What I say here's not new for me.
Perhaps more than ever, I'm convinced it's true.
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One of the very recent emphases of the CGGC and, for that matter, for most of the institutionalized American church, has been leadership...
...and, for the people possessing institutional authority, to regard themselves as leaders.
In the big, historical picture, this trend is hyper-modern.
Just for fun, try googling Luther's 95 Theses to skim through Luther's assertions about Leadership.
Do a brief study of the Wesleys' leadership course which they offered to up-and-coming Methodists that gave focus to their burgeoning movement in the 1700s.
And, for CGGC people, study the leadership section of the sermon Winebrenner preached on day the Eldership was formed in October 1830 and, of course, those critical leadership principles listed in the 27 point description of the Faith and Practice of the Church of God, from 1844.
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Today's focus on leading in the church and leadership development has been, and it will be, a sure-fire loser.
Why? It spits in the face of Jesus.
The Spirit has not blessed it. He will not bless it.
It, very simply, defies the spirit of everything Jesus taught and did.
Jesus could not have be more clear. To be great in the Kingdom is to serve. To be the greatest in the Kingdom is to become the slave of all.
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The foundation of the gospel is that Jesus who was, in His very nature, God, didn't consider equality with God something to be grasped. No, He made Himself nothing. He took the very nature of a, what?. A servant. He was made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled himself and became to death, even death on a cross. (Phil. 2).
Incarnation.
Jesus chose to make the way, the truth and the life, a human person.
Then, having done that, He made the choice to live in the world as a servant and, ultimately, to offer His body as a sacrifice for all.
Then, He sent His followers into the world to do the same.
The "going" Jesus commanded in the, uh, Great Commission is the command to make the gospel a human, incarnated, reality among all nations.
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If a person is a servant, s/he must, by definition, be physically present. Leaders don't need to be present to lead. Often they are not. But, a servant must be present to serve.
At the end of the Gospel of Matthew, before Jesus said, "Go," He said that all authority had been given to Him. He had just used that authority to be crucified.
The shameful reality I observe these days is that, as people who hold positions of institutional authority in the church focus more and more on leadership, two realities become clear:
First, they become less like Jesus.
Second, they become increasingly isolated from the body, spend more time thinking and planning, and less time doing. They gather themselves together in their offices and in conference rooms to think and to create strategies. More and more, they are not present among the people of the the church. Certainly, they are not living among the people Jesus called, "the least of these."
They become more like titans if industry, or, worse, bureaucrats, and less like the Son of Man who came not to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.
And, they are not being followed.
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When James and John requested positions of authority in the Kingdom, Jesus told them that to attain the highest human authority in the Kingdom is to seek to be the slave of all.
The Holy Spirit has never blessed people who seek to lead the church. He has blessed, and always will bless, men and women who, like Jesus, make them self nothing to become servants...
...in the Kingdom.
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I'm convinced that the declining fortunes of the CGGC would change quickly if the people in it who hold institutional authority would stop saying, "Follow my leadership," and begin to live the message, "Follow me as I follow Jesus, and serve others."
I'm convinced that if that happens, some people will follow and a vigorous remnant will emerge...
...and the Spirit will bless.
We must repent of the leadership fad and compete with each other to be the greatest of all servants, and the slave of all.
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