Our Pastor Calvin once asked us, “how many times does Jesus directly tell the disciples that he loves, them” or in other words how many times does Jesus have to reaffirm His love for the disciples? The answer is He doesn’t. Jesus spends very little time talking about love and all of His time loving. The Disciples have very little trouble understanding this, but we do. If leadership is critical to the local gathering and love makes up all of the commandments, if these two don’t intersect we have a problem.
You see how can a satellite love me? How can a person that I can’t touch love me? How can a person who has no time for me love me? The answer is they can’t and thus I will tell you that love is not love if it is void of relationship. If I have no relationship with you, I have no proof that you love me, and if I have no proof that you love me, I am following a position not a person and this is diametrically opposed to New Testament Leadership. Look how Paul leads again in 1 Thess 2:
8 So, being affectionately desirous of you, we were ready to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves, because you had become very dear to us.
Love takes a direct interaction, again, it is simply impossible to love without a relationship (see how relationship drives leadership?) We all know 1 Corinthians 13, but it seems to be a disconnect by the sheer fact that the action words are impossible to employ apart from relationship and that means that whatever you are doing it ain’t loving them and if you ain’t loving them your leadership is foreign to that of the bible. Here is what I will be presenting in a couple of weeks as it relates to this topic of love:
Love is called by Paul in Colossians 3 “the united bond of perfectness” or “the perfect bond of unity”. Paul also says in 1 Corinthians 13 that we can do everything from laying our lives down to being burned or we can give everything to the poor or we can have the greatest spiritual insight and wisdom; however it means nothing if we don’t have love. This is especially true for leadership. Jesus charges Peter in John 20 by asking Peter 3 times if he loved him. Peter gets frustrated and finally says “you know all things” after answering Jesus yes the first two times and each time Jesus commands Peter to feed his sheep. In leadership if we say we love Jesus and we don’t love the sheep we are only fooling ourselves. When Jesus is asked in Matthew 22:37-39 what are the greatest commandments Jesus answers “love God and love man”. In other words love vertically and love horizontally because everything we do hinges on these two commands. In 1 John 4:7-8, John says “God is love” and the proof of our conversion predicates on the command that we love also. Jesus tells the disciples that “the world will know you are my disciples by your love for one another”
If you desire to lead God’s people you will have to love them, if you get so big or so busy that you can’t love them the way the bible commands you to, then you need to step back from leading plain and simple. What occurs in our churches today is quite foreign to a New Testament Eldership perspective. For traveling ministers this would be acceptable, but for those who believe they are called to “pastor” then this is a non-negotiable. Leadership takes love and love takes relationship and the visual would be arrows pointing towards the other:
So as we pursue leadership our driver must be love. It has to be. If you desire to be in leadership to express your gift, share your vision, have a following, because you think you are best fit for the job, you think you are the better teacher or even if you feel called (which I have issues with) you are in leadership for the wrong reason. However, if you love the people of God and those you plan on leading (remember apart from relationship this is impossible) then I believe your “vision” is in line with Christs.
Again you can’t have a relationship with those you don’t know, and you can’t love without relationship and you can’t lead without loving. If we want to lead God’s people God’s way then we must lead
biblicaly. I don’t agree with Pulpit “ministries” that have no relationship with the people they are to be “leading from the pulpit”. I don’t agree with positional leadership either. Loving and serving are synonymous in the Kingdom of God (remember what Jesus says about “no greater love”). However, today we have put our traditions above the word of God and because it works while simultaneously being cohesive with our “vision” we keep it going. I would ask that we reexamine our pragmatism in light of the Scriptures and ask the Lord Jesus “just because it works does that mean it is best”.
Series
Introduction: “Throw away your John Maxwell Books”
Part 1: “Relationships the Engine”
Amen brother! If we do not love, we cannot be leaders.
I comply with this completely and can see how this disconnection of love and leadership can be a problem. Currently, I am employed in an underserved community as a special education teacher for the seventh grade. I have taught sixth and eighth also. These students today are more than just academically challenged, but emotionally and behaviorally as well. The only thing that they respond to is pure acts of love. This seems to rejuvenate a passion to follow. I have however, been unable to tangibly translate this into greater academic ability in the short term, but can see how over the long haul, they will be able to say that someone cared enough to stay.
This is classroom leadership is similar to that of the urban communities. When we come to broken and destitute people, how are we translating the so-called love we have for them to better relational expressions. These then become the people who fill the churches each week. Not all of them are looking for quick fixes, as Jesus said about the five thousand, but some of them have a genuine need for love and guidance by love. Love is a great subject and I think as we understand how to love better, we can then therefore unite amongst believers better. As Paul said it, we can come into the unity of the faith, unto a perfect man.
The one thing I ask is that God shows us biblically practical ways in leadership and laity how to minister this one to another and then to a dying world filled with God’s elect spread abroad. Come let us reason together.
Joe,
Thanks brother
Larry,
No layity language. Other than that your first hand knowledge of this in a non-christian setting is amazing. My wife also works with Special Education and has for about 8 years. But no layity language Sir. LOL.
sorry, I actually don’t like it either. I try to stay away from it.