I have been spending some time reading and thinking about leaders in the church this weekend. Just had some random thoughts I have been bouncing around.
If your chief concern as a Christian leader is defending why people should submit to you instead of how you can be their servant, you aren't a leader at all.
If your boasting is in how much influence you think you wield or how many people you draw in on a Sunday or the venues you are invited to speak at you are likewise not a leader. You are simply someone who is insecure and craves approval.
If you are so impressed by the title you have been granted that you feel the need to place it before your name, integrate it into your name on your Facebook or Twitter profile or emblazon it on the sign in front of the building, is your boasting really in the cross of Christ?
A Biblical leader doesn't concern himself at all with whether or not people accept his rulership or whether they submit to him. He is concerned with how to lower himself and how to consider others as more valuable than himself. What sets a true leader apart is not an "ordination ceremony" or educational achievement or titles or how many books of his have been published or which conferences he is asked to speak at. What sets him apart is how he cheerfully serves however God calls, joyfully and without grumbling, for the sake of Christ and not for accolades or money.
We have lost sight of what it means to be a leader in the church of Christ and replaced humble and self-denying servanthood with prideful and pride inducing traditions. Not just among pastors but among many we consider the great among us. In doing so we have lost the definition that Jesus gave: whoever would be great among you must be your servant. It is hard to make claims on status and submission while simultaneously claiming to be a servant.
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