Test of a Good Leader
by Don Watson
Moses came down from Sinai and the people were worshipping – not Jehovah who had miraculously delivered them, fed them and led them in a fiery pillar from the bondage of Egypt – but a golden calf – a lump of powerless metal that had done nothing for them. It was gross rebellion. Israel was in the middle of a desert with dangers on every side. Without God’s protection wild beasts could ravage their children, snakes and scorpions would overrun their camp and nations were poised to annihilate this small band of travelers. This apostasy, leaving God for the golden calf, left Israel without protection and an easy prey to all these dangers. They would never survive to inherit the land of Canaan God had promised them. They would all perish unless . . .
“Moses, stand aside. I’ll wipe them all out. If I don’t, something else will. Step aside and I’ll start all over. I’ll make a new nation from your seed, from your children.” What a power trip! These were the children of Israel. They were the seed of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. He, Moses, had the opportunity of a lifetime. God was ready, right now, to make them the Children of Moses, the Seed of Moses. Yet Moses, like never before (Not when he boldly stood before Pharaoh, not when he led Israel across the Red Sea), demonstrates what a real leader is. “Oh this people have sinned a great sin, and have made them gods of gold. Yet now, if thou wilt forgive their sin, and if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of the book which thou hast written.” (Exodus 32:31, 32) A real leader is one who pleads with God to forgive His children. But we’re not talking a shallow, mediocre prayer for God to give them another chance. Here was a leader that knew his sinfulness. He knew his own rebellion. He knew he was no better. He had no claim to any goodness that made him deserving to be the father of any nation. “So, God, if you can’t forgive them, blot me out too. I’m just as bad.”
We can never lead God’s people unless we somehow grasp our own sinfulness and the forgiveness of God. For where are we to lead God’s people? To great churches with memberships of 5000? (Not that there’s anything wrong with large churches.) To great doctrines and standards? (Ditto) If God’s people are to make it to the heavenly Canaan, they must be led to the cross, by someone who’s been there. Someone who can tell the prostitute, the pedophile, the homosexual, the alcoholic, the drug addict, the adulterer, the thief, the glutton, the proud, the hypocrite, “If God cannot forgive you, then let him blot my name off His books as well for I’m just as bad.” The world is perishing for the lack of a Moses – Someone who knows God’s love, someone who knows God forgives and someone who intercedes with God on the sinner’s behalf.
You can be that Moses – in your church, family, or neighborhood. You don’t have to be a preacher, a prophet or an eloquent speaker, but be a Moses defending sinners before God and the church. When the church is critical of those who never dress up, never bring food to potlucks, never use deodorant, mouthwash, and breathe in your face, lift them up, serve them seconds, and give them great big hugs and kisses, because, in the presence of God, we stink too and our righteousness is like filthy rags. When someone pulls you aside to share some juicy gossip, pull them aside to the prayer chapel and pray for that person who has fallen and been wounded by sin. Defend the poor because you are poor before God. Defend the prisoner, because you too are in bondage to sin. Defend the sinner because we are all patients in the hospital of the great Physician. And forgive the murderer because we have all crucified our Lord.
After all, where is it you want to lead the people around you, if not to the cross? For, it is at the cross that we behold the kind of mercy we all desperately need. Be leaders who forgive because they know they are forgiven.
I think you have missed the point of what a great leader is today. Moses had unquestionable authority to speak on God’s behalf, which no leader has ever matched. He had perfect political control to decide everyone’s future or pay the consequences. Moses had ideal religious control, as God’s voice and through his brother as High Priest given as an inheritance to his family line.
Moses is not a good model for leadership in all things; his praying to spare Israel, children and women, from a holocaust, may increase his reputation, but at the expense of God who is pictured as angry and frustrated.
Today good leadership will:
Don,
I'm puzzled. Are you encouraging us to become leaders in our local churches, or to learn how to lead others into a saving relationship with Jesus? Both require that we each first become dedicated followers of the Holy Spirit while the first should be a special calling by God based on how we have been empowered and have grown in ministry.
Thanks for putting First, First (not first things first)….the best way to become a truly great leader.
The "highest point we can attain is (indeed) at the foot of the cross" and praying the Lord's prayer ("forgive us our sins…") until the second coming is truly a prerequisite for being great leaders.
It seems to me that just as Moses unlearned many lessons of Egyptian trained dictatorial arrogance in the wilderness before the burning bush encounter with God, so the best of leaders are really those who recognize they are, at best, animated mud. The fact that Moses takes his unbelieving father-in-law's advice at Sinai(Jethro), also proves that he was still teachable and not full of himself. (How tempting would it have been to tell Jethro to take a hike since, afterall, he was talking directly to God?)(See Ex18.)
Anyway, keep raising up our Savior. It is only at the cross that we see our falleness AND our great value. We need an understanding of BOTH to influence others (lead) rightly.
