Stuart Briscoe, in his book Everyday Discipleship for Ordinary People, tells the story about a fellow pastor who was officiating at the funeral of a war veteran. The dead man's military friends wanted to have a part in the service at the funeral home, so they requested that the pastor lead them down to the casket, stand with them for a solemn moment of remembrance, and then lead them out through the side door. Things went well until the pastor picked the wrong door. As a result they all marched with military precision into a broom closet, in full view of the mourners, and beat a hasty retreat covered with confusion. (www.PreachingToday.com)
Sometimes, people are called to lead in difficult times, but it takes a special leader to lead in such times without embarrassing himself and those who follow.
So then what kind of leader DOES it take to lead people effectively in difficult times? What kind of leader DOES it take to lead people under fire?
Well, if you have your Bibles, I invite you to turn with me to 1 Peter 5, 1 Peter 5, where Peter talks to some church leaders who were leading people that were going through the fires of persecution, some of them quite literally.
1 Peter 5:1-2a To the ELDERS among you, I appeal as a fellow elder, a witness of Christ’s sufferings and one who also will share in the glory to be revealed: Be SHEPHERDS of God’s flock that is under your care, serving as OVERSEERS… (NIV)
Peter uses three different terms to describe the church leaders to whom he appeals. He calls them “elders,” “shepherds,” and “overseers,” terms which describe both their maturity and their responsibilities.
The term for “elders” was sometimes used of “old men” in contrast to “young men” (Acts 2:17), but more often it described the spiritual maturity of those who were called to lead the church. Leadership is not for novices! Effective leadership takes maturity, especially if we’re going to lead people in difficult times. So if we want to lead people under fire, then we must…
BE SPIRITUALLY MATURE.
We must have a depth of experience walking with God in dependence upon His Spirit. We must be followers of Christ who have plenty of experience putting into practice the principles of God’s Word.
That’s what spiritual maturity is – It’s not just being a Christian for a little while. It’s being able to discern the difference between right and wrong, because you have practiced applying the principles of God’s Word in your every-day life. It’s being able to discern the difference between the better and the best course of action, because you have learned to follow the lead of God’s Spirit through His Word.
I like the way Kevin Miller, one of the editors of Leadership journal, described this kind of leadership recently. He talks about his days as a kid driving down the street to Hooper Wolfe’s hardware store with his dad. “Hooper Wolfe's,” he says, “had an old wood door, painted white – except where the paint was worn off near the handle. You walked in, and you could hardly move. There were two narrow aisles. The counters were filled with merchandise, shelves were overflowing, and stuff was hanging from the ceiling. You'd think, ‘No way am I going to find anything in here.’
“But you didn't need to. As soon as you walked in, Clarence from behind the counter would say, ‘Help you today?’ My dad would say something like, ‘I want to hang a light out back.’
“Clarence would come out from behind the counter and ask questions. ‘Where you going to hang it? Over the patio? Well then’ – and he would start rummaging through shelves until he pulled off just the right light – ‘you want a light like this. And don't use these bolts here; they're good for indoor stuff, but for outdoor, you want something galvanized.’
“Then Clarence would pull a flat carpenter's pencil off his ear and get out a little piece of paper and sketch it all out. ‘The conduit goes here… and make sure you don't mount the light too close to the soffit,’ etc.
Then Kevin Miller compares that experience in his childhood to going to Home Depot today as an adult. He says, “Unlike Hooper Wolfe's, where you had to parallel park on the street, there's an ocean of parking. And inside, Home Depot is huge. The ceilings are 30 feet high. Home Depot has forty times the inventory of Hooper Wolfe's. It all looks great under bright, argon lights.
“There is a guy in an orange apron—a block away. If you run him down, he's likely to say, ‘Sorry. I usually work in paints. I'm just covering in electrical because someone called in sick.’ So you're pretty much on your own.” (Kevin Miller, Wheaton, Illinois; www.PreachingToday.com)
The church doesn’t need guys in orange aprons just doing a job. The church needs Clarence’s, people who know more than we do, able and willing to guide us in building our lives. Kevin Miller calls it “the Clarence Principle”: the older teach the younger, and those more mature in the faith guide those who are newer in the faith.
That’s the kind of leader we want, especially in difficult times, and that’s the kind of leader we want to be if we’re going to help people make it through the fire. If we want to be effective leaders under fire, then we must be spiritually mature. More than that, we must…
BE SHEPHERDS.
We must care for people as we lead them. We must provide for them and protect them. We must look after their needs, just like a good shepherd does for his sheep.
