The Gift of Leaership and The Gift of Administration
At one time Andrew Carnegie was the wealthiest man in America. He came to America from his native Scotland when he was a small boy, did a variety of odd jobs, and eventually ended up as the largest steel manufacturer in the United States. At one time he had forty-three millionaires working for him. In those days a millionaire was a rare person; conservatively speaking, a million dollars in his day would be equivalent to at least twenty million dollars today.
A reporter asked Carnegie how he had hired forty-three millionaires. Carnegie responded that those men had not been millionaires when they started working for him but had become millionaires as a result. The reporter’s next question was, "How did you develop these men to becomes so valuable to you that you have paid them this much money?" Carnegie replied that men are developed the same way gold is mined. When gold is mined, several tons of dirt must be moved to get an ounce of gold; but one doesn’t go into the mine looking for dirt - one goes in looking for the gold.
This morning we continue our study of spiritual gifts with a look at the gifts of leadership and organization. The challenge of leadership is finding and developing the “gold” in people.
It is important that we understand what these two gifts are before getting into how to use them.
First, I don’t believe that the two are one and the same thing – I think there are important differences between the spiritual gift of leadership and the spiritual gift of administration. There are often overlaps, and the two do often work together, but I think the fundamental difference is that leadership is by necessity people focused while administration is by necessity process focused. Leaders deal with people, administrators deal with systems and processes.
A great example of this is how we work together as a staff here at Laurier. Pastor Dave is clearly our leader – he sets the tone, articulates the needs we have and the priority we need to place on those. And in a recent staff meeting when we were talking about my job, Dave said, “Steve, what you are good at is all the ‘middle stuff’”. I want to put that on my office door – “Minister of Middle Stuff”. What are we talking about there?? – it becomes my job to create and work with the systems, with the process, with some of the “hows” of going in the direction that our leaders have set. Dave says “we have a large need right now to foster people building relationships with each other,” and I say “let’s get working on the mechanics of getting people into small groups where they can build relationships – let’s recruit some leaders, make a list of who is and who is not in a small group, let’s find some material to help structure the group time.”
Vision/need and process. Leaders deal directly with people – with casting the vision and motivating people to come along; and often the administrators come next and work with the process and the systems to see vision realized.
A second introductory comment about these two gifts is that we don’t really see them as “spiritual” gifts. Leaders are sometimes viewed as egotists – spotlight hoggers – people who are control freaks and need to tell everyone else what to do. Administrators are typically seen as boring – accountant types – behind the scenes plodders who are faithful but certainly not living in the excitement and power of the Holy Spirit… But those views are false. People with the spiritual gift of leadership and the spiritual gift of administration need to be and are as empowered in the use of their gift as the prophet or the healer or the evangelist. It is the same Spirit. And God gives gifts to His children to accomplish His desire for His people. When God needs something done He calls and empowers a leader and He also calls and empowers an administrator to make sure all the “middle stuff” gets handled in a Godly way.
So do you think you might have the spiritual gift of leadership and/or the gift of administration? Let me ask you a few quick questions:
1. Do you see the “big picture” and dream about how much more God desires to do in a certain situation?
2. When you speak, do people often listen and agree?
3. When you set goals, do others seem to accept them readily?
4. Do things seem to run smoothly when you are in charge?
5. Are you a self-starter – who wants to jump right in and take over a project?
6. Do you approach a task or project with a great deal of excitement and enthusiasm about the opportunities for ministry?
7. Are you frustrated in a situation where there is a leader-void, and chaos is threatening?
8. Do you delight in the end quality of a completed project?
If you see yourself in those questions, you might have the gift of leadership.
How about the gift of administration?
1. Do you see and enjoy breaking down a large project into bite-sized pieces?
2. When you see a goal set for an area, are you keenly aware of the resources necessary to accomplish that goal?
3. Do you know how to delegate effectively?
4. Do you work to see the goal reached as quickly as possible, as well as possible, and with as few resources as possible?
