I confess that the subject of “leadership” is something of a mystery to me. I do not believe I am anything close to a natural born leader, but have found myself from time to time in positions of leadership. I lead my family. I have led, through my work, departments, churches, ministries, even movements. As such I tend, at least at first, to pay attention when people speak or write on leadership, looking not just for clues on how to do it, but clues to understand if, and how, I do “leadership.” I haven’t, however, read a book or attended a seminar on that theme and frankly can’t begin to understand what I might find there. What follows then are not the 5 Ironclad Laws of Leadership. That’s a little bold for my style, at least on this theme. Instead here are a few principles I believe might help.
First, a good leader has got to both be driven by the well-being of those whom he leads, and be able to persuade them that such is true. Leadership comes with authority and therefore temptation. A husband, or a father, for instance, could easily enough see his family as a means to his own glory, or comfort. God did not make the father the head of his house so that he would always have his slippers at the ready, his pipe well packed, and his drink well iced. Instead God gives him authority that he might serve the well being of his charges. Those following must know their leader knows this. Leadership thrives neither under weakness or fear, but under trust.
Second, a good leader must have the ability to focus on the end. Circumstances shift and change. Desires wax and wane. But the end is always the end. If I am fighting the last war, if I am committed to executing my current strategy rather than slaying the current dragon, I am leading poorly, and may be leading those under my care on Pickett’s Charge. Too often the good gets the better of the best and we are the worse for it.
Third, perhaps a corollary to the second, a good leader knows the difference between politics and principles. Both have their place. Consider that slippery word- compromise. Is that a good word, or a bad one? We don’t know, unless we know if what we are talking about is situations or ethics. Deciding between pepperoni or mushroom on our pizza is a great time for compromise. Deciding which unborn babies should be allowed to be sacrificed is a terrible time for compromise.
Finally, a good leader has to know that he is a follower. Every leader is under someone, save One. You cannot lead well if you cannot follow well. It is always best, if possible, for the authority above a given leader to be flesh and blood. Ultimately we will all answer to Jesus. But one thing we will answer for is how well we answered to those people He has placed in authority over us.
In the end there is no distinct body of knowledge or biblical law dealing with leadership discreetly. There is His instruction on what a man is to be, what an elder is to be, what an employer is to be. In the end we are all called to follow the example of Paul (I Cor. 11:1), as he followed the example of Christ. It’s not complicated, just difficult.
For more info, go here..
There is a thin line between friendly fire and sound coaching. I’m grateful for everyone who recognizes the humanity of the unborn and longs to see them protected from all who would do them harm. That said, from time to time our rhetoric carries with it unhealthy assumptions, however potent they might be at tugging at our heartstrings. We end up, while fighting for precious ground, giving up more precious ground. Here then are three arguments I hear regularly from my friends that I don’t believe help.
1. Imagine all amazing artists, scientists, philanthropists we have lost through the evil of abortion. Or, imagine all the dictators, serial killers and abortionists we might have been spared because of abortion. We do not labor to spare the lives of God’s littlest image bearers because of all the good they might have done. We are, after all, sinners. More people means more wickedness. We don’t want to see the unborn flourish because of the good they might do for others, but because they are the others. Their value, like ours, is real, universal, and extrinsic to them, outside them. It is the imposition of the image of God that gives us our worth and dignity. Broader still, we don’t make decisions on what is right based on our best guess on how things might work out. Eve made that mistake. Our calling is to obey.
2. If we don’t stop killing our own children, God will one day judge us. Now I’m all in favor of fearing the judgment of God. Perhaps the worst judgment, however, is being given over to reprobate minds that cannot even recognize the judgment of God. What, I want to ask these friends, do they think judgment from God might look like? What if He sent a delusion upon us such that we thought it a good thing to destroy the greatest gifts He gives us? What if He gave us over to our own depravity such that we willingly, freely murdered a million of our own children each year? What if He gave us a government that not only protected our “liberty” to do this, but taxed us all to pay for it? We do not have to wait for God’s judgment to come- we are in the midst of it right now. The murder of the unborn is not just a reason for God’s judgment but is God’s judgment.
3. Abortion will cause Social Security to go bankrupt, because there aren’t enough children to pay into it. This makes as much sense as the old argument in favor of chattel slavery- if we outlaw slavery, who will pick all the cotton? Children are not given to us as future taxpayers, nor rescuers of a system of transfer payments that was not just flawed but doomed from its inception. They are not little units of future government income but human beings. And they should be valued as such.
Which brings us to the only real argument there is. Abortion is wicked, vile, an abomination because it is the willful murder not just of the most helpless and weak of human beings, but of our own children. There is no deeper perversion of our created nature than the wanton destruction of our own little ones. Which is why every unborn child is due the full protection of the law, no matter how their precious lives began. Complicated arguments never help but always obfuscate. Simple arguments speak potent truths- all children should be safe in their mothers’ wombs, because they bear the image of the One who put them there.
Thesis 84 We Must Seek the Spirit’s Guidance.
