Biblical Leadership @ PPCOC

Prologue: A Vision of Church

You might have noticed that what brother Zheng Wei just read is the same passage that brother John read during Communion. They are actually two halves of the same section in Ephesians 2, and Paul’s big idea is how Jesus has transformed what it means to be the people of God, what it means to live as one united community.

Slide: Eph 2:11-16

Brother John shared during Communion that the death, burial and resurrection of Christ has reconciled us to God, because our sins have been washed away and our relationship is restored.

Slide: Eph 2:17-22

And the result of being reconciled to God is that we are also reconciled to each other. Now, if you were a part of the Ephesian church reading this letter for the first time, this was mind-blowing.

Slide: Did not get along

Because in the church there were Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians, and they did not get along well. At all. Some of that division was religious belief, some of it was family culture, anyway it was a mess. There’s a recorded example that if a Jewish boy fell in love with and married a Gentile girl, or vice versa, the family would conduct their funeral immediately. While they were still alive! Declare them already dead because they’ve been infected by the other group. And so they avoided each other.

Slide: Alienated

They alienated each other.

But along comes Jesus who says, “This kind of division, this kind of separation and alienation, is over. From now on, they are one family through Christ. From now on, your differences do not matter. You will learn to get along and love one another, you will serve and support and encourage one another.”

Later in Ephesians 4, Paul talks about how there are different gifts within this diverse community of believers. This is Eph 4:11-13

Ephesians 4:11–13 ESV

And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ,

Fast forward to today, and what I hear this Word saying is that all of us here are gifted by God to serve some function in His church, to help us all become mature in Christ. You are gifted in ways that no one else is.

Some of us are gifted teachers, some are gifted event coordinators; some are gifted at managing people and some are gifted with connections; some are extroverts who say hello to everyone who walks into the worship hall and makes people feel welcome, and some are introverts who model the way to be still and enjoy solitude with God. And some are gifted to be elders, deacons, and board members.

If I could summarise what Paul teaches about the church in one sentence, I’d say that:

Slide: The Church Is

The church is a diverse community of followers of Jesus who build each other up and bless the world. And you’ll hear me saying this a few times today.

Segue to Leadership

Slide: Theme

Now, what does all this talk about the church have to do with biblical leadership? Well, this is why. We’ve spent the last few weeks talking about biblical leadership qualities and examples of leaders because we want to become a church of diverse Jesus-followers who build each other up and bless the world.

This series is not just so we can say “We’re a Bible-believing church because we have elders and deacons with these exact qualities and so God is happy with our church.” No, it’s much more than that.

Slide: Purpose statement

We are interested in identifying and empowering gifted and Spirit-filled men into leadership so that they can empower us to become the church God wants us to be.

Now, biblical leadership is hard. Leading PPCOC in this season especially is going to have its unique challenges. I believe that as a church, we’re going to be stretched in ways we would prefer not be stretched, and we’re going to be challenged to grow beyond what we’re comfortable with, and do things unlike how we’ve done them in the past.

But:

when we realise that God is working through us (present tense) in ways beyond our understanding;

when we realise that it is the Holy Spirit who empowers us with wisdom and ability

and when our lives lead men and women to confess that Jesus is Lord, I say that every growing pain and challenge is worth it.

Because that means we’re becoming the church that, I believe, God wants us to be: a community of diverse Jesus-followers, who use our gifts to build each other up and bless the world.

I pray that we all catch this vision. For those considering roles as elder, deacon or board member, I pray this vision inspires you to answer the call. For those who are not considering these roles I pray that this vision helps you to discern more clearly who are the men among us who can help get us there. And I also pray that this vision inspires all of us, leadership title or not, to become more active participants in this body of Christ. And I’ll say more about what that looks like practically later on.

Leadership @ PPCOC

I really appreciated how last week, elder Peter summarised the four qualities of what we’re looking for in PP leaders. I’ve repackaged them a little, and I want to use that as a framework to revisit some of the high points of this series.

Now, these are not hard-and-fast requirements our leaders have to meet, and it’s certainly not a job description. But these are things we want our leaders to have in some measure and to grow in, so that they can effectively empower the rest of the church to be the church.

