Part Two
Meeting the Challenge
Leading by Spirit-led Consensus
This level of leadership cannot be a hidden device. It must be the announced method of both planning and implementation. Both the leaders and those they lead are guided by the revealed truth. Implied in the Acts account is a recognition that God was leading all of them and not just those with visible authority. Paul’s instructions to the Corinthian Church concerning the use of the Gifts of the Spirit, contain a principle behind the specifics of the issue he was addressing. He said, “Let everything be done in a fitting and orderly way.”[1] One cannot use a more inclusive noun than “everything.” As an orchestrator and conductor, I can see and hear that a functional arrangement follows this rule. Each part in the score matches each instrument in the ensemble; it is “fitting and orderly.” Great songs, also, are fitting and orderly—the words and the music belong together. On and on I could go with examples from my world of music. Can we now see that the church, both leaders and followers, make up a team, a company, and certainly an ensemble?
Let’s examine these words.
- Team: a number of persons associated together in work or activity,
- Company: A group of persons or things; a body of soldiers; an organization of performing artists; the officers and crew of a ship; a firefighting unit, and
- Ensemble: A group producing a single effect: such as concerted music of two or more parts; a complete costume of harmonizing or complementary clothing and accessories; the musicians engaged in the performance of a musical ensemble; a group of supporting players, singers, or dancers.[2]
As stated before, the biblical term for this team-company-ensemble is ekklesia, meaning, “assembly.”[3] In simple English the Bible calls the church the “called out ones.” Why? Because we have all been called out of the world and into His Kingdom. These are the ones Peter says have been “called out of darkness into His marvelous light.” [4] In other words, leaders are not the only ones called of God. Each believer has a mission, a calling, for which they are responsible to the Lord. Each Spirit-enabled one must know what pleases God. I hear in Pastor James’ summation a profound respect for every member of the church he was leading. The word, “us” reveals this to me.
We are members of a team of specialists, a powerful company of spiritual warriors, and an ensemble of such diversity and multifaceted beauty that the music of heaven can be heard here on earth. James’ inclusion of the church in his instructions in the wake of this potentially devastating conference signals his respect for everyone who has heard the call of Jesus to follow Him. He was, after all, a carpenter’s son leading priests and lawyers and others far beyond his formal training. He was a living example of the Calvary-born truth that each of us matters to God. How can leaders today make this application?
Feed My Sheep…
From the account of Peter’s restoration, we can see a biblical solution. On that morning by the Sea, [5] Jesus gives His repentant disciple the one New Covenant model of a leader—The Shepherd. Three times He asked Peter if he loved Him. With the three confessions of Peter’s love, Jesus responded with a single way to show that love: “Feed My sheep. Feed My Lambs. Feed My Sheep.” When 21st Century leaders act like Old Covenant kings or prophets, they have conformed to the ways of the world and of the flesh. The Jesus way is that of a singing shepherd not a burley mob boss. The shepherd is the only New Covenant model for the Spirit-led and empowered pastor. It is impossible for the high and lofty boss or the decorated commander or the isolated prophet to be anything other than these things. It is possible, probable, and powerful for a shepherd to love the sheep, feed them, protect them from harm, and lead them to new pastures green and waters deep and still. After all, he/she is one of them! Do we really think that the ways of the world or those of our own flesh are better than the Jesus way?
What does this leadership look like?
Like all ministry, it begins in the Secret Place. In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus said the Father was there and that we can join Him. What’s more, the Father will reward openly what He sees in secret.[6] In other words, the power we long for in our public worship services is found in private worship. It is time for leaders to lead private worship! We must raise up praying churches filled with praying people who confess and believe the Scriptures daily. The consensus we long for in the public ministry of the church begins here. When leaders introduce changes based on scriptural commands and principles, the people know how to “test all things and hold on to what is good.” The Holy Spirit is also very skillful and putting these things into the hearts of the praying people before the leader introduces them. The people can then follow their hearts as they follow their leaders.
