Refreshing Leadership Series

REFRESHING LEADERSHIP

Acts 20.28

S: Leadership

Th: Our Time, Our Turn, Our All

Pr: FOLLOW BIBLICAL LEADERS.

I. CONNECTED (Acts 6.4)

II. TEACHER (Acts 6.4)

III. AUTHENTICATION (I Timothy 4.14)

IV. INTEGRITY (I Timothy 3.2)

V. PLURALITY (Proverbs 11.14)

PA: How is the change to be observed?

• Require leaders to be qualified according to Scripture.

• Expect leaders to act according to Biblical standards.

• Do not give in to the temptation to operate by worldly principles.

Version: ESV

RMBC 7 June 09 AM

ILL Leadership (H)

It has been said…

When in charge, ponder.

When in trouble, delegate.

When in doubt, mumble.

Well that may be a humorous bit of advice, but it hardly instills confidence, does it?

Today, we are coming to the last element of our Prayer Action Plan, which I affectionately have been calling…

PRACT

I have been calling it “pract” because I want us to combine the words pray and act together.

As a reminder, the prayer action plan had its official beginning at a spiritual health retreat we had last July.

We were looking to discover what were long term issues here at Randall that we needed to confront, confess, and change.

The last item was regarding leadership practices, both past and present.

So, this is our renouncement…

We renounce leadership practices that are passive, non-purposeful, worldly, and prideful.

These words are very deliberate.

We have noted that past and present mistakes include passivity and a lack of purpose.

We have to confess that we have not led deliberately, but instead, have allowed the whims of time and circumstances to dictate our course of action.

We also have to confess that when we have made decisions to lead that our thinking and practices have taken into account principles of business and of the world as much as Biblical principles.

We don’t want to go that way anymore, so our announcement, then is the opposite…

We announce leadership’s responsibility to lead actively, purposefully, Biblically, and humbly.

See how those words are just the opposite.

We want our leadership to be active and purposeful.

We want to be proactive, not just reactive.

We want to make our decisions based on the Word of God, not on the thinking of man.

We want to lead humbly as servants, not as men of pride.

Therefore, our affirmation…

We affirm leadership that immerses itself in the knowledge and practical application of the Word of God.

This is what we must get right.

We need to be firmly planted on the Word of God.

We want to be leadership that acts according to how God thinks, not on how man thinks.

Thus, our commitment…

We will exercise loving and humble oversight of the flock.

Now, I am not saying this to gain sympathy, but being a leader in a church is unique, tough, and stressful.

It takes a lot of time.

You are subject to a lot of criticism.

And you are called to deal with many uncomfortable and difficult situations.

Plus, you are trying to motivate and depend on people who are not drawing a paycheck, but are volunteering to serve.

With that, leaders are responsible for what goes on in the church.

The leaders have to make financial decisions.

They have to have a vision for the future that will certainly take people out of their comfort zones.

I want to reiterate something I shared two weeks ago.

Please note that…

God gives leadership to the church (Acts 20.28).

Note how Paul describes it in Acts…

Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood.

The Holy Spirit makes certain individuals overseers.

They are to be the guides.

They are to be the shepherds.

They are to be the caretakers that watch over the church community.

Obviously, it is a huge responsibility, not to be taken lightly.

So much so that leaders are told to pay attention to themselves.

In other words, they are not to lead willy-nilly and carelessly.

Which makes me ask the question…

What should our church leaders be like?

What should you be looking for in a pastor?

What should you be looking for in a person that will hold the elder position?

What I am about to share with you is not the comprehensive list.

But I do believe, as we look to our present, and to our future, that these are qualifications you want for your next pastor, and also for those that presently serve in an elder-like capacity.

The first qualification is to be…

CONNECTED (Acts 6.4)

In the book of Acts, the apostles found themselves overwhelmed with the work of the ministry.

There was too much to do.