Today, I have the pleasure of sharing a piece written by Mark Nichols. Mark is a counselor, friend, and elder at our church, New Life Bible Fellowship. As elders we rotate a monthly time of training one another. Currently we are using J. Oswald Sanders’s excellent book, Spiritual Leadership. This was a training Mark led us in several months back. I am sure you will benefit from it as I did.
-John
Should we desire to lead? Paul shared with Timothy, “To aspire to leadership is an honorable ambition” (1 Tim. 3:1). And yet, Jeremiah tells us, “Should you then seek great things for yourself? Seek them not” (Jer. 45:5). Should we run toward or away from leadership, then?
In the first verse Paul is instructing Timothy, his true child in the faith with “The saying is trustworthy: if anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task” (1 Tim 3:1). Paul has raised up Timothy as an elder for the church of Ephesus and is giving Timothy instructions on how to raise up elders of his own. He then goes on to discuss qualifications for overseers of the growing church.
The Jeremiah verse is more complicated. Jeremiah is talking to Baruch (Blessed) who was a scribe for Jeremiah (chapter 36). Baruch had the privilege of going to the house of the Lord and reading the words of the Lord given to Jeremiah for all the men of Judah to hear from the scroll so that “everyone will turn from his evil way, for great is the anger and wrath that the Lord has pronounced against this people.” In chapter 45, there is a rebuke about Baruch’s groaning, a prophesy about what God is going to do, and a challenge about seeking great things for himself (perhaps related to his position of being in the temple and speaking for Jeremiah). The “seek them not” is because the Lord is going to bring disaster upon all flesh, and he will give Baruch his life as a prize of war in all places to which he may go. Seeking great things for himself could relate to his personal ambition or as a warning to remain separate from Judah because of the disaster about to happen.
Along with these two verses, there are more than 20 others that speak to the struggle between godly and worldly ambition, and with a quick search, the Holy Spirit can level us with lessons on pride and misplaced purpose. And if we go down the pride rabbit hole, well, we could stay there a long time…
The podcast series The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill or the twisted motivation of the judges throughout the book of Judges are a lesson in “should you then seek great things for yourself? Seek them not.” It does not, however, answer the heart’s desire for aspiring to leadership as an honorable ambition,” or to follow a call, or respond to a request, or with a pure or earnest heart want to share those gifts the Lord has given us. Hindsight helps us to know when