Basic Christian Leadership

This is a easy to read book from John Stott. It is an edited version of a series of messages that he gave around the world on the issue of leadership. He went back to the first 4 chapters of 1 Corinthians to help us understand more about the grounds for biblical leadership. As some suggested, this book is very short and can be completed within a day, but the essence of it remains to be lived out day-to-day. A study guide is coming out Feb 2009.

Here is an excerpt that strikes me:

(of 1 Cor 3: 21)
pg . 105 in my UK copy....

This question of who belongs to whom in the church is still a vital issue today. When i was ordained over fifty years ago, the accepted way to begin a letter to a bishop was 'My Lord', while the accepted conclusion was, 'I am your lordship's obedient servant.' i am glad that i managed to keep it up for only a year or two, and that this form of address has long since been discontinued. But it should never have been begun.

Similarly, i doubt if pastors and church elders are wise to use the possessive adjective in relation to the church and refer to 'my church', 'my people', 'my congregation'. For they do not belong to us,nor do we have any proprietary rights over them. It would be more modest to allude to them as ' the people we have been called to serve'. For we are their servants; they are not ours.

Conclusion

WE urgently need a healthy, biblical understanding of the church, for only then shall we hae a healthy, biblical understanding of Christian leadership. We must not define the church in terms of its leaders(as the Roman Catholic Church does), but rather define leaders in relation to the church.

We must also renounce secular views of the church as if it were a merely human institution like any other corporate body, with human leaders wielding human authority, and being lionized as celebrities. All that has to go.

In its place we need to develop a godly view of the church as a unique community unlike any other, the redeemed and covenant people of God. In this community , ministers give humble service. There is no boasting about human beings, but all boasting is directed to God the Holy Trinity: to God the Father, who alone gives growth of the seed, to God the Son , who alone is the foundation of the church, and to God the Holy Spirit, who alone indwells and sanctifies the church.

So 'no ore boasting about men' (3:21a), but 'let him who boasts boast in the Lord' (1:31)