• 10:21 “the shepherds have become stupid, …therefore…”,
• 12:10 “many shepherds have ruined My vineyard”; and
• 50:6 “their shepherds have led them astray.”

There really are public consequences for what a leader may regard as their private, personal spirituality! 

The Bible sets a very high standard for the spiritual disciplines of a ministry leader.  Now I know that the spiritual lives of leaders and their team members really should be no different because we are all called to spiritual maturity, but there is no getting around the fact that the spiritual life of a leader has the potential for greater good or evil than an individual team member’s because:

• a leader shapes the culture of an entire ministry and has the greatest influence over its direction; and
• a leader is seen as the primary representative of a ministry by the public, and their perception of the leader greatly affects their perception of the ministry.

Just think about the churches that have withered after a pastor’s moral failure, or the good and faithful people who lost their jobs when agency leaders lost their integrity and the ministry lost donor support.

As Joshua stepped into leadership, the Lord made the key to successful leadership very clear to him.  Joshua was to carefully follow all God’s law, turning “not from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may have good success wherever you go” (Jos 1:7).  

In the next verse, the Lord tells Joshua the spiritual practices that will equip him to follow the law:

“This book of the law shall not depart out of your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it, for then you shall make your way prosperous, and then you shall have good success” (v.8).

So important and foundational is God’s law (or God’s ways), that Deuteronomy 17:18-20 contains this command for those who would lead his people:

“When he sits on the throne of his kingdom, he shall write for himself a copy of this law on a scroll in the presence of the Levitical priests.  It shall be with him and he shall read it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the LORD his God, by carefully observing all the words of this law and these statutes, that his heart may not be lifted up above his countrymen and that he may not turn aside from the commandment, to the right or the left, so that he and his sons may continue long in his kingdom in the midst of Israel.”

I think it is significant that when the people of Israel affirmed their acceptance of Joshua’s leadership, they replied “Just as we obeyed Moses in all things, so we will obey you; only may the Lord your God be with you, as he was with Moses!” (Jos 1:17).  One commentator says that the last part of this verse is more a condition of their allegiance than a prayer.  It was as if they said, “We will follow your leading so long as there is evidence that you are being led by God!”  What legitimates a person as a Christian leader is that the person is following God’s leadership.  The Israelites made the important point that God is the ultimate leader, not the human being who is his earthly representative. 

The landscape of Christian leadership over the millennia has been littered with people who wanted to lead but who did not follow God.  The result was lasting damage to the credibility of the church and a rejection of Christianity by people who need Christ.  Much has been done in the name of Christ that had nothing to do with Christ.  Lord  Acton said “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”  Some Christian leaders have claimed to lead by divine right, interpreting that as an unconditional appointment to leadership, and believe they can then do whatever they want without oversight by any human (now that’s absolute power!).  The people of Israel apparently put a check on Joshua’s divine appointment to leadership that I think is quite healthy.  I believe God has placed me in my leadership role,* so yes, there was a divine appointment.  But that divine appointment still leaves me subject to the checks and balances provided by the Christian community, who have the right to test if my ministry leadership is godly (1 Thess 5:21, 1 John 4:1).  Saul was divinely appointed as king of Israel, but he lost his right to lead as he usurped the spiritual authority that properly belonged to the prophet-priest Samuel.  Saul’s personal spirituality eventually negated his call to leadership.

Many leaders start out in a close relationship with God and are Spirit-led, but some will start to think they are more responsible for their leadership success than God is.  God warned the Israelites about this attitude when he said in Deuteronomy 18:17-18, “You may say in your heart, ‘My power and the strength of my hand made me this wealth.’  But you shall remember the LORD your God, for it is He who is giving you power to make wealth.”   A good start does not guarantee a good end.  Remember what got you started, and stay with it.  I followed God to get into my leadership role and my success as a ministry leader will be no better than my success in continuing to follow God.  My personal spiritual life is incredibly important to the ministry I lead. 

So, to provide good Christian leadership:

• The Bible says you need to know God’s law inside and out.  God’s law is God’s direction as to how to live a godly life.  It is the outward manifestation of God’s character.  If you claim to be God’s representative to lead your ministry, you’d better know how God would think about all the decisions you’ll have to make.  The biblical command is to study Scripture and meditate on it.  I suggest that you get a solid grounding in the meta-narrative of Scripture (the big picture) as these grand scriptural themes provide the best understanding of who God is and how he works.  Word studies, book studies and thematic studies can follow and show you how to apply what you have learned, but first you really need to understand the overarching history of God’s activity in our world, his goals, and his character.
• If you want to be led by God, you must give God room in your life to speak to you.  Prayer is a two-way conversation, so be quiet for extended periods of time and listen.
• Your first consideration should always be the state of your current relationship with God, not the state of your ministry.  Leadership starts with a confession to God of your own sins, an acknowledgement of your own shortcomings, and an admission that you cannot lead God’s people without experiencing God’s leadership yourself.  I’ve written about how you can structure a personal leadership retreat that walks you through this examination.
• What evidence should you look for that God supports your continued leadership?  That’s tricky.  If it was just a matter of identifiable results, then Jeremiah was a dismal failure.  Yet God approved of his prophetic ministry even though it had no fruit.  Results are important, but more important is how those results were achieved.  I think most importantly the evidence of God’s leadership in your life is agreement by those whom God has put in oversight (your board, congregation or whoever has the right to fire you) that your leadership is authentically Christian and pleasing to the Lord.  In the end, that is the real test of Christian leadership.

