The Calling, Part Three
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Note; this is both the third in this series as well as a continuation of the topic of leadership I started in, “The Good, The Bad and the Unqualified.”
We often model our lives based on the patterns demonstrated to us. This is why children often grow up acting a lot like their parents. As we move forward it is often the first few jobs of employment along with parental advice that help to shape our work ethics. So the same is no less true in Spiritual Leadership.
We watch and absorb more than we know in our early years as we watch the pastors and elders around us. This is often why certain denominations have developed pastors who all act in a similar fashion before the congregation. Someone in the past, that people valued acted that way and set the “norm” for the denomination. And like an unwritten law, those characteristics became the approved guidelines.
No More Clones
As stated, or hinted at in my previous substack posts, (1) (2) the purpose of the tests you are enduring is to not only to get you ready for leadership but also to follow a better pattern of becoming more of a “Christ-like” leader.
Two of the primary factors the Holy Spirit will work on you are;
Your view of who you believe Christ is. Let's face it, most of us have a view of him based more on denominational views and preconceived ideas than reality.
Your view of who you believe you are. Because we are still in this world, the view of who we are is always in flux. Sometimes we think more highly of ourselves and sometimes we undervalue.
Because of our narrow understanding of leadership, we often point to the qualification of elders and fail to say more beyond that. The reality is Jesus is our pattern of ministry, and leaders should closely follow the pattern The Lord gave us. As I hinted about in the post “10 Things” I feel leaders also need to compare their lives against what Jesus said in Matthew 5:3-12.
V3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Did Jesus ever manipulate, lie, beguile, control, play mind games, or push the poor around? Should leaders be allowed to do so today for so-called ministry needs?
V4 “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.” Did Jesus walk away from the hurting? Did he ever say, “…Go in peace; keep warm and well fed…” James 2:16. No he did not, he even multiplied the food to feed them. In fact in the New Testament, every recorded use of the word Compassion when it was connected to Jesus is a powerful word. It is the type of word that implies bodily pain from anguish. This means he hurt with pain at the sight he was seeing before him. Matthew 9:36, Matthew 14:14, Matthew 15:32, Matthew 20:36.
V5 “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.” Meekness is not what we have been told. It means gentleness, caring, and lack of presumption. It is not submission to injustice out of fear or weakness. It is not a lack of strength of moral character. It was out of His character he flipped the tables and healed the sick. It was by compassion and the lack of injustice of the moment that he healed the lame man at the pool on a Sabbath. You could say meekness is a royal characteristic, and we need it.
V6 “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.” How many people do you know who hunger and thirst for righteousness more than ministry? If we desire a position of ministry more than righteousness, is that not an indicator that we are currently unfit for that position? Have we now made “ministry” into our god?
V7 “Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.” Think, of the Parable of the Good Samaritan. How many leaders are modeling this for the next generation to follow? Too many have given themselves the excuse to “feel” that this is not something for them. Do you realize that the King of Heaven and Earth demonstrated this life every day and it was not beneath him to do so?
V8 “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.” This one almost needs no comment if you are aware of the antics of all the big names recently. From morally corrupt Bi-sexual leaders to leadership openly admitting to creating false prophesies for selfish ministry purposes. I believe it now goes without saying that they are not pure in heart and all their prophetic books claiming to see God and being taken up into heaven… were a lie.
V9 “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.” Leaders who fail to bring true peace into the congregation, now suffer the rebuke of the Lord through his people. God desires his people to be at peace in the soul, and he will remove any obstacles that prevent his people from entering in. (Hebrews 4:9-11) I believe the best response to leaders who have walked away from Christ’s path is this rebuke in scripture.
