Problems of Christian Leadership by Stott John;Fernando Ajith;

Author:Stott, John;Fernando, Ajith; [Stott, John]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780830871926
Publisher: InterVarsity Press
Published: 2013-11-19T00:00:00+00:00

Respect in Listening

Could I finish thirdly with some examples of respect? The first has to do with individuals and the need to listen to people. To shut somebody up, to tell somebody to shut up and refuse to listen to him or her, is to treat him with great disrespect, but to listen to somebody is to express our sense of his worth. There’s a lot in the Bible about listening. “The way of a fool seems right to him, but a wise man listens to advice” (Proverbs 12:15), and James 1:19, “Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak.”

I had a very important experience about fifteen years ago. I was still the rector of All Souls Church. Those were the years we had built up a pastoral team, and we had every Monday morning for a staff meeting. We read the Scriptures and prayed together, and then we would discuss the work of the church and go through the coming week together. On one occasion we were discussing something of importance. It was a sharp discussion, and in the middle of it one of my colleagues interrupted, and he turned to me and said, “John, you’re not listening.” He was completely right; I wasn’t listening. I had found the discussion a little boring, and I confess that my mind had gone on ahead to something else. That challenge from one of my colleagues was very important in my life, and from that time on I’ve sought the grace of God to listen. I believe that our relationships deteriorate when we don’t listen to one another.

Let me give you three points about listening. First, listening is right in itself because it is respectful. Second, listening is therapeutic. It gives the person who is speaking the opportunity to put their trouble into words, and when you put your problem into words you automatically diminish it. Our problems are at their worst when they lurk in the dark corners of our hearts, but when we bring them out and articulate them and look at them, they immediately become smaller. Therefore listening to somebody who is bringing out their problems is therapeutic to that person.

Third, listening is productive, especially if we are listening to people with whom we disagree. People who disagree with one another usually avoid one another. They keep apart, and then they write books against one another and lob hand grenades at one another across no man’s land. Then a grotesque image of that person develops in my mind, and I can clearly see his image, his horns and hoof and tail. This develops within my mind when he is thousands of miles away. But once we have the courage to meet one another and look one another in the face and listen to one another, we discover to our surprise that he is a human being. And not only a human being but a brother or sister in the Lord, and even reasonable!

I’ve had a number of examples of this in international consultations.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.