Christian Leadership

Church life always involves leadership. We must understand spiritual leadership - whether we are becoming leaders - or choosing leaders.

Over the past couple of weeks we have been looking at what is involved in becoming and making disciples.

1. Because Jesus told us to go make disciples - that is what we are about - being and making disciples

We have been using this baseball diamond to help us think about this process of discipleship.

When these three elements - membership - maturity - ministry come together it creates

Spiritual Leadership

The NT gives pretty clear instructions about the qualifications for Spiritual Leadership. For our purposes today we will look at Pauls instructions to a fellow pastor named Titus

Titus 1:1 - 9

1Paul, a bond-servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, for the faith of those chosen of God and the knowledge of the truth which is according to godliness, 2in the hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised long ages ago, 3but at the proper time manifested, even His word, in the proclamation with which I was entrusted according to the commandment of God our Savior, 4to Titus, my true child in a common faith: Grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior. 5For this reason I left you in Crete, that you would set in order what remains and appoint elders in every city as I directed you, 6namely, if any man is above reproach, the husband of one wife, having children who believe, not accused of dissipation or rebellion. 7For the overseer must be above reproach as God’s steward, not self-willed, not quick-tempered, not addicted to wine, not pugnacious, not fond of sordid gain, 8but hospitable, loving what is good, sensible, just, devout, self-controlled, 9holding fast the faithful word which is in accordance with the teaching, so that he will be able both to exhort in sound doctrine and to refute those who contradict.

Spiritual leadership involves much different - higher - standards than leadership in other areas.

It may be helpful for "secular leaders" to have good - sound moral and spiritual character ...

HOWEVER - it is IMPERATIVE that spiritual leaders have certain Moral -and Spiritual Character:

(ILL) A leader of a Fortune 500 company can be an incredible leader - leading the company to achieve financial success and still be a lousy human being - morally and spiritually bankrupt - business leadership is of a different nature than Spiritual leadership

(ILL) President Bill Clinton - was thought by many to be a fine enough President but he was certainly lacking in the area of spiritual and moral character - his leadership position was political in nature

(ILL) JFK - was known to be a bit of a womanizer himself - which certainly demonstrates spiritual and moral deficit - yet he was considered a fine President - because his leadership was political in nature

(ILL) Over the years we have seen numerous leaders in the sports areana - both players and coaches - that lead their teams to victory after victory - yet they were terrible people off the field - unfaithful husbands - racist - drunks and drug addicted ..

Spiritual Leadership is different. In Titus, Paul gives us the foundation for Good Spiritual Leadership.

Spiritual Leadership Involves A Threefold Commitment

(1)Commitment to God’s Plan

Titus 1:1

1Paul, a bond-servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, for the faith of those chosen of God and the knowledge of the truth which is according to godliness,

That sounds sort of complicated at first but it isn’t really when you break it down.

(first) Paul identifies himself as

- a bond-servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ

in other words he is committed to God’s Plan -

Its worth noting here that in verses 1 through 3 the Apostle Paul at least makes reference - to foundational doctines

such as

(1) A commitment to God’s Sovereign Election

1Paul, a bond-servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, for the faith of those chosen of God

(2) A commitment to Justification and Sanctification and Glorification

BUT for our purposes this morning it is enough to know that Paul is saying that he is a follower of Jesus Christ

AND

he is committed to the proclaimation of THE MESSAGE OF SALVATION THROUGH FAITH IN CHRIST

Paul further clarifies what God’s Plan is in verses 2 and 3

2in the hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised long ages ago, 3but at the proper time manifested, even His word, in the proclamation with which I was entrusted according to the commandment of God our Savior,

Spiritual leadership in the Biblical - Christian sense begins with a commitment to Jesus Christ as Lord God and Savior