It’s the second word Peter uses to describe effective leadership here in 1 Peter 5. “Be shepherds of God’s flock,” he says in verse 2. Literally, “Be shepherds of God’s flock AMONG YOU.”
Now, a shepherd in Bible days not only led his sheep from the front, he stayed AMONG his sheep, working hard to make sure they had plenty of food & water, pouring oil on their wounds, carrying the lame, going after the strays, and protecting them from wolves and other predators. In a word, a shepherd CARED for his sheep, and that’s what an effective leader does for those he is called to lead – He cares! He genuinely cares for people.
In Peter’s day, Nero was on the throne – a power hungry maniac who cared for nothing but increasing and securing his own power. So with a Nero in Rome, the church didn’t need any more Nero’s at home, and we don’t need Nero’s in the church today.
Howard Hendricks said it many times to those of us in Seminary preparing for leadership in the church: “People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.” In difficult times, People need to know they have a leader who cares.
In his book, Leading at the Edge, Dennis Perkins contrasts the leadership values of two different explorers: Earnest Shackleton and Vilhjalmur Stefansson. In 1914, Shackleton led a daring expedition to reach Antarctica in the South. A year earlier, Stefansson led an expedition headed in the other direction to explore the North Pole. Both ships, the Karluk in the north and the Endurance in the south, found themselves trapped by solid ice packs. Each crew was faced with a fight for survival. But the outcomes of the two expeditions couldn't have been more different.
In the north, the crew members from the Karluk, led by Stefansson, degenerated into a band of selfish, mean-spirited, cut-throat individualists, ending in the death of all 11 crew members. In the south, Shackleton's crew faced the same problems – cold, food shortages, stress, and anxiety – but his crew responded with teamwork, self-sacrifice, and astonishing good cheer.
In the end, each leader stayed true to his core leadership values. Stefansson valued success above caring for people. He consistently communicated his ultimate objective: getting to the North Pole. In Stefansson's words this meant “that even the lives of the [crew] are secondary to the accomplishment of the work!” To the very end, Stefansson denied that his drive for success led to a tragedy – for himself and his crew.
In sharp contrast, Shackleton's leadership focused on the value and dignity of his teammates. At one of the lowest points of his trip, Shackleton wrote, “The task was now to secure the safety of the party.” The well-being of his team drove him to put others first. Shackleton even gave away his mittens and boots and volunteered for the longest night watches. By valuing each person, Shackleton forged a team that was willing to share their rations with each other, even on the brink of starvation. Through his example of sacrificial leadership, Shackleton was able to accomplish his ultimate objective: saving the lives of his crew members. (Dennis N. T. Perkins, Leading at the Edge, AMACOM, 2000, pp. xiii-xiv; www.PreachingToday.com)
That’s effective leadership under fire, and if that’s the kind of leaders we want to be, then 1st of all, we must be spiritually mature. 2nd, we must be shepherds. & 3rd, we must…
BE OVERSEERS.
We must willingly and eagerly set an example inviting people to follow our example. We must take the initiative to give appropriate oversight and direction to those entrusted to our care.
It’s the third word Peter uses to describe effective leadership here in 1 Peter 5. “To the elders,” Peter says, “Be shepherds of God’s flock… serving as overseers” (vs.2) – literally, looking upon or over.
You see, as shepherds, leaders are AMONG people, but as overseers, they are OVER people. And often, that’s a hard balance to maintain, but the effective leader finds a way to be both AMONG and OVER.
Warren Wiersbe put it this way: He must be ‘among’ his people so that he can get to know them, their needs and problems; and he needs to be ‘over’ his people so he can lead them and help them solve their problems (Bible Exposition Commentary).
That’s the part many of us resist, but if we want to be effective leaders in difficult times, then that’s the part we must willingly take on. Verse 2 says, “Not because you must, but because you are willing, as God wants you to be.”
Effective leaders lead willingly, not because they feel forced to do it.
Levi-Strauss recently ran an ad campaign that targeted men for a line of Dockers pants (June 2011). Maybe you’ve seen some of the ads. One of them was called a “MAN-ifesto,” and the script went like this:
“Once upon a time, men wore the pants, and wore them well. Women rarely had to open doors, and little old ladies never had to cross the street alone. Men took charge because that's what they did. But somewhere along the way the world decided it no longer needed men. Disco by disco, latte by foamy non-fat latte, men were stripped of their khakis and left stranded on the road between boyhood and androgyny.
