Scared of Stepping up to Leadership in the Church?

Authority as God-Like Service, Not Domination

Authority is what you were created for and you were to do it in a God-like fashion. It's not going to be, though, like you expect. It's not going to be like, to borrow from someone, the Gentiles who lord it over others.

Rather, it's the Son of Man coming to serve and not be served.

Well, the classic example of that is the young guy who sees the pastor crushing it in the pulpit. Oh, he's such a powerful speaker. People sit and hang on his every word and they go, oh, I want to get in the ministry.

I want to be a pastor. And then they get their first church or maybe they get their first taste of ministry and they're like, oh, I'm spending so much of my time in prayer and private counseling and meetings with people mad at me.

This isn't as glamorous as I thought it was going to be.

Late night elders meetings.

If you're aspiring to a position of authority for the glamour's sake, you're not understanding.

It rightly.

The Fear and Responsibility of Leadership

I think there are some guys who hear this and they go, all right, well, I don't want.

That.

I just want to step back. I just want to kind of passively make my way through life without having to take the reins, without having to lead. And it's like, no, brother, that's the wrong instinct too.

Yes, it should scare you, but there's something in you that should go. This is scary, but because it's good, I'm going to rise up and I'm going to do it. I'm going to put my hand to the plow. I know it's not going to be perfect.

I know I'm going to screw up. I know God's going to have to slap my hand and it's going to hurt and I'm going to be embarrassed, but it's worth it because I'm going to author life in people.

Leadership in Marriage and the Call to Serve Others

Yeah, that's right. If we're talking about a husband, I'm going to say, brother, you are the head, whether you like it or not. You are leading, whether with your presence or your absence, with your life-encouraging words or your non-words or you're correct.

You are leading. So I'm going to exhort you right now. You must get on it.

You have a job, so do it.

You have a job, so do it. Now, if a guy's like, I'm not sure I want to be a pastor, I'm not sure I want to be an elder, well, I don't think every man needs to be a pastor or an elder.

But I would like for every man in our church to look at the elders and go, now that's something worth giving your life to. I want to at least consider that.

And I want every man in the church to stop being selfish and to love their neighbor as themselves. Now, does not being selfish and loving your neighbor as yourself mean you have to be a workplace manager?

Does it mean you have to be a pastor? Well, no. There's freedom there. But if a man's impulse to avoid leadership is one of selfishness, self-protection, lovelessness, well, that's what needs to be indicted.