* I also believe that every person working for a Christian ministry has been divinely called.  Both leader and staff are called by God, but given different responsibilities.  This assumes there is a good discernment process in place to authenticate a call to ministry.

When a leader requires without relating, the leader is seen as autocratic, demanding, hard-nosed and a bunch of other not-so-nice attributes.  When a leader relates without requiring, not much happens, but everyone has a really good time as the ship goes down.

I suspect that some leaders feel the tension between requiring and relating and struggle with doing both.  Some leaders may have difficulty with the relating part, believing that if things get mushy and touchy-feely the organization will fall to pieces.  And other leaders may not have the intestinal fortitude and confidence to insist on performance, so they avoid confronting poor performance in a misguided attempt to be nice.

This leader made two points about R&R that should help you lead with both strategies.

1. Don’t settle for an either/or approach to the two Rs.  The concept of requiring and relating, of demanding performance while at the same time showing care and compassion, is thoroughly biblical.  John 1:14 says that Jesus came “full of grace and truth.”  Randy Alcorn, in The Grace and Truth Paradox: Responding with Christlike Balance, shows how Jesus demonstrated grace towards other people while at the same time not compromising the truth at all.  He welcomed the woman caught in adultery, but also said, “Go and sin no more.”  Grace is like relating, and truth is like requiring.  Jesus showed how grace and truth work together seamlessly to produce his desired result: they drive people to a decision point – will they, or will they not, live for God?  Requiring and relating can likewise co-exist in your leadership style to produce your desired results – accomplishment of your ministry’s mission.  So don’t be squeamish about insisting on performance, and don’t be shy about building strong relationships with your staff.
2. Requiring performance by clearly setting out the expected activities and results is simply good stewardship.  I thought this was a brilliant insight, connecting performance with stewardship.  After all, if you had a program that did not perform well, you’d either cancel it or redesign it to perform better.  You wouldn’t knowingly continue a program that was inefficient or ineffective, would you?  Of course not.  So why would you knowingly put up with inefficient or ineffective performance?  Both programs and salaries are funded by donors who expect you to make good use of their hard-earned donations.  And as a leader in ministry, you are accountable to God for good stewardship of everything entrusted to you.

But employees are accountable for good stewardship too.  Any paid worker in Christian ministry has two kinds of stewardship to think about with respect to their incomes.  First, in their personal capacities, they are to be good stewards of the cash they receive.  That is the normal way to think about stewardship.  But second, in their work capacities, they are to be good stewards of the time they traded for their income.  I don’t often hear people talk about stewardship of their work time.  Most often when stewardship of time is discussed, it is in the context of volunteer service.  But every person should think about how they are using their work time and ask the question, “Am I right now being a good steward of the time I have sold to my employer?”

And if leadership needs to help some people become better stewards of their work time, then that too is good stewardship on the leader’s part.  If we don’t address performance issues in order to be nice, well, just hear what Randy Alcorn has to say about that!  According to him, we’ve redefined Christlike to mean “nice” and with that definition, Jesus himself wasn’t always Christlike, because he confronted people with their sin.  Requiring that work standards be met may not always be seen as nice, but done well it is good stewardship.

In Shepherds After My Own Heart: Pastoral Traditions And Leadership In The Bible, Tim Laniak discusses the protection, provision and guidance that the Lord gave to Israel while he led them through the wilderness.  These three words are a pretty good description of leadership responsibilities, but it is the word guidance that I think is most closely related to the R&R style of leadership.  There are three Hebrew verbs used in the Bible that are translated ‘to guide.”  The three nuances Tim gives these words are:

1. gentle leading (which is shown in several verses as the Lord carrying Israel in his arms, or leading the nursing ewes of his flock);
2. leading, even against the will of those being led; and
3. capable, visionary leadership guiding a group toward its destiny.

Perhaps the best way to encapsulate what is meant by Require and Relate is that leaders should provide gentle leadership guiding people towards their common destiny, even when some prodding is required.

By the way, on a completely different topic, Alcorn’s book has a statement that just leapt off the page at me.  As a bonus thought, here it is:

“Most sinners loved being around Jesus.  They enjoyed His company, sought Him out, invited Him to their homes and parties.  Today most sinners don’t want to be around Christians.  Unbelievers tore off the roof to get to Jesus.  Sometimes they crawl out the windows to get away from us!  Why is that?”

Alcorn asks a great question that we all should carefully consider.

World Vision Canada sponsors the “30 Hour Famine,” an annual event in which people get together as a group and go without food for 30 hours while doing a variety of fun activities and educational sessions on poverty and
hunger.  What theological statements could this program be making?  The design of the program speaks volumes: a simple donation is not enough!  Donors can’t simply use money to avoid confronting an unpleasant issue.  Rather, they are asked to share in the experience of hunger, to suffer alongside those who live with hunger every day.  Doing so, they might get a glimpse of God, not hovering dispassionately somewhere “out there,” but suffering along with humanity, being moved by our plight (e.g., Exo 3:7).  Participants are acting like Job’s three friends, who did one thing very well; they came and they sat silently with Job for seven days and nights.  They identified with Job’s grief and sympathized and comforted him by sharing in the grief ritual: they tore their own clothes, threw dust over their heads, and they wept with him.  A strong theology of suffering can be discerned in this program.  Observers of the “30 Hour Famine” might also get the idea that Christianity sees all humanity as one family, with responsibilities for each other.  All are made in the image of God and all deserve their fair share of God’s creation, regardless of their faith.  We can infer from the “30 Hour Famine” that indeed we are “our brother’s keeper,” something that Cain, holding a worldly perspective, rejected (Gen 4:9).

