'20 Retreat session 1

What is leadership?

Leadership is not about rank, Leadership is about choice

Leaders are people who are willing to go first in leading the way into the unknown. Leaders are people who help make the rest of us feel safe about whatever dangers we face.

Leadership that becomes more about rank isn’t actually leadership it is just authority.

While authority is God ordained and not necessarily a bad thing, it becomes something that is vilified because of how people misuse it or are abused by it.

The bible is clear in speaking to the angry leader and separating zeal for sinful anger.

Ephesians 4:26 ESV

26 Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger,

Can anyone think of times in scripture where someone lets their anger get the best of them and it causes them to sin? Cain, Joseph’s brothers, Saul, David… Moses when he struck the rock in the wilderness???

Leadership should be more about humility than honor.

Leadership looks different in different arenas. It is sad when the church starts to look like other arenas of this world in an effort to gain honor from people. We must understand how other arenas mix up humility and honor.

Here is what I mean… Simon Sinek said it this way...

“In the military they give medals to those who are willing to sacrifice themselves so that others may gain. In the business world they give bonuses to those who sacrifice others so that they may gain.”

Does the church try to emulate the business world or the military? Should it try to emulate either?

The problem is that there is still honor being given to a worthy party involved. Its just that one example demonstrates humility and service before honor is given.

Yet, in the Kingdom of God we praise the one who sacrificed himself so that everyone could gain, but his example was one of giving his reward away in an effort to serve the whole. The honor Jesus receives is given to him by God, because of his humility in serving. And so Scripture declares that we should follow in his example.

Philippians 2:1–11 ESV

1 So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, 2 complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. 3 Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. 4 Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. 5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

phil2.1

We should not try to emulate the world in leading others by sacrificing people for the good of the organization. That is a business model that simply doesn’t work in the church because it holds no real currency in the kingdom of God. That is why there are so many small churches full of hurting people and large churches that don’t stay large. Example - Mark Driscoll and Mars Hill Church

Yet for the sake of our time here together I will use the examples of the business world and the military, and even sports teams to illustrate certain pictures of leadership to us. We can learn from these different arenas, but we must not compromise the gospel in the process, and we must look at these through the filter of scripture, instead of looking at scripture through the filter of business.

Common misconceptions about Leadership

Leadership has something to do with your age.

1 Tim. 4:12

Old or young, both can lead - (We should not discount someone because they seem too young to handle responsibility or they seem too old to learn how to work well with others and new methods.)

Leadership here has more to do with a visible example for others to follow

Leadership only comes from the front or from the top down.

Leaders are not in a separate class but found among the people, especially in the church.

The very nature of the 59 one another’s in the NT imply that the actions needed must be shown from someone standing next to you, not necessarily in front

People lead from the back and the middle of the pack all the time.( In fact the best way to make the up front leaders free to truly lead in hard times, is when everyone one the team is leading their part without having to be asked to do so.)

Leadership is all about a title.

Managers and bosses have title and demand respect while enforcing the rules and producing productivity. This does not mean they are leaders.

Leadership is based on influence, not position. This is why (and how) people often lose their leadership positions, particularly when other more charismatic individuals challenge them – they lose their influence over the people they’ve been leading.

The best way to influence people is to serve them.

Mark 9:35 ESV

35 And he sat down and called the twelve. And he said to them, “If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all.”

The best way to lose your influence is to fail to keep your word or own your mistakes.

Leaders are born and not made.

Some have more Charisma, are better at public speaking, and can handle being in front of people well - this seems to come naturally to them. But all these things don’t make them a great leader and all these things can be taught.

While many examples in scripture affirm the sovereignty of God in decreeing who would lead his people, none of these men and women were qualified before they were called.

Virtually every biblical example of a leader other than Jesus Christ, was made into a leader by God.

- Follow me as I follow Christ

The vast majority of them felt unqualified and not experienced enough

You become a leader when you care enough about a cause – enough that you’ll do something about it whether others will or won’t.

Leaders have no accountability

People sometimes think that those who are in leadership do not have anyone to answer to or to follow.

Leaders enjoy making hard decisions.

This is a big problem with those on the outside of leadership. they feel like they couldn’t lead because they wouldn’t like to make hard decisions.

Nobody likes to enact church discipline

Leaders are willing to make decisions, because the what they believe over rules any emotion that would cause them to shrink back.

our attitude toward those who lead us make it easier to make hard decisions or it can make it harder.

Hebrews 13:17 ESV

17 Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you.

heb13.

This obviously is talking about a biblical office and not just a principle for growing in your own leadership, yet the results speak to the overall difficulty of making hard decisions.

While there are more misconception of leadership, this brings me more to the point of how the team around a leader can have a positive or a negative affect on the leader, and vice versa. In fact I want to focus more on how the leader can have a positive or negative affect on the team.

Teamwork affected by leadership

The right conditions vs. the wrong conditions

The right conditions for good team work creates environments where people feel safe to fail and learn.

(WE ARE NOT TALKING ABOUT MORAL FAILURE OR SINFUL CHOICES HERE)

We can learn from our failures and leaders who let their team know they are safe from penalties when they fail, tend to be more creative, loving, trusting, and authentic.

Companies who operate this way are the kind of places we love to frequent with our business because they make us feel like we matter. I think of places like Southwest airlines… You are all gonna board together, there is no first class or special seating, everyone is gonna get their bag on board, and if the mess up you are gonna get rewarded for their mistake.

These companies seem to be lead by people who make their employees feel safe, and they in turn pass that feeling of care on to their consumers. Yet it is not just in the business world...

The military has story after story of men and women who have been honored for their bravery and sacrifice in leading teams of people into battle and out of battle.