Spiritual Maturity

This is basically common sense, but it’s so crucial that it bears repeating: the only men we want leading this church in any capacity must be walking closely with God. That means investing time in the basics. Are you reading the Bible and meditating on God’s Word? What does your prayer life look like? Do you enjoy spending time in God’s presence? Are you actively looking for opportunities to have deep spiritual conversations with others?

Slide: Not just elders

A clarification: this isn’t just for elders. I’m saying this because we’ve emphasised previously that elders are the spiritual shepherds of the church while deacons (and by extension board members) deal with the logistics and administration. This does not mean that therefore only elders need to have an active and deep relationship with God. This is a necessary quality for all our leaders, including deacons and board members, because every role, however mundane it may seem, is spiritual service! If we think back to Acts 6 when the church first appointed deacons, one of the two qualities they were looking for was that they had to be full of the Spirit and of wisdom. Even though their job description was to make sure people had enough food.

There is no role in the church where it’s just about working with spreadsheets and writing reports. There is no role where it’s just about approving budgets and just organising events. Every role is a spiritual role where we have the opportunity to build up the church and bless the world. Yes, even if it’s approving budgets.

Diligent and Consistent in Serving

We are busy Singaporean people. We’ve always got somewhere to be and something to do, and the last thing we want is one more commitment that will take up our precious free time. But leadership requires commitment, and in particular, a time commitment.

For all leaders, we have a monthly meeting with all the leaders. It’s a place to update each other on our ministries, share ideas and future plans, and discern God’s will in making decisions. It’s more than a ‘business’ meeting; it is a spiritual gathering where we work and plan and debate and approve for the sake of the kingdom.

Outside of that meeting, different leaders take time for different things. Our elders are responsible for shepherding people, and so they spend a lot of time with people. Loving them, encouraging them, challenging them where necessary.

Something that we're working on is that every leader— especially deacons and board members—will have a “portfolio” or a specific ministry that they will attend to and lead. Not to simply observe, but to lead—to be consistently thinking about it even when it seems that few others are interested, to invite others to serve, to create initiatives and suggest ideas. That takes time, but it’s not always time that can be measured. From my brief experience in ministry, so much of my best ideas or efforts don’t happen during the 8 to 5 workday, but when I’m showering or when I’m on my lunch break or even when I’m relaxing on my off-day. Because I’m always thinking, what is God leading me or this group to do? How can I be a more effective leader? What’s the need that we can meet? How can we build each other up and bless the world in a fuller way?

Love for the Church

Which leads me to the quality we want in our leaders that is the hardest to describe.

This man here with me is Terry Davis. He is one of the most effective worship leaders I have ever met. When I was in the US a few weeks ago visiting my university, there just so happened to be a Youth camp going on, and they needed a second worship leader. I said, ‘I can help. How hard can it be? One hour, maybe hour and a half to prepare the songs, get up on stage and lead and I get the rest of the time to myself!

Brother Terry has been leading worship at this camp for many years, and he taught me an important lesson. He said, the best way to lead worship on stage is by loving people off the stage. Anyone can master techniques like pitch and conducting and knowing a lot of songs, but the best worship leaders are those who spend time loving people. Sit down with them during mealtimes and be interested in their lives. Play volleyball with them. Ask how they’re doing spiritually in one-to-one conversations and encourage them. That’s how you show them the love of Christ, and that’s what makes them want to worship with you when you get on stage. You cannot measure that, but it is the thing that matters most.

What I thought was going to be a one-hour commitment-a-day became more like an 8-hour-a-day commitment. That was 700% more than what I signed up for! But the result was that when I got up to lead worship each night, I wasn’t just leading songs for a bunch of strangers. I was worshiping with friends. And it made me want to go the extra mile in my preparation. It made me smile extra wide.

It is love for the church that drives us to serve. It’s one thing to say, ‘Okay, we want our elders to meet X number of people a week and our deacons to give status updates on these ministries and Board members to and-so-forth’. Yes, things will get done. Sunday services will run. The building will be completed. But serving God and leading His church is not a list of tasks you complete. It is a lifestyle that comes from loving God and His people so much that…

Calls To Action

As we draw this series to a close, I want to offer a few invitations. Because there are so many of us, we all hear this series of messages differently. Some of us may have been inspired to desire a leadership role. Some of us started off excited but then may have felt unsure if we met the criteria as the weeks went by. And some of us from the very start of this series decided, for one reason or another, that leadership in this sense doesn’t apply to me.