5. Do you tend to step in and fill the organizational gap when you are in a group lacking organization?
6. Do you enjoy handling the details of organizing people, resources, and time for more effective ministry?
7. Are you a planner – looking ahead and seeing all the next steps?
8. Do you enjoy bearing the responsibility for the success of a particular task or project?
If you see yourself in those questions, you might have the gift of administration.
Now, I’m sure some of you don’t see yourself having either of those gifts. But if that is you, please don’t just tune out the rest of my sermon! Let’s look at these gifts a bit more together, and then let’s look at what we are supposed to do if we don’t have either of these gifts.
Would you open your Bibles to the book of Nehemiah. Its in the old Testament, before Psalms. We find all kinds of excellent examples of effective leaders in the Bible, and probably my absolute favorite is Nehemiah. A thorough study of the book would probably bring us to the conclusion that Nehemiah was both a leader and an administrator, though in our brief look at him this morning we will focus on his leadership. The book itself reads like a journal – it is passionate and personal, showing the risks and the opportunities that Nehemiah took in accomplishing the goal that God called him to – namely the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem. If you’ve never sat and read the whole book I encourage you to do that this week.
The story opens with Nehemiah in the citadel of Susa, in the court of King Artaxerxes. The year is 445 BC, incidentally giving us one of the last OT books before the 400 years of silence between the OT and NT. Politically, God’s people had been divided into two kingdoms, Israel in the North and Judah in the South. Israel had been captured by the Assyrians in 722, and then in 587 the southern kingdom fell to the Babylonians who destroyed the city of Jerusalem. Almost 50 years later, in 538, the Persian king Cyrus captured Babylon and issued a decree that allowed the Jewish people to return to Jerusalem and rebuild their temple. Some Jews did return, and rebuilt the temple in Jerusalem. But almost 90 years later we meet Nehemiah, and we find out the restoration of Jerusalem is not yet complete.
Let’s read Nehemiah 1:1-4:
In these four verses we find the first principle of Biblical leadership: LEADERS MUST BE PEOPLE OF PRAYER.
Do you see what is happening in these first few verses? Nehemiah receives word of a need – of a desperate need that breaks his heart – and he goes to prayer. He goes to God, and he pours out his heart to him and agonizes with God.
That is what we need to do as leaders. We need to go first to God. I think this is harder for leaders than for people with the gift of healing, for example. Because we can get some things done on our own. We can “make things happen” – people will follow our ideas, jump on our bandwagon, get behind our initiative. We can, in our own strength, appear to accomplish significant things. But my friends, if God is not in it and leading us, the things we accomplish will not be things of eternal significance.
Junior high bike camp example…
LEADERS MUST BE PEOPLE OF PRAYER
Let’s jump ahead into chapter 2, beginning in verse 1 and reading to verse 8. Here is the second principle of Biblical leadership: LEADERS MUST BE PREPARED.
To fully understand what is happening in chapter 2, we need to understand a bit about imperial culture in OT times. Chapter 1 ends with Nehemiah telling us “I was cup-bearer to the king.” This meant that he was the one who brought the king’s food and placed it before him. Sound like a glorified waiter?? Not quite – as cup-bearer it would have been Nehemiah’s responsibility to ensure the safety of everything the king ate – in fact Nehemiah would have had to sample it all first to make sure there was no poison and that no one was trying to assassinate the king. It could very well have meant that he was the head of palace security (most likely he would have desperately needed the gift of administration here…). Now, the law was that you could not look sad in the king’s presence – to do so could have been punishable by death – not allowed to spoil the king’s dinner by whining about your own problems! But Nehemiah was prepared. He picked the time – vs. 6 says the queen was beside him, which meant it was not a formal affair of state but a more casual family dinner. And Nehemiah allowed himself to be noticed having a sad face, knowing the king would inquire. Do you see how prepared he was to answer the king’s questions?? He knew what he wanted: vs. 5 “send me to rebuild the walls”, he knew how long it would take in vs. 6, he knew and was prepared to ask for letters of safe passage and for materials. Nehemiah demonstrates the second biblical principle: LEADERS MUST BE PREPARED.