“But today there are questions our genderless society has no answers for. The world sits idly by as cities crumble, children misbehave, and those little old ladies remain on one side of the street. For the first time since bad guys, we need heroes. We need grownups. We need men to put down the plastic fork, step away from the salad bar, and untie the world from the tracks of complacency. It's time to get your hands dirty. It's time to answer the call of manhood. It's time to wear the pants.” (www.us.dockers.com/season/landing.aspx; as reported on www.Preaching Today.com)
Now, more than ever, the church and our world needs these kind of leaders – leaders who are not afraid to get their hands dirty, leaders who are no longer content to remain on the sidelines, leaders who will take the initiative and take responsibility.
I speak especially to the men this morning (this evening): Don’t be content to let the women take the lead. YOU take the lead in bringing your family to church. YOU take the lead in teaching them the Bible. YOU take the lead in serving the Lord with your family. It’s time to wear the pants.
Effective leaders lead willingly, not because they feel forced to do it.
More than that, effective leaders lead eagerly, not because they are enticed to do it. Verse 2 says, “Be shepherds…serving as overseers…[who] are not greedy for money, but eager to serve.”
Effective leaders are not hired hands, just doing the job for the paycheck, no. Effective leaders don’t care about the money as much as they care about people, and they serve those people with an eagerness that’s winsome and contagious. In fact, they are the kind of people who say, “I can’t believe I get paid to do what I do,” because they enjoy it so much.
Effective leaders lead willingly, not because they feel forced to do it. Effective leaders lead eagerly, not because they are enticed to do it.
And finally, effective leaders lead by example, not because they want to dominate others. Verse 3 says, “Not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock.”
That word for “lording it over” was used of a demon in Acts 19, who got loose and “overpowered” some people (Acts 19:16). Jesus said in Mark 10, “Those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
Great leaders don’t drive people. They lead people by the example of service they set. They are the first to serve, and they don’t expect or demand that people serve them. They are like Jesus who died to pay the price for our sins. He did not come to BE served, but to serve. As a result, millions of people throughout the ages and all over the world have followed Him to this day 2,000 years later. Effective leadership is servant leadership. It’s the example Jesus set for us.
Returning home from church, five-year-old Emily announced she wanted to be like the man who stood in front.
“You want to be a minister?” asked her mother.
“No,” said Emily, “I want to tell people what to do.” (Guy Belleranti, Oro Valley, Arizona, “Kids of the Kingdom,”Christian Reader; www.PreachingToday.com)
That’s not leadership; that’s dictatorship, and it is seldom effective.
I like the way Thomas Carlyle put it some time ago. He said, “One example is worth a thousand arguments.” (Thomas Carlyle, quoted in Men of Integrity, July/August 2000; www.Preaching Today.com)
In difficult times, we don’t need dictators and arguments. We need leaders who will show us what to do by the example of their lives.
That was John Stott throughout the latter half of the 20th Century. He passed away just a little more than a week ago (July 27, 2011). He was one of England’s great Christian leaders, and he had a profound influence on people all over the world with his commitment to teaching and living out the truths of the Bible.
In fact, in a recent Christianity Today article, Tim Stafford recalls what Latin American theologian Rene Padilla said about one of his early encounters with Stott. “On the previous night we had arrived in Bariloche, Argentina, in the middle of heavy rain. The street was muddy and, as a result, by the time we got to the room that had been assigned to us, our shoes were covered with mud. In the morning, as I woke up, I heard the sound of a brush –John was busy, brushing my shoes. ‘John!’ I exclaimed full of surprise, ‘What are you doing?’ ‘My dear René,’ he responded, ‘Jesus taught us to wash each other's feet. You do not need me to wash your feet, but I can brush your shoes.’”
In that same article, Stafford quotes theologian David Wells, who was converted when John Stott came to South Africa in 1959. Later, Wells shared a household with him for five years in the early 1960s. “His leadership was effective,” Wells says, “because of his personal integrity and his Christian life. People who knew him always came back to these points. He was known all over the world, but when you met him he was a most devout, humble Christian man. His private life was no different from his public life. It was the same person. That's another way to say that he had integrity. There was no posing.” (Tim Stafford, “John Stott Has Died,” Christianity Today, 7-27-11)
Effective leaders don’t “pose;” they serve. How about you? How about me?
If we want to be effective leaders under fire, then 1st of all, we must be spiritually mature; 2nd, we must be shepherds; and 3rd, we must be overseers, who serve as willing, eager examples for others to follow. Let me tell you: these are the leaders that find a reward which truly counts.
Look at vs.4 And when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that will never fade away. (NIV)
This world can only give us accolades that soon fade and are quickly forgotten. Jesus gives us recognition and a crown that will last forever. That’s the reward I’m looking for. I hope you are too.
