In His Name

Leadership is a heavyweight topic. Leadership can be a harsh burden to bear when others are unappreciative of our sacrifices. Also, submitting to an authoritative superior with ‘axes to grind’ is a hardship of the severest sort. From both perspectives, it can be a ‘losing proposition’. Those committing abuses lack understanding of the fact that authority is not given for purposes of personal gain. Those that think that leadership is the power to bring about compliance by force or fear are simply wrong. Fear is not the most compelling motivator there is. Christians tend to succumb to this ‘intimidation’ mentality as often as anyone else.

Every Christian has been instructed, by Jesus, to take on the responsibility of being a leader. Christ has given us a different model of what leadership is. I’d like to borrow from one of His parables in order to flesh out a different sort of analogy for what God-given authority looks like. “…The kingdom of heaven will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his property to them. To one he gave five talents of money, to another two, and to another one talent, each according to his ability. Then he went on his journey….”(Matt 25:14 & 15)

This is the parable of the talents, where the Lord has arranged for a very great price to be paid……. for us! Our moral bankruptcy has made it necessary for Him to give us credit based solely on the perfect payment record of His Son. He has lent us the very image of His Son. He has used the most valuable treasure in heaven to invest in us. What, exactly, did he purchase with so large a price? The freedom for us to love and serve Him! His ‘Institution of Highest Lending’ has purchased for us a new worldview of faith and a valuation system based on love. Since we can never actually repay this debt, He has graciously asked that we ‘pay it forward’! "Freely ye have received, freely give." (Matt 10:8) Love, service, and forgiveness rendered to others, as we can, are our only payments, done solely from gratitude.

Part of our service is to redistribute this vast wealth even further by becoming a ‘broker’ of this great salvation. We acquire more ‘assets’ for Christ by bringing others into the ‘employment’ of the ‘lending institution’ to serve His loving purposes. Our great employment directive from Christ is to be His witnesses, “in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”(Acts 1: 7)

Leadership is the love and service we give, in His name, as a result of our debt of gratitude. Being a leader is being a representative, purchased by His blood, of the message of hope that He has already paid for. It is being yielded to Him. What a sweet, joy-filled debt to owe, with payments made in the currency of gladness! As for me, my most profound desire is to yield all that I am and everything I have into those scarred hands in return for a place close to Him. His love is enough!