Apr 26, 2018
Rev. Carl Greene
Intentional Leadership
Soon after completing college, I returned to my hometown and moved into my own place. With this new-found freedom I entered into a new and amazing opportunity—bringing a dish to pass for the fellowship meal. I readily volunteered to bring my personal specialty of “slop.” This involves taking all the leftovers in the refrigerator and throwing them into a crockpot with large amounts of curry powder and some additional Ramen Noodles. It is amazing. Yet, believe it or not, I was politely told that I did not need to bring food to a fellowship meal…ever again. Maybe I was told more directly than politely.
I was working outside of my skill set, and someone needed to let me know—for the sake of the church! This is a rather innocent example—but it does not take a whole lot of imagination to see how important it is to have people in roles of leadership, teaching, and service working within their skill set, calling, and character threshold. In the previous article, we considered how we select people to fill roles of leadership, teaching, and service within the church. Whether we are in a small church or a large church, it can be difficult to find volunteers to fill certain roles—but that is no excuse to move away from the Biblical standards of character and competence. Yet, even with these explicit standards, we can easily fall into the trap of using superficial qualifications of: 1) Self-selection or 2) Easy targets.
Self-selection.
Self-selection as the only qualification is quite dangerous. When we ask for Sabbath School teacher volunteers from the congregation through a casual announcement, are we truly seeking out the most qualified and called individuals, or are we potentially inviting significant issues? Oxford Dictionary describes self-selection as “the action of putting oneself forward for something.” Self-selection is definitely a good thing to demonstrate initiative and a willingness to serve, but it is far from meeting Biblical qualifications for serving in certain capacities.
Self-selection does not meet the bar set in Ephesians 4 that we examined in the previous article—the bar of character and competence. When utilizing self-selection, we are not intentionally searching out people of character who demonstrate a Christ-like walk and concern for unity. Likewise, self-selection does not seek people who exhibit competence in the ways that they equip and build up others for the glory of God. Relying on self-selection for every role in the church, such as those that involve teaching, lacks the “interview questions” we should be asking as a church.
Easy Targets.
Another approach we might use to fill roles of leadership, teaching, and service within the church is to ask people of character and competence who struggle to say no. We know who these workhorses are—the people who are looked up to by many, bring amazing talents to the table, and rarely say no. We can avoid the self-selection trap by asking these trusted
individuals to perform just one more responsibility within the church.
There is a terrible cost to easy targets, though. Every time we press them into another role, their family is stretched that much thinner as home life becomes increasingly finite. As we ask people to fill the gap just one more time, we are also asking them to pare down their personal time with Jesus and His Word for the sake of public production. Our asking of easy targets to keep going with one more job brings a cost to their families, and potentially a draining of their own well of spiritual and emotional health.
If character and competence help us with discerning “interview questions” for church leaders, there must still be one more facet to avoid the traps of self-selection and easy targets. Here is that final piece provided in Ephesians 4: Chalk Line.
CHALK LINE
I am not much of a carpenter, yet I still strictly adhere to the old adage “Measure twice, cut once.” There is great advantage to following this adage—not wasting material, getting the job done efficiently, and not looking personally inept. In order to link together measuring well and appropriate cutting, there needs to be a guide. This is where the chalk line comes in. Once we know the measurement, we snap a chalk line on the board we are going to cut to guide us in the process.
Ephesians 4:13 provides a chalk line to follow: until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.
All.
Notice the important phrase that kicks off this verse: “until we all attain….” The chalk line is not an individual’s measurement only, but actually a measurement for the body of Christ, the church. When we search to fill roles in the church, it is not a matter of what is most expedient to get the task done. The true measurement involves how the body is affected. Self-selection and easy targets do not ultimately take into account what is best for the church in the long haul. We must use the chalk line offered in this verse.
Dimensions.
Three dimensions are provided. First, there is to be unity of faith. If we ask this person to serve in this role, will he not only brings unity to the church through his character and competence, but will their serving in this capacity also sustain the unity of Christ in their relationships? Is this person spread too thin in life to take on one more task?
Second, there is to be the dimension of knowledge of the Son. Remember, this is not only knowledge about Jesus, but also truly knowing Jesus personally. If our asking of someone to serve in one more role is ultimately going to detract from his individual time spent with Jesus—we need to reconsider asking him to risk that cost. On the other hand, there might be people who have not been asked to serve in a given capacity who would actually grow through their service in the church.
Third, there is the dimension of maturity. This is a measurement of the church as a body, not just the individual. Our selection of leaders, teachers, and servers not only reflects their individual maturity, but how they will bring group maturity. Once again, this raises the question of whom to ask for a given job. Perhaps the person with the greatest competence and character is not the best choice. What if someone who has threshold character and able competence would actually bring the greatest body maturity through their own growth as a leader? What if God’s plan is to grow an emerging leader to bring about tremendous growth for the body?
While we hold a high standard for character and competence, we must not overlook the dimension of body maturity. We need to be very careful to not just measure to find the individual with the “most character and competence.” This would potentially starve emerging leaders from opportunities. Ultimately, we would also miss the chalk line measurement of church-wide maturity.
Emotional Maturity.
When it comes to maturity, notice that the standard is “the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.” Quite often we think of maturity in terms of knowledge and spiritual maturity. These are incredibly important and are necessary pieces of maturity. Yet, when we look at the fullness of Christ, we need to recognize another picture of maturity that He exhibited throughout His life: emotional maturity. Jesus knew when to be incredibly gentle. Jesus knew when to offer a sharp rebuke. We can get confused about emotional maturity, thinking that emotional maturity is the lack of emotion. That would be a miss. Emotional maturity is appropriate emotional response, not the lack of emotion. This sort of maturity is imperative for a church to know unity of faith. Once again, when we are selecting leaders, teachers, and servers, we should be using emotional maturity as a criteria on the individual and group level. Does this person possess the individual emotional maturity required for maintaining unity? Also, will the person serving in this role point the church toward greater emotional maturity through leadership development?
A FINAL METRIC
When we use character, competence, and the chalk line for selecting appropriate individuals for roles in the church, we have a clear picture of what should be avoided. Verse 14 talks about being children tossed to and fro on waves, carried by the winds of doctrinal change, and deceived by craftiness and cunning. That is something to avoid! Keep in mind that this is the short measure—there is a long-term measure to view as well:
Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. (Eph. 4:16-17)
Appropriate identification of emerging leaders not only avoids getting lost in the sea of doctrinal change, but it provides a glorious view of what can be. Each part is living out what it is equipped to do in order to not only grow, but build itself up.
Sending Capacity.
The measure of appropriate selection of leaders, teachers, and servers within a church is the sending capacity of that church. When a church not only trains up but also provides opportunity for equipped individuals, leaders start to emerge. Notice that this metric is sending capacity—that there are leaders, teachers, and servers available to be sent from the church because she has faithfully been asking the right interview questions. The actual sending is up to God—the calling of the church is to 21 generate a capacity for sending.
Two things when it comes to leadership development: 1) This goal is potentially more about sending equipped individuals and families to other churches and mission settings than amassing numerical growth within your own church. 2) Leadership development metrics might be two generations out. Meeting the chalk line of unity, knowledge, and maturity as a church is not a quick deal, nor is sending out emerging leaders.
As a church, ask the hard questions of character, competence, and the chalk line. Anticipate a lengthy intentional investment that might come at a great cost, including the sending out of wonderful folks. Ultimately, be expectant of the growth God will bring in His kingdom through your church’s faithfulness.