The
Power of Imperfect Leadership:
Pastor Joe Fuiten,
Scripture
Peter
replied, "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus
Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the
Holy Spirit. 39 The promise is for you
and your children and for all who are far off-- for all whom the Lord our God
will call." 40 With many other words he warned them; and he pleaded with
them, "Save yourselves from this corrupt generation." 41 Those who
accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to
their number that day. 42 They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching[1]
and to the fellowship[2],
to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43 Everyone was filled with awe, and
many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. 44 All the
believers were together and had everything in common[3].
45 Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. 46
Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke
bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47 praising
God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their
number daily those who were being saved.
Luke gives us a snapshot of what church life was
like in
I want to
notice several details about what life was like in the beginning of
Christianity. First, notice the four
things that were high on their list:
teaching, fellowship, breaking of bread (which the choice of words might
infer to be Holy Communion rather than common eating), and prayer. They were
also very loving toward each other and participated in charitable giving.
In the
Apostles teaching we see the importance of communicating truth and clearly
reporting what Jesus taught.
Fellowship was important. In fact, the term there is well known even to people who do not speak Greek. It is koinoni. There was a strong social component to the church. The love they showed by their almsgiving was part of the strong bond of fellowship that existed. This was where Barnabas got his started. He sold a piece of property and donated the money to the fellowship.
I notice that they prayed. I want to come back to that in a moment.
In verse
46 we note that they did not just meet in the
Leadership
in the earliest church emerged differently that it does in churches today. There was a practical process of learning and
serving that allowed a person to rise. A
servant of the church, whom they called a Deacon, was not the terminal lay
position of today. Back then, it was a
person in training for ministry. I am
not advocating a change in our system. I
am simply noting that people had a chance to prove who they were. From that, they moved into other leadership.
In any
group, leaders naturally find their way into leadership. It is not necessarily a function of their
knowledge or training. By definition,
leaders lead. It is harder for a leader
not to lead than it is for a leader to lead.
In this period in Acts, it was easy for leaders to find their way to the
top. I am not sure it is equally easy
today for leaders to step into their natural roles.
One of the
things that is very important to me now is to add layers of leadership and thus
create opportunity for leaders to find their place in the Lord’s work. We have been doing that successfully by the
addition of branch churches. Whatever else it may be, the
branch church concept provides opportunities for people to lead both churches
and programs who otherwise would not have had that opportunity. We have added more leaders by developing more
classes and programs
within the churches. As I have told you
before, I believe the next step in that leadership process is to add home
groups. If we were to add dozens of home
groups to the church within the next couple of years, the number of leaders
would double.
In the
past, I have been a little jumpy about home groups because of concern about the
occasional crackpot who will come along and try to reshape it into his
image. Today I am much more comfortable
in our ability to deal with that kind of issue without it being a big
crisis. We can deal with the
problems. What I want to do is unleash
the potential already within this church.
My friend Greg
Gourley
is President of New Americans of Washington.
He helps immigrants become citizens or otherwise to have proper
documentation. He called the church the
other day because he wanted to exact words to the Lord’s Prayer. He was going to lead some Rotary Clubs in
saying that prayer and he wanted to get it right. He has been speaking recently to a number of Rotary
Clubs in the area. He has been raising
money for African relief efforts. Having
made a couple of trips there, he understands the need and wants to do something
about it. He has also come into contact
with churches there and has been very impressed with the spiritual strength
they show in the midst of terrible circumstances. He has been touched by how they pray.
Greg is
not a deep-rooted church guy. He doesn’t
have that history. Yet he is out there
leading Rotary Clubs in the Lord’s Prayer.
Some of you have Bible degrees but you are not leading Rotary in
prayer. Greg has always been a
leader. When we were at the University,
he got me the job of driving car for the Secretary of State. Greg just naturally knows how to get things
done. He might not know where to find
the Lord’s Prayer in the Bible, or even know its exact words, but he is leading
because he is a leader.
Another
friend of mine is Skip Priest. A few weeks ago he came by to
see me so we could pray together. A good
friend of his was very sick. We
prayed. Last week Skip mentioned that
his friend wasn’t dead yet and in fact was doing better. Then he told me that several prominent
political figures in the
Even
though Skip accepted the Lord a couple of years ago, he hasn’t really gotten
into church yet. If you are listening
Skip, you need to do that. On the other
hand he is praying and reading his Bible regularly which a lot of people who go
to church can’t say. The point is, he naturally stepped up and applied the
spiritual life which he does possess to the problems that he sees around him.
At a personal level, he is also there for these people in their physical
struggles as he has been for me in some of the public areas that I have wanted
to develop for the church.
I believe
the Lord’s work will continue to do well as more and more people step into
leadership roles. The most natural place
in the world to develop those skills is in home groups. This fall, as we crank up home groups, I want
leaders to lead. You may not know
everything there is to know about the Bible, but you can learn and you can
grow. If you will grow, so will the
Lord’s work.
The other
aspect that I want to highlight is prayer. The early Christians prayed in
their homes and they prayed in the courtyard of the
Did I
mention that Skip was a guy that we prayed for often when I was in
College? We had a prayer group that met
in my college dormitory room. It took a
few years, but that prayer for him was answered.
That is
what I love about prayer. Things
happen when you pray. When I pray about problems, every answer is
yes. When I pray about money, there is
always enough. When I pray about
anything, everything is possible. It
isn’t like that every morning when I awaken, but something has been touched in
my heart through prayer. Are all my
prayers answered? No, not yet. But today is another day. Who knows what might yet happen before the
day is done.
Praying in
home groups in wonderful because they are almost always quite specific. People know what the need is and they
pray. Everybody knows what has been
requested. When the answer comes,
everyone can share in the victory. Our
faith is suddenly quite personal and quite successful. Ordinary people prayed and extraordinary
things happen.
[1] 1322 didache (did-akh-ay'); from 1321; instruction (the act or the matter): KJV-- doctrine, hath been taught.
[2] 2842 koinonia (koy-nohn-ee'-ah); from 2844; partnership, i.e. (literally) participation, or (social) intercourse, or (pecuniary) benefaction: KJV-- (to) communicate (-ation), communion, (contri-) distribution, fellowship.
[3] 2839 koinos (koy-nos'); probably from 4862; common, i.e. (literally) shared by all or several, or (cer.) profane: KJV-- common, defiled, unclean, unholy.