“I became a servant of this gospel by the gift of God’s grace given me through the working of his power. Although I am less than the least of all the Lord’s people, this grace was given me: to preach to the Gentiles the boundless riches of Christ, …” Ephesians 3:7-8
One of the big buzz words we hear thrown about in church leadership is ‘relevance.’ Make sure your message is understandable and it is targeted to the people you are reaching. Of course, as long as the Message is not compromised or watered-down. And yes, that is important. But, how are we with honoring our Lord?
Consider this, the opposite of discipleship is compliancy as in not discipleing or as Dietrich Bonhoeffer puts it, being “ashamed of Christ.”
As the opposite of maturity is immaturity, as the opposite of wisdom is foolishness, and the opposite of good leadership is well bad leadership and all of this will the result to no direction in life or the church brought on by no effectual learning or discernment to us or our people.
This leads to rebellion against God, why it is to be ashamed of Christ, and an attitude to fight against His godly leaders. We with this mindset that comes from a lack of reverence, will lead others away, as well. We will be leading people in hopelessness and despair, because most people cannot discern the difference. How can they if we the leaders can’t? Thus, it is the Christian leader’s responsibility to know their faith, and apply it with correct reverence, knowledge, based on God’s Word to our personal lives first, then to our administration of church leadership and others lives.
Consider this, Paul was motivated from his sense of obligation, not that he had too, but he wanted. Our causes are rooted in our motivations which are rooted in our ideas and expectations. Our sense of obligation will certainly affect all that we do too, so we have to make sure it is rooted in God and not elsewhere too (Rom. 11:13-14; Eph. 3:1-8)!
We need to know that Christ calls us to change our minds like we change the oil in the car. This is what Romans 12 is about, to be a “devotee” to Christ.
In other words, we are to be changed persons so we can be authentic, impacting worshippers so we can be change agents to others. Being a living sacrifice living out real reverence for Christ as LORD, as a key aspect of our growth and maturity in the faith.
The purpose of knowing God’s principles and the study of His Word is not just the knowledge we gain (which is very important), but our supreme goal is what we do with that knowledge. His work in us is to be applied, not just studied, or ignored. Our devotion to Christ must be rooted in our minds, then allow the doctrine to translate it to our feet and the rest of our body in between. Our “impacting” will influence our people, the body of Christ, both our individual human body as well as a body of believers in relation to all those around us. It is our duty as church leaders. If not, get out and get well before coming back.
How do I know if I have a proper attitude of reverence? Look at Paul’s prayerfulness it is an expression of his devotion and zeal. His will was conquered with a sense of gratitude and indebtedness to Christ. Are you totally submitted to God’s ways, do you feel indebted, or do you feel owed?
Being “poured out” is to take the focus off yourself and place it on others, as Christ did for us. Paul spent his life to express it (1 Cor. 6:19-20; Eph. 1:15; Phil. 1:6-9).
Filed under: Leadership Issues, Spiritual Maturity | Tagged: Relevance, reverence, Reverence in Leadership | Leave a comment »
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