As I was reading Matthew 27 today for some reason i got to thinking about the leadership of Jesus. Leadership is such a hot topic in the church today and I think that it may be overblown how much of a difference leadership makes. Yes pastors and elders are leaders of people but that doesn't mean that the key to pastoral ministry is effective leadership? What is pastoral leadership supposed to look like anyway?
I know that I don't have all of the answers, which is a good thing because if I had all the answers at age 31 then the rest of life would get rather boring. But having spent the last couple of weeks reading in Matthew and now thinking about the leadership of Jesus, I am thinking that you first have to learn how to follow before you can learn how to lead.
Think about it. The single greatest thing that Jesus did was that he perfectly followed the Father. His leadership flowed out of his relationship with the father. If there is anything that I can take away from Jesus teaching on how to live life, is that what actually works, the way God actually wants us to live is probably the opposite of what the world is telling you and what someone is trying to sell you.
This is why I think that the first lesson in leadership is this: You must first learn to follow before you can learn to lead.
About Me
- Pastor David Curtis
- I am the Lead Pastor at Peninsula Baptist Church in Ocean Park, WA. My lovely wife Kristi and I live here with our three beautiful children. Ocean Park is on the Long Beach Peninsula which is a beautiful place, rich in history.
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2 comments:
I appreciate your openness in wondering about the "leadership" of Jesus. I've been writing a lot of posts on this recently... "Leadership" has become quite a prominent, and profitable industry, even in the church. Yet leadership is listed as just 1 gift among many in Romans 12.
Jesus was quite clear about his purpose: "I am among you as one who serves" (Luke 22:27) and "Whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant" (Mark 10:44). Paul called himself a "slave" to Christ, and called others in the church "co-workers." Yet we don't spend nearly as much time teaching people to serve like Jesus as we do twisting his clear example of serving into some mutant "servant-leader" oxymoron. ;-)
Why are we so reluctant to accept at face value Jesus' clear (and quite extensive) teaching on serving? It's an utterly subversive message in this world, which just might have been the whole idea...
Thanks for the comment Jan. I appreciate your thoughts on this subject. I think your post on your blog puts it very well. Leadership is more popular than serving. Jesus was all about serving though.
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