Yesterday I wrote about the necessity of a
servant’s heart in a leader. Today I want us to think about leaders who know the difference between
making plans and asking God to put his blessing on them, and making plans that
are dependent on the leading and direction of the Spirit. Leaders need to lead.
Planning is a part of leading. For some that is a given. For others, planning
sounds like presumption. But planning is rooted in the very nature of God. He was
a planner. He planned the means of our salvation from before creation. 1Peter
1:20 says of Jesus that, “He was chosen before the creation of the world, but
was revealed in these last times for your sake” (1Pet 1:20 NIV). God is a planner.
Planning can be presumptuous or it can be a
part of good leadership. The difference is in the attitude of the leader. James
warns,
Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such
a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— yet you do not know
what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears
for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord
wills, we will live and do this or that.” (Jam 2:13-15)
Notice, James doesn't say that planning is bad, but plans need to be held loosely. They need to be made recognizing our dependence on the leading and direction of
the Spirit. We need leaders who know how to listen to God. We need leaders who
lead with humility. We need leaders who are willing to put aside their agenda
for God’s agenda. We need leaders who listen well. We need leaders who do not act
impulsively, but plan, and evaluate with discernment.
Ezra was given the responsibility and resources to travel back
to Jerusalem with a large contingent of people and restart temple worship. He
could have just said, “Okay, we have all we need. Let’s go.” But that is not
what he did. Once he had a group to travel with him he stopped at the river Ahava
and did three things. First, he declared a fast. He recognized that he needed
not only the blessing of the King, but the blessing of God. Together they
sought God’s blessing. Second, he evaluated who was there and who they still
needed. He recognized that there were no Levites, so he sent some men to recruit
Levites. He knew that they would be needed for the temple worship. Third, he
carefully distributed the temple resources between several individuals and established
a system of accountability for them.
Ezra led with wisdom and discernment. He didn’t get in a hurry,
nor did he make rash decisions. He sought God’s direction and blessing. He made
wise decisions. He led with humility, recognizing that he could not do
everything. What do we need to look for in pastors and church leaders? We need
that kind of wisdom. We need pastors who are willing and able to lead, but not out
of their own agenda. We need pastors who are willing to take the time to listen
and discern rather than rashly rush forward with them plans. We need pastors who
hold their plans loosely. We need pastors who recognize their dependence on God
and others.
What we do not need is a pastor with an agenda. What we do not
need is a pastor who thinks he doesn’t need others. We need leaders who know
the difference between making plans and asking God to put his blessing on them,
and making plans that are dependent on the leading and direction of the Spirit.
We need pastors who understand how to discern God’s leading, and who respond to
God’s leading with patience and wisdom and humility.
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