International Teams Canada has a “Ride for Refugees.”  This family-friendly event raises awareness of refugees and internally displaced people.  Participants have a choice of routes for a bicycle ride, ranging from 10 km to 100 km.  An observer might realize that all of life can be put to use for God, because the program is based on recreational biking rather than an overtly spiritual activity.  Participants can have fun while serving God.  By  offering routes that accommodate everyone from young to old, beginner to expert, single or with children, the ministry is modelling an inclusive theology that holds that everyone can be used by God.  Churches and charities that arrange rides in their local community are allowed to direct 50% of the money raised to a qualifying refugee, ethnic or immigrant ministry of their choice (including a program of their own).  An astute observer would see an open-handed theology of generosity that supports a spirit of cooperation between ministries, based on a theology of common mission and a belief that God will generously provide the necessary resources.

World Vision Canada and International Teams Canada may or may not have designed their programs with these  theological points in mind, but however they designed them, theological reflection reveals that they are well designed and make valid theological points.  

When you look at your programs, policies and practices, here are some questions to help you reflect on how well your espoused theology is reflected in them:

• What assumptions do they make regarding
  • values,
  • motivation, and
  • the root issue or problem?
• What are the relevant theological truths or doctrines for each one?
• What do they say about our view of God and humanity?
• How do they line up with our Christian responsibilities and ethics?

Scott Rodin, in Stewards In The Kingdom: A Theology Of Life In All Its Fullness, has a challenge that every Christian management team should take up.  His question relates specifically to stewardship practices, but it applies across the board to all organizational practices. He asks:

If we were to start from scratch, with no preconceived ideas with regards to what works in fundraising but only with a firm commitment to the ethics of the kingdom of God in which we live, what kind of development program would we build? What would it look like, what techniques would we use and, most importantly, what would be the assumptions upon which this program would be based?

Stories such as these cause me to ask, “I’m sure your ministry has a Christian mission, but is it a Christian ministry?”  If you believe that action speaks louder than words, and that we should preach the gospel at all times (using words if necessary), then what are you preaching through your ministry’s actions?  This is a really important issue because Jesus said in Mat 5:16, “Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.”  If that’s what happens when they see our good deeds, what will happen when they see our bad deeds?  In my next post I’ll discuss how this idea applies to how you engage people outside of your ministry, but in this post I am focused on how you work with your own staff. 

In Ontario, holders of religious office are entirely exempt from the Employment Standards Act (which provides minimum standards for notice of termination).  Some churches think that because the legislation doesn’t apply to pastors, they can treat them any way they want!  But they forget that Common Law still applies and the result in court will be what is fair and reasonable, not the minimum set by the Act.  In another province I was told the church counted on the pastor not going to the courts to sue fellow believers.  But the bigger issue is, churches that terminate pastors without notice are showing that when secular restraints are cast off, this is how Christians choose to treat fellow Christians!!!  What a terrible witness. 

If you say you are a Christian ministry, then the way you work together as a team better be an excellent witness to what life is like in the kingdom of God.  This is not only your responsibility before God, but it is also your responsibility to every other ministry that works in the name of Christ.  Everything we do should reflect the righteous ways that God wants us to have with him and with each other. 

How can we transform society if we can’t get our own Christian societies right?  People should look at our churches and agencies and say, “I want a society that looks like that!”   All of our communities, whether a family, a church, a social network, or a work team, should bear witness to the kingdom that is coming and that has already broken in to our world.  After all, this is the Good News and I don’t want anybody to look at us and say, “Thanks, but no thanks!”

Job 31:13-14 says it all:  

If I have denied justice to my menservants and maidservants
       when they had a grievance against me,

what will I do when God confronts me?
       What will I answer when called to account?

There are times when employees need correction and development, and these should be done in the spirit of helping them better use their gifts and pursue their call, rather than punishing them.  After all, what employer doesn’t want all of their employees to be highly successful?  There are times when ending the employment relationship is the right thing to do, but this should be done in the spirit of helping them find a place that better fits what they have to offer.  I don’t know, but I expect that the cases that justify immediate dismissal for cause are far fewer than what many employers think.

My approach to difficult situations (of any kind) is to try to understand how God could redeem the situation for all parties.  As hard as it may be, especially when people are emotional, I have found that in difficult situations there has always been a way that leaves all parties feeling better about the situation.  I wish I could give examples, but for obvious reasons, I can’t.  All I can say is, it is worth the time praying about and reflecting on what would be a good outcome for the other party.   

In A passion for your mission, I said you need passion for the work of your ministry.  Well folks, this is my passion for CCCC’s mission:  that all ministries should operate in a manner that is worthy of Jesus Christ, in whose name we serve.  May what I do in leadership never, ever bring reproach to the name of Christ!  Amen.

This will be a long post.  It has taken a lot of time to write it and I don’t want to break it up into two posts because it is one big thought.  So please be patient as I think you’ll find it helpful.  There are learning points below, but the story of my call precedes them in order to demonstrate that your call doesn’t have to be just like someone else’s and so that I can refer to my story in the learning points. 

