How The Holy Spirit Steers Us Away From Inappropriate Cultural Leadership Models That Often Trouble The Church

1. The Holy Spirit teaches us to avoid compromising the truth of scripture with counterfeit models of church leadership. Paul wrote, "It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God’s people for works of service." (Eph. 4:11,12) Ask the Lord to help you avoid compromising the truth of scripture by over emphasizing certain cultural, political, business or personality-based leadership styles.

2. The Holy Spirit teaches us to avoid falling into traps of conforming to the world’s ideals of leadership. Paul wrote, "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is - his good, pleasing and perfect will." (Rom. 12:2) Ask the Lord for the wisdom to resist the temptations to adopt a chieftaincy leadership style in your church even though it may seem natural to everyone around you.

3. The Holy Spirit convicts us when we try to lead the church with anything but the model of a plurality of Godly leaders who meet the qualifications found in I Timothy 3:1-6. Paul emphasized the fact that a plurality of Godly leaders should be men of Christlike character. Ask the Lord to help you select leaders who are above reproach, faithful to their wife, temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not given to drunkenness, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money, able to manage his own family well and see that his children obey him with proper respect. He must not be a recent convert. He must have a good reputation with outsiders so as to not fall into disgrace and into the devil’s trap. Trust the Lord to help you select, develop and work cooperatively with a plurality of such Godly leaders for the qualitative and quantitative growth of your church.

4. The Holy Spirit exposes how some leadership models only succeed temporarily as they meet some contextual need. Some leaders apply certain traditional leadership models because they are merely looking at the immediate cultural, financial and social needs of the people without using God’s eternal perspectives. While there may exist enough truth in some leadership models to gain credibility for a while, only God’s servant leadership model found in Jesus Christ transcends all situations, needs and cultures. Ask the Lord to help you expose the weaknesses of all leadership models except the ones that follow after Christ’s ideals found in the New Testament.

5. The Holy Spirit teaches us that all leadership models that do not concentrate on "Spiritual" leadership will ultimately fail. Paul wrote, "For we are not fighting against people made of flesh and blood, but against persons without bodies - the evil rulers of the unseen world, those mighty satanic beings and great evil princes of darkness who rule this world; and against the huge number of wicked spirits in the spirit world." (Eph. 6:12) Ask the Lord to help you avoid the misuse or a shortage of spiritual power and Biblical truth in leading your church, group or organization.

6. The Holy Spirit teaches us how to apply Christ centered values above social, political, educational, emotional, or financial influences. Many leaders are tempted to use other kinds of influences in trying to impose their agenda on their organization. Paul wrote a warning to the Corinthians teaching them how to avoid this subtle trap. He wrote, "What is Apollos? What is Paul Only servants, through whom you came to believe - as the Lord has assigned to each his task." (I Cor. 3:5) Ask the Lord to help you to emphasize Biblical values instead of trying to merely bring to bear your social, cultural, political, educational, emotional or financial powers of influence on your organization, church or group.

7. The Holy Spirit appoints and uses Christ centered leaders who have a God given capacity and a God given responsibility to influence a group toward God’s purposes. Paul wrote, "By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as an expert builder, and someone else is building on it." (I Cor. 3:10) Ask the Lord to help your organization to be led of God to appoint and use Christ centered leaders. Trust the Lord for leaders who clearly have God given abilities and gifts to accomplish a God given responsibility that will help influence your church to maximize the accomplishing of God’s purposes for His kingdom and glory.

8. The Holy Spirit empowers leaders who seeks to serve their church as a shepherd not as a lord. Peter wrote, "Be shepherds of God’s flock that is under your care, serving as overseers - not because you must, but because you are willing, as God wants you to be, not greedy for money, but eager to serve; not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock." (I Pet. 5:2,3) Ask God to lead by example.