Refreshing Leadership
1 Corinthians 16:15-24
Leadership is vital in any organization, especially within the church. It is important this morning, to know how vital it is to have leadership. I believe the key to the success of any organization; especially the key to the success of the church is quality and character of the people involved, especially the quality and character of the leaders. God is constantly seeking men and women of character to be leaders of the church and when God develops those leaders and those leaders are willing and available for service—Great things will happen!
We need godly leaders—don’t we! Always have and always will. Think about it, if leaders weren’t necessary, God would not have included leadership among the spiritual gifts; the Bible would not provide so many incredible principles of leadership; and the Holy Spirit would not have inspired the authors of the Bible to incorporate so many examples of strong leadership. For instance, Jethro would not have rescued Moses from the burden of administration. Jesus would not have trained the apostles. Paul would not have mentored Timothy, and so on.
This morning, let’s discover refreshing, biblical, effective leadership. Let’s discover leadership that is worth following. The very best places to look for that type of leadership is right in the heart and life of the apostle Paul. So open your Bibles to the 16th chapter of 1 Corinthians. This is the final message looking at the vital signs of a healthy church. Last week we saw some key attitudes. The vital sign that we see this week, the essential ingredient for a dynamic, healthy congregation is the vital sign of refreshing leadership.
Throughout the NT, especially in the writings of Paul, one word that you see in connection with leadership is the word refresh. It simply means to give rest. You see the purpose of good leadership in the church is to lift burdens from God’s people. To refresh them, so that they can become everything that God wants them to be, so that people can develop and reach their full potential in following Jesus Christ.
This is leadership worth following and it is a vital sign of a healthy church. Let’s walk through this 16th chapter again, picking up some of these principles for leadership that God desires in His church. This kind of message can serve 2 purposes: #1—for you who fulfill any kind of leadership function, it is a good self-inventory. I’m not just speaking to our elders or deacons. Anyone who leads someone or organizes something w/in the body is a leader. I’m speaking to those ladies who are heading up our MOPS program, I’m speaking to anyone who teaches Sunday school, works with our children in any way; you are all leaders. #2—it is a challenge for everyone of us, because the kind of principles God wants to see in the life of leaders ought to be in the life of every Christian because every follower of Christ has the potential to lead someone else. So let’s grow together today.
First of all, notice that refreshing leadership is characterized by and has…
1. TEAM PLAYERS
When you look at the life of Paul, you see that he never tried to do it alone. He was constantly surrounded with others who formed a ministry team. Paul was partner in the ministry with many people and he was constantly recruiting, constantly encouraging, constantly bringing new and fresh faces into this process.
When you read through the 16th chapter you discover an amazing number of people who were working with Paul. For example, you look at v. 10 and you see the name Timothy mentioned. There are other names: Apollos, Stephanas, Fortunatus, Achaicus, Aquila and Pricilla. Every one of these people had been spotted by Paul and encouraged to effective ministry to effective leadership in the church.
I will never forget the influence one of my youth minister’s had on my life. Mark Nichols is a person that I will never forget. There are many things that I remember about Mark: his little maroon, 1979, 4 door, 4 squirrel Chevette that he drove like it was a race car, or the time that he spent the entire summer at my house, or even the times we would play football together in my front yard with all the youth group kids. Those are all very important memories to me, but the most important impression and memory was when he took me to Cincinnati Bible College (now Cincinnati Christian University) for the very first time. We had a lot of fun pulling pranks on his roommate, but even more than that—through his encouragement and life witness, I made CBC my home for more than 13 years and 2 degrees. I have grown closer to the God of the universe because of his personal leadership and encouragement, even entering into the ministry at that time in my life.
Maybe you are not an outstanding leader, but everyone can be an encourager like that and invest time, energy and compassion into an impressionable teen’s life. We need perceptive Christians who will spot young people with potential and plant the seed of leadership within them.
We need perceptive Christians like Barnabas. When Paul had come to Corinth, the likelihood of Paul succeeding is next to nothing if it weren’t for Barnabas. After the conversion of Paul, the believers of Jerusalem doubted that Paul was the real deal, that he was the real thing. They wanted nothing to do with him. Paul went back to his home town, Tarsus. He would have remained there in uncertainty forever if it hadn’t been for Barnabas, who 10 years later remembered Paul, went to his home town, found him and brought him back and made him part of the leadership team at Antioch. Barnabas discovered the greatest missionary in the history of the world and recruited him into the ministry. Paul followed the example of Barnabas in constantly recruiting people into the ministry with him.
