The Revolutionary Model of Leadership - Building Healthy Churches - Part 2

This morning, um, I want to continue my series on building healthy churches and, uh, one more step on it here. So this is part two of, uh, building healthy churches, and I'm going to be going down, uh, different paths as I move, as I move through this.

Uh, but the path I chose this morning is the title is The Revolutionary Model of Leadership. What makes it revolutionary? Not only is it the call of qualifications of character, but I think it's also the compelling imagery that comes with it.

There's so much to learn from this model of what I call the revolutionary model of leadership. I'm going to start with this verse. It says, "But Jesus called them to him and said, 'You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lorded over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them.'" This is what I call the Gentile model: to lord over and exercise authority over. So what comes to your mind when you think about that?

What came to my mind is exercising, when you exercise authority over or lorded over, it's the use and exercise of the arm of force. They're over you, so they make you do things.

That's the Gentile model. But Jesus says in the next verse, "But it shall not be so among you, but whoever would be great among you must be your servant." Now we've heard that before. What's that mean? Just a verse here. Hold on. "And whoever would be first among you must be your slave." So here Jesus is taking this concept of transitioning from authority over, exercising authority over and lording it over, and transitioning us to start to think about this idea that he says we must, you must be your servant and slave. The difference, so we're moving from lording over and exercising authority over to servant and slave.

What's that look like?

"And even as the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many." So here we have the standard of what it means to serve, okay? This is Christ, and as he said, this is, or I look at this as a standard. What is the standard of service?

It's to give your life, okay? I mean, that's, I'm not sure how you can get a higher standard than that. It's not one shift from just serving and service, but I think it's a second level. It's another shift. It's moving from serve to serving.

That is the willingness to give your life under the model of serving. What is the model of serving look like or translate into? The revolutionary model of leadership. He says, "High am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for his sheep." So here we have this imagery of shepherding being introduced into this model of leadership.

He says, "I'm the good shepherd. I'm the standard giving my life. The good shepherd lays down his life for his sheep."

The model of shepherding is what I want you to think about.

So what I want us to think about is this: the imagery surrounding this leadership model of shepherding is real. I believe it's a real model, and it's a real way to lead. It's not just an ideal. It is an ideal. It's a high standard.

Not only is it a real model and a real way to lead, but more importantly, this is the model of leadership that Christ, our King, has called us to lead through and by.

This model of shepherding, I believe, is what all elders, all pastors, all bishops, and all ministers are called to lead with or by.

So let's move to another verse.

In Peter, and this is Peter's exhortation, it says, he says, "I exhort the elders among you." Here's this word again, shepherd. Another word you'll see interchangeable is shepherd and feed. It's an interchangeable word. "Shepherd God's flock among you, not overseeing out of constraint or compulsion, but freely."

Think about these comparisons here. "According to God's will, not for money, but eagerly. Not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock." Here's this standard again. "But when the chief shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory."

So we're going to be judged by this, by this standard, by this model of shepherding.

So Peter is teaching and exhorting us in this model of shepherding on how not to act and to act. So let's look at some actions.

Let's look at the first one.

Not overseeing out of constraint or compulsion. I don't know if you ever stopped and thought about what does that mean? What's an example of that?

So let's look at these two words and try to understand it in its context. So constraint or compulsion.

When I read the definition of these words, okay, so there's a whole bunch of definitions, as all words are.

Constraint is this idea: stiffness of manner in relations between people. You know what came to my mind the second I read that?

Have you ever saw a dog that meets another dog and he gets all stiff-legged and when he's in restraint, he can't relax?

That's the imagery I get when I think of someone who is, he tells us not to oversee out of constraint. He's stiff-legged, he's not relaxed, he's all sensitive and insecure.

Now compulsion has this idea of forcing or being forced to do something. So what came to mind in that definition is, I don't know how many of you are parents here, but have you ever told your child that he's supposed to go apologize to somebody?

Now he's compelled to do it, right? But there's no freedom in it. He walks out with his head down and he apologizes. So the two pictures here, this of being constrained, you're not free, you're all sensitive, you're all insecure, and you're compelled to do something. You're asked to do something that you don't really want to do, okay? That's the picture that's surrounding this thing.

