Your brother
Steve
Shifting the Priorities of Church Leaders
Posted on April 26, 2016 by 100M
By Neil Cole
Jesus
defined success differently. For Him, success could be summed up in
three words: Faithfulness (Matt 25:21; Heb 11:6) fruitfulness (John
15:8) and finishing well (Matt 25:21; 2 Tim. 4:6-8).
If
these three things are what Jesus is looking for to determine our
success then perhaps our priorities should reflect them. Christian
leaders put so much emphasis on tasks at the expense of relationships,
but actually, it is our relationships that will ultimately reveal our
success or lack thereof.
The
diagram below reflects a variety of roles that a typical Christian
leader can feel obliged to fill. At the top of the chart are the roles
and at the bottom are the numbers of people he or she can expect to
influence in each of those roles.
As
you look at the circles above imagine them on a potter’s wheel spinning
fast. The Christian leader feels the pull of centrifugal force to the
outer roles. The crowds beckon. The demands of the consumer Christians
call to us endlessly.
Leaders
who perform well on the outside tasks get the most accolades and
affirmations. But the tasks that fuel true success over a lifetime are
found at the center of the circles. The greatest demand and the least
significance are found in the roles on the outside of the circles. The
least demand on your time, yet the greatest significance for your life
investment, are found in the center of the target. Aim for the bull’s
eye if you want to die without regrets.
We
simply must realign our priorities to reflect what is valuable in God’s
kingdom. The greatest leaders are not those who win the most followers.
The greatest leaders are the ones who produce leaders.
Follow Jesus to True Success
This
was Jesus’ pattern; he fulfilled all the roles. He preached to, healed
and fed the multitudes (Matt 13:1-34;14:13-21). He cast vision to five
hundred at one time (1 Cor 15:6). He shepherded a congregation of
disciples that numbered 120 (Acts 1:15). He coached and facilitated the
training of 70 (Luke 10:1). He discipled 12 (Matt. 10:1) and of those 12
He invested Himself in 3 to reproduce His leadership (Mark 5:37; Luke
9:28; Mark 14:33). The 3 were part of the 12, who were numbered in the
70. The 70 were counted among the 120 and of course the 120 were part of
the multitudes.
Jesus
was not enamored by large crowds. Though He obviously had the ability
to draw tens of thousands to attend an event, it was not his purpose to
gather a large crowd, and that was not success to Him. He frequently
tried to get away from large crowds (Luke 5:14-16), and even
intentionally offended them without worrying about loosing His
popularity (John 6:41-71).
It
is the lives you touch, one at a time, which will be the fruit of your
life. To focus on the true priority of making disciples we must at times
neglect the distracting but less than significant demands that come
from the masses.
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