“From the least to the greatest, all are greedy for gain; prophets and priests alike, all practice deceit. They dress the wounds of my people as though it were not serious. ‘Peace, peace,’ they say, when there is no peace. Are they ashamed of their detestable conduct? No, they have no shame at all; they do not even know how to blush. So they will fall among the fallen; they will be brought down when I punish them, says the Lord.” Jeremiah 6: 13-15
What am I saying? I am saying that if you're going to be a leader in the Body, don’t follow the bad apples of our present history, nor should you make ANY alignment with them. {1 Corinthians 15:33}
We as a people and future leaders should consider carefully not only who we align ourselves with but who we sit under as well.
Headship.
I strongly remember at one point in the early years of my Christian walk seeing a diminishing of not only my gifting but the quality of my overall spiritual life. This turned into a lesson from the Lord as he started to show me the pastor I was sitting under. Some of his issues were now starting to manifest in my life.
An excellent example of this for the world to see is the current Morningstar Earthquake that is not only affecting all of that ministry. But I believe we will see the tentacles of this eventually extend into other Christian ministries as well. I say this because I already know of one ministry connected to the Morningstar Fellowship of Ministries (Abide in the Vine fellowship, Donna Hoover) in the northeast that now has its own sexual lawsuit it’s dealing with. This lawsuit is connected to a young woman named Sarah, who reported it and even talked to people within Morningstar to try and get help. Now, the attorneys are talking to her.
Based upon stories I heard while being on staff as well as recent information and email conversations from new victims. I believe in time we will see that the majority of leadership at Morningstar, especially connected to the youth and teaching positions were infected with whatever Rick Joyner carries spiritually. I am not going to go deeper into that subject at this time because I have no desire to complicate the efforts of the attorneys.
But I will say this, I suspect one of the reasons so many historical names from Morningstar's past have gone silent is out of fear of what may get discovered.
When you sit under or become connected to a ministry then everything good and bad the leader carries flows down to you. This is why a congregation will suddenly experience a growth in certain spiritual giftings. Many believers have seen renewed growth in teaching, pastoral, prophecy, and other gifting with the installation of new leaders. These things are wonderful, but the flip side is when the congregations suddenly have a rise of certain spiritual, sinful problems. I have news for you, it may not be a spiritual attack, but it may be evidence of a headship issue.
Spiritual Water
Your views of who you and Christ are will cause you to either overshoot or undershoot the targets laid out in Matthew 5:3-12. Depending on the headship over you, then this can either help you or make you feel like swimming underwater with chains. Or it can make you feel like you have just come alive.
Jesus is the living water to the world John 4:1-26
Click to watch
Because he is the source, your role in leadership is to be the valve. The purpose of a valve in plumbing is to open or close the flow of water from the source. The source, in this case, is “…Christ in you…” Colossians 1:27, and the degree of opening or closing is directly connected to the Holiness you are walking in.
This is why so many Hyper-Charismatic ministries have resorted to faking God’s power before the people. The hidden sins and sexual deviancy have shut off the flow, so the imitation is now wrapped up in entertainment and psychological manipulation.
But your calling is not for the construction of a ministry so that you get paid. Your calling is “…admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone fully mature in Christ.” Colossians 1:28 At the core of this is the reality that to make people fully mature in Christ we ourselves must be the same.
I say this because you can not give what you do not have. This is why you must walk the process the Holy Spirit has for you toward maturity. On the flip side of this is the ongoing evidence we see in some congregations. Where no one is mature and the people are being helplessly flipped back and forth by the forces of this world. This is evidence of what is happening within leadership, and this is why you can not be like them.
To do this can be hard, depending on how you were taught. That is because so much of modern ministry is designed to bring people in to feed the system at the expense of Spiritual growth. This system creates leadership Clones to replicate more Clones.
The Kingdom however gives birth to a royal baby that must learn its place in the Kingdom while falling in love with the Father.
“Well I do get a little much over-impressed
'Til I think of Peter and Paul and the apostles
I don't stack up too well against them I guess
But by the standards 'round here I ain't doing that awful”
From the song “Hard,” by Rich Mullins
Coming up next, “Safe Places”