I suspect it is part of the craftiness of the Devil’s strategy, that when he encourages one part of the church body to misuse a gift from God he also through that misuse discourages the rest of the body from using that gift. We see, for instance, churches zealous for sound doctrine that lack zeal for godly living and suddenly, other churches are fearful of sound doctrine. So it is with the active guiding work of the Holy Spirit.
It is not a difficult thing to say, “The Spirit told me to…” when the Spirit said no such thing. It’s a genuine problem, and has been from the very beginning. Israel itself was so overrun with false prophets, so much so that even their heathen kings got sick of them. That some speak what the Spirit has not spoken, however, doesn’t mean the Spirit doesn’t speak. That some confuse their own internal desires for the prompting of the Spirit doesn’t mean the Spirit doesn’t prompt.
Consider Martin Luther himself. If ever there was a man who was both acutely aware of the reality of spiritual warfare, but likewise zealous for the Spirit’s guidance and insight, it was Luther. This was the man who threw his inkwell at the devil on one occasion. This was the man whose fervent prayer the night before he gave his “Here I stand” speech was so Spirit filled that you feel the Spirit’s presence even now as you read it, five hundred years later. The Reformation was driven by the Holy Spirit- giving light, giving life, giving courage, giving counsel.
How then do we seek the Spirit’s guidance? We seek it in prayer, and in His Word. We recognize that the church itself is defined by a living, breathing relationship. While we are united by what we affirm happened 2,000 years ago in Palestine, we are likewise united with the Spirit Himself. God is not just the object of our study, but the One with whom we walk.
Paul enjoins us to do just that in Galatians 5. We are to keep in step with the Spirit, not just walking with Him but walking to Him. We are to open ourselves such that we might bear the fruit of the Spirit. He, after all, is the means by which, in each of us, we are being brought to the fullness of faith. He is reshaping us, individually and corporately into the image of our Husband.
We must never downplay the power and calling of the Holy Spirit on the grounds that others wrongly speak for Him. We seek Him, earnestly, constantly, humbly and openly. We walk with Him knowing that His zeal for the reformation of the church is infinitely greater than our own. Like Joshua asking the Captain of the Lord’s Hosts outside Jericho is He was for Israel or their enemies, we must never lose sight that we are called to fight beside Him, pursuing His agenda, rather than the other way around. The Spirit of the Living God will accomplish His holy will. Let us follow.
I’ve long said that, for all its blessings, one failure of your typical seminary is that most graduates make it all the way through without either knowing, or caring that the whole of the Bible says not the first word about seminaries. In fact, in the two lists the Bible gives us of the qualities of an elder, a ruler in the church, thirteen of fourteen are character qualities rather than academic. Somehow we have come to believe that what equips a man to serve the body of Christ well is a graduate degree.
The Shepherd’s College is our plan to get back to the Bible in preparing men for gospel ministry. While a seminary focuses on academics, we focus on character. While the seminary teaches in the ivory tower, we teach in the context of the local body. Seminaries have not given us godly shepherds to watch over the flock of the Great Shepherd, but academics and entrepreneurs, professionals and psychologists, technocrats and hirelings. That’s what institutions create. Living bodies give birth to living bodies.
Our Lord’s model, though it was far too organic to be rightly called “a model,” was to disciple men. Jesus taught His disciples by investing His time and energy in them, by speaking with them of the things of God while about the business of doing the work of the ministry. Jesus never gave a lecture on the nature of sign gifts. Instead He gave a lesson on the folly of Job’s friends by healing the man born blind, that they, and we might know that He is the light of the world. The disciples witnessed Jesus as He ministered in Judea. They learned from His sermons. They asked Him questions touching on the lives of those to whom they ministered. As “graduates” the disciples went out as apostles, those sent to speak with the authority of the Sender.
The Shepherd’s College, while certainly potent enough to prepare men to be “able to teach,” is rounded enough to prepare men to be better men of God. The reading list includes the wisdom of Edwards, Murray, and Calvin. But it also includes the wisdom of C. S. Lewis and G.K. Chesterton, as well as the insight into the gospel that flows from the pen of Sinclair Ferguson.
The list is rigorous, but it is but a part of how we will prepare men for ministry. We will meet weekly to discuss the reading, as well as to cover pastoral issues as they arise in the local church. Students will visit the sick and the imprisoned with their pastor, tussle along with the elders over tangled relational issues in the church. Students will be instructed in both hermeneutics and homiletics, but in real time as their pastors prepare and deliver their sermons. They will be shown how the Bible washes the Bride of Christ.
We begin August 30, with our opening cohort, men ready and eager to test the waters, willing to risk reforming the status quo and zealous more to become better men than to get a better job. You can read more and apply here. We have limited scholarship funds available. If you are a church looking to come alongside this bold venture, you can reach us at theshepherdscollege2021@gmail.com. Please be in prayer for us as we seek to follow the Great Shepherd of the Sheep, to serve His flock, and to prepare others to do the same.
