Leading Follows Loving

 

“To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give it to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements. Lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket, safe, dark, motionless, airless, it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. To love is to be vulnerable.”
C.S. Lewis
1 Peter 1: 1-3
Therefore, as a fellow elder and witness to the sufferings of the •Messiah and also a participant in the glory about to be revealed, I exhort the elders among you:  Shepherd God’s flock among you, not overseeing out of compulsion but freely, according to God’s will; not for the money but eagerly;  not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock.

So you are maybe saying to yourself, "hey, I wish my leaders were more like that." You wouldn't be alone of course in saying that, but you may want to take a step back like I did this morning to grasp the fullness of what Peter is saying to "All" of us. I think that the key word in these verses is the word "Example."

I have seen some consumed with the desire to be an "Overseer."  In my years as a supervisor I have personally heard a fellow supervisor say something to this effect, " I will walk on whoever and walk through whatever to get to the top." I remember the affect that had on my view of this person, because it instantly made me wary of everything that he said, and did.

Of course, by the grace of God, I was able to get past this because of an older more experienced supervisor who showed me by the way he lived, what it was to be a leader. After that I was "blessed"  to follow God's call into the ministry. Wow! It made supervision look easy.  I chose this picture of Mother Theresa because of the way she led by love and led others to follow her, and establish an order after her. Simply because of the risks she took in the ways that she loved others.

You see this verse is for all of us, not just "elders." Why would I say that? It's because I have never seen an effective leader who wasn't also a good follower.  We all can get lifted up and conceited in our Christian walk, and begin to dish out advice to others, and even sometimes speak against our "Elders" and "Overseers," which instantly puts us in the dangerous place of "Leading" those around us astray.Hebrews 13:17, gives insight: "Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they keep watch over your souls as those who will give an account, so that they can do this with joy and not with grief, for that would be unprofitable for you."

So many pastors, and church members, have locked their hearts away because of hurt, and you may be one of them, but to love is to take a risk.  Have you hidden your heart away so others can't hurt it? Has it gotten easier for you to just be "friends," but not brothers and sisters in Christ? It's the biggest problem in our churches today, love'em on Sundays, but don't get involved... so my question is this, just how can we be examples in the "Family of God" with distracted hearts, selfish hearts, or hearts locked up and hid away...God Bless
Pastor William