The opposite that Peter calls us to, it says, but we're to do it freely.

What's the opposite?

Another idea is when you, if you ever run a business, sometimes you have to ask somebody if when they're going to pay you. Have you ever had to go pay somebody after someone called you? You kind of have this idea of you're paying under compulsion. I don't know, maybe taxes come under that, okay?

So the idea is if you try to lead inside either one of these frameworks or attitudes, do you think you'll be effective? Does that look like shepherding to you? Or does that look like exercising authority over or lording over? You know, I see leaders performing in this way, and then they wonder why they're ineffective.

Is it hard to see? I don't think it's hard to see.

But when we think about freely, we are to walk and talk among one another as a shepherd does his sheep. Here's this imagery coming back to us that Jesus teaches about. We would be able to talk without constraint, speak without compulsion, move freely as a shepherd according to God's will. This is God's will that we learn to communicate and shepherd in this way.

I think that's beautiful. Like when you just stop and think about what is said, it's very beautiful and very powerful.

Let's look at the next one. Not for money, but eagerly. Now that's the one I went around a little bit. My instinct isn't like, I don't, these other ones I could be, okay, tempted, all right? The culture I grew up in, I literally have zero temptation to do things for money. It's just not a part of my culture to lead or to be a father or to be a leader somewhere for money. Like it's just, I don't, it just don't, it don't, I don't know, I don't have any impact on it. I don't know if any of you do, but this one I found it harder to relate to.

But I had some thoughts on it. So I tried to wrap my head around this problem or this idea and put myself in it. And like I said, I don't necessarily find myself experiencing this temptation, but I have seen it happen in other Christian environments and circles, and I've often wondered about it.

But this is what I thought about. Obviously, if you're doing it for money, I think you're going to lack eagerness, right? You're going to lack the ability to move forward in an effective way.

But this temptation, I think, comes when elders are being paid for full-time discipling. And this is what I want us to all think about. So sometimes I've heard people scoff at paying our elders. I won't ask if you've ever heard that.

So we say here in our culture, we don't pay our elders. Therefore, we don't have this problem. Kind of true.

But the question I want to ask is, what have we traded for it? And think about this.

Without paid elders, we have suffered terribly in our churches from lack of discipleship. Because we're working, we're providing for our families, we don't have full time. Another reason for plural leadership. I put that plug in there. Which I think directly, when we lack discipleship in our churches, I think that directly leads to a lack of maturity among our people.

I think there's a direct connection. I think it's very easy to become high-minded because you conquered in one area, because you've eliminated one problem, but another one surfaces. So let's have the humility to recognize the temptation that lays within everything that we do. Rather than taking the approach, let's just avoid it. Let's understand its complexities. If we're not going to do something, what are we going to trade? We will trade it for something. Let's understand that. It might be better to go back to paid elders and then understand what we're working with. If I'm saying, I'm not saying we should, I'm just saying, let's think about these things.

So that's my thoughts I had on that. Let's look at the next one. Not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock. So here's this difference: not to lord, but to be an example.

Not exercising authority over.

You know, I think we can smell this problem a mile away. When you walk into a church setting and you see lording men exercising authority over, like, I mean, I smell it when I walk into businesses, that problem. Like, the guy comes out, you can feel him before he gets through the door, like, you can feel it.

I think it's actually the number one problem why people avoid some churches. Leadership is huge. I think church elders truly need to understand their goal or purpose and how do we get there.

I think an elder's purpose is to lead people to maturity through disciplining, through the example of modeling shepherding. That's the model.

That's the leadership model. So we're to be an example of what that looks like. If we're giving vibes off of something different, like, don't think that that's in the closet. Everyone sees it.

Here's another verse. It says, "Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock that the Holy" hold on here.

Yeah. "Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock that the Holy Spirit has appointed you overseers to feed or shepherd," there's that word, "the church of God, which he purchased with his own blood," Acts 20:28.

So he calls us to be on guard. So let's look at shepherding and ask the question, what is the purpose or goal of shepherding? What's that example to look like?

