Lead His Church

Josh Elliott

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Introduction

How many of you guys are fathers? My son just turned 3 years old on the 5th, meaning that I have now been a father for 3 years. I’ve learned a lot in such a short amount of time. I think it’s a profound image the Bible uses when it describes the first person of the Trinity “God the Father.” We believe the Bible is inspired by the Holy Spirit, so none of the words or images in there are accidental. That means that God Himself is the one who decided He would be known to His people as their “father.” Now there’s a lot you can understand about God being a father from what the Bible says and outside reflection on what it means to be a father, but I think there’s a real sense in which there are some things about God being a father that you can’t really fully understand until you are a father yourself. For example how God can be loving and yet wrathful towards sin. The dads know what I’m talking about here.

Yet God is not the only one in the Bible to be compared to a father. When I was studying Eldership in the Bible as a part of preparing for Fredericton Christian Church’s process of transitioning to eldership I was struck by this verse in Paul’s first letter to his disciple/mentee Timothy, as he describes what qualities a man must have in order to be selected as an elder in the church

1 Timothy 3:4–5 CSB

He must manage his own household competently and have his children under control with all dignity. (If anyone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he take care of God’s church?)

This is interesting. This is one of the few qualifications that comes with a special explanation in the text. Paul’s explanation is that you can tell how well someone will do as an elder by observing how well he manages his own household. In other words an elder is to the church as a father is to his household. Now this has some implications as to what level of influence and authority an elder had in the New Testament church, but for our purposes today it also informs our image of what sort of leadership an elder should provide for a church.

This isn’t the only image the Bible uses for the leadership of an elder. Actually the word elder itself is a metaphor in part for what an elder should be like: he should be mature and experienced. The Bible also describes elders as shepherds tending to a flock of sheep, or overseers supervising the kingdom work on earth. But today I want to zoom in on the sometimes neglected image of an elder as a father figure in the church. What does a father do in his household? He produces living offspring in his image and leads and teaches them to be like him.

So there’s the two biggest challenges for a father, keeping your kids alive and being someone you want them to be. In reverse order these two things also apply to the church. If we want the people in our churches to be thriving disciples of Jesus than we need to lead them by example.

We can’t reproduce what we are not

We can’t give what we ain’t got

We can’t teach what we don’t know

We can’t lead where we won’t go

That means that in the modified words of Michael Jackson if we want to see postive change in the church, if we want to see churches that are truly alive and thriving we need to start with the man in the mirror.

So let’s look at those four metrics and how we can start with ourselves in order to effectively lead others. So to put them positively we must:

Be what we want to reproduce

Have what we want to give

Learn what we want to teach

Go where we want to lead

Be What we Want to Reproduce

Lions beget lions, birds beget birds, people beget people. That’s by God’s design. Over and over in the creation account God creates animals and tells them to reproduce “after their kind.” And even among people it’s amazing how much like us our children can be. In fact often the things that bug us the most about our children are the things they inherit from us, am I right? In like manner leaders tend to make their followers like them.

So if we as leaders in the church want to help produce healthy disciples, we have to actually be healthy disciples. Jesus went first in this. He was already perfectly righteous before the incarnation, obviously, but in the incarnation He became what He wanted His followers to be. He became a man so that He could live righteously as a man.

John 1:14 CSB

The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. We observed his glory, the glory as the one and only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

That word “dwelt” by the way is more specifically the word for dwelling in tents. He tented among us. Not super related, but I thought it was a cool tidbit of information. The fact that Jesus lived life as a man is why Paul can say things like:

Philippians 2:5–11 CSB

Adopt the same attitude as that of Christ Jesus, who, existing in the form of God, did not consider equality with God as something to be exploited. Instead he emptied himself by assuming the form of a servant, taking on the likeness of humanity. And when he had come as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death— even to death on a cross. For this reason God highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow— in heaven and on earth and under the earth— and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

He was the example for us in righteousness, in humility, and in withstanding the temptation to sin.

Hebrews 4:15 CSB

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in every way as we are, yet without sin.

So if our disciples are becoming more like us, what are they becoming? Are they becoming more righteous? More humble? More able to withstand temptation? Now we obviously know that no one is perfect in this life, not even leadership, but there’s a reason why the Bible has such a high bar for who qualifies as an Elder. Like it or not, try to fight it as hard as we like, the people following us are going to become like us.

The point is we have to be able to maturely take stock of who we are and who we’re becoming. Are we growing in our own holiness? Are we growing closer to Christ? Because that’s how we become the people we need to be, so that we can say to our churches what Paul said to the church in Corinth 1 Corinthians 11:1

1 Corinthians 11:1 CSB

Imitate me, as I also imitate Christ.

Have What we Want to Give

Now of course we aren’t talking about money here, though of course that principle is obviously true. You can’t give away money if you don’t have it. No in this case I want to talk about the spiritual gifts that we’ve been given. We aren’t talking about the fruits of the spirit, because my arbitrary distinction would put those kind of qualities under the heading of things we are not things we have. Instead I’m talking about the gifts and talents that God has given us that He wants us to share with others.

