Don’t
imagine us leaders to be something we aren’t. We are servants of Christ, not
his masters. We are guides into God’s most sublime secrets, not security guards
posted to protect them. The requirements for a good guide are reliability and
accurate knowledge. It matters very little to me what you think of me, even
less where I rank in popular opinion. I don’t even rank myself. Comparisons in
these matters are pointless. I’m not aware of anything that would disqualify me
from being a good guide for you, but that doesn’t mean much. The Master makes that judgment.
-The Message -
Every person needs a leader…even good people.
We can’t all be a bunch of “free agents” roaming around the
planet doing our own thing. The church would have no coherent message or cohesive
strength. Actually, too many Christians do exactly that…and the results are
sadly evident in the church worldwide.
Should God call us to leadership in the church…or entrust us
with the responsibility to choose a leader, the requirements for good guides are reliability
and accurate knowledge. The original language specifically says “pistos” (faithful). Reliability and accuracy are
trustworthy synonyms.
Reliability:
In the New Testament the word “pistos” refers to one who is convinced Jesus
has been raised from the dead and He is the Messiah…the author of salvation. Reliability means
every believer in the Body of Christ can have confidence their leaders are
faithful. Reliability also implies doctrinal hegemony. This conviction is
supreme. There is no room for freedom of interpretation or variance. If we get
wobbly on this point we lose the ability to follow our leaders with confidence.
Accurate Knowledge: There are many points of theology that
allow for freedom of practice and this is one of the wonderful consequences of
denominationalism. We can choose to reject alcohol. We can choose to dance. We
can choose to worship on Saturday. We can choose to speak in tongues. Things
like these should not dominate our relationships with other Christians.
When we begin to
make these “Christian Lifestyle” choices
we need to trust our leaders to offer ACCURATE counsel. How do we measure accuracy? We measure it against an
objective standard.
Mali bakes. When we lived in Europe she was constantly
converting milliliters to teaspoons. She knows the recipe means what it says. “Five milliliters”
doesn’t actually mean a “teaspoon”. A
teaspoon is precisely 4.92892 milliliters. It’s generally close enough but…is “close enough” a good standard for
evaluating our eternal destiny?
Martin Luther said “Sola
Scriptura”. Our objective measure is the Bible…nothing else. So…we want to choose
a leader? Is our candidate willing to reject every measure of spiritual
knowledge except God’s Holy Word? If they even hesitate…reject them
Live boldly
out there today…
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