Let's look at 1 Corinthians 14:20. It says, "Brothers, do not be children in your thinking, but infants in evil, but in your thinking be mature."

What's our goal? What's our purpose?

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.

Let those of us who are mature think this way. And if anything, you think otherwise, God will reveal that to you also. Him we proclaim in warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom that we may present everyone mature in Christ.

I think I got one more here. A servant of Jesus Christ greets you, always struggling on your behalf in his prayers, that you may stand mature and fully assured in all the will of God. Now let me ask you a question.

How long does it take to become mature? How much work does it take to become mature?

What about your own character? Think about your own character. Are you mature? I think it's a question we should ask ourselves.

So I think the purpose that God put elders in the church is to push us towards maturity. Like that's our work. It's to work at maturity. It's not easy. It takes time. Like it takes time. It takes energy.

However, this is what I want us to think about. I think it's easy to get sidetracked with evangelism and outreach and all these other things. And I call them secondary things. I think our primary focus needs to be character development and maturity among us. And this is why.

The purpose of healthy, mature sheep is to produce full-grown sheep. For what purpose? To reproduce.

It's to reproduce. Without maturity, you're not going to reproduce well. It's going to be, I don't know, all out of sync, all at the wrong time, inconsistent, turning people away, offending people, like all those things. Like you're going to, immaturity creates just massive amounts of inconsistency and problems.

Our goal as a body is to work that we become mature. That's our primary goal. Out of that is when evangelism and outreach takes place. But we're working constantly among ourselves.

The goal is maturity. And I personally feel that is the work of elders. That's where their energy should go. And then evangelism and everything else comes out of that. But that's the goal.

So are you an established believer? Now here, Paul, I just thought I'd throw this in here. It says, "Paul cautioned against new Christians serving as elders. He must not be a new convert or he might become conceited and fall into the condemnation of the devil."

Sometimes newly saved Christians amaze us at their spiritual enthusiasm, rapid transformation, and fearless evangelism. But Paul calls us to be slow to put that energetic new Christian into eldership quickly.

I think churches have made massive mistakes by doing this. They're impressed with someone that knew that walks through the door. And it is impressive. I think there should be encouragement. But it lacks wisdom. There isn't mature people among us saying, "Calling the elephant out in the room," kind of a thing.

That's what maturity does. Picks people that's immature into eldership before they're ready. And they think they're doing the right thing. When I think he has much learning, growing, and testing ahead as a new Christian. In fact, the term elder implies wisdom and experience. Things a new believer simply lacks.

If you're a recent convert, this is what I encourage you. Focus on sinking your roots more deeply into Christ and maturing your character. Watch out for spiritual pride. In fact, let's walk it a step, walk it back a step.

When you have new ideas and initiatives, bring them before the elders in the church. Get counsel and input into them. Get their approval or rejection of them. It'll teach you tremendous. It's what young men struggle with. And I think without the approval of your church, you lack credibility all your life. Like until that happens, like until you get that maturity level, you just lack credibility.

And you watch a young man that learns that, he'll go much further ahead than all the 10 that don't. It's very interesting to observe and watch.

Let's move on to another idea. And this is actually under the qualifications of elders. I think it's another opportunity and venue that we can learn where we can learn to shepherd well. I realize that not all of you have families.

I get that. But families impact most of us. And I think that's why it's one of the qualifications in how we respond to our families. So my call is, let's learn to shepherd our families well. American society paints a bright picture between public and private, between work and home. We tend to evaluate a business leader on his abilities to increase profits and meet company goals, not on the quality of his or her personal life. Did you ever hear of that in the political world? It's everywhere.

The leader's home, world, children, marriage, sex life is no one else's business. However, in the family of God, an elder's life matters immensely. In fact, marriage and parenting act as a proving ground for elder fitness. It's your workout.

Consider three ways in which a man's family leadership qualifies him for church leadership. An elder must be a one-woman man. Most English Bibles translate Paul's words as a husband of one wife, but some render them one woman. So we know that.

However, what does this convey? I think it conveys the idea of a faithful husband who honors the sacred covenant of marriage. Have you been sexually faithful to your wife? Do you frequent pornographic websites? Have you ever been divorced?