Now we need Christians who will recruit and encourage people to use all they have for the ministry. I’m not trying to give the impression that we just need to recruit people to go to Bible College, but in reality we need to encourage everyone around us to get heart deep in the ministry for Jesus Christ. Refreshing leaders always call people to serve Jesus effectively.
We also need Christians who are alert to leaders and to those who already have leadership roles. Be constantly looking for ways to encourage and boost them up because many times the tasks they perform go unappreciated. Think about it, no one ever gets beyond the need for encouragement. So why don’t you become a team player today and begin to encourage people around you. Both those who aren’t in service who need to be and those who are in service and need a little building up along the way. That’s the way it ought to be in the Kingdom of God. We need to encourage one another at all times and to build one another up, especially we need to encourage leadership and leadership needs to be encouraging people to be involved in ministry.
Now look again in v. 17-18, you see there the type of thing that I am talking about. Paul says, (v.17-18) Refreshing leaders deserve recognition, they deserve to be acknowledged, to be encouraged and refreshing leaders recognize and encourage others. It is mutual ministry that we are talking about here. There is tremendous value and power in that type of ministry knowing that none of us can do it alone. None of us can finish the work alone; none of us can accomplish the will of Christ perfectly alone. There is no such thing as a sideline Christian; there’s no room in the church for pew potatoes. Refreshing leaders are team players, but notice also that refreshing leaders are…
2. STRATEGY CREATORS
One of the things that are apparent in this letter is that many strategies are being worked out. Look at v. 12- Paul had a strategy. Apollos had been one of the leaders there and one of the divisions in Corinth was saying, “I’m of Apollos.” So one of Paul’s strategies was to get Apollos to go to Corinth and together work out the difficulties. There was a plan in Paul’s mind. However, Apollos had no opportunity to go but eventually he would return to Corinth. But here, there is a plan to work together to solve the problem.
Notice in v. 17, these 3 leaders from Corinth: Stephanas, Fortunatus and Achaicus – they had a strategy. When these problems were plaguing the congregation at Corinth, they didn’t just sit back and say, “Well, there’s nothing that we can do.” They strategized, they planned and they discovered ways to solve the problem and move forward. One of their strategies was to find Paul and to appeal for his encouragement and words of wisdom. Strategic thinking is vital for refreshing leadership, because strategic thinking is wiling to take the initiative to get the job done for Jesus Christ.
Problem solving is a real key to strategic thinking. Years ago a potato farmer in Idaho was constantly beating the competition to the market with his potatoes. The other potato farmers in the area, who were his friends, were irritated by the man. After all they followed the normal process: they would dig their potatoes, go through the laborious task of grading them by hand where they would separate the potatoes into large, medium and small potatoes and bagging them. Then they would put the potatoes in the wagon and haul them off to market. But every year their neighbor would beat them to market. He would get the best price; he would receive the largest payment for his crop because he was always there first. Finally they approached him and asked him, “How is it that you are making more money than all of us, but you don’t even sort out your potatoes before you go to market?” He said, “I let my potatoes sort themselves, that way I can get a jump on you guys and get to market first.” They asked, “What do you mean?” He replied, “Well after I harvest my potatoes, I don’t even bother to sort them. I just throw them all in the wagon and take the roughest road to town. On the 8 mile trip, I hit every rut, every pothole in the road and that wagon is constantly bouncing around. While it’s bouncing, those potatoes are sorting themselves out. The little potatoes go to the bottom, the medium potatoes vibrate to the middle and the big potatoes end up on top every time.”
That man was a strategic thinker. He had found a way to solve his problem and he had discovered an important truth, “Big potatoes always rise to the top on tough roads.” So it is in the church that when the bouncing starts and the potholes come and the rough roads are hit- strategic thinkers, creators of effective solutions, always rise to the top. Paul understood that refreshing leaders always rise to the top during tough times. So effective leadership in the church means being the kind of leader who is able to get the job done, who is able to work past the obstacles and find creative solutions that ministry can go forward.
A 3rd thing that refreshing leadership has…
3. DISCIPLE MAKERS
Refreshing leaders are sincerely driven by the mission of the church. The mission of the church must be embraced with sincerity. Paul was always sincere with the cause that he perceived that God wanted him to undertake. When Paul was persecuting the church, he was zealous for the task. He did it with passion and enthusiasm. There was no holding back with Paul. When he thought God wanted him to do something, he did it with all that he had.
Becoming a follower of Christ, Paul was not only zealous, on fire for what he was doing, but he was also doing the right thing. Paul said, “For me to live is Christ.” Everything that I’m doing, I’m doing for Jesus; I’m doing for the Lord. A refreshing leader lives out the mission for his life, he doesn’t just speak about it with words, but he demonstrates it in every area of his life.
