Open to the Spirit by Scot McKnight & Dave Ferguson

Author:Scot McKnight & Dave Ferguson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: The Crown Publishing Group
Published: 2018-04-03T04:00:00+00:00

*1 John 3:8

*2 1 Corinthians 12:12–14

*3 Ephesians 4:11–12, KJV. “And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ.”

13

OPEN YOURSELF TO A NEW KIND OF LEADER

If my very busy blog is a reliable indicator, many Christians have what might well be called a leader problem. Some have been burned by church leaders; some have been silenced; some have been overpowered; some have been ignored. I have heard from people who have been lied to, betrayed, exploited, and even cheated by their leaders. I consider this one of the most significant issues in the church today.

For a variety of reasons—many of them very good reasons—it’s not unusual for Christians to be suspicious and deeply distrustful of leaders, especially pastors and priests. Just like the rest of us, leaders can be susceptible to the lure of power, choosing to feed their egos and manipulate people rather than caring for their needs.

The Bible exposes bad leaders; it does not endorse them. And the Bible endorses good leaders even as it exposes bad leaders.

Those who want to be leaders and those who want good leaders all need to be open to the Spirit. If they remain open to the Spirit, they will be open to a different kind of leader. How so? The New Testament makes clear that Spirit-prompted leaders use their gifts for the good of others, while leaders who consolidate their power and abuse their authority are closed to the Spirit.

I cringed when I heard that a well-known leader said, “Good leaders impose their will on their congregations.” That is the way of Caesar, not Jesus, the Ruler of the universe. The New Testament approach to leadership stood explicitly, constantly, and boldly in stark contrast to the way of Rome.

In the Roman Empire, the term emperor said it all. By the middle of the first century, the old Roman theory that the emperor was nothing more than the first citizen among citizens had all but disappeared. By the time of Jesus, the emperor had institutionalized his penchant for (1) unlimited power over life and death, (2) rampant self-indulgence, (3) immunity from any penalty of law, and (4) unbridled ambition. The people in every first-century church were familiar with this approach to exercising power. The emperor of Rome went hand-in-hand with building one’s own empire and overpowering all opponents to protect and consolidate the emperor’s control. There are too many churches run the way the emperor dominated the empire. The Bible casts a vision for a very different kind of leader.

Think about the Bible with me. Israel’s leadership can be traced through a series of movements. We have the era of patriarchs, when families were the center of the people. Following that era came the arch leader, Moses, who never had the title of king and prophet of the nation, but who nevertheless functioned in those roles.

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