The Church :-Readings Psalm 132.
1 Corinthians chapter 12
The giraffe - Once Mr. Topsey and Mr. Turvey decided that the giraffe had it’s problems it was very vulnerable to attack - it’s neck was too long and it’s head was ridiculous - - Lions could easily attack it - it could be seen for miles - So Mr. Topsey and Mr. Turvey having perfected the hands free mobile duck and the pedal operated vacuum cleaner - decided to rebuild the giraffe.
Mr. Turvey thought a few adjustments like wheels and a V8 motor for quick escapes was the answer but Mr. Topsey thought that was cosmetic they should start all over again.
First - He said the giraffe needed a new smarter brain - so he installed the latest from Microsoft an outstanding computer - with vision enablement by fitting the latest video surveillance state of the art from Sony - The neck had to go - the neck was replaced with a telescopic ladder neck hydraulically operated which meant the giraffe could retain it’s traditional tallness but with automatic retraction for periods of unobtrusiveness - The body - processing unit for rumination proceeds now rendered un-necessary by an amazing rechargable battery - was replaced by a hydrogen balloon which meant that the giraffe whilst under attack from packs of wolves for example could float above danger. What is more it could now be upwardly mobile.
The old legs clumsy and awkward were no longer needed in the new hovering giraffe so they were to be replaced with small trees - the advantage here was that the giraffe could easily be mistaken for a small copse of trees and therefore would be free from attack.
After exhaustive testing the prototype was built and unveiled to worldwide acclaim -
Rave reviews in the National Geographic and imminent scientific journals put Topsey and Turvey on the world stage - and there were rumours of knighthood’s and a Nobel prize.
Sadly to report when the Giraffe was launched in the Kilimarno desert in Central - Eastern Western Africa it got caught up in high tensile wires leading from the power plant from the Victoria Falls and Topsey and Turvey were the laughing stock of the Scientific community and they also came close to being stock in a cannibals soup.
Scientists then went back to the drawing board and discovered that the giraffe - the way God designed it - for all it’s awkwardness and clumsiness was the best because this Giraffe had survived endless centuries and unlike Topsey and Turveys model - it had a heart - and was able to reproduce.
Today many people try and reinvent the church - People look at it from outside and are appalled at it’s awkwardness - it’s vulnerability to attack - it’s wobbling look and try to improve it - not God’s way but man’s way - but for all it’s faults for all it’s failings through the centuries we must confess that the church of Jesus Christ has survived and reproduced for twenty centuries - it has reproduced to the stage where there are more Christians on earth today than the previous twenty centuries combined and it is growing at a rapid rate all over the world today.
One of the great difficulties that people face is spotting the real giraffe.
Will the real giraffe stand up?
Over the next four sermons I would like to look at the church.
What is the church?
Are we a church built by Topsy and Turvey or are we the genuine thing?
There is no doubt that many examples of the church are not the genuine article -
The reason so many churches get caught up in the high tensile wires of irrelevance is often because of a distorded understanding of how the body of Christ lines up with the word of God.
Two clear examples are:-
A Church on the terrace in Wellington - Where the church endorses homosexual behaviour - can’t work it’s a mechanical giraffe.
Topsey and Turvey built their giraffe in four different parts.
One the head
Two the neck
Three the body
and four the legs.
On the overhead you can see these four areas converted to four important subjects that are important for the church and for the leadership of the church.
This week I would like to consider the head -
O.K. I want to think of the head in three parts - three giraffes if you like.
one there is Christ the head of the church - Jesus is our perfect head.
two there are our leaders who are His leaders in the church
and three there is our head - God has given you a brain.
Today in talking about the church I want to talk particuarily about number two - that is the leaders who are responsible for leading in the church.
In the church we may just think of the minister or the elders or managers - but every church has a myriad of leaders - One person may be discipling another into the ways of God - She or He is leading them. In fact if you are a follower of Christ and you have been really following him for some time you will be leading in some way. Even if it is simply by your example.
Leaders in the church must be viewed in context of the fact that one we all are under Christ as the Head of the church and two God has given every believer a choice about headship over their own lives.
The Headship of Christ:- Jesus is the head of the church - We are told that one day every Moslem - every Budhist every athiest every criminal will acknowledge the headship of Christ. Of course it will be too late for most but the bible says One day every knee shall bow and every tongue confess Jesus Christ is Lord.
All that is in the church then is defined by Jesus - everything is under Jesus.
jesus Christ is Lord implies that he runs the outfit.
Yet Jesus once said of Peter - Upon this rock I will build my church -
Jesus chooses to use people to lead his church:-
- Peter had failed not only as a leader but also as a follower of Jesus - Jesus meets up with Peter and has one of those sessions with him that my headmaster had with me on occasion when I’d done something dumb.
This is how the conversation went. JN 21:15 When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, "Simon son of John, do you truly love me more than these?"
"Yes, Lord," he said, "you know that I love you."
Jesus said, "Feed my lambs."
If Simon Peter is a Model if you like for the churches future leadership then the call of Jesus on his life is to feed the lambs - to take care of the sheep and to feed the sheep -
Jesus not only tells him what he is to do as a leader of the sheep he tells him how to do that
to follow Jesus -
Notice the focus is on provision for the lambs and sheep that provision comes out of love for jesus.
The vision to feed lambs and to take care of sheep and to feed sheep comes from Jesus.
I was thinking about leadership and the body of Christ and I couldn’t help thinking of my picture of the giraffe.
In the church the head is Christ but there is another sense in which the head is also leadership in the Peter sense.
I was thinking what is the function and position of the head on the giraffe.
I thought of a number of functions
These functions provide some insight into leadership in the church:-
The first thing is the Giraffe has vision - it is able to lift up it’s head and see the general direction in which the body should go - it is able to take the scene in. for example it is able to see threats and it is able to see places of nutrition. Places where the body can be fed. Places where the
body can reproduce.
This is a primary function of leadership in the church - the leadership needs to be seeking God and discerning where he is leading his church - your house group your sunday School etc.
What is more to relate that to my Giraffe image - giraffes travel in families - so that what is happening in the house-group needs to relate to what is happening in the overall group.
Another function of the head in the giraffe is it has horns - the horns are for the bodies protection - When the head sees a lion coming - (The bible says the devil prowls around like a hungry lion -The only serious predator (excluding humans) of adult giraffes is the lion, and lions particularly attack when the giraffe is lying down or in the awkward bent-over position of drinking or feeding on the ground. Lions, and other predators such as leopards and hyenas, will also kill young giraffes when the opportunity presents itself.
it is when it is vulnerable that the giraffe is under attack - sometimes from other giraffes.)
One of the great attacks on leadership in the church has come from within the church.
Can you imagine a giraffe trying to kick itself in the head?
(As the requirements on leadership in the local church have changed - there have come some very helpful challenges to leadership and some that are less than helpful.
Some challenges have come from an approach that follow the secular spirit of the age -
The problem is working out where such challenges come from - is this God?
Is this manipulation or rebellion - is it witchcraft which is a spirit of control - Because leadership is not perfect these challenges are difficult to discern - but if given their head they do wreck churches - A giraffe may not have a perfect head - But likewise it does not have a perfect body. )
One of the things we are trying to do in this church at the moment is to get God’s vision for the church and to re work the leadership in light of that.
I am aware that the timing of this is in God’s hands not ours and we are fools to rush the process.
But what we need is a head that has a vision and leads the church in fulfilling that vision.
The challenges that come from within the body come up the neck which links the body and the head and I want to talk about that next week -
but challenges to the head from outside can also come from outside.
Over recent years we have had a landslide of teaching on all manners of ways of leading a church - some people are saying leadership is irrelevant - others say we need to go back to the white ring around the neck model - others talk about a revival coming and when it does - the Prophet always seems to say I’ll be the leader - and so on - but the task of the leadership is to sift all this and to pray - seek God and to lead the body )
Another function of the brain is to signal to the body appropriate signals -
A lion is coming - run!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Food is up ahead go right!!!!!!!!!!!
TIt also needs to interpret signals from one part of the body to another - The legs are tired we need to stop - The stomach may call out - No we are fine God wants us to rip into it - but the brain says no for now we just need to stop and rest - frustration cries out from the tail hey we need to keep going the flies will gather around mate.
But 1 corinthians chapter 12 says!!!!!!!!! But God has combined the members of the body and has given greater honor to the parts that lacked it, 25 so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. 26 If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.
1CO 12:27 Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. 28
Another part of the head is the ears - Paul in 2 timothy demonstrates what leadership does when it hears bad news it transmits it to the body - calls it how it is:-2TH 3:11 We hear that some among you are idle. They are not busy; they are busybodies. 12 Such people we command and urge in the Lord Jesus Christ to settle down and earn the bread they eat. 13 And as for you, brothers, never tire of doing what is right.
There’s a story in the Bible about a time when several men were appointed to significant
positions of leadership over God’s people.
These were his instructions to them: "You must always act in the fear of the Lord, with
integrity and with undivided hearts." 2 Chronicles 19:9NLT
In other words, the life of a real leader needs to line up with the vision so that people who
follow can look at their behavior and say, "Oh, yeah. That’s what we’re all about."
Leaders model the vision for others.
I don’t know many leaders who are good at that.
Also leaders need to encourage good things when they hear it:-PHM 1:3 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
PHM 1:4 I always thank my God as I remember you in my prayers, 5 because I hear about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints. 6 I pray that you may be active in sharing your faith, so that you will have a full understanding of every good thing we have in Christ. 7 Your love has given me great joy and encouragement, because you, brother, have refreshed the hearts of the saints.
As well as Leadership providing vision - protection - listening to God and to the world using it’s brain and it’s wisdom there is the whole question of the poisition of the head.
In the old days we heard of a leadership that became so "over’ people that it was terrible - bishops who killed people for disagreeing - dominating and over them - Another picture is Mrs Bucket in Keeping up appearances is one image of the society woman absolutely terrifying her poor vicar.
In recent years there has been talk of servant leadership - of the leaders being the servants of the people - Others have a picture of the leader looking for obedience and submission.
There is no doubt that leadership to function requires obedience and devotion at times.
2Philimon 1 verse 11 Confident of your obedience, I write to you, knowing that you will do even more than I ask.
but the problem with both models is that they are not mutually exclusive.
Let’s consider the head of the giraffe and consider how it echoes the ministry of Jesus.
Sometimes the head of the giraffe is way above the body because it is reaching for food for the body or it is seeking a vision of where to go.
Jesus spent time up on mountains with God so he could hear from God so he knew where to lead the disciples. Good leaders will seek God’s direction at times.
Sometimes the head of the giraffe is beneath the body in order to drink water or eat grass - Jesus spent time as a servant to his disciples - washing their feet on one occasion as a demonstration of this function of His leadership.
At other times - I guess - the head of the giraffe - might preen the body - the tongue cleaning it of rubbish or twigs - or cleaning it from some yukky foreign matter - You find that also in Jesus ministry when he heals the sick - rebukes Peter when he takes a wrong turn or turns the table over in the temple - but it seems to me that there is a limit to which you can admonish or even lead people in the body of Christ - of course they refuse to follow sometimes at their own peril.
Andrew Chan tells a story
- A hospital patient who insisted on lighting a cigarette while hooked to an oxygen supply caused a small explosion, according to a hospital spokesperson. The 73-year-old, who suffered minor burns in the blast, had been told not to light up but she ignored the warnings, said Luc Perreault of LaSalle Hospital Centre.``She’s lucid and independent,’’ Perreault said yesterday. ``She’d been told. She read the directives about not smoking.’’ Flames were doused quickly after the blast occurred Thursday night and damage was minor. One hospital worker suffered hand burns. Several patients were moved to another area of the hospital. The smoker was put in intensive care, minus her cigarettes and lighter. Perreault said that under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the hospital did not have the right to remove the patient’s lighter before the accident occurred. ``We can’t take away personal belongings,’’ Perreault said. ``It’s not a prison.’’ The 73-year-old’s name was not disclosed. (sermon central.)
Hopefully what we have shared here has helped you understand something about the role of leadership in the church.
one thing though about illustrations like this - they don’t cover everything - for example I have learned that there good leadership grows out of the body - before Peter could lead he had to learn to be a reliable member of the body - I firmly believe that good leaders know how to follow -
Rebels in the end will teach rebellion.
Dominaters will teach domination.
Proud peopple will teach pride.
Mother Teresa taught her followers how to be a servant because she was a servant.
MAT 20:25-26 But Jesus called them to Himself and said, "You know
that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and {their} great men exercise authority over them. "It is not this way among you, a but whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant,
At the end of the day the head needs to love the body - it needs to be prepared to die for the body:-
Owen Bourgaize:- One of the most moving passages in English literature is at the end of Charles Dickens’ "Tale of Two Cities", a story of the French revolution. Each day there was a grim procession through the streets of Paris of prisoners on their way to the guillotine. In one of the processions was Sidney Carton, a brave man who had once lost his soul but had now found it again and was now giving his life for his friend. Beside him there was a young girl. They had met before in the prison, and the girl had noticed the gentleness and courage of the man’s face. She said to him "If I may ride with you, will you let me hold your hand? I am not afraid, but I am little and weak, and it will give me more courage." So they rode together, her hand in his; and when they reached the place of execution there was no fear in her eyes. She looked up into the quiet composed face of her companion, and said "I think you were sent to me by heaven". In all the dark valleys of life, God our Father, the God of all comfort, in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, is at our side.
I believe that a good sermon will tell you what god whats you to know and then will tell you what to do about it.
This sermon does not seek to tell you what to do about but it leaves you to make your own conclussions - at to what kind of leader you are if you are a leader-
What kind of leader you can be if you are not -
and how should you relate to leadership if you have been a follower.
