Nine Ways The Holy Spirit Helps Correct Leadership Mistakes

Nine Ways the Holy Spirit Helps Correct Leadership Mistakes (1 Peter 5:2-5:3)

Illustration: Shepherd the flock of God . . . [by] being examples. --1 Peter 5:2-3

A mother cheetah brought a live gazelle fawn to her 5-month-old cubs and released it. After the cubs made several unsuccessful attacks, the mama cheetah intervened and showed them how to make the kill.

I observed a similar technique used by a life insurance salesman. After he told me about the benefits of a particular policy, he shared how much coverage he had for his own family. His words took on new meaning because he demonstrated by his own example how to insure a family adequately.

If we want to teach others the art of knowing God and serving Him, we can’t overemphasize the importance and the power of example. That’s how Christ and His apostles communicated the same message. Their obedience to God was seen in flesh-and-blood terms that were easily understood.

Leadership by example is contagious. When Paul mentioned the people in Thessalonica who had become "followers of us and of the Lord," he said that they also "became examples to all in Macedonia and Achaia" (1 Th. 1:6-7).

Leadership is more than something that automatically goes with an official title like Dad, Mom, Sunday School Teacher, or Pastor. Those who want to lead and help others must first of all be examples. --MRDII (Our Daily Bread)

All in vain is splendid preaching,

And the noble things we say;

All our talk is wasted teaching

If we do not lead the way. --Anon.

You cannot teach what you do not know nor lead where you do not go.

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.