We need to be prepared also when exercising our gifts of leadership and/or administration. We can’t effectively “wing-it” and expect God to miraculously intervene and make something positive out of our mess. Like Nehemiah we need to approach our responsibilities conscientiously. This also means that we limit ourselves to leading only in as many areas as we can reasonable manage.
The story of Nehemiah continues. We don’t have the time today to go through the entire book and reflect on all the leadership and administrative skills Nehemiah displays – of how he motivates people and then recruits them, of how he delegates responsibility and then both protects and holds his workers accountable, of how he deals directly with conflict both from within and from without, and of how he pays special attention to the needs of the poor and ensures they are treated justly. I wish we had time to look at each of those, but since we don’t I leave them to you to discover on your own this week as you read the book. So in addition to leaders being people of prayer, and being prepared, let me offer one more biblical principle of leadership that Nehemiah demonstrates for us: LEADERS MUST FOLLOW THE JOB THROUGH TO COMPLETION.
Nehemiah got the job done. Chapter 6 verse 15 says “So the wall was completed on the twenty-fifth of Elul, in fifty-two days.” The rest of the book goes on to talk about the celebration, the return of the exiles, and of the spiritual renewal as they read the book of the Law and determined to obey God.
highlands example from serve…
LEADERS MUST BE PEOPLE OF PRAYER, THEY MUST BE PREPARED, AND THEY MUST FOLLOW THE JOB THROUGH TO COMPLETION.
There are some real hazards for people in leadership. We have a tendency to rely on ourselves rather than God – to leave Him out of the picture and try and do something “for” God instead of something “with” God. We also have a tendency to concentrate on action rather than being – to be so occupied with doing things that we ignore the sins that are silently eroding our character. We ignore what God is saying to us about our own hearts because we are so busy doing things to help other people’s hearts, and often we end up completely undermining the ministry when our character disintegrates. Another hazard is that we can tend to focus on the project rather than the people – we can get so caught up in the things we are doing that we miss the people we are doing it for. We end up using people rather than helping them. And finally we have a temptation to pride at the completion of a job – to take the credit for ourselves rather than giving the glory to God.
So if you have the gift of leadership or organization, keep using it – remembering to keep reliant on God for His guidance. If you think you might have it, but aren’t sure, look for a place to experiment and develop it. I love doing this with our Summer Day Camp ministry – identifying potential leaders and giving them the opportunity to develop their gifts as they work as part of our staff team. And every summer I look back and am amazed at the quality and depth of leadership they provide our kids and teens. We have some big needs right now for leadership: we need an Adult Christian Education coordinator, we need someone to step in and help lead our small groups ministries and we need people who will lead small groups, we need people willing to teach and lead an Adult Christian Education class after Christmas. If you want to try out a potential gift of leadership, talk to Pastor Dave or Janice Parsons or me and we’ll help you develop your gift.
But really using your gifts of leadership and organization in the church is only half the equation. What happens when you use your gifts in these areas in the world? I know that many of you are leaders in your job or profession. Do you realize and recognize that you could be using your spiritual gift in your workplace? You see, I don’t believe God gives us gifts and then confines us to this little enclave we call “the church” to use them – I believe a big part of why God gifts us is so that we can use them to influence non-Christians for Christ. The Holy Spirit can and will equip you supernaturally to be effective as a leader in your workplace. Do you know what happens then?? People have jobs. They are managed with dignity. They are substantially impacted by your Christ-like integrity. And all of a sudden all those things Jesus said about being salt and light are coming true right in your workplace. That is spiritual gifts in action the way Jesus desired.
So what if you don’t have the spiritual gifts of leadership and organization? Then your job is to follow. Get behind your leaders – at work or school, at church, even in government. Use the gifts you do have to help accomplish the goals they have prayerfully identified. Do you remember, in the book of Acts, how a problem arose between the Greek Jews and the Hebrew Jews over the distribution of food? It’s in chapter 6. The 12 disciples saw the problem, and proposed a solution. Do you know what happened? verse 5: “This proposal pleased the whole group.” They followed their leaders.