My call to ministry was not like John’s.  I knew from my preteen years, I think almost to the time I was saved, that somehow God was going to use me some day to serve his church.  I don’t know why I thought that, I just did.  I continued to have that thought many times over the years, but I had no idea how one serves the whole church.  A church or a denomination, I understood, but the broader church?  I thought it quite presumptuous to even think about it!  Who am I?  So I just went on with my life.  But on May 25th 2001, I asked God a question, ”Why have you given me so much vision for my church, for my clients, for everyone around me and nothing for me?”  The answer was so clear that I pulled over to the side of the road in shock.  I knew instantly that God had given me a call and the call was still valid this many years later!  I went home and told my wife I was going to go to seminary to prepare for whatever God had in mind for me.  She instantly agreed without reservation (now that’s confirmation!).  I met with trusted people from my church who supported my sense of call to ministry.  (Thank you Marshall, Jim, Ray, Laurie and Walt.)  Two weeks later I was enrolled at Tyndale Seminary and two weeks after that I started my first two courses during the summer term.  

I was not then aware of a call to CCCC, I was just being obedient in taking the next step in preparation to serve God.  When my wife and senior pastor saw the job ad for the executive director of CCCC, they both recommended that I apply.  God orchestrated events in a marvelous way during the next six months.  The key for me was a one-week spiritual retreat that was part of my MDiv program.  The issue I brought to the retreat was whether I should pastor a church or lead CCCC, which had been offered to me subject to one more interview.  I thought one was a test for the other!  The spiritual director said something life-changing and liberating.  “Why do you think God has only one perfect plan for you?  Don’t you think in his graciousness God may give you two opportunities, equally pleasing to him, and then take delight in watching you make your choice?”  He suggested a prayerful walk in the woods during which I realized that neither ministry option was more spiritual than the other, they just fulfilled different purposes in God’s plan.  I came home and conferred with Marshall Eizenga, then associate pastor at my church, who had watched my spiritual formation for fifteen years by that time.  He confirmed the appropriateness of CCCC for me.  So my call was discerned based on a clear call to prepare for something (I didn’t know what) coupled with opportunity and guidance from several people that all aligned with a long-standing feeling I had as to God’s plan for my future.  The other half of the equation is that the CCCC board independently discerned that I was called to lead this great ministry.  My denominational advisor also agreed it was a good use of my gifts.  We were in agreement and God’s call was confirmed in community.

As I travel for CCCC and visit our members, I always ask people how they got into the ministry that they are now in.  And every time, I get treated to a unique story of how God worked in someone’s life.  I’ve never heard the same story twice, and since God works in different ways with different people, I don’t believe there is a formula for discerning your call.  What we learn from those who have gone before us is: 1) to be open to God working through us in unexpected ways; and 2) that we discern his leadership by engaging in Christian spiritual practices and spiritual reflection.  So here are some observations you may find helpful. 

