The Meek Leader

How can I learn to lead in love? It is incredible that God ordained us to love. Not just love Him, but to love each other, ourselves, and this world. I wish that Jesus would have talked more about leading in love though. It is easy to make the tough decisions in leadership positions when my convictions are put on hold. I imagine I could be a very good leader if I were to lead from the stance of secularism. But unfortunately I am not secular. It is tough to make the hard decisions when leading from Christ's example. How do I love and care for someone while informing them of their grave mistakes. How do I love and care for someone while telling them that the can't be involved in our ministry anymore. It is those tough decisions that make me personally want to quit leadership altogether. Fortunately we have hope. Christ in Matthew 5 discussed the idea of being meek. The meek will inherit the Kingdom of God. What is interesting is that the crowd Jesus was teaching to most likely had many leaders in it. Maybe a better translation of the word meek might be humbleness. Blessed are the humble leaders for they might inherit the Kingdom. That, I believe, is the key to good leadership. Humbleness. If we are humble when making the tough decisions in life then me might just look a little bit more like Christ.

My Blue Car

A few years ago I bought my dream car. A stunning blue Jetta with leather seats and every option possible on it. I loved my new car (maybe to much). When I would go to park in a parking lot, I would either park in the very back where no cars ever parked, or I would at least make sure to never park next to a cart return. My car was shiny and gorgeous. Today I still drive that car, but its not the glossy beautiful car it used to be. My Jetta (unfortunately) is getting old. The leather is wearing and the paint is fading. A realization that I have come to is that my theology often does the same thing. When the reformation happened, the new theology that Luther came up with was fresh exciting. But today if we followed Luther's exact theology it would seem old unnecessary and sometimes ridiculous. The theologies of today are the same. The classic Baptist and Presbyterian theologies we all grew up with are getting old. I am not saying that the very foundations of our theologies are old, but the less important pieces of it are becoming worn. Today I still love my car a lot, but I know it is getting older and more worn. But the realization that I have to come to is that my car eventually is going to break down and not work anymore. Our theologies if we do not adjust will do the same thing. So we must remember to keep testing and probing everything in our theologies in order to throw out the old and sometimes unnecessary theologies we insist on and adjust to something else.