Leadership 111
Wednesday Evening Bible Study
August 26, 1998
Homework assignments – Did you have your Quiet Times? Did you pray for your ministry? Did you complete this week’s assignment in Spiritual Leadership?
Large Group Discussion
Share a lesson you learned from your Quiet Times this week.
(Have two or three people share)Have you grown at all in your daily time with God? Have you grown more consistent?
Spiritual Leadership
The Perils of Leadership (ch.21)
Pride puts you in the place where God hates.
Pride is to forget that all we have is from God.
Three tests to identify pride:
The test of precedence – How do we react when somebody else is promoted ahead of us?
The test of sincerity – How do we react when others actually see the same failures in us that we see ourselves?
The test of criticism – Does criticism make us defensive? Do we respond back with criticizing the critic?
When the world revolves around ME.
A test of egotism – How do you do when listening to someone of equal standing as yourself be praised?
Being suspicious of rivals. Instead of rejoicing with more people joining the work, you become suspicious of them stealing your place.
When people’s esteem for you turns into adulation.
"Leaders must work to attach the people’s affection to Jesus."
Quote from Spurgeon:
"Success exposes a man to the pressure of people and thus tempts him to hold on to his gains by means of fleshly methods and practices, and to let himself be ruled wholly by the dictatorial demands of incessant expansion. Success can go to my head, and will unless I remember that it is God who accomplished the work, that He can continue to do so without any help, and that He will be able to make out with other means whenever He cuts me down to size."
I think this is something that can come from insecurity, a fear of others finding out that I may actually be a flawed, fallible, human being. It also can come from an incredible, terrible amount of pride, where a person actually thinks they are infallible.
Don’t be afraid to admit that you can make mistakes.
Being spiritual doesn’t mean you’re unable to make wrong decisions.
Good illustration of a man in his nineties, clinging to his position as Sunday School superintendent.
"One unfortunate consequence is that young people who have energy to fill a role are held up and stagnate."
DANGER: "Sometimes sincere and well-meaning followers encourage the notion of indispensability, which feeds a leader’s ego and makes him even less objective about performance in office." In other words, don’t make me feel I’m indispensable! I’m not!
It’s important that we learn balance in our emotions.
Many useful people fall victim to depression.
Spurgeon quote:
"Before any great achievement, some measure of depression is very usual… Such was my experience when I first became a pastor in London. My success appalled me, and the thought of the career which seemed to open up so far from elating me, cast me into the lowest depth, out of which I muttered my misere and found no room for a gloria in excelsis. Who was I that I should continue to lead so great a multitude? I would betake me to my village obscurity, or emigrate to America and find a solitary nest in the backwoods where I might be sufficient for the things that were demanded of me. It was just then the curtain was rising on my lifework, and I dreaded what it might reveal. I hope I was not faithless, but I was timorous and filled with a sense of my own unfitness … This depression comes over me whenever the Lord is preparing a larger blessing for my ministry."
Robert Murray McCheyne’s example during times of success – kneeling down and symbolically placing the crown of success on the brow of the Lord, to whom it rightly belonged.
Samuel Chadwick: "If successful, don’t crow; if defeated, don’t croak."
According to the definitions he gives for this section, the "prophet" is the one who speaks for God at all costs, even when it’s not popular. The "leader" is one who may at times compromise what’s right for the sake of keeping his following.
Sometimes we need to be willing to do the unpopular thing and follow after God’s leading rather than trying to do what is pleasing the crowd.
We need to be on our guard like Paul, lest after we have preached to others, we end up disqualified for ministry. We need to be aware of our weaknesses and take care to keep them from taking us away from the Lord.
Questions from the book (pg.178-179):
#5. Which of the perils of leadership worry you the most?
(my answer) I think two are most applicable to me. First is indispensability, I feel at times as if I have to do everything or be everywhere for things to work. Second is the temptation to be a "leader" and not a "prophet", in that I can tend to want to be a people-pleaser instead of always being solely concerned about what God thinks.
#6. What areas of "moderation" are crucial to your fitness for spiritual service?
(my answer) Use of time, not wasting it. Physical fitness – I’m way out of shape and allow myself to get way too run down because of it.
#7. How do you deal with people who believe they are never wrong?
(my answer) I usually start by getting mad at them and trying to prove them wrong. When I fail at that, I usually abandon them because if they are that unteachable, then they are not useful to the kingdom.
Venture in Faith Video
"Chuck Smith"
The section we’re looking at tonight can sound like it’s making too much of the man Chuck Smith, but it’s simply those who know him sharing what he’s like. When you get to the end of the section, you’ll notice that Chuck simply feels like a spectator, watching God at work.
(Prov 27:2 KJV) Let another man praise thee, and not thine own mouth; a stranger, and not thine own lips.
In fact, it’s quite a summary of qualities that we’ve been looking at over the summer, qualities of spiritual leadership.
What qualities about Chuck Smith would you want to emulate?
A man of compassion and love, a man of the Word.
He’s "one of us".
His humility, he’s easy to get to know, non-threatening.
He takes you at face value, unless he’s come to know otherwise.
He’s careful with his words, thinking before he speaks.
He’s a servant leader.
He realizes that it’s God’s work, not his.
Patience with difficult people or circumstances.
He ventures out in faith.
A man of integrity and faithfulness.
Large Group Discussion
As we look back over our times together this summer, what areas of leadership have you been challenged in?
Small Groups
Laying hands on one another.
Pray for those who are active in a particular ministry.
Pray for those who are still looking for their ministry.