• God’s thoughts are not our thoughts and his ways are not our ways (Isa 55:8).  You cannot plan your way into a call from God.  If you are asking God to bless your plans, you are probably not going to live out your highest and best purpose that God has in mind for you.  At one point while at seminary, I thought God had forgotten me, so I helped him by getting some job interviews with Christian ministries.  At one interview, the Holy Spirit clearly indicated to me “This is not what this is all about.  Withdraw all your applications!”  My plans were frustrating God’s plans.  His direction was to stop planning, sit back, and watch what he would do.  I would do nothing but respond to what others initiated.  It reminded me of the truism “Let go and let God.”  Experiencing God is a great book that says God never asks people to dream up what they should do for him.  You can’t call yourself.  You are called.  Are you asking God to bless your plans, or are you seeking God’s plans?      
• What if God seems to be silent about your call?  Whenever there is silence, the standard advice is to check for sin first and deal with that.  And if sin is not the issue, then keep doing the last thing God told you to do before the silence and wait for him to initiate change.  And lastly, if you’ve never felt you had a personal call, perhaps the general call that all believers have is your only call (in which case, see the next bullet point).  While at seminary I had no understanding of what kind of ministry God was leading me into.  God seemed quite quiet.  All I knew was that I was done with secular work.   I also didn’t know how I could finish the degree as a full-time student with no income.  Yet in spite of all the things I did not know, I did know with certainty that God wanted me in that MDiv program and that is what I hung on to.  I said to myself many times, “But this one thing I know…”  It was the last call that I had from God that gave me the fortitude to persevere and push through some tough circumstances.  
• There are different kinds of call.  A corporate call is shared by all believers while an individual call is for one person alone.  Os Guiness says the ordinary (or corporate) call is to a life response to “Follow me!”  A special (or individual) call is a clear communication from God to a task.  Some people have no sense of individual call, in which case they live their lives following the call they share with all other Christians, believing that God will use them ad hoc as they live their lives.  They are fully living a called life by doing so.  I don’t know that we can say everyone needs an individual call.  I do question Guiness’s definition of the individual call as a call to a task.  I prefer to think that God calls us to a particular part of his mission.  I feel called to the mission of equipping God’s church, more particularly the leadership of churches and Christian agencies.  I am currently fulfilling that call through my role at CCCC because the board and I both feel that this role, with me in it, serves both my personal mission and CCCC’s organizational mission.  If my time at CCCC ends, I am sure I would still feel called to serve the church but God would be leading me to another means of doing so.  In my opinion, discerning your call usually means discerning two things: 1) what mission you are called to; and 2) with whom you are called to do it. 
• Sometimes we are in circumstances that we don’t understand.  At one point I was really, really mad at God because I was doing everything for him and he was doing nothing for me.  I came home late one night on a real spiritual high from a three day retreat of silence and solitude to discover I had received a fax from someone whom I had forgiven in my heart for some really bad behaviour a few years before.  The person came to mind during the retreat and I wrote out a script about how I would tell the person of my forgiveness.  So when I read the fax and saw the same bad behaviour all over again, I lost it with God.  I composed my own imprecatory psalms that night!!!  But God was big enough to bear my complaint and revealed to me that these circumstances were building character, to help me become the person he needed.  Had I truly forgiven the person in my heart?  This was something of a test.  Far from doing nothing for me, God was actively working to make me more useful to him.  When you don’t understand your circumstances, ask God to show you his perspective on your circumstances and follow through on what you learn.  If circumstances do not support what you feel called to do, then it might not be the right time, so continue doing what you are already doing. 
• Os Guiness, in his book The Call: Finding And Fulfilling The Central Purpose Of Your Life, says that you should do what you are.  He believes that God’s call is normally in line with the gifts that you already have.  “Normally” is an important concession, because God might call you to something outside of your abilities and interests, and give you the passion, grace and gifts needed once you start work.  I’ve heard many stories where this has happened and people are doing things they never thought they would have the slightest interest or skill to do.  Much of my life has been fighting against who God made me to be, in particular a voracious reader and researcher.  We tend to devalue the things that come easiest to us and admire in others what we find difficult to do ourselves.  There are many reasons why I feel my role at CCCC suits God’s call on my life, but one of the unexpected benefits is that it also allows me to use the talents and interests that come easiest to me and that I had devalued: my love for reading, researching, thinking, reflecting and writing.  Does God give gifts to support a call or does he call according to the gifts he has already given?  I suspect the answer is both, but normally you already have what you need.  Perhaps it just needs developing.
• Sometimes when people feel called to a mission they mistakenly think they are also called to create or lead an organization that pursues that mission.  For example, someone might feel a call to full-time evangelism, but it is a very different thing to be called to be an evangelist than to be called to lead an evangelism ministry.  And it is quite a different thing to be called to lead an existing organization and to be called to create a new one from scratch.  An evangelist and an executive director have two very different sets of skills and gifts.  It also takes vastly different skills and gifts to build on what someone else has founded than to be a ministry entrepreneur.  Paul recognized these distinctions (1 Cor 3:6).  So, are you called to do the work itself or to lead an organization that enables others to do the work?
• In The Soul of Ministry: Forming Leaders For God’s People, Ray Anderson says, that in deciding what ministry to do or how to make decisions, don’t be guided by the past but by Gods eschatological preference.  In the midst of the now and the not yet, the Holy Spirit is guiding us to be the church Christ wants when he returns, not a copy of the one he left.  Therefore, you should expect that your call will contribute to the church moving forward in some way (or at least the particular segment of it that you will lead).  Being oriented to the future will help stimulate creativity while discerning your call.  Gary Harbaugh echoes Anderson’s future-orientation.  He wrote in Pastor as Person that pastors are called by God to lead God’s people into the future. This involves choices about change that must include risk. Don’t follow your instincts, he says, follow your faith.  You aren’t called to maintain a church but to lead it forward within the context of our culture and society.  What attracted me to CCCC was the realization that it already had a great ministry, but there was a lot of room to expand its work.  At one interview, the board said my mandate is to explore to the edges the full mandate of CCCC.  This is a ministry that is not resting on its laurels but seeking God’s direction as it strives to fulfill its mission.  Perfect!  I can, with God’s help, lead CCCC into that future.
• It is crucial that other Christians who are close to you are part of the discernment process.  You might get away with missing out on one of the above points, but this one is critical.  The corroboration of your call by other mature believers is central to correctly discerning God’s call to ministry.  We serve, even if in different ministries, as fellow-workers.  We bless each other through the laying on of hands, prayers of dedication and so on.  We work in community, not as lone rangers.  Some people think they are called to ministry leadership, but if no one else supports that understanding, you must seriously question whether you have properly heard from God.  I tested my call with my wife, my pastor, my prayer partners, some mature Christian friends and a few others.  Along the way I had guidance from my professors at Tyndale that was invaluable.  There is wisdom in receiving advice from counselors (Prov 13:10). 

So, assuming God is calling you to some particular part of his mission, he will do it in some way that is likely to be unique to you.  You’ll have the delight of seeing God give you your own story of how you were called.  But these tips should help you be ready for the call when it comes.  May God bless you richly with a satisfying life of service, whatever your call.

Would you like to share the circumstances of your call?  I’d like to hear it.

I remember that as the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony orchestra took their seats in the pit my wife expressed surprise at how small it was (about thirty people I think, a lot fewer than the number in the You Tube performance I linked to above).  She imagined that unmic’d orchestras must have a lot more people to get the rich sound that was on the record.  And then, only a few bars into the overture, she whispered in amazement “That sounds just like the record!!!”  Yes, a small group of people produced a very large sound.  In fact, they sounded just like a ‘real’ orchestra!

It’s amazing what a small group can do that is out of all proportion to their size.  Think about the dozen apostles.  About Paul and his missionary team.  A small group can change the world!  One of my staff members said that at CCCC, “we are a small team doing big things.”  I love that thought!