Because of Him,
Jon
I hope many of us are impressed by the 8 point list of characteristics of a modern church leader that Mr. Allen has suggested. It has the great virtue of being explicit and specific in contrast to the rather mushy suggestions that are often made. I must agree with his note about the "Moses complex." What is being advocated is not easy to pull off inside traditional Adventist communitiies. I know of one Adventist Church where all of the elements are working rather well. I hope there are a number. An important characteristic is providing a "safe place" inside the church for both conservatives and liberals. That's an especially hard one to bring off.
Please explain the different varieties of sin. What is "open sin" or "closed sin"? Does the Bible or the church have such lists?
Ted Wilson, (like his dad Neil C. Wilson), among others, are quite admirable and fine examples of God-fearing Seventh-day Adventist Church Leadership.
♥T
Trevor,
If Ted Wilson is such an admirable leader, why are his sermons focused so much on obeying a prophet who told us to not use her works as the basis for any teaching or practice and zero priority on discovering the Holy Spirit? God has taught me not to follow such people, but to run away from them because the faith practices they advocate are what almost killed me spiritually.
Dear Brother William Noel
Sir, while I acknowledge, (with regret), your candour in declaring the counsel of Ellen White as 'zero priority on discovering the Holy Spirit', who is in fact, the actual Agent of inspriation in her writings of counsel to the church, teaching others to do so is careless. Moreso, it is not rocket science to point out that there is a faction within Adventism who have sadly neglected or even entirely disregarded the counsels of Ellen White, whom we as a church, have accepted as a messenger of the Lord and of which IS clearly the Gift of Prophecy and one of the identifying characteristics of the 'remnant' church (remaining ones – KJV: other, which remain, remnant, residue, rest) of Rev 12:17.
Freedom in the Spirit is most often abused by many who interpret this to mean freedom to eat, drink, dress, believe, whatever, whenever, however, by adding a culturalistic view mixed with a humanist approach, thereby even misrepresenting God's love for the sinner to mean God's love for the sin. I'm not saying that in your denial of the Gift of Prophecy, that you believe this; but there is the risk of self-righteousness in this other extreme approach as well, at least in terms of the self-righteous 'lukewarm' condition we ALL have are in, of which God offers remedy in Christ [Rev 3:18]. Receiving the Spirit is a result of deep repentance and a Gal 2:20 experience. Gal 5:13, 1Cor 8:9, 1Peter 2:16, John 8:32.
All of our succesful leaders have, as far as I know, accepted the Gift of Prophecy for what it is and have been blessed in their leadership even under some trying times which we as a church have been through, including factionalism within the church.
♥T
Trevor,
A clarification. I did not mean to imply that there was zero emphasis in Ellen White's writings about discovering the Holy Spirit. To the contrary, she encouraged all believers to seek the empowerment of the Holy Spirit and to find their empowerment in Him. Further, she specificially directed that we should never, under any circumstance, use her writings in sermons or as the basis for any teaching or belief.
In contrast with that, the priority I have heard most often from Ted Wilson is that we should be studying and obeying the EGW writings. He quotes freely and extensively from her writings in his sermons.
My issue with how we use the writings of Ellen White is that we have focused so exclusively on her prophetic gift as the proof of the Adventist church being God's chosen end-time church that we have corporately closed our minds to the continual and ongoing empowerment of the Holy Spirit. One of the gifts of the Spirit is prophecy. Having a contemporary prophet in the church was a great blessing because of the guidance that God provided about how to deal with specific situations. As a society today we are dealing with issues that did not exist a century ago. How badly do we need such current guidance directly from God today?
Hey – Brother Noel
Here is her take regarding those who called her a prophet:
♥T
Trevor
You might want to look in the history books and check out James White's opinion on this issue. He is undoubtedly one of our best leaders, and he refused to publish his wife's writings in the Review while he was the editor. He seemed to think, at least when dealing with the public, that our beliefs could be justified solely from the Bible. I am sure you would not accuse James White of not believing in his wife's gift. Many conservative SDAs who have read and benefitted from Ellen White's counsel do not believe she should be used in the way that she has been. It is not a matter of not believing in her gift, but of believing it is being misused. She at times said the same thing herself, sometimes very bluntly.
EGW herself admitted she was the "lesser light leading to the greater light", greater light being the Bible. She also mentions a people who "stand on the Bible and the Bible alone" as the source of all truth. Leaders like Ted Wislon have turned her into a SDA version of a pope.
No, not the pope, just as 'church mother' to equal the church fathers of the catholic tradition. I see her works (apart from the issue of inspiration) as providing the clearest exposition of SDA tradition. Even were she not inspired, that would still be a significant contribution to the life of the church.
This line: "It is not a matter of not believing in her gift, but of believing it is being misused." is a favorite used by Ellen White detractors to side track from acknowledging their own rejection of her writings and use instead as an excuse for their unbelief even to their own detriment and peril. Traditional Adventism, (Ellen White and all), has never advocated extremism in any of its forms. To accuse those who make use of her writings of 'misusing it' in order to discredit them and her is just but a weak strawman and one can see right through it.
♥T