There has been a movement around the world in the last few years to redefine the qualities that want in our leaders. By redefine, I am not speaking of the personality type or the accomplishments, but instead the life choices that our leaders make.
When looking into a leaders profile we want to see someone whom we can trust. Someone who has faced adversity and come through it better. We also want someone with a vision beyond our own. If a leader has an obstructed view, than how can that person lead the rest of us? They will lead us in the wrong direction, right? In leadership we want solid people who can be folks we look up to. The people we want to be like. Those we want to model our own lives after.
The United States is a nation of immigrants. The only people among us that did not immigrate are native tribes of this land. All other groups and people came to the area as immigrants. So, as more people come into the land, our demographic adapts and changes.
In this same way, the faces and backgrounds of business and political leaders has changed . There are more women and other minority groups serving in leadership than ever before. This is in part due to that demographic shift in the country. Leadership in this country is shifting to reflect the new generations. This is not a bad thing at all.
Where the debate is taking place, is in political parties torn by whether or not a potential leaders personal life choices should make a difference in their effectiveness in office. In the early days of our country, a political leader was evaluated by his or her personal life and accomplishments. Today that is may no longer be the case, but I ask you this; if a person cannot be evaluated by what they have done behind closed doors, how can you judge what they will do as a leader?
(Here is a disclaimer. I am speaking as someone who is experienced in Pentecost and the Christian church.)
In conjunction with politics and business so also the of leadership in the church. My experience has shown a shift in church leadership similar to the one in the secular world. The change in faces, genders, and skin color is natural as our own demographic adapts. As the people change so goes the church.
Today it is common place to see news articles about Christian organizations evaluating their stance on homosexual or other gender neutral persons in positions of leadership. The people on both sides of this argument claim they have the scriptures of the Bible to back up their personal views.
So, personal views aside, consider this for a moment. The Christian church claims to be driven and governed by God. This is the one thing they all can agree on. In addition to that, all parts of the Christian church agree that the Bible is God’s word for us. If a group disagrees with that, then they are not Christian. Those are the two major points a person uses to call themselves Christian. I am over simplifying it on purpose here.
Now, since Christians agree on those points, should we not then use the Bible and its words to govern our leadership and organizational structure and place our personal views aside?
The Bible clearly states that worldly people, who are not Christians, will know the Christians by their love for one another. We as Christians love and accept all kinds of people. We do this because we are not perfect, and don’t expect others to be perfect. At least we shouldn’t expect others to be. With that qualifier, no one should be excluded from becoming part of the greater body regardless of what they have done.
One of the greatest things that unites us as a church is that we have ALL sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. In order to become Christians we have seen that our lives were wrong and we ask forgiveness from Christ. After that we learn and grow. We begin to change and become more like the model of Jesus, the son of God than we used to be. None of us started perfect and none of us will end that way. God is the only perfect being.
So let’s take that to the leadership side of things. We know those we choose for leadership are human. We also expect that our leaders have been through a few things in life and come out with a wisdom that we do not yet have. We look to their experience and wisdom to lead us. The Bible says leaders are “men” of integrity. Using the word “men” loosely. Our leaders are to be what we want to become. Leadership is a lonely place, because we as followers want to keep our leaders on a pedestal.
In the Christian Church leaders must measure up to a higher standard than the rank and file who are just learning to become “like Christ”. With that in mind, our leadership should be people who have overcome many of the temptations and troubles of the world. This is the reason many great leaders in the church are advanced in age. We somehow think if you are a young person you have not seen enough. That is another topic as well.
Now, I begin to get to the point. Leadership in business and politics is very different from leadership in the Christian Church. The two positions require different qualifications. I am not saying a Christian leader cannot be a leader in business or politics. What I am saying is best put in a simple way. If you have someone in your organization that is a recovering opioid addict, then you don’t put that person in a position to lead or even work around a pharmacy right? Common sense here. That person has a sin weakness that they need help to overcome, and placing them in a position to fall back into a drug addict’s life is just irresponsible.
So returning to the standard of the Bible. While we are to love all peoples, help them, and show them our hearts, we do not look for leaders among the newly converted or those dealing with great struggles until such a time, that they overcome those struggles. Now if we are to put our personal view aside, and look at the Bible, the scripture Leviticus 18:22 states “that we are not to lie with a man as with a woman, for that is an abomination”. Paraphrasing here, this sentiment is all through the Bible and even the story of the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah are because of the practice of sexual perversion. The evidence of that destruction can still be seen from space today.
Bear with me on this. As Christians we are not to reject people who practice such things. Even Jesus spent time with the people who needed him most. Now, if we model the church after the words of the Bible, then we want people who have overcome such sins as our leadership. Not people who are still in denial about the fact that such practice is a sin. Just like the recovering drug addict, we help them and love them into a right relationship with God, but we do not place them in a position of leadership until they have clearly demonstrated they have overcome the addiction.
In the same spirit, those who are living in a situation where they clearly have no desire to change to be more like Christ have no business leading the church. While this stance may not be popular today, it is based on the rules that Christians agree to live by. The Bible. Christians who live by these rules do not go out and persecute those who choose to live in a different way. Instead we love them, pray for them and welcome them into our fold. In this way, we can show them the love of Christ and His acceptance. Only then, can a person understand the things in their life that need to change to align with the scriptures. We should never reject people in sin because we are all in sin, but we do not ask those who deny their acts are sin to lead us.
Good job. There needs to be more thinking along this line