We are used to, as a church, having everybody have input into every significant decision. It’s not surprising - we have a church full of leaders! But as we grow and have more and more significant ministry decisions to make, that has to change – we simply can’t have every person aware of every need and voicing their opinion on every decision. We can’t function like that if we continue to grow. Instead, we need to get to a point of trusting and supporting our elected church leadership – the elders board and the administrative board. Maybe there is a decision you don’t like, but unless you are willing to get involved, find out all the details and intricacies from the actual source (and not through the grapevine), come up with a workable alternative, and help be part of a solution, then maybe your job is to enthusiastically follow. And I mean that – enthusiastically follow. I know that is tough – as a leader when I am not in charge my tendency is to sit on the sidelines, cross my arms, and think “I’m just going to watch this fail…”. But that is not Christ-like. If we believe God has called and empowered people to lead us as a church, we need to follow enthusiastically, and use whatever gifts God has given us to accomplish the goals God has led our leaders to. There is no room in God’s kingdom for people to sit on the sidelines and complain.
As we look at the gifts of leadership and organization, I think we miss the role they are supposed to play in directing the use of all the other gifts. We kind of think “well my gift is hospitality, so I guess I better find some people to be hospitable to;” or, “my gift is healing I better find some sick people;” or “my gift is teaching so I’m going to teach this…” Instead, I believe the Holy Spirit equips those with the gift of leadership and administration to help direct all the rest of us in how and where we should be using our gift, and we should seek them out and respond to their leadership. For example, the person with the gift of hospitality should approach the leaders and say: “where is God leading us and how can I use my gift of hospitality to help us get there.” The reply may be that God is calling us to build strong friendships between people, and so you should use your gift to invite one new person or couple and one established person or couple for dinner once a month. Or “my gift is teaching – what does our church need to learn?”
We don’t really like that – we don’t want anyone telling us what to do! But God’s kingdom is not as individualistic as our kingdom, where everyone just does their own thing in their own way and according to their own gifts. Instead we are a body – interconnected like Paul describes in 1 Corinthians 12. After describing how we are all interconnected and reminding us that Christ is the head of the body, he goes on to say in verse 28: “And in the church God has appointed first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers,” and so on including later on “those with gifts of administration.” So God expects us to follow the leaders He has called and equipped to lead.
Hebrews 13:17 says this: “Obey your leaders and submit to their authority. They keep watch over you as men who must give an account. Obey them so that their work will be a joy, not a burden, for that would be of no advantage to you.” I sit with our church leaders every month. You need to know that each and every one of them takes their responsibilities seriously and conscientiously. They are keenly aware that “they must give an account” – and not primarily to the congregation at a business meeting but to God Himself who has entrusted them with responsibility to “keep watch over you”. And so we pray lots at our meetings. We agonize, and deliberate, and seek wisdom from God and from each other. And often, the work is a joy and not a burden. And when the people we are seeking to lead actually follow, that is when it becomes a joy.
If you don’t want to lead, and you don’t want to follow, then get out of the way. Expect and encourage our leaders to be people of prayer, people who are prepared, and people who follow a job through to completion. Use your gifts to accomplish the goals that God has communicated to and through our leaders.
I firmly believe that one of the most fragile things in the world is an idea. It’s like this match – the smallest puff of negativity can snuff it out and render it completely useless. But with the proper encouragement it can grow into something mighty and powerful. When God gives a goal to our leaders, it starts like this match – it is fragile and vulnerable. If it is right and from God, it needs to be tenderly stroked into full flame. Leaders need to be wise and follow God’s biblical principles for Christ-like leadership, and the rest of us need to enthusiastically follow.
Bruce Larson, in his book "Wind and Fire," points out some interesting facts about sandhill cranes: "These large birds, who fly great distances across continents, have three remarkable qualities. First, they rotate leadership. No one bird stays out in front all the time. Second, they choose leaders who can handle turbulence. And then, all during the time one bird is leading, the rest are following and honking their affirmation.
That’s not a bad model for the church.
