Agony to Maturity
I’d love to hear from you about your take on my Heartlight.org article on leadership and maturity. Please look at the following questions and share your responses below. (Be sure and put in the security code so your answer can be seen!)
Do you think I’m off base when I suggest that we expect our spiritual leaders to be the customer service department of our churches?
Clearly there are other things leaders do to “shepherd our souls” other than these three things from Colossians. What one other thing has a leader done to bless your walk in the Lord?
Reading Hebrews 13:7 (CEV), Hebrews 13:17 (RSV), and Hebrews 13:24 (CEV), what should we do to help honor and encourage godly leadership in our churches?
As a “spiritual leader” I struggle with my own imperfections and sometimes stark contrast to the call before me. As I reflect about the idea of closing the gap I realize I had never quite heard it put that way, I realized, it is true.
In all these years I don’t think I have ever intentionally said these are my 3 things…but rather accepting the call and doing the work, as best I can. I think that the vast scope of what a spiritual leader is/should be about, and the lack of pursuit to fully understand what that means has caused a lot of unnecessary feelings of insignificance and failure.
As I thought about this idea of “closing the gap” I thought how does this apply to our ministry to children…Teaching kids to memorize things has some value, certainly as it applies to God’s word, but I feel it has largely been over emphasized in our churches. If we intentionally focused more on how can teach our kids about the foundational stuff, realizing there’s a gap, and then teaching them how to close it we may see a whole different generation of believers emerge!
Some Christians will reach their middle aged phase of life and just begin to understand what it means to live for Christ. What could happen if people were able to skip a lot of the “junk” and get that process rolling a whole lot sooner? What would our world and communities look like?
I pray that messages such as Agony to Maturity could be more a focus of churches teachings. We need the foundational teachings but I would say people need more direct and specific teaching on how to accomplish what we are here for.
dave
10 Mar 08 at 7:50 am
First, thanks for another wonderful article. I do think most people look to leaders and expect them to walk the walk. What can you say to those who have as a family member and leader of the church who do not “practice what they preach” in family matters? This has become a deep-rooted problem for someone I know and she is letting it come between her and God. I’m out of words.
Ann Evans
10 Mar 08 at 9:24 am
No, I don’t think you are off base, some people do use church like drive thru bandaid, patch me up or I’m off to the next pastor and church who can help me feel better. When I listen to others complain about our pastor, present or past, and they say things like, the sermon is too long or I am bored, I can’t help but think that they have not looked inside of themselves, and that they are not reading the Bible, the pastor clearly points to Jesus as the way, and not to ourselves as self help gurus, and he also constantly calls us disciples of Christ and we should minister to others. This is how I know I am in the correct place, and the disgruntled are looking for just customer service, lip service, or promoting their own egos, instead of growing and maturing, which hurts!! I appreciate my Pastor’s humility and flaws.
Shannon
10 Mar 08 at 1:14 pm
Pondering your further questions: I think it is our responsibility as a congregation and individuals to pray for our leaders and as in Ephesians not to forget spiritual warfare. What I do for my leaders is remember to thank them! Tell them what I really like, I enjoyed their sermon, they lifted me up today, they saw into my heart and soul. They need encouraging too; edify and try to grasp the bigger vision. I know some days I feel sort of dull, not particularly energized by what is going on at church, but that is a “feeling” and as scripture says it is more important to evaluate character qualities. Our youth leader is awesome, she attempts a lot, and does most things very well. I can tell she does it with the strength of Jesus and guidance of Holy Spirit. Our Senior Pastor wants the congregation to wake up and be more active in ministry, he is not perfect, he asks for prayers for himself, and too many people like to make negative criticisms. What have my pastors done for me? They have discernment about my gifts, talents, personality, and character, they encourage me about what I can do well. I have learned not to say “yes” to just filling a need, a people slot, because no one else steps forward, but to tell the pastors or other leaders, I will help them and/or pray about finding the right person to fill this “slot.” I do believe we should not put leaders on a pedestal and should see them as flawed, I would confront any leader or pastor if a gross weakness came out that would bring the downfall of the congregation as a united body. But, I only ever gently criticize something I think might not work, or let them know “too many others not on the bandwagon here” because sometimes the leaders need to make changes and the majority don’t like change, and resist for a time, what will be for the better. Pray for Patience! Shalom to you Phil.
Shannon
10 Mar 08 at 1:48 pm
Saying you hate church to me, is like saying you hate God. Saying that people that are in churches are hypocrites just because they’re not perfect is exactly what satan would lead you to believe. what you are doing is just judging human nature. Just because we invite Christ into our hearts does not mean and is not supposed to mean we are or are going to be perfect. No one will be made perfect while here on earth. That will come after our life here on earth. Also, We “christians” are to go to church to worship the Lord, not to judge everyone in there. Instead we are to LOVE EVERYONE (brothers & sisters in Christ) and fellowship with them and at the same time, let the Lords light shine through us and our actions so that others may see in us what they may need in and for their own lives. Give God all the glory He deserves and quit making excuses to stay away from church. When you accuse people that are in churches to be hypocrites, What does that make you? Isn’t God the Judge of all mankind?
Rhonda
10 Mar 08 at 2:10 pm
Having been a pastor’s wife for almost 30 years, I agree with you. My husband prayed and taught and worked with people. He counseled when needed and extensively at times. It meant putting in a long work week, losing sleep and studying much. He studied all his sermons from the original languages and then went into the English. He diagrammed the Hebrew/Greek and really searched for what God was saying. His preaching was by THE BOOK. His care for people was there and he tried to be there when they needed them.
In 1999 I became a widow. I had to move and start life over again. I was appalled at what was out there for preachers. They preached from “a book” not THE BOOK. They never learned the original languages. They want their time off. They do not counsel. They hop all over and do not teach doctrine, but rather try to not offend.
I am remarried and my current husband is the building administrator of a church. He was new to Christianity so never really saw that the preaching was not as it should be. We married and I moved to Texas to be with him and started going to his church. I had not heard a sermon on salvation for over two years of being here! It is all a feel good, bang the drums and walk out. The pastor has turned people away by not giving counsel. Sin is allowed rampant, but we “can’t offend anyone”.
As I searched over the last 9 years since my 1st husband’s I am finding a real downward spiral in pastors and leaders. I am “stuck” at this congregation for now, but asking around I find that it is about the same everywhere. We travel 1.5 hrs on a Monday night to a Bible study at another church just to hear the Word rightly divided. My husband is really growing and sees that the truth is so mixed up with error.
I was taught to be discerning. Today people grab what they can and run with it. Not knowing if it is truth or not, they believe all kinds of things.
I would love to call back the pastors of old to once again preach and teach the Word, care about the congregations as Christ did and offend when needed to help us all grow to be like Him.
Peggie
11 Mar 08 at 9:35 am
Thank you and God bless you.After reading your article I felt the Holy Spirit point out to me that I am guilty of some of the stuff mentioned & high lighted in this encouraging article.It has been so eloquently said in the article that the church has been treated like a drive thru outlet prevalent in our society today.That is so true.I’ve never heard it so put nicely that way.I firmly believe after reading this article that I have been guilty of spending less time talking to God about our leaders and spending more time talking of leaders to other people. I repent( I speak for myself here) and pray the Lord will build our leaders up to be more than a blessing to our church and the wider community at large.Vinaka
Bill
12 Mar 08 at 5:17 am