How are things between you and your spouse now?

No one has a friction-free, a fairytale or friction-free marriage. But if your marriage is limping or worse, it matters.

I believe how you handle your bride matters very much if you would care for Christ's bride.

So what's an effective father, an effective shepherding father?

I think management skill does matter in elders.

Like you need to have character. But I think management skill does play a part. And actually this one word, overseers, actually is the idea of possessing that leadership ability at some level. I think it's only mentioned what, one time, but it has this idea.

However, I think we typically associate management with employees and policies, financials, and strategic plans. But I think Paul had in mind a completely different management venue. And that's the children, the marriage, and the home.

An elder is one who manages his own household competently, having his children under control with dignity.

Dignity. It says, "If anyone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he take care of God's church?"

Can you see similarities between being a dad and being an elder?

In both cases, a man takes on a leadership role. In both, he bears a primary responsibility to help those under his care grow up, live together in harmony, and mature. It's a process. Both parenting and eldering are about guiding people towards maturity within a community context. Learn to shepherd God's family by shepherding yours first.

Are your children well-behaved or out of control? Are you instructing your children at home about God's word and the gospel? Are your children exasperated? Now listen to this. Are they exasperated by either your excessive harshness or your deficient engagement? In other words, we don't want either.

Ephesians 6:4 talks about this. Is the atmosphere of your home predominantly nurturing and orderly or chaotic or worse toxic?

Here's an interesting one that came up in my studies, and I brought this up the last time, but I think it applies in this section. So I'm going to kind of repeat it and build on it again. Hospitality.

This is interesting because Paul twice commanded that overseers be hospitable, which I find that interesting in 1 Timothy 3:2 and Titus 1:8. Now think about this. Think of the two levels of hospitality. Hospitality can reveal kindness, compassion, care for the needy, the lost, the lonely, all qualities benefiting an elder.

But hospitality does something else. And this is important. It allows others to see your family in action.

What do others see when they come over for dinner at your place, at your home? They don't see a flawless family, of course. But do your guests detect warmth and mutual respect in the tones and nonverbal signals between you and your wife? How about other nonverbal signals happening?

Do your guests detect warmth and mutual respect in the tones and nonverbal signs between you and your children? Do they see children respecting and obeying you?

Here's one. Do they see children respect—I'm sorry. Do they see your children respecting you when you're not around? Takes it to another level. How do you respond when your children disobey? Always find that interesting. Your kid disobeys right in front of the person you don't want them to.

We'll test all of us.

If your house were a church, would your dinner guest want to come back for another visit?

Here's a principle. We should nominate elders as shepherds who are eagerly engaged in effective shepherding. If you aspire to be an elder, your family is a great opportunity to learn to shepherd well.

Remember, there's no secret as to whether you're doing poorly, good, or well.

People see our inconsistencies. They also see our strengths. It's out in the open. We're not hiding it. Start where you're at and just build on it. So I have a couple of verses here that I kind of missed.

Shepherd your family well. He must manage his own household well, having his own children under control with all dignity. For if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God's church? So I'm going to circle back to this thought when it comes to a father learning to shepherd his family.

And I want to bring this whole idea back up again of constraint and compulsion, but freely. And I think parents, fathers in particular, have this temptation. And I think of the fathers can fall into this thing of training their children through constraint and compulsion. They're not free about it.

And all I can say is when I see some fathers, I think of the dog. They're all prickly, and they don't know how to relate to their sons, and they get all weird in their children.

It's a great opportunity to get through that, change that in yourself, and not to be constrained or in constraint or compulsion, but learn to be a father and a shepherd freely. I think it'll make your effectiveness to your brothers, to your sisters, to those you evangelize with, like you'll open up doorways of opportunity. And a lot of times, why we can't reach those barriers is because of our own lack of character. And that's what actually separates. That's what actually keeps us away from actually reaching out into other people's lives. And I don't think we understand that enough.

We blame everyone for not wanting to be a Christian. Well, maybe it's you that they don't want to follow. So anyway, something to think about. I'm not saying everyone has that problem.