So I want to offer a call to each of you. As I said at the start, all this talk about biblical leadership is ultimately about becoming the kind of church where diverse followers of Jesus use their gifts to build each other up and bless the world. The word ‘leader’ may only apply to a few people, but it is a journey we are all undertaking.

Men who aspire to leadership: Count The Cost

To the men here today who aspire to leadership, I beseech you to count the cost. There is no greater joy than serving the Lord, and there is great honour that comes from God and people. But know that it is not easy.

It takes many hours of prayer and time in the Word and discerning the voice of God. It takes people of courage who will stand up and say “Let’s do something” even when it’s much easier to do nothing. I say this not to discourage you from leadership, but so that you won’t be discouraged when you join the leadership and find out it’s more than you signed up for. There is great blessing, and there is great responsibility.

Men who don’t want leadership: Do Not Fear

There are probably men here today who might have wanted leadership once, but maybe after this series you realise the expectations are too high or the requirements are too strict, or that you don’t feel worthy or righteous or popular enough to serve. Hear the word of the Lord to every person in Scripture who thought they were unworthy: do not fear.

Moses was old, humiliated, what we might call a blue collar refugee taking care of smelly sheep. In Exodus 3, he had some kind of speaking problem or at least an intense fear of public speaking. He thought he was the wrong man for the job and begged God to choose anyone else. And through him, God rescued Israel. Do not fear.

Gideon was from an unimportant, forgotten family, and he was the youngest son in a culture that believed older is important, younger is unimportant. He was scared, he thought he was a nobody. And he defeated the most powerful military on the planet with fewer people than live in a single HDB block. Do not fear.

When Queen Esther had to risk losing her life which had a small chance to save the lives of the Jews, her uncle said to her, “God will find a way to save his people no matter what you do. But who knows if you have come into this place for such a time as this?” Do not fear.

Do not fear that your weaknesses and past failures prevent you from serving the Lord. Do not fear that by recognising your strengths and gifts, you somehow appear proud or boastful. Do not fear that if you put yourself up for consideration and you are not appointed an elder or deacon, that you have failed. And there is not a single elder, deacon or board member on our current team who will tell you they are perfect and they do their job flawlessly. No, we’re all learning and growing to be better.

Remember, we are simply a community of Jesus followers wanting to build each other up and bless the world. We have all been uniquely gifted to contribute to that, so do not fear, and do not discount your gift.

Women and Young People: Play Your Part

And finally. One of the things about this series is that it naturally lends itself to only some of our church and not the rest. So first of all, to all of our women and young people here, thank you for staying with us through this series. You’ve heard a lot about elders and deacons and leaders in the church knowing that those are positions meant for men of at least a certain age, and therefore ‘not you’.

And that’s why my invitation to you is to play your part. As my dad was saying a couple of weeks ago, while eldership and deaconship is reserved for men, there are so many other ways that you can participate and even lead as members of this body. Elders, deacons and board members are only three functions, and there are so many others, most of which don’t even have titles. But the heart of service, that desire to be an active and contributing member of the body of Christ, so that we use our gifts to build each other up and bless the world—you don’t need a title for that. Find a place, a ministry, a community where you can play your part. And if there isn’t a so-called ‘job opening’, ask about it. Maybe even create one.

It may also be that playing your part means active submission. What I mean by that is that we participate by trusting the decisions of our leaders even if we don’t agree. Let’s face it—there are over 300 of us. What are the odds that every decision is going to satisfy everyone? I say this as one who is learning that lesson. I may be a minister and have some theological training, but I am young and I need the wisdom of those older than me. As minister, I too am under the headship of the elders.

So sometimes the best way to participate in the journey of this church is to follow. To trust that the wisdom of God is at work even in situations where I would have done something different or done it faster or slower. Because our goal is the same—is it not?—to become a church where diverse followers of Jesus build each other up and bless the world.

Prayer