The gifts that Paul describes in

1 Corinthians 12:1–11 CSB

Now concerning spiritual gifts: brothers and sisters, I do not want you to be unaware. You know that when you were pagans, you used to be enticed and led astray by mute idols. Therefore I want you to know that no one speaking by the Spirit of God says, “Jesus is cursed,” and no one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit. Now there are different gifts, but the same Spirit. There are different ministries, but the same Lord. And there are different activities, but the same God works all of them in each person. A manifestation of the Spirit is given to each person for the common good: to one is given a message of wisdom through the Spirit, to another, a message of knowledge by the same Spirit, to another, faith by the same Spirit, to another, gifts of healing by the one Spirit, to another, the performing of miracles, to another, prophecy, to another, distinguishing between spirits, to another, different kinds of tongues, to another, interpretation of tongues. One and the same Spirit is active in all these, distributing to each person as he wills.

Now we won’t get into the debate about whether tongues or prophecy are still active in the church, though I’m sure that would be a fun and interesting thing to talk about. The point is that Scripture talks about God giving us gifts for the sake of ministry. So the question is, what giftings do we have as leaders? In order to lead out of your strength you need to know what your strength is. What has God equipped you with?

See the thing is that God expects us to use the things that we have been given for the sake of the kingdom. That’s the whole point of the parable of the talents that He tells in Matthew. In that parable there is a master leaving town who distributes his money to three slaves. He doesn’t distribute it evenly however, but gives a large sum to one servant, a smaller but still decent sized sum of money to the second and finally he gives a small amount to the final servant, the scripture says according to their ability. Well when he comes back he finds that the first two servants have used the money given to them to double his money. The final servant however does nothing with it and is rebuked and punished for it.

So what are we doing with the gifts that God has given us for His kingdom? We need to take careful look inward and ask ourselves what we have that is given to us by God and how we can give that to the people that we are called to lead. More than this however there is one thing above all else that we need to have so that we can give it to others. The thing that Paul emphasizes in the very next chapter of the same letter he talked about those spiritual gifts. Let’s read and discover together what that is.

1 Corinthians 13:1–3 CSB

If I speak human or angelic tongues but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so that I can move mountains but do not have love, I am nothing. And if I give away all my possessions, and if I give over my body in order to boast but do not have love, I gain nothing.

Now I think the next talk will deal more with loving and living with the people we’re leading, but there’s a reason that Paul emphasizes love right after talking about giftedness. We can’t let our gifts and positions lead us to abuse of what God has given us. We are given these things to share with others and benefit them, not to gain position and prestige.

Learn What we Want to Teach

So you’re working on being who you need to be, and on having what you need to have, but there’s still the need to teach. In fact one of the qualifications as we know for an elder is that he must be able to teach. This is because if we only passed on the things we’ve mastered we could never give people everything that the Bible has for them. If we want our disciples to surpass us, which is the goal of every mentor, than we need to teach. And we can’t teach unless we first learn. The book my talk is based on makes much of this verse in Ezra:

Ezra 7:10 CSB

Now Ezra had determined in his heart to study the law of the Lord, obey it, and teach its statutes and ordinances in Israel.

This is because Ezra shows a real heart for learning and teaching God’s law for us to emulate. Plus our restoration movement started from a heart to become more like the church in acts, which according to

Acts 2:41–42 CSB

So those who accepted his message were baptized, and that day about three thousand people were added to them. They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayer.

So among other also very important things they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching, which is what we have preserved for us in the Bible. That’s the material we most need to master to teach our congregations well. We need to be lifelong Bible students, because in my experience and what I hear from the experience of others, you won’t ever reach the end of learning from God’s word.

Go Where we Want to Lead

One point the book “Lead His Church” made that I really love is that there’s a reason that we are called to tend the sheep rather than cattle. Cattle are driven from behind, where sheep are lead from out front. If we want to lead churches that are growing, changing, and serving the community than we need to be the ones that are out front. Jesus starts the great comission with a reminder of His authority, but then the first command He gives is to “go.” Not to remain, not to gather, but to go.

Matthew 28:18–20 CSB

Jesus came near and said to them, “All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Jesus sent his disciples all over the world with their mission, and here we sit almost 2000 years later and Christianity has spread all over the world, but the work is certainly not done. As long as even one person hasn’t heard the good news we still have work to do.

Once more Jesus is an excellent model of this. He didn’t just come down and sit on a hill and preach then return to heaven. He healed the sick, he fed the hungry, he went so far as to die for the ministry. Then He sent His disciples to go do the same. Even before the crucifixion Jesus sent out His disciples to do as He had been doing:

Matthew 10:5–8 CSB

Jesus sent out these twelve after giving them instructions: “Don’t take the road that leads to the Gentiles, and don’t enter any Samaritan town. Instead, go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. As you go, proclaim, ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near.’ Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those with leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you received, freely give.

Now personally I tend to be more of a talker than a doer, to my shame. But if I want to lead my church to be a church that makes disciples, than I need to actually go out and make disciples. I can’t expect the people in my church to do what I’m not doing. The same is true for all of us.

Conclusion

So then, where do we go from here? Well we ask ourselves the question, where am I leading the people that I’m leading? Even if you’re sitting here and you aren’t a father or an elder or a leader in any obvious way, we’re all being watched. We’re all leaders in some way. So where are we leading people? What are we teaching them? What are we giving them? What kind of disciples are we reproducing?

And there’s our reflection for this session. We won’t have a question period after this, but you can go away and ask yourself four questions based on the rhyme we started with.

We can’t reproduce what we are not, we can’t give what we ain’t got, we can’t teach what we don’t know, we can’t lead where we won’t go.