The dream of many small ministries, while often not stated, is to become a big ministry.  At CCCC, we have close to 10% of all Christian ministries as members, and I don’t see why it shouldn’t be 100%!  Thinking like this, though, focuses your attention on how small you are now.  And then you run the risk of wondering if you are really accomplishing anything as a small ministry.  This angst could become an impediment to your current success.  I’d like to say a few encouraging words to the smaller ministries of Canada (next post I’ll say something to the larger ministries).  What I’m going to say could apply to larger ministries too, but they have to work a lot harder than smaller ministries to get these advantages.

The fact is that Christian ministries in Canada are very small.  Based on the 22,000 T3010′s for Christian ministries that we have in our database at CCCC (and assuming they are correctly filled out):

• 80% have less than $300,000 in total revenue, and about half have less than $100,000
• 80% have 4 or fewer employees, and about half have exactly one staff member
  • 105 report no employees at all (just volunteers)
  • 16% say they have two employees
  • 93.5% have 9 or fewer paid staff

Given our small size, here are some things to remember:

• God delights in working through the unlikely, which means he likes to work with the small group that the world might not pay attention to.  In Deut. 7:7-8 Moses says to Israel, “The LORD did not set his love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any of the peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but because the LORD loved you….”  God did not take the larger nations of Egypt, Assyria or Babylon as his people; he took a people and made them his people, not because of their might, their size or their importance in the world, but just because he loved them.  You don’t have to be big for God to work through you.  Work at your ministry with all you’ve got, knowing that God works through underdogs like a young shepherd boy, a group of country-bumpkin Galileans (at least according to the priests of Jerusalem), and a timid young pastor named Timothy.
• God likes to work in ways that make it clear it is him who is the source of success, not humans.  The best example of this is in Judges 7, where the LORD says to Gideon, “The people who are with you are too many for me to give Midian into their hands, for Israel would become boastful, saying, ‘My own power has delivered me.’”  The group of 22,000 men gets whittled down to 300, an appropriately small number to prove that they are fighting under the power of God and not under their own strength.  Although a small ministry, and maybe because you are a small ministry, God may use you to demonstrate his activity in our world.  When the job is so big that you can’t do it, then you know that your accomplishments are God’s.  So work hard, knowing that God is working beside you and around you in ways you may not even know, but be assured he will accomplish his purposes for calling you into ministry.
• Being a small ministry, you are much more likely to think carefully about which programs and services to continue offering.  You can’t afford to carry anything forward just because it’s part of your routine.  You can’t throw money or people at your opportunities, since you don’t have the capacity to do that, so you must choose carefully how to use the precious resources you have, pruning old programs to make way for new programs.  By always focussing on the best use of your limited resources, you will likely have a very effective and efficient ministry.
• You are more likely to find creative ways to stretch your influence, by partnering with others or drawing on volunteers, because you have to.  My first boss, Richard Adair, believed the secret to success as a small entrepreneur is to ride the coat-tails of a larger company.  They do the heavy work of acquiring the customer, for example, and you simply provide the add-on to the sale.  As a small ministry, your calling might be to serve specialized, small niches that the larger organizations have missed while focussing on the more general and broader needs.  You might be a specialty add-on to the services provided by larger organizations.
• Small ministries don’t have the resources to develop a bureaucracy, so it is easier to have a creative entrepreneurial environment.  Small ministries can be the ‘skunk works’ of Christian ministry, the testing ground for new ideas.  Encourage innovation.
• As a small organization, you will probably be able to respond quicker to issues or changes in the environment.  You can be fast on your feet and quick to exploit new opportunities.  Create an organizational culture that supports change.
• In a flat organization, you can communicate easier with your staff than a large organization can, and you can also involve them in decisions and planning that they might not experience in a large ministry.  Staff will likely have greater variety in their work because the jobs have to be broader in scope to make up for the limited number of employees.  In addition, you will likely empower your team more and delegate more to them (out of necessity), thus giving you an advantage in hiring people because they will be able to use more of their talents and have more influence over their work than elsewhere.
• The environment of a small ministry is very motivational in and of itself for your team members because all of them are very close to the ministry’s results and they can see the fruit of their labour for themselves.  There is nothing like appreciative feedback to spur you on.  It is astonishing how many compliments the CCCC gets, and I make sure that all the staff share the compliments with the team so that we can all be encouraged by them.

As with any ministry, don’t measure your success in terms of growth or size, but in terms of how well you are fulfilling your mission.  God created your ministry to assist with his mission, so progressively fulfilling the specific part of his mission that you are called to serve is the way you should assess your success.

Finally, when you feel you are small and struggling along by yourself, remember God’s promise that is so important that it appears not once, but four times in scripture (Deut 31:6, 31:8, Josh 1:5 and Heb 13:5): “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.”

May God richly bless your ministry!

