I’ve been reading two books and a new study and all three on the same day focused on the topic of leadership. This is both pastoral and lay leadership in the church…the strengths and the weaknesses. In my frustration I’ve read repeatedly that church leaders need to be in relationship with God (I can hear your collective Duh!). I am sorry, but that is just not good enough, being in relationship with God is the qualification to be a church member, not a leader! We need more than that from people we expect to lead us…at least we do if we intend to go anywhere. I’ve shared this before, but Acts 6:3 gives us the Biblical qualifications of leadership in the fledgling church. “…select from among yourselves seven men of good standing, full of the Spirit and of wisdom…” Now, I will admit we do a relatively good job of selecting people of good standing to lead in the church (with very few exceptions), but we by and large fail on the second and third points. Oh, we will find those who possess worldly wisdom, and that can be a desired attribute, but if they lack Godly wisdom we have failed. If our leaders are not full of the Spirit we have failed miserably! I think this applies to the local church leaders, it applies to district and conference leadership, it applies to denominational leadership: both clergy and lay leaders. What proof? Look around at the Church (whether UMC or another denomination or non-denomination). In America, the assessment is that the church is in decline…that’s an upper-management term that really means failing. At least one of the reasons the Church is failing is that our leadership are not of good standing, full of the Spirit and of wisdom.
And how do we go about changing that leadership if it's NOT filled with the Holy Spirit??? Many times our hands are tied by conference dictates. What then? It's easier to change laity positions than pastoral positions. It would be wonderful if all persons who held leadership positions had Godly wisdom and be filled with the Spirit! I'm praying for that to happen.
ReplyDeleteI feel the need to clarify that ALL leaders need to be Spirit filled. As for changing...lay leaders are often entrenched in the local church to the point that they are never removed, except by death...pastors are routinely moved. Besides, there are so many more lay leaders in the local church, if they were all Spirit-filled would that conter the Spirit-less clergy? Regardless, until we make that the criteria for leaders, we will continue to recruit people who are not leaders...and the church will continue to fail.
ReplyDeleteIn the meantime, then, I will continue to be in prayer that I'm open to God's will and that we are going where He leads. Food for thought, though, about how many Spirit filled people it takes to overcome a Spiritless person. Shouldn't the answer be 'one'??
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely! "Greater is he who is in me than he who is in that spirit-less person"...to pervert a verse!!!
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