appointments, to prepare for meetings, to inspire trust and respect by wise financial stewardship, by wise time stewardship, and so on. So that’s not the sum and substance of leadership—we started remember with godly character and conduct, and the ministry of the word—but it’s a vital part of it. To be efficient and competent in these unavoidable elements of being a leader in the church of Christ.

He Unites, Equips, and Inspires God’s People for Worship←↰⤒🔗

He unites, equips, and inspires God’s people for worship. The Christian leader is thinking continually, “How can I unite God’s people, bring my flock the congregation, together in thoughtful, orderly, reverent, word-centered worship?” But we also want to direct that worship, so that it reaches and inspires the heart and emotions. Yes, we want our worship to be the same and regular and orderly, so that everyone is on the same page, but just having that outward form is not enough. We want the inner life; we want spiritual energy; we want this worship to be uplifting and inspiring. The pastor must be a worship leader.

He Equips and Inspires God’s People for Works of Service←↰⤒🔗

He equips and inspires God’s people for works of service. We make worship a priority of course, but we also want to teach and train and organize God’s people to serve Him and His Church and His world as their talents and opportunities permit.

He Prepares God’s People for Eternal Life←↰⤒🔗

With all that said, the spiritual leader is also about preparing people for eternal life. Eternity is ever before us as pastors. However busy our own life or the church’s life, however much we and God’s peoples serve together, we’re conscious all the time that this world and all that we’re doing here is all too short. And we’re preparing for a long world to come. Ultimately, that’s what our leadership is to be about. That’s what all these things serve together to promote, we hope—this servant spirit, this godly character and conduct, this focus on God’s Word, this efficiency and competency in vocational responsibilities, this focus on worship and works—it’s all about getting people ready for eternity.

Well, whatever ever definition you accept or come up with of your own, the more we think about these things and the more we see the width, the depth, the height of what’s required, who can but say, “Who is sufficient for these things?” You don’t walk out of a leadership class or course thinking, “Hey, I’ve got it! I’m it!” I want all our classes to end with that cry, “Who is sufficient for these things?” But hopefully we can also hear that welcome echo, “My sufficiency is of the Lord!” That’s where we want to be brought. So we look at some of these and we think, “Yeah, I failed there really badly.” You want to bring that failure, that sense of inadequacy, to the Lord and seek His filling, His sufficiency.

Seeking Christian Leadership←⤒🔗

So much, then, as a summary of Christian leadership. Let’s look secondly at seeking Christian leadership. We don’t usually portray our call to the ministry as, “I want to be a leader!” In fact, some might very emphatically deny this; “No, no, I don’t want to be a leader! Not me! I just want to preach the gospel and teach God’s people!” But preaching and teaching involves leadership. It’s a position of authority and it’s a directive activity that we’re involved in. 1 Timothy 2:12. The apostle there forbids a woman to teach or to usurp authority over a man—there’s authority involved in teaching. It’s a leadership position. So everyone who says they’re called to the ministry is saying, “I am going to be a leader. God has called me to be a leader.”

Should you want to be a leader in the church? There’s always been a lot of hesitation over somebody actually saying something like that, hasn’t there? The sense is that any sense of ambition in the church, any sense of, “I want to be a leader” automatically disqualifies you from that position. It’s certainly a strain in some areas of the reformed world, at least. The idea is that you’re just this passive guy and you’ve just been picked up by a force outside yourself, and you go kicking and screaming against it. And anyone who actually wants to do it can’t be called, can they? The idea of actually seeking and wanting this is sinful, is it not? That used to be the case even in politics. If you read some of the early political books (especially of America, but it used to be the case in Britain too), anyone who wanted to be President was automatically disqualified. You didn’t offer yourself. You didn’t seek it; it sought you. And that sense is also in the ministry too at times. Does the desire to be a preacher and pastor disqualify you from that office?

Well, there have been cases, like Calvin and Knox, where they were virtually forced into church leadership positions. And that idea, as I’ve said, persists—that unless you’re forced into it against your will, you’re running without being sent! So what probably happened to many of you is you went to a pastor or some of the elders and very humbly said, “I believe God is calling me into the ministry,” and that is stated, of course, very passively and very humbly. The desire and activity is all on God’s side. “God is calling me into the ministry.”

But there’s nothing wrong with a man wanting to be a pastor and a preacher. There’s nothing unholy about that desire. In fact, Paul says in 1 Timothy 3:1: “If any man wants to be an elder, he desires a good work.” “If anyone wants to be an overseer, he desires a good work.” Another version puts it like this: “To aspire to leadership is an honorable ambition.” So the potential problems of spiritual ambition do not lie in the ambition—they don’t lie in the desire; they don’t lie in the aspiration—it has more to do with the nature of that desire and the strength of it. Let’s look at that desire.