Several pastors who reviewed the manuscript reported that they felt a profound change in their sense of identity as they became more connected to the historic plan of God for his people, felt awed that they were called to serve the Great Shepherd, and developed a new regard for their vocation.  I finished the book with a much deeper appreciation for the leadership role I have been given and the tremendous responsibility to fulfill it in a godly way.  I felt some sympathy for Paul’s exhortation to work out our salvation with fear and trembling (Phil 2:12), which basically means to be in awe of God.  It is the same sense of awe that Martin Luther said caused his knees to knock every time he entered a pulpit to preach.  Leadership of any portion of God’s people is serious business!  Here’s why I like the book so much:

• For readers not used to academic writing, this book is an excellent introduction to the depth of thought that comes from theologians who have spent years reflecting on their topics.  Some people dismiss academics and prefer practitioners, but I’ve found both books and lectures by academics to be refreshing, insightful and deeply satisfying.  You just know when you are finished that you have grown in your spiritual development.
• The book traces the shepherd-leader metaphor from Moses and David through the Old Testament prophets and writings to the shepherd imagery of the Gospels, Peter and Revelation.  While there are other metaphors of leadership in Scripture, the shepherd metaphor is powerful and Laniak uses it to focus on what God expects of his leaders.  This book, above all else that it does, helps us understand that our role as a leader is to identify as a member of the people we lead and to be God’s human agent to help them live faithfully as the people of God.  You can’t read this book without coming to realize that your leadership is not about you, or about being in a position over the people you lead.  It is about you faithfully serving God in order to lead his people as God desires.
• How does a leader provide godly leadership?  Well, Laniak says that God protected and delivered Israel while providing for them and guiding them forward.  That’s a good leadership model: protect, provide and guide.
• The key exemplars for shepherd leadership in the Old Testament are Moses and David, and the book helps us to learn leadership as they learned it.
  • We see the journey to true leadership as Moses acts independently and impulsively to lead his ‘own’ people (Exo 2:11) and then grows to fully identify with them as God’s people.  He comes to realize that he is not only their leader, but also their representative before God.
  • David learns a painful lesson that he is supposed to protect his people, not sacrifice them for his personal pleasure.  In his escapade with Uriah and Bathsheba, he twisted the role of a godly leader from providing for the people to providing for himself, something he had to repent of and bear the consequences of for the rest of his life.
• The kings of Israel provide many negative examples of leadership.  They were to be dependent upon God for personal nurture and guidance and their primary identity was supposed to be as a member of God’s flock, rather than being shepherd of that flock.  However,
  • The mistake that many of the kings of Israel and Judah made was to think of power as a privilege rather than as a responsibility, leading to abuse of the flock, and
  • They forgot whose people they were leading and treated their people as if they were their own and not God’s.
• Worthless leadership results when leaders do not fulfill God’s expectations of them.  When leaders provide self-interested leadership, the people are actually leader-less.
• Laniak outlines several dynamic tensions of leadership, acknowledging that there is no one model, metaphor or method for godly leadership.  As an example, one of his conclusions is that “Good shepherding is expressed by decisions and behaviors that benefit the ‘flock,’ often at great personal cost.  It calls for the benevolent use of authority.  Some situations require militant protection and discipline, others beckon for gentle nurture.  The shepherd ruler of Psalm 2 rules with an iron rod.  The shepherd ruler of Isaiah 40 tenderly carries the nursing ewes.  The shepherd image is especially useful for holding in tension these essential features of leadership.  Authority without compassion leads to harsh authoritarianism.  Compassion without authority leads to social chaos.  Shepherds must be able to express their leadership in a variety of ways.  The apostle Paul lets the Corinthians choose what posture he will take when he comes: ‘What do you desire?  Shall I come to you with a rod, or with love and a spirit of gentleness?’ (1 Cor 4:21)…  To be a shepherd is both to be responsible for the flock and responsible to the Owner.”

Part 1 of the book is background material, explaining metaphors, the work of shepherds in the ancient world, and how the shepherd metaphor was used by ancient rulers.  Although I love this level of detail, many readers might want to skip over this section and get to the biblical material that starts in Part 2.

There is an excellent coffee-table quality book that accompanies this book.  It is so beautiful that my wife insists on having it on prominent display in our living room.  If I take it away to use it, I hear her asking “Where is Tim’s book?”  While Shepherds Watch Their Flocks: Rediscovering Biblical Leadership has forty daily devotionals and some exquisite photos taken from Tim’s life among Middle Eastern shepherds today.

As an aside, Tim Laniak is Dean of the Charlotte campus of Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and was my ever-helpful faculty advisor for my dissertation. He wrote another book, Shame and Honor in the Book of Esther that will bring Esther alive like never before.  I highly recommend it.

All of Tim’s books may be purchased at his website, which also has discussion forums, downloads and other resources.

So now, what is your favourite Christian leadership book?  I know there are lots of good ones you could share!

There’s nothing like a good real-world example to test how theoretical leadership principles really work.  This story made me think about how we apply our faith to our leadership practices.  This is something we all want to do and here we have an excellent case study.

According to a news report, Father Tim:

…gave the example of prisoners being released from prison without benefits or other financial assistance, saying it was far better for people in such circumstances to turn to shoplifting from large retailers rather than prostitution, mugging or burglary.

“My advice does not contradict the Bible’s eighth commandment because God’s love for the poor and despised outweighs the property rights of the rich,” he said in a sermon Sunday.

A spokesman for supermarket chain Asda, in response, argued that shoplifting affected hardworking store staff more than the rich.

“Maybe Father Tim Jones could repeat his sermon at our York store and see what reaction he gets?” he was quoted as saying by the York Press.  ”He’s one psalm short of a sermon!”

Now there’s a spokesman who knows how to turn a phrase!!!  To be fair to Father Tim, I’d like to include some more of what he had to say, which was reported in the Daily Mail.  (This paper also reported that his congregation includes “a wide mix of social conditions.”)