We must teach and demonstrate the Jesus way of leadership and life:
- Want to be first? Be last.
- Want to lead? Learn to follow.
- Want to lead the parade? Wash the feet of those who march.
The world has no need of more stars, more celebrities and luminaries seeking the spotlight. The world needs more helpers, more anonymous, sincere servants who are content in the shadows to do the right things for the right reasons. As pastors, we cannot lead the people in becoming something we aren’t.
The Acts 15 conference ended with a set of practical instructions that applied to all the people, converted pagan or renewed Israelite.
Acts 15:28-29 NKJV
For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit, and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things: that you abstain from things offered to idols, from blood, from things strangled, and from sexual immorality. If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well. Farewell.
Here’s how I would contemporize these instructions:
- Refuse idolatry: Recognize and reject the false worship of this moment—celebrity worship; taking pride in sin; rejecting and demeaning the Truth of God—“Truth has fallen in the streets…”[7]
- Resist the culture of blood: Death rules contemporary culture from the innocent embryo in the womb to the useless elderly to the dysfunctional disabled—following the rule of socialism that only the useful deserve to live.
- Release the plague of strangulation: Human beings can only breathe freely when their minds are clear and their calendars provide both work and rest, learning and reflection. The call of God on each of us provides for all these things; the ways of the world choke us with the unnecessary.
- Restrain sexual impulses to the marriage bed: This is God’s plan and it cannot be improved upon.
We are children of Kingdom of God even as we are citizens of earthly civilizations. Rendering unto our governments the things for which they are responsible is part of the mission. Rendering unto the Lord the things which are His is our overriding duty. We are in this world but not of it, Jesus said. [8] We must live and lead that way.
The Three Steps
Jesus gave us three steps that each of us, leader and follower alike, must take to serve Him.
Matthew 16:24 NIV
Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If anyone would come after me,
he must deny himselfand take up his cross and follow me.
The “deny himself” part is a first step and one that we find we must take over and over in life. The influence of the culture is all around us. sometimes the impulses of our own human hearts, or even the confusion of our sidetracked brains, will conflict with the Word of God. When this happens, we must “deny ourselves,” countering the culture, the inner drives, and the mistaken ideas that remove us from the center of God’s will with the infallible truth of God’s Word. This done, we can then “take up our cross,” meaning God’s will for us, and follow Jesus. I write about this extensively here:
The Three Steps – Steve Phifer
Conclusion
How can we achieve this holy consensus that opens the door to the future God has for us?
Tune Your Hearts and Minds to the music of Heaven—
Here you will find ensemble—“many as one.”
Here you will find your role in the company.
Here you will find your position on God’s team.
What seems good to the Holy Spirit will seem good to you!
Semper Reformanda!
Stephen Phifer
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Here is the link to my 5-part series on the fall of Truth in our culture:
“Truth Has Fallen in the Streets” Part One – Steve Phifer
For a detailed study of the concept of servant leadership in today’s church consider this collection of essays.
Request your free PDF version at: www.StevePhifer.com
Endnotes:
[1] 1 Corinthians 14:40 NIV But everything should be done in a fitting and orderly way.
[2] Mirriam-Webster Dictonary
[3] Assembly: ekklesia (NT:1577), from ek, “out of,” and klesis, “a calling” (kaleo, “to call”)…It has both universal and local applications. (Vine’s Expository Dictionary of Biblical Words, Copyright © 1985, Thomas Nelson Publishers.)
[4] 1 Peter 2:9 NIV But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.
[5] John 21:15-19 15 NIV
[6] Matthew 6:3 NKJV …and your Father who sees in secret will Himself reward you openly.
[7] I have a 5-part series by this title, “Truth Has Fallen in the Streets” dealing with the battle for truth in this hour. Find the first of the five here: “Truth Has Fallen in the Streets” Part One – Steve Phifer
[8] John 17:15-18 NIV My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world.
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