A Powerful Desire←↰⤒🔗

First of all, it has to be a powerful desire. When somebody tells me, “I feel I have been called into the ministry,” I want to test the strength of that call. I want to know: Do you really want to be a pastor, or a minister? And if so, how much do you want it? What difficulty would stop you from being a pastor? How would you respond if your pastor or elders said, “No, we reject your application”? Is there anything in your life that you would desire to be or do more than being a pastor? And there should be really clear, definite answers to these questions. If you don’t have a strong desire to be a pastor, you might just about get through seminary, but you won’t last long in pastoral ministry. The figures of men leaving the ministry are frightening. It used to be one in three; it’s now getting close to one in two in America leaving the ministry within the first three or four years. There’s nothing that will get you through the ministry or keep you in the ministry but that sense of powerful call that always comes with powerful desire. So the desire should be strong and powerful.

A Pure Desire←↰⤒🔗

Secondly, it should be a pure desire. Once we’ve established the strength of the desire, we want to look at the motive behind it. Paul commended the desire to lead, as we’ve seen. “Anyone who wants to be an overseer desires a good work.” But Jeremiah said, If anyone seeks great things for himself, he should stop right there. Jeremiah 45:5: “And do you seek great things for yourself? Seek them not.” It’s not the seeking; it’s the seeking it for myself. Diotrephes, who loved “the preeminence” we’re told, is a classic example of what Jeremiah warned against. We can read of him in 3 John 1:9-10. Church history is littered with the corpses of those who had unholy desires to lead.

Maybe Jeremiah’s words are more relevant to our situation today than Paul’s. When Paul was complimenting men who wanted to be church leaders, the context was quite different to the one we’re in. It was a context of persecution. It was a context of: you become a church leader and you have put a bullseye on your forehead. You become a church leader in that day and age and the civil magistrate was after you. So the desire to be a leader was rare, and when expressed it was usually genuine, because such positions guaranteed persecution, financial hardship and a lifetime of stress. So in that context, the desire to be a church leader was good and honorable and rare. But when there are significant rewards associated with being a church leader (as there are in many American settings), then sinful ambitions and selfish motives are going to be much more common. And so we have to take the Jeremiah code, I think, more seriously than the Paul code in our context. Why do I seek these things?

So how do we distinguish pure from impure motives? Well, you can all say the right words. So can I. If we would ask for your motives for the ministry, you just need to read a couple of ministry books, memorize the answers, and you can give them the next day. There’s no question on earth I could ask any of you that will guarantee that I can unmask you if your desire is unholy. And there’s no question you could ask me either. All we can really do is ask one another to prayerfully examine ourselves before God. I cannot look into your heart, neither can you look into mine, but you can look into your own, especially as you bring your heart before the Lord. (Transcription of audio file from 20:41 to 20:59 omitted.)

God-glorifying desires. I want to glorify God by my life and lips. I want to serve God and His people. I want to see sinners saved and Christians equipped for works of service. I want to teach people about the Bible and lead them in worship. I want to prepare people for eternity. I want to see the church reformed and strengthened. I want to see church make an impact in my community, country, culture. All of these are God-glorifying desires.

Self-glorifying desires. I want to be famous. It’s amazing how many blog articles I’ve been reading in the last few months about how many men, younger men especially, who have gone into church planting and things like that and are admitting now, “It’s all falling apart, and it’s because I wanted to be the next Driscoll or Keller or Piper or whoever.” I want to be famous. I want to be that name that doesn’t even need a Christian name, so when people say my surname everyone will know who it is. I want to be rich. I mean, in Scotland you don’t go into the ministry to be rich, but it’s very possible in America. I want to be powerful and influential. I want to be respected and recognized. I want to serve on important committees and boards. I want to be more fulfilled in my own life. I want more time at home with my wife and kids. I’m getting on in life and fancy an easier job. I’m not happy in my present work—maybe I should try the ministry. I want to make up for the wrong that I have done in my life. I want to make something of myself. I want to control others’ lives. I want to be wanted. I want to be free of a boss. I want to read and study. I want a title. I want to work where I don’t have to listen to cursing and swearing all day. You would be amazed at how many of these I have actually heard said to me.

May God deliver us from these self-glorifying desires and help us to examine ourselves. Yes, we want to be leaders—there’s nothing wrong with that. It’s a good desire. The question is, Why? And if we’re ticking the wrong column here, we’re in the wrong place, and we better get out! Before we waste our lives and other people’s lives too. This is a very solemn thing.