Brothers in Humanity

Every few months we get new staff at work. We hire in bulk three times a year and train them as "classes." With each class comes a new set of faces, personalities, giftings, and struggles. Each one bringing to the table the light and darkness-the sin and the Spirit-that is embedded within every Christian.

Hurt, pain, insecurity, pride, stubbornness, bitterness, the list goes on extensively. It's irritating!

Looking at the struggles of my students, teammates, friends, and those that I would consider even family, I can sometimes find myself frustrated with them and their shortcomings. Impatient and ungracious towards their needs and struggles.

Christ said to love our enemies. He challenged the status quo and demanded that love be shown even to those who we don't like or agree with. "Love your neighbors" is one of the many coined phrases of Christianity, yet those same Christians turn their back on the impoverished and war torn souls that need help.

I have needed help, and in in my need I forgot to see other people's needs. Mine eyes are turned inward to my own pain and I have began to "self-care" in an isolated and unloving way. A reality that God made very clear to me recently.

I had a student in my English class in Amman that made a big impact on how I viewed other people. "We are brothers in humanity", he would say to me. The words loom over me like a ghost and my soul stirs in response. It's a sobering and humbling experience to receive true, biblical wisdom from a Muslim. Reflecting on the environment I'm living/working in, I find those words affecting me still.

These men and women that I work with are my brothers and sisters. They are mine and I am theirs. My team. My family. My people. How could I be intolerant of the sin in them when it's so clearly embedded in me? When they endure my own? (and they definitely do!) How can I neglect their needs and their craving for love and support when I know so intimately the needs and desires in me?

As a new team comes to join us at Shelterwood this week, my prayer is this:

"Lord, bind us together in brotherhood and sisterhood. humble us to be loving and caring for each other just as You humbled Yourself for the sake of our souls. Tighten us together and teach us to hear form each other and to heal together, to be light to one another. Help us to find rest and support in our 'family' and let us not be unloving. Amen"


Grace and Peace,
Stephen

Leadership = Servanthood

What does leadership mean? Doesn't mean having power and authority to command; to determine the fates of others and to enforce ideologies at all costs? Doesn't mean being the popular guy and having a charismatic personality that stir the hearts of men and swoon those of women? Is it the one who bears vast depths of intelligence and can solve the hardest of inter-dimensional equations and explain why all of star trek and Dr. Who are improbable? Surely, these may be leaders, or at least given the title of "leader", but it is not
"leadership."

Leadership is service. It is putting one's self last and putting others first. It is taking the strengths, intelligence, charismatic speech, and wisdom for the sake of the whole rather than personal gain. It means sticking your neck out, making the hard decisions, taking risks, and much much more. The key is serving.

Like a captain that goes down with his ship, a leader doesn't bail in a disaster when there are other in his care still on board the sinking ship. He takes responsibility for the sinking ship, even if it wasn't him that made the mistake. He doesn't point fingers at the previous ship captain and blame him for the ships current state, especially after having had command for 4+ years.

Wait...

Moving on.

In terms of church government, which varies from denomination to denomination (and sometimes church to church) this is all the more true of leadership. Priests, pastors, bishops, archbishops, and popes--these all must take up great responsibility and as they move into higher positions of authority. The higher up, the more they must serve. The more of their time, energy, and gifting is demanded of them by God for the growth of the body. Thus the reason why I support Pope Benedict's decision to step down. His realization that his physical condition kept him from being able to serve the Christian world was greatly hindered caused him to step down to make way for one who could better accomplish this task of servant-hood. It was a great act of humility and honesty in the face of critical world.

In the denomination I currently call my theological home, there is an emphasis on the concept of leadership as servant-hood. Below is a rough diagram of the hierarchy of Anglican leadership. Notice how, unlike traditional diagrams of leadership/hierarchy, the point of the pyramid points down rather than up!

The head is the tail and is considered, though spiritual and theological sound, as well as being of spiritual discipline and maturity, but he is essentially the "least" within the Anglican Church. The people or "laity" are at the top because they are the ones served by all in authority. If we wanted to get really in depth here, we could add another tier at the top entitled "Non-believers", but that's another post entirely.

As are called to disciple, to lead, and, most of all, to serve. Even the laity of the Church is called to serve one another. If all you want to do is show up and get a weekly ego boost then you aren't pleasing God. You're just pleasing your flesh. Christ called us to serve!

Ideally, all of Christiandom would have this type of leadership mindset, but sadly it just isn't the case. Pastors across the world are put on pedestals and idolized. Mega-church pastors and televangelist worldwide are getting caught up in their ego and creativity, forgetting to serve the people in their charge. On the day of judgment, they will be held responsible for their teachings and their actions. For all of God's people that were put in their lives to be served and taught.

Let's go and serve each other and the world. Let's build church that are Christ-centered rather than pastor-centered. Let's remove the Americanized understanding of what a "pastor" or "preacher" is and put some "priests"/elders in charge who can get the job done and serve the people the way God intended.

Grace and Peace,

Stephen