When most “heroes” are asked why they did what they did, why they acted valiantly in the midst of certain disaster, they all answer the same… “Why did you do it? - Because they would’ve done it for me”

When leadership makes it team feel like they would love and serve them even if everything goes wrong, that team will inevitably have people who will rise to meet the challenge given the occasion of life and death moments.

Where this comes from, is trust and cooperation. The problem is that these things are feeling more than they are instructions.

Trust takes a long time to be earned and is lost in a moment

We can’t just tell our teams to trust us without first demonstrating that we can be trusted. And they will not naturally cooperate until they believe that it is the best way for everyone to move forward unharmed.

Simon Sinek example of airlines that make people feel bad for boarding out of order… “Sir if i don’t follow the rules I could get in trouble or lose my job”… She doesn’t feel safe in her job and so the people she serves don’t get treated right. All because she doesn’t trust her leaders.

This is most likely a company led by someone who is task oriented rather than people oriented. Tasks are not bad but if they are placed above the people they are meant to serve they become idolatrous and abusive. They create teams where people are unwilling to give trust.

When we don’t have trust from each other we go into a sort of self preservation mode. This creates the wrong conditions for good team work.

Wrong conditions force us to expend our own time and energy to protect ourselves from each other.

Leadership isn’t seen as being there to serve the whole, or provide care for the individual. So every team member goes into self preservation mode to protect themselves.

This will weaken the organization, undermines the leader, and causes us to “silo” rather than cooperate. Tomorrow we will talk more about dysfunctions of a team, what it means to “Silo” and how compartmentalizing can be harmful.

Leadership and team work is a spiritual matter

Leader are not exempt from suffering, in fact I would submit to you that they are the first line that is attacked. In some cases this is just how it works, the enemy will attack those who lead in an effort to destroy the work of the Lord.

This is what leading means, being willing to allow yourself to be vulnerable to attack and suffering. Not because you are so powerful that the devil wants to attack you, but because leading means being put in front of others in some way. Being the tip of the spear or the head of a team means taking the brunt of the impact, which leads to wear and tear. And while all this seems very logical, it is heightened by the reality of spiritual attack that we see from scripture.

Tait posted this article in our Elders basecamp group and I thought it fit very well for what I am talking about tonight, I’d like to read it to you.

New Testament writers warn us again and again about the reality of spiritual attack (, , , ). Based on years of my studying spiritual warfare, here are nine ways I’ve seen leaders allow themselves to be vulnerable to the enemy’s arrows: 

9 ways leaders make themselves vulnerable to spiritual attack

We focus on others, often to the neglect of ourselves.

We are caregivers, rightly recognizing our responsibility to watch over the souls of others (). When we neglect our own spiritual and physical well-being in the process, though, we make ourselves susceptible to the enemy.

We are caregivers, rightly recognizing our responsibility to watch over the souls of others (). When we neglect our own spiritual and physical well-being in the process, though, we make ourselves susceptible to the enemy.

We replace spiritual disciplines with ministry activity.

Church leaders can always find something else to do. So many are the ministry hours we put in that we’re tempted to remind others of our sacrifice. Too little time is left for personal spiritual disciplines—and the enemy’s target is on our back.

Church leaders can always find something else to do. So many are the ministry hours we put in that we’re tempted to remind others of our sacrifice. Too little time is left for personal spiritual disciplines—and the enemy’s target is on our back.

We do ministry in our own power.

We know how to do ministry, so we just do it with little praying and less dependence—and few people recognize we lack the power of God. In this case, we’re not only vulnerable to attack; we’re already losing the battle.

We think failure will never happen to us.

I know few leaders who readily admit their susceptibility to falling. When our confidence overshadows our recognition of the enemy’s schemes, though, we may be in trouble.

We ignore our “little” sins.

Sometimes we give ourselves permission to cross the line into sin. “That joke really isn’t that bad.” “It’s no big deal if I tell a white lie.” When we, in the paraphrased words of Charles Spurgeon, venture into sin where we think the stream is shallow, we soon find ourselves drowning in the enemy’s waters.

We see people as the enemy.

To be honest, church people are often problematic. When we see “flesh and blood” as the enemy, though, we open ourselves to the principalities and powers who are the real enemy ().

We give too little attention to strengthening our own marriages.

Too often, we take our spouses for granted and almost view them only as “resources” to help us do ministry—then we blame them for our own bad choices when we succumb to the enemy. 

We minister in the secret places of others’ lives.

Ministry is often confessional and personal—intimate, actually. The counseling room is especially private, where sins are admitted and secrets are revealed. The setting is ripe for the enemy’s arrows of pride, immorality, and even more hiddenness.

We have few real friends.

We become loners even while we preach relationships and unity in the Body of Christ – and we thus fight spiritual battles alone. That kind of vulnerability can lead to disaster. 

Tonight I want to leave of with an encouraging word from 1 Tim.

1tim4.1-

1 Timothy 4:1–16 ESV

1 Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons, 2 through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared, 3 who forbid marriage and require abstinence from foods that God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. 4 For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, 5 for it is made holy by the word of God and prayer. 6 If you put these things before the brothers, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, being trained in the words of the faith and of the good doctrine that you have followed. 7 Have nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths. Rather train yourself for godliness; 8 for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come. 9 The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance. 10 For to this end we toil and strive, because we have our hope set on the living God, who is the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe. 11 Command and teach these things. 12 Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity. 13 Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching. 14 Do not neglect the gift you have, which was given you by prophecy when the council of elders laid their hands on you. 15 Practice these things, immerse yourself in them, so that all may see your progress. 16 Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers.