John 21:15-17, Selected (NASB)
David Bruce Linn, Pastor-Teacher
15 June, 2003
All Rights Reserved
There is a great deal of chatter in the media about the subject of leadership. Everyone wants to be a leader--it sounds so glamorous and fulfilling! Authors and speakers make millions of dollars feeding the desire for leadership. All this at a time when there are few true leaders on the horizon in any field, and few people willing to follow.
Christians are no exception to the pattern. We desperately need fearless, godly leaders in our homes, our churches, our communities, and our nation. I have no brilliant new analysis to give you. In fact, the best way I know to generate leaders is for believers to follow the model of Jesus in the power of the Holy Spirit. People are still following him by the millions two millennia after he lived! Why should this be so? Was it organizational skill, tricks of personality manipulation, or a commanding manner? No, people follow him because he was a man worth following. If we want to lead we will have to do the same. On this occasion of Fathers’ Day I will address men, but I believe that there are few spiritual traits which are exclusive to one sex or the other. While I was away recently I encountered a number of men who were striking examples of what it means to be a man worth following.
I. GARY WITHERALL, SACRIFICIALLY REDEEMING THE TIME
I encountered my first example when a pastor friend and his wife invited my wife and I to go for coffee. We waited in a long line for our fancy drinks and then sat in the corner. Nearby us sat a youngish man in a red tee shirt, blue jeans, and sneakers. He was tapping away on a laptop computer. As usual, our group was talking loudly about spiritual things, and that resulted in a Bible being pulled out. Within minutes the man in the red shirt came over, said he had noticed our Bible, and asked us if perhaps he had met us before. He introduced himself as Gary Witherall.
Then it hit us--this was the husband of Bonnie Witherall, the 31 year-old missionary who had been working with our prenatal clinic outreach in Sidon, Lebanon, and was murdered by an Islamic extremist on November 21, 2002. Bonnie had been accustomed to arrive at the clinic early. While she was opening up one morning a man entered and shot her to death in the name of Allah. Gary began to tell us about how he was being pounded for quotes by secular news outlets who are eager to smear Christian missionaries. In particular, Time magazine was hounding him at that moment in preparation for a rumored hit-piece designed to make missionaries look like Genghis Khan.
Gary seemed distressed, and he was trying to draft a written response which would recast the whole question of missions in terms of the needs of the world rather than political correctness. We talked for a while, and then my friend and I laid hands on Gary and prayed for the grace and peace of God to be upon him, and for him to know what to do and say during this difficult time. I don’t know what the employees and other customers thought, but we had a rare divine appointment to minister at the coffee shop.
I was moved to see a man whose sweet wife had been brutally murdered engaged in seeking to use his personal tragedy to build up the body of Christ. Gary has realized that he has a kairos moment--a choice opportunity--to challenge the people of God. He is using it for all it is worth by speaking to dozens of groups in spite of his own distress and grief. It struck me that this is a stunning example of “redeeming the time,” as Paul wrote to the Ephesians: “Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise, making the most of your time, because the days are evil” (Ephesians 5:15-16).
The days are indeed evil and we must be wise about being available to God when he opens a door of ministry. Gary’s opportunity involves a sacrifice, and so will ours. He could have said: “No, I’m not going to do that. I’m too miserable.” Instead, he is trusting in the grace of God to see him through as he walks through every open door he can. That is an example worth following.
Fathers need to redeem the time in the raising of their sons and daughters. There are many responsibilities which cannot be ignored, and many opportunities to shape the course of a son or daughter’s life. If these are missed they cannot be relived. No one can take the place of the father whom God has placed in the family.
A kairos moment cannot be scheduled into our lives like a dentist appointment. Jesus used the idea of harvest. When the harvest is ready, everything else must be dropped to focus on the opportunity to gather the crop before it is ruined. This requires a sacrifice. What are we willing to sacrifice to make sure that opportunities which God provides are not lost to the kingdom? A man who sacrificially redeems the time is a man worth following.
II. DON CARR, HUNGERING FOR GOD
I encountered a second example during a healing service recently where I had the privilege of anointing a former pastor of our church and praying for his healing. I cannot tell you the specifics of Pastor Don Carr’s need, but I can tell you that he is a man who is hungering for God. I cannot think of a better trait for any leader than the commitment to seek God as the real answer to every problem.
An abundance of false things compete to be the fulfillment of our needs. We are pounded by marketing, harangued by false philosophies, distracted by bad examples in people we know, and confused by our own erroneous thoughts. It almost seems easier to take any answer to the question: “What will satisfy my needs?” except the one that works! I was powerfully encouraged to see Pastor Don, a veteran pastor with a great track record, totally sold out to seeking God for everything. He is living out John 6:35: “Jesus said to them, ‘I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst’” (John 6:35).
Leaders worth following know that the real answers come from God. Here in Western society we have the best medical care, the most conveniences, the best food, the most entertainment, the most skilled counselors, the most accessible education, the greatest wealth, and the longest lives of any period in history. While we thank God for all of them, we realize that they all let us down in the end. Furthermore, none of them can fill the deepest need of the human heart which is to know the one true God and his righteousness, as Jesus said: “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied” (Matthew 5:6). How bad it is when we run after the wrong things, trusting them to satisfy us, and how much worse when others follow us in the wrong direction.
The challenge of receiving God’s blessing in this way is to shut our ears to all the false competing satisfactions and believe that hungering for the knowledge of God is the only way. God’s word makes it abundantly clear what we need to do: “And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him” (Hebrews 11:6). A man who seeks God by faith is a man worth following.
III. A TEN YEAR OLD BOY DISPLAYING DISCERNING LEADERSHIP
A third example came on our visit to the Grand Canyon where my wife and I did some hiking. We were amazed to discover that most of the canyon has no protective fences. Scads of visitors dance along the top of this huge cliff and according to a park service ranger only about three fall in a year (though some on purpose). The canyon is over five thousand feet deep, but the bodies usually land on a gigantic ledge at the three hundred foot mark. That’s equivalent to a fall from the top of a thirty story building. A fall like that can ruin your whole day.
At one point as we were hiking the West Trail toward Hermit’s Rest on the South Rim we discovered that the unmarked but well-worn path was forcing us closer to the edge than we wanted. Without our really noticing what was happening, we were gradually being blocked into a very narrow path right on the lip of the canyon. On our left was a rising rock wall and on our right was the canyon. To compound matters, the path was not rock but dirt, and sometimes slanted toward the drop. I guess people hike it all the time, but I began to get uncomfortable. We eventually found a spot where we could climb the rock wall to our left and get away from the edge of the cliff. It was either that or turn around.
Behind us was a family of four. The ten-year-old son was leading the way, followed by mom, and farther back was sis and dad bringing up the rear. The boy must have been feeling the same way I was and was apparently watching me. He pointed up at us on the higher, safer trail and called out to his mom that the real trail must be up where we were. Mom said nothing. Dad said nothing. So the boy scrambled up the same spot we had done. Mom stopped at that spot and looked up at him rather dubiously. Sis and dad arrived and then they all clambered up. We noticed that they hiked the safer path for a while and then they even went farther from the canyon and hiked the road instead. It stuck me that this young boy had just expressed a leadership trait remarkable for his age. He had both discernment and a willingness to act. As a result, he became the momentary leader of his entire family at the age of ten.
This was a situation which we all face from time to time. We start out on some path which seems good at the outset but which almost imperceptibly starts going bad as we walk it. The danger is that we will keep walking that path until it causes some great harm. The problem for leaders is two-fold. The leader must discern the problem, and then there is the challenge of acting on that discernment in the face of passive people. Paul the Apostle faced this kind of issue while on a missionary journey to Macedonia: “It happened that as we were going to the place of prayer, a slave-girl having a spirit of divination met us, who was bringing her masters much profit by fortune-telling. Following after Paul and us, she kept crying out, saying, ‘These men are bond-servants of the Most High God, who are proclaiming to you the way of salvation.’ She continued doing this for many days. But Paul was greatly annoyed, and turned and said to the spirit, ‘I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her!’ And it came out at that very moment. But when her masters saw that their hope of profit was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the market place before the authorities...” (Acts 16:16-19).
