What Do We Value?

One of the most prominent topics in the church today is leadership.  We have all kinds of ideas about what we expect from leaders.  What kind of character they should possess, and what kind of training they should have.  We go to seminars and read books and articles about it.  There are hundreds of lists of the traits that we must develop in leaders if the church is to be successful.  As I read these lists its seems that I continually find one trait that is left out: Holiness.

Titus 1:8 tells us that and "elder" must be HOLY.  Paul also gave this instruction to Timothy in regards to leaders (1 Tim. 3:10).  The trend that continues within the church is that we look to the world to see how leaders should be developed, and how they should act.  I have taken college courses on church leadership where the textbooks are secular.  Every chance we get we seem to want to act like the world.

What happened to the standards that God set in place for leaders?  Where is the requirement of holiness?  It seems like the church is more worried about the talents that people possess than we are about the holy life that they live.  Here is my contention:  If we live the lifestyle taught in the Bible God will empower us to be the leaders we need to be.  Is it possible that trying to develop leaders in worldly ways is a misplaced priority in the church?  Is it possible that by not focusing on holiness (without which no man will see the Lord) we are wasting our time on peripheral things?

The Departure of the Spirit

King Saul had as much potential to do great thing for God as anyone in human history.  He was hand-picked by God to lead the people of Israel.  He was anointed by God's prophet and guided by God's word.  The story of Saul, however, is largely one of wasted potential.  In spite of all that God had done to prepare him, scripture tells us in 1 Samuel 16:14, "the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul..." 

Whether we like it or not, we must acknowledge that the Spirit left Saul because of his half-hearted commitment to following the commands of God.  He wanted God's will to be done, but he wanted to do it his way.  He was not interested in the instruction God had given in regards to HOW to follow His will.  This seems to be the case within the church today.  We read and write our books and come up with our slick organizations and marketing schemes.  We know that God wants us to win the lost, but we have determined within our hearts to leave Him out of the process.  We want nothing more than to o it by ourselves.  We all work hard to apply the principles of "Natural Church Development" (I still contend that we need "supernatural church development because if it is natural, it's not of God) and every other book that comes along, but is God's will really being done?  I keep hearing from the same people who promote these man-made methods that the vast majority of congregations are in decline.  What good have all of our methods done?

Maybe it's time that we consider the possibility that we have fallen into the trap of King Saul.  In spite of the availability of power through the Holy Spirit, God's call to holiness, and His written word, we continue to try to do His work our way.  As we forge ahead with our plans the church continues to lose influence and authority.  Could it be that in many cases the Spirit has already left and we are so focused on our ideas that we haven't even noticed?

Maybe instead of trying to figure out what WE can do for God, we need to spend some time considering how we can recover our lampstand.