time to watch video: approx. 10 minutes
Serve Team Training 1: Being a Spirit-led Leader
We believe that God wants relationship with us. It’s His goal to know us, and for us to know Him, so when we talk about leadership at Freedom Valley, the first thing we want to cover is how to have a thriving, growing relationship with our creator God. It’s through His spirit that we should gauge everything we do. We can learn principles, and strategies, and scripture for the rest of our lives and never know it all, but if we’re not putting God first, all of those things are meaningless.
It’s not easier as a pastor/leader.
Don’t buy into the lie that pastors get more time to focus on God. We have to build it in too, just like everyone else.
Priority on the things that matter. You’ll find time for what’s important to you.
But it is more important!
Pg 25 of Lead So Others Can Follow:
“...the landscape of religious leadership in Jesus’ time and noted that…
The Pharisees had externalized religion.
The Scribes had professionalized religion.
The Sadducees has secularized religion.
The Zealots had nationalized religion.
“If we’re not careful, that is exactly what public ministry could do to us as well--externalize us, professionalize us, disillusion us, and make us far too political.”
Cover Page 26 of Lead So Others Can Follow.
We can’t lead people somewhere we’re not going ourselves. If you want to lead people into spiritual maturity, you have to be headed there yourself!
As leaders, we’re held to a higher standard...
By people:
People will assume you have it all together...you don’t.
People will assume your kids are perfect….they’re not.
People will assume all your time is JUST for them….it’s not.
People will assume you remember everything...you don’t.
Get the picture? This is where authenticity comes in, which we’ll cover later.
But also by God!
“Dear brothers and sisters, not many of you should become teachers in the church, for we who teach will be judged more strictly.” James 3:1
“Above reproach” 1 Tim 3:1-13 lays out requirements for church leaders. Faithful in marriage, self-controlled, wise living, good reputation, enjoy having guests over, able to teach, not a heavy drinker or violent, must be gentle, not quarrelsome, not love money. Must manage his family well. Not a new believer, etc. Many of these requirements are laid out in Titus 1:5-9 as well.
1 Corinthians 8 says that you shouldn’t cause another believer to stumble. Example: I know that drinking alcohol isn’t bad, but getting drunk is. A new believer sees me drinking one beer, and thinks that because I’m doing it, they can too...they get drunk, make bad decisions, and justify it by saying that they saw the Pastor drinking a beer once, so they thought it was okay.
It’s the only way to get things done.
Jesus said in John 15:4, “Apart from me you can do nothing.”
We NEED the wisdom of God to get through the decisions in ministry, the confrontation, the whining, the failure. But also, the success! The compliments!
Jesus never dwelt in the praise of the people for very long. He often withdrew to be alone with God in prayer. And on his most stressful night, even though he desperately didn’t want to go through what he went through, he spent the night with God. And was ultimately able to face it all blamelessly.
Countless times in the OT, people tried to do things on their own, but failed (It was only when GOD went with them, they were victorious. Even when it seemed weird or counter-intuitive (Jericho, Red Sea).
The Holy Spirit can cover us when we fall short.
We all fall short of the glory of God, (says Romans 3:23) and so can’t do everything ourselves! The Holy Spirit is there to comfort us (John 14:27), remind us (John 14:26), counsel us (John 16:8), correct us (Romans 8:26), encourage us, convict us, and produce fruit in our lives (Galatians 5:22-23)!
When you are short on patience, for example, stop trying to produce it naturally! Go to God, get in the Word, pursue Jesus, and the Spirit of God will produce that fruit from within you!