Checking the Gauges

My Dear Shepherds,

Sometimes leadership fit me like Saul’s armor on David. I could be too self-confident and unloving. Other times, I was passive or reticent. An executive from our church once told me that I was trying to lead from the rear. Often, I wasn’t sure I wanted to lead at all.

The president of a Christian organization, a man I admired and followed, told me once that his favorite section of a bookstore was the business section. I know that wasn’t his only source of guidance, but it made me uneasy because, while Christians can learn some things from business, we must check some gauges they don’t.

John F. Kennedy, Jr., was killed in July 1999 when the plane he was piloting crashed into the Atlantic Ocean near Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts. His wife and sister-in-law were also killed. He was an inexperienced pilot who’d logged only about 300 hours. The night was dark and the sky hazy so that he couldn’t see lights or landmarks and he wasn’t qualified to fly on instruments alone. The official conclusion was that the crash was the fault of an inexperienced pilot who became disoriented in the dark and lost control.

Pastors are trusted to check gauges that others ignore. Remember when Jehoshaphat, King of Judah, allied himself with Ahab, the King of Israel, to fight against Aram in 1 Kings 22? Jehoshaphat threw a monkey wrench in the works when he told Ahab, “First seek the counsel of the Lord.” When Ahab begrudgingly brought in 400 spiritually deaf prophets, Jehoshaphat persisted: “Is there no longer a prophet of the Lord here whom we can inquire of?” Despite the prophet’s warning, the outcome was defeat. That happens in churches, too.

Our pastoral calling comes with a God-given capacity for spiritual leadership but, that said, it is too easy to trust our own judgment. After all, leading a church is what we do. We’ve read the books and been to seminars. We’ve got experience. Ah, but not so fast!

Near the end of his life Moses asked God for a successor,

“May the LORD, the God who gives breath to all living things, appoint someone over this community to go out and come in before them, one who will lead them out and bring them in, so the Lord’s people will not be like sheep without a shepherd.” (Num. 27:16-17)

The Lord told Moses, Take Joshua son of Nun, a man in whom is the spirit of leadership and lay your hand on him.” But that wasn’t the end of it. Although God personally selected Joshua and made clear he had “the spirit of leadership,” God went on to instruct Joshua that when he faced a decision he was “to stand before Eleazar the priest, who will obtain decisions for him by inquiring of the Urim before the Lord” (v. 21). For Joshua, decision-making was like one of those two-step verifications we must use with online transactions—a wise leader who also secures God’s direction. You can’t be too careful when you’re leading in the name of the Lord.

The familiar part of leadership is where we gather information, talk to the stakeholders, check the calendar and the budget, and set the course. The other more important step is waiting quietly and patiently before the Lord, humbly searching our own heart for any self-sufficiency that would throw us off course. Since Jesus said, “Without me you can do nothing,” we must see clearly where we need Jesus and then “ask anything” in his name that we might “bear much fruit.” Anything less and we’ll be flying blind.

Be ye glad!

Pastor Lee

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