Leadership is a Legitimate New Testament Concept

The current holders of institutional authority in the CGGC are confused. I love them, but they are certainly confused.

The holders of institutional authority in the CGGC certainly are sincere but they are as muddle-brained as ever.

They think of themselves as leaders hoping to expand the work of the Kingdom. They seek to raise up and develop more leaders.

Yet, when the disciples James and John asked Jesus to give them positions of authority, Jesus famously rebuked them and said to the disciples that whoever wants to be great among you must be your servant and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all.

For years, I've been prophesying that this leadership kick our holders of institutional authority are on is wrong, anti-gospel, misguided, unblessed, un-blessable, failing and doomed to ultimate failure. That it absolutely will increase our numerical decline and, more importantly, our spiritual decay. 

I have said this many, many times. I never tire of blogging it...though, based on feedback, even some of the more enthusiastic readers of this blog may be getting tired. Still, I continue. 

---------------

Having said that about the leadership folly, there's been something else, something related, that's been in my mind for a long time that I've never written or said and I don't know why because I think it's important. It's the title of this post:

Leadership is a legitimate New Testament concept. 

---------------

Quite some time ago, in an eNews article, Lance quoted a New Testament verse mentioning church leaders: "Remember your leaders who spoke the word of God to you." (Heb. 13:7) There are two other verses in that chapter where the word for leader appears.

Leadership is, truly, a legitimate New Testament concept. 

But, there's an important distinction here. It's very similar to the reality that, in the Gospels, Jesus almost never mentions the church and that three of the four Gospels don't mention church at all, but references to the Kingdom fill the teachings of Jesus.

Jesus never describes humans as leaders. He never taught leadership. He did, though, implore His disciples to behave as servants, slaves even. Jesus defines greatness, in the Kingdom, not as leadership, but as slavery to others. 

---------------

This is where the confusion rubber of the holders of institutional authority in the CGGC meets the road.

When thinking in Kingdom terms, greatness is a matter of a disciple being a servant...yearning to be a slave, even the slave of all.

When one thinks about church, however, the issue of human leadership is appropriate and necessary. 

It is,  therefore, only in the context of church that leadership is a legitimate New Testament concept. 

Read the first-ever CGGC Strategic Plan so recently developed by our holders of institutional authority and approved in the summer of 2019. 

Pop quiz: What is its new, second-ever, CGGC Mission Statement?

Hint: The notion of Kingdom is in the talk. 

(The way it's printed out is peculiar. I'll try to quote it in print accurately:)

Maximizing our collective potential for kingdom impact!

---------------

For at least ten years, from the headquarters in Findlay at least, the talk has been that the CGGC must be Kingdom-oriented, not church-focused.

You see that in the second-ever Mission Statement. 

They talk about "kingdom impact."

Confusedly, though, human leadership, a church concept, is crucial to the plan for achieving the new statement of mission. 

Remember this from the Strategic Plan?

Contagious Awakening: By our 200th anniversary (2025), we will equip and release thousands of spiritually charged leaders  (emphasis mine) to every man, woman, and child to whom we are sent. This will happen by positioning ourselves for a movement of the Holy Spirit through repentance, reconciliation, and prayer.

That's the confusion. 

I believe that it can be, must be, understood to be theological corruption. 

The holders of institutional authority in the CGGC are attempting to put new wine in old wineskins. They are yearning to achieve Kingdom goals through church methods.

---------------

Yet, understand the testimony of the Word:

Paul lived as a servant. (Romans 1:1) So did Peter. (2 Peter 1:1) James. (1:1) Jude, too. (1:1) So, ultimately, did John. (Rev. 1:1) 

Most crucially, so did Jesus who "came not to be served but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many."

When Jesus called disciples, He didn't say, "Come, let me lead you..." He framed the call in terms of following, in terms of servanthood.

But, according to that Contagious Awakening thing, the current holders of institutional authority in the CGGC are, essentially, saying, "Come, let us lead you...."

---------------

The confusion, the error, of the current holders of institutional authority in the CGGC is that they hope to share in expanding the Kingdom through their leadership, not joining Jesus, Paul, Peter, James, Jude and John in servanthood.

They want to raise up leaders, not servants,  not, hopefully, slaves.

Truly, leadership is a legitimate New Testament concept. 

But, it's church, not Kingdom, stuff. It's secondary. It's what comes later. 

The holders of institutional authority in the CGGC are wrong. They are hoping to use the ways of church to expand the Kingdom. That can't possibly work. 

We must repent.