Apparently, the disciples tolerated this woman and her calling out for a long time. I don’t know when Paul discerned that there was a false spirit working through the woman, but suddenly he cast the spirit out and freed her from her bondage. A leader worth following exercises discernment and then is willing to act for the benefit of all even when others have not yet figured out what is going on. And there is a price to be paid. Paul and his company were roughly arrested, beaten, and thrown into a filthy jail. It makes you wonder why so many people want to become leaders!
A man worth following might take a look at his entertainments, discern that he is on a path to a defiled mind, and pull back. He might look at his recreational substance abuse, see the potential damage ahead, and kick the habit. On the other hand, he might decide that his spiritual life needs some major retooling to bring it into harmony with the mission of Christ. Whatever the case, a man worth following discerns his situation from God’s perspective and then acts on that discernment.
IV. DICK BOMAR, BEARING THE LOAD OF LEADERSHIP
My fourth example of a characteristic of a man worth following is taken from Dick Bomar, the man in charge of the Park Ministries Oasis Retreat where Barb and I stayed for a few days. This is a place where anyone can go and be refreshed in the Lord in body and in soul. Dick asks nothing of anybody--including money--except that he needs to know what you want. He had ministered for more than a decade to street people in south Phoenix using a mobile chapel, and then he sensed that the Lord was calling him to minister to Christians. If you want counseling, he’ll do that; if you want to be left alone, he’ll do that; if you want Christian camp stuff like hayrides and Bible studies, he’ll do that. He cooks the meals himself, grows his own vegetables, fixes or builds everything on ten buildings, cares for horses and chickens, and gives the love of Christ any way he can.
It struck me, as we were busy being blessed in so many ways, that Dick has shouldered a huge ministry responsibility. At the time we were there a man who had received the love of Christ through Dick in the past just showed up in a beat up car with nothing. Dick put him up in a trailer, gave him some work, and began meeting with him for Bible study every day. This man also became our wrangler to help us with the horses.
Dick’s example reminded me of an encounter between Peter and the Lord Jesus where Peter, out of his own brokenness over denying Christ, nevertheless received his commission for ministry: “So when they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, ‘Simon, son of John, do you love Me more than these?’ He said to Him, ‘Yes, Lord; You know that I love You.’ He said to him, ‘Tend My lambs.’ He said to him again a second time, ‘Simon, son of John, do you love Me?’ He said to Him, ‘Yes, Lord; You know that I love You.’ He said to him, ‘Shepherd My sheep.’ He said to him the third time, ‘Simon, son of John, do you love Me?’ Peter was grieved because He said to him the third time, ‘Do you love Me?’ And he said to Him, ‘Lord, You know all things; You know that I love You.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Tend My sheep’” (John 21:15-17). This passage is pregnant with meaning, but the main thing is the nature of leadership for Christians. Christian leaders are more like shepherds than CEO’s or military commanders. It is a fact of herding that sheep cannot be driven. They must be led. And think about the nature of shepherding. It is mostly a matter of bearing a focused, unrelenting load of responsibility for the flock. The sheep cannot be left to themselves at any time, and they often blunder into situations where they harm themselves. Peter was told to feed, tend, and shepherd Jesus’ sheep. A man who learns to bear the load of service for others is a man worth following .
And notice the motive: love for Jesus! That’s the only thing that would enable anyone to bear the load of ministry faithfully. We serve others because we love the Lord, and he loves others through us. Our personal love for others is not sturdy enough to carry us through. God is looking for men who will bear the weight of service to Christ in the church, in the family, and in the community.
CONCLUSION
This study is in no way a complete overview of leadership. There may be some very important things to learn about the function of leadership, but these are four characteristic things which make a man or woman worth following: an eagerness to make the most of every opportunity for God, a hunger for God which surpasses all else, an attitude of discerning leadership, and a willingness to bear the load of service to others.
Are you willing to become someone worth following? Following Jesus’ model in the power of the Holy Spirit is the way to get there.