Christian Leadership is rooted in Spiritual Priorities...Leadership=Discipleship

Christian Leadership is rooted in Spiritual Priorities...Leadership=Discipleship

This past weekend I had the privilege to speak at Leadership Training Conference for Mississippi Collegians whom represented every college from the state of Ms. During the event, over 200 students were commissioned for summer missions... the most Student missionaries ever in any state. I wanted to deduct my message into one statement that would cast the vision for godly leadership. Jesus was obviously the greatest leader of all time; after all, he never wrote a book, and we have more evidence of his leadership than Caesar and every other leader in antiquity combined. His leadership was much more affective than the latest strategic plan of the 21st century. It was gloriously paradoxical as an effective means to an end; a way to teach what matters most... His leadership style didn’t even seem practical, but very controversial. He risked making crowds angry all because He was driven by something completely different from the Status Quo..He disregarded the pressures of the scribes and crowds of his day. His understanding of leadership was Something bigger than the “rules” of leadership.Upside/down if you will..but what was more important than listening to the wise counsel of his peers and going to leadership conference 101? The book of Mark begins to expose the leadership of Jesus. Have you ever read the book of Mark from the perspective of leadership. Within the life of Jesus in Mark is where you will see a beautiful collision of Discipleship and Leadership.. When the Bible tells you to contradict the business rules of leadership, you should follow. In Scripture, leadership and discipleship are inseparable as though they are one in the same. Understanding this beautiful collision is essential because of the new ministerial trend to follow the cultural marketing strategies of secular organizations. I am not here to negatively critique a church CEO model, but simply extract biblical principles of leadership regardless of what model any church adopts. These principles are superior to cultural trends of ecclesiological methodology. Principles are theolocal, not cultural. Put differently, sometimes we argue of methodology rather than theology..

 In Mark 2 Jesus in bringing the Word in a house in Capernaum. People were attracted to Jesus’ teachings. If fact, the crowd was horrendous that day. We don’t know how many were there, but probably at least 200.

 1A few days later, when Jesus again entered Capernaum, the people heard that he had come home. 2So many gathered that there was no room left, not even outside the door, and he preached the word to them. 3Some men came, bringing to him a paralytic, carried by four of them. 4Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus and, after digging through it, lowered the mat the paralyzed man was lying on.

Wow!! You’ve got to be kidding me.... It’s stories like this that make be believe the reliability of scripture because noone could make this story up. you know... there are just some stories that are too good to be made up. this is certainly one of them. Can you imagine this story from the perspective of the paralyzed man?? He was probably freaking out, thinking they would drop him on Jesus’ head after making a sunroof for the house..Imagine the perspective of the four friends... I bet they were disappointed when they didn’t get the miracle show like they had prayed for or maybe embarrassed that Jesus apparently wasn't clued into the obvious. Imagine what Jesus was thinking when they ripped a hole in the roof... What a sermon ender!! I thought the kid who threw up on the first row during the middle of my message was the worst sermon ender... you know the poor paralyzed man thought he was going to fall out of that mat while being hoisted down.. His friends probably thought he was going to fall too, but, O well, He was paralyzed anyways; one more fall wouldn't hurt. would it?? and... if he did fall, Jesus was there and maybe he would heal him. at any rate, the text says that Jesus did something different than heal him physically.. Jesus knew why the paralyzed man was brought to Him. Jesus isn’t oblivious to the circumstances that are presented before him. however, Jesus doesn’t heal the man physically, like everyone wants him to. What does he do?

5When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, "Son, your sins are forgiven."

Noone erupted with applause after Jesus proclaimed this controversial statement. It was an anticlimactic moment to say the least. What drove Jesus to fail to act as everyone had hoped? Jesus understood what noone else did that day. what the man thought he needed most (physical healing) was not God’s highest priority for him. Jesus knew the eternal was more important than the temporal. His most urgent need was spiritual, not physical. The felt need wasn’t the primary need.. Christian leadership always has a spiritual priority; Jesus didn’t allow anyone that day to deter him of spiritual priorities. In fact, those same priorities led Him to the cross. what is deterring you of Spiritual leadership? 

We should see that Leadership and Discipleship are one and the same. 

2 months ago I was sitting beside a colleague of whom I’d just met.. or so I’d thought. He is the BSU director at another community college. I could tell I’d seen him before, but I couldn’t quite place him..weird feeling... I’m sure you can empathize. As I began placing the puzzle pieces together, I asked him 2 random questions... I asked, “Stan do you like the color purple?” and “Have you ever worked RA Camp” He said, “I have worked RA camp and then he proceeded to point to his ring that contained a purple stone. Suddenly I had an outer body experience. I said, “Stan, you have no idea who I am, but you led me to Christ 16 years ago.” 

Stan understood what Jesus exemplified...Christian Leadership is rooted in Spiritual priorities...Leadership=Discipleship