“I do not offer such advice because I think that stealing is a good thing, or because I think it is harmless, for it is neither.  I would ask that they do not steal from small family businesses, but from large national businesses, knowing that the costs are ultimately passed on to the rest of us in the form of higher prices.  I would ask them not to take any more than they need.  I offer the advice with a heavy heart.  Let my words not be misrepresented as a simplistic call for people to shoplift.”

“The observation that shoplifting is the best option that some people are left with is a grim indictment of who we are.  This is a call for our society no longer to treat its most vulnerable people with indifference and contempt.  We create a situation which leaves some people little option but crime.  The strong temptation is to burgle or rob people – family, friends, neighbours, strangers.  Others are tempted towards prostitution, a nightmare world of degradation and abuse for all concerned.  Others are tempted towards suicide.  Instead, I would rather that they shoplift.”

Okay, so that is what Father Tim thinks, and I agree with his indictment of society.  I also might possibly accept his argument of the lesser of two evils, if in fact evil was the only option available.  But it isn’t.  There is another option that would be a demonstration of grace and redemption and unconditional love.  I say respectfully (and without knowing what his church is doing to alleviate poverty), that Father Tim has not considered all the options.  I don’t think his leadership reflects what we expect of a Christian leader in this situation.

I was forced into a quick assessment of his leadership because I got an interview request from Canwest News Services to answer the question, “Is it ever right for a spiritual leader to advise his congregation to steal?”  The reporter’s deadline was looming.  Now, before I go further, stop and ask yourself, “How would I answer?”  You can read the resulting story here.

Here’s how I applied my faith to the answer.  I started with some basic principles:

• The Bible says (pretty clearly I think) “Thou shalt not steal!”  That’s a good starting point.
• There is a general biblical principle of obeying the law of the land (in both Testaments) unless the issue is blaspheming God.  Daniel refused to worship an idol and the early church refused to acknowledge Caesar as Lord.
• There is a closely related biblical example that is quite helpful.  The consecrated bread of the Temple was to be eaten only by the priests and their families (Ex 29:32-33), but upon David’s request, the priest Ahimelech gave him consecrated bread for him and his men to eat when they were hungry (1 Sam 21:3-5).  Note that they had permission from the custodian of the bread.  Jesus commented on this apparent breaking of God’s law in Mat 12:1-8 by drawing on Hosea 6:6 and saying, as one commentator paraphrases it, “human need may take precedence over ceremonial laws.”  In quoting Hosea, Jesus said “I desire compassion and not sacrifice.”  David did not take the bread by force or stealth, but by openly asking the priest to extend compassion to his hungry men.  One modern application would be to ask the stores to give their food to a foodbank when it goes past its “best before” date rather than throwing it out.
• Christians are to demonstrate God’s love to their neighbours.
• Churches are to be models for the way God expects us to live together.
• While God’s people have sometimes engaged in civil disobedience (i.e., continuing to preach when told not to), the more general approach has been to work within the law of the land (i.e., Esther approaching the king willing to bear the legal consequences, Paul appealing to his citizenship rights, Jesus “rendering unto Caesar” by paying his tax – (Oh I wish I might find a few fish like that!).
• The sharing of resources with the poor has been either ordered by God (i.e., leaving grain on the fields for the poor to glean – Lev 23:22) or has been an encouraged voluntary practice (i.e., the offering taken by Paul to support the hungry in Jerusalem – 2 Cor 8:1-15).  Causing people to be involuntarily separated from their assets doesn’t seem to come up in Scripture as a God-approved option!  Even the Israelites, when leaving Egypt, did not plunder the Egyptians; they asked and the Egyptians voluntarily gave (Ex 3:22).
• All sin is sin.  Little sins as much as big sins.  Sinning against the rich or a corporation is just as sinful as sinning against an individual or a small family business.

I then thought of an excellent application of these principles that comes to us in Acts 4:34-35 and that applies directly to Father Tim’s church, which has a wide range of social conditions in it.  “For there was not a needy person among them, for all who were owners of land or houses would sell them and bring the proceeds of the sales and lay them at the apostles’ feet, and they would be distributed to each as they had need.”  Here was the community of believers looking after their own.

And when a dispute arose?  What happened then?  Acts 6:1-5 says that when a complaint arose from the Hellenistic Jews that they were being overlooked in the distribution of food by the Hebrew Jews, the apostles “summoned the congregation and said, ‘…Select from among you seven men…whom we may put in charge of this task…’  The statement found approval with the whole congregation.”

So, I think the priest missed the mark on this issue.  Instead of advising his congregation to steal, he should have taken this opportunity to call his congregation to be faithful to the purpose to which God has called them and challenged them to come together in mutual support to provide for the needy among them.  Their generosity should spur other churches to do similar good deeds, encourage the public to be charitable and invite the government to step in and do its part.  If the people of his own church were all poor and needy, then Paul’s example with the Jerusalem church would be for other churches to lend their support.

Father Tim could also have offered to connect the needy with the social agencies and charities that could help them.  He could even lay out  some ideas for how the government could solve the poverty problem.

There are, of course, a lot of other issues related to the reporter’s question that I couldn’t get into without making my answer too complex to use, such as civil disobedience, dealing with the Nazis sending Jews and others to death camps, and so on.  In the context of this priest’s sermon, the issue is shoplifting and to that I say, “No, it is not okay to tell your congregation to shoplift.”  That avoids our Christian duty to take care of each other.

Now over to you.  What would you have said to the reporter?