The Leadership Idol

Some time ago, I was invited to attend a church leadership conference in which various church leaders came together to share...well...business strategies disguised as church leadership. There were many, many "buzzwords" like mission, vision, vision casting, measurables, projections, long-term and short-term growth goals, challenges, flow charting, and on and on. Granted, I am a musician and worshipper at heart, and by default those type things are about as appealing to me as diving into a swimming pool filled with razor blades; I'm just not naturally geared that way. But there was something lacking there. It  jumped out at me, got my atention, and refused to go away.  The lack of something was the lack of someONE.

Jesus.

His presence was just not there.

In His place was what I call the golden calf of leadership. It was packaged nicely, neatly, attractively, and it appealed to my arrogant need to become a "stronger leader". Sure, Jesus' name was sprinkled in here and there in an attempt to make the whole thing seem holy. But it dawned on me, in a powerful way, that I was experiencing the lack Jesus' presence in the very place in which people should be connecting to Him. In his place stood an idol. The idol of church leadership. 

Don't get me wrong, and please understand what I'm trying to say. Its not that I believe that the hearts of those involved were wrong or full of malintent; like the old saying goes, "the road to hell is paved with good intentions". The intention and purpose of the conference was well-meaning - but in my opinion, many of us in church leadership have fallen into one of the oldest and well-disguised traps that our enemy has for us. He wants us to think we can do it ourselves.  He wants us to BELIEVE that it can't be done without us. These thoughts feed our pride, and Satan knows it. Pride is never too far under the surface for us, especially leaders. Do you know what the bible has to say about pride? If not, google it. Now.

The church leadership idol is running rampant in the American church, and has been for some time now. If you're like me and active on social media, you can't get on twitter, facebook, etc without being bombarded with the newest book, article, blog, or 10-step program to better leadership. In essence, they all say the same thing: "Pastor, if you do a,b,c, and d, then you too can experience incredible church growth!" We live in an age of the "rockstar pastor" whose church is growing exponentially (while the church as a whole is dwindling), whose book is a bestseller, who has the next trendy leadership conference with a trendy name paying exhorbant amounts of money to have him speak about how his trendy church is growing the trend. I want to make something very clear -  I have and always will praise God for growing churches! I pray that Highland Hills Church and EVERY church of Jesus Christ will always grow, reach people, and connect them to Him! I've read many books from some great men that have infused my ministry, made me a better pastor, and truly edified the body of Christ. I've heard many Chrsitian leaders at leadership conferences speak a powerful word from God into my life. But there is one thing that every pastor, deacon, elder, minister, committee chair, Sunday School teacher, volunteer, and pew sitter needs to understand.

This is Jesus' church. He died for her, and He knows best how to lead her. HE'S BEEN LEADING THE CHURCH FOR 2000 YEARS NOW, AND HE DOESN'T NEED YOUR HELP. And what's more, God often does what He does in spite of you, and in spite of me. Left to my own (human) devices, I have no doubt that I would drive Highland Hills Church straight into the ground in a huge, flaming orange ball of blazing glory! 

All throughout scripture, we see God leading His people, and while He almost always chooses an individual to lead many, if you look closely, you begin to see that the most effective leaders in the bible are the ones who 1.) lead by following, 2.) lead by serving, 3.) model best for others what it means to be clay in the hands of the Potter, and 4.) model what it means to crucify themselves daily. They steadfastly follow God's lead, even when it doesn't make sense...and most of the time, God's wisdom makes absolutely no sense to us! Look at the Israelite people. If you or I were leading them, and we subscribed to the vast majority of modern church leadership models, we would most likely institute programs and strategies that would emphasize the most efficient route to the promised land. We would create flow charts and track tangible, measurable statistics to chart our progress. We would create discipleship models, tracking how many Israelites are actively engaged in them (heaven help the ones that aren't committed to small groups). We would measure the manna daily, and try to project the manna flow for the next six months. We would get to our destination as quickly as possible...and we would make a GRAVE mistake in doing so.

We would miss the wilderness.