General Patton once led his troops to the edge of a deep, icy river. The men began to complain that it was impossible to cross the river with their heavy backpacks. Patton didn’t say a word; he simply waded into the river, swam across, turned and looked to his men. Then he didn’t say a word, walked back into the river, swam back to the other side, stepped out on the ground, looked at his troops, didn’t say a word. Then he turned and waded back into the icy river until he was waste deep, turned back to his troops and said, “Let’s go.” And every troop made it across without any further complaining.
People don’t need to be told that we have an important mission as much as they need to be shown that we have an important mission. Leadership worth following never forgets that lost people matter to God. Isn’t that true? Leadership worth following never forgets that lost people matter to God and refreshing leaders model a sincere commitment to love the lost and to read the lost in Jesus’ name. Now God has certainly modeled His concern for the lost, just think about it. Look at the cross. Look at Jesus. Look at the words of Jesus in Luke 15: The lost coin, the lost sheep, and the lost boy. God loves the lost. All this and more says that we should love the lost as well. So I have a penetrating question to ask myself today—“Do I really love the lost? And if I do as a leader, do I really live out that commitment that shows up to the people around me?” “Do you love the lost and are you trying to live out that commitment that shows up to the people around you?” What are we doing as Christians to show our commitment to the mission of Jesus Christ in the world? “Our mission at BGCC is to evangelize the lost, strengthen the body of believers, to be a moral compass to the community and to prepare God’s people for works of service.” How are we doing?
Refreshing leadership has team player, strategy creators, soul winners—people who live out the mission of the church. A 4th thing found in refreshing leadership is…
4. RISK TAKERS
Have you ever noticed that in the life of Paul that he had an insatiable desire for advance? Paul was a visionary, he was a dreamer, he was a risk taker. He could see Asia Minor, he could see Rome, he could see Spain, he could see the whole world won to Christ. He wanted every man, every woman to come to know Jesus Christ. Paul maybe had a spiritual claustrophobia. The church was always too small for him, he wanted to knock out the borders and he was willing to take amazing risk to achieve that. Paul seemed to be haunted by the regions beyond.
Refreshing leaders are willing to live and lead by faith, they are willing to risk. It is the essence of faith, to do things that are uncertain at the direction of God. Thank about it—average leaders will take calculated risk on occasion, but only after much deliberation and only after all the bases are covered and they are virtually guaranteed a success. They’ll launch out and do something and usually at that time they will be successful. But they will then camp on their success and then instead of moving forward they’ll rejoice in that small victory that was achieved. There is always a great temptation to exchange challenge for security, ease for effort. It’s so easy to sit back and say, “Well, we haven’t done too bad have we?” But the kind of leaders that God wants will never submit to that kind of thinking. You see God no longer wants us to camp on the banks of the Red Sea gloating over the drowned Egyptians. When He gives us a victory, He calls us on to another challenge. He’s calling us to the land of promise.
Refreshing leaders are different, they are willing to live by faith, and they are willing to take a risk. They understand that people don’t respond to security, people respond to a challenge. People love to stretch beyond themselves and people need a leader who will make them believe that it can be done. If our vision is so small that we can accomplish it, why do we even need God? I would rather do something that is so great that unless God is in it, it is doomed to fail, than to do nothing at all because all I wanted to do what I could do. We need visionary leaders who are willing to take risks. Notice also that refreshing leaders are…
5. CARE GIVERS
Compassion is essential for leaders. A.W. Tozer once said, “Nothing can take the place of affection, those who have it in generous measure have a magic power over men.” Now this is one characteristic that Paul had to develop most since his conversion. Paul was already a team player, Paul was a strategic and decisive person, Paul was already driven by purpose, already visionary, already to take a risk. But originally Saul of Tarsus had little sensitivity for people. Paul could not have loved people very much and be the kind of persecutor that he was. So God had to develop compassion in Paul, and He did. God helped Paul to be compassionate by allowing him to be persecuted, intimidated, disappointed, and rejected and forgotten until his spirit was softened and Paul became a compassionate man. See Paul at Miletus embracing the elders from Ephesus and weeping bitterly with all of them because he’d seem them no more. Hear Paul as he called Timothy his beloved son in the faith. You could see the deep cherishing that he had for the man. The most effective leaders are those who care about people.
We can’t lead men and women to Jesus Christ with an uncaring attitude; they need to see the evidence of caring and Christ-like love in us. Leadership is so vital for what God wants to do. It’s not enough to be content with the leaders that we do have, even though they work hard. The challenge of the church is to be constantly calling men and women to the next step in their faith development. He wants us to have the kind of leaders that can lead His Church to great things in our generation. Are you willing to grow to that level?