In Luke 4:1, the bible tells us that THE SPIRIT (i.e. the Holy Spirit of God) led Jesus to the wilderness. Let me type that again...the Spirit of God led Jesus to the wilderness. Not Satan, not some evil entity, but the Spirit of God. It was the Spirit of God that caused the men to throw Jonah from the boat. It was the Spirit of God (a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night) that led the Israelite people. It was the Spirit of God that led Paul and Silas to boldly proclaim the gospel even after being beaten and placed in prison.

We know that Jonah must have been terrified as the whale swallowed him whole. We know that, as scripture tells us, Jesus Himself felt the pull of temptation by Satan in the wilderness, and we see clearly the agony He felt as He prayed in the garden. We can only imagine the fear that Paul and Silas felt as they faced the men that were to punish them. We can easily discern from Exodus the confusion, frustration, and bewilderment of the Israelites as they "wandered" for 40 years in the wilderness. But the point the bible makes is as clear as it gets - the wilderness is essential for the Christ-follower. The wilderness is where God gets our undivided attention and teaches us how to rely completely and solely on Him. But there's a problem: the wilderness doesn't fit into our leadership models! Why? First of all, we can't measure it, we can't track it, we can't chart it, and just like the Almighty God we serve, it doesn't fit neatly into our boxes. But there is a second, more profound reason why the wilderness just doesn't fit into our schemes...

We can't control it.

If we're totally honest, at the heart of who we are, especially those in positions of leadership, we are control freaks! And if we can't control it, we shy away from it or even ignore it. Just stop for a moment and ponder what would happen if the events of pentecost were to take place in your church. Truth be told, most of us would completely lose our minds! Would we insist that all 3000 people attend a baptism class prior to being baptized? Would we insist that the second they step out of the water they must sign up for membership or small groups? Would we immediately form a 5-point-vision-driven-mission-focused-strategic funding campaign to erect a building to house 3000?  Or, would we simply do what the disciples did - let go, throw our hands up in the air, and say "God, its your church. You do it." You see, the disciples did just that because THEY HAD TO. They had no recourse but to trust God entirely to build and care for His church...His bride. There is a profound beauty in realizing that God's wisdom, His leadership, doesn't always make sense to us. 

I read a quote last week that said, "People don't like the bible because it contradicts itself, they don't like the bible because it contradicts us." Its the same way with God's leadership. He knows the direction for the church, and often times a situation that we would view as completely and totally out of control is in fact a beautiful symphony for God as He is in the process of working ALL things together for our good! In leadership, when we say a situation is out of control, we need to be honest and say that the situation is out of our control. We need to realize its never, ever, out of God's control - and when we try to control what only God can, we're essentially replacing His ways with ours, His thoughts with ours, His wisdom with ours. We replace Him and put ourselves in control. That's the definition of an idol! The bottom line is this: we serve a big picture God. He's God, we're not. And by idolizing leadership, we're guilty of much of the same things for which Paul blasted the Corinthian church. We are valuing human "wisdom" over the wisdom of Almighty God. We're telling the Creator of the universe that His way just isn't quite good enough to lead His church in this day and age. We're breaking the first commandment, and we're breaking His heart.

Please understand that I'm most certainly not anti-leadership. Our church has a strong mission statement, vision, and core values to which we closely adhere (it would be extremely difficult to function without them). I honestly don't know what I would do without the awesome leadership teams of both Hillvue Heights Church and our leadership at Highland Hills. There is a ton of great (not good, but GREAT) leadership books, conferences, blogs, etc out there that can and will help establish biblical principles that will assist in leading the church for the next 2000 years, if Jesus waits that long. Strong leadership is vital for the church! But it has it's place in the grand scheme of things, and sometimes, it's out of place. You see, everything we do must begin and end with Jesus, and it is His presence, His Holy Spirit that must lead us. We need to be perfectly ok with the fact that it's not going to always make sense to us, that more times than not it will be out of our control.  We must follow Him before we can lead. We must serve, and even wash the feet of those we lead. We must be willing to lead from a messy, sometimes bloody place. We must make sure that the presence of God stays on the throne of our hearts, and that the leadership calf (or any other idol) is destroyed. We must guard our hearts, leaders, and make sure that the pursuit of being a good leader doesn't supplant the presence of the greatest Leader to ever grace this planet. Get out of His way, and follow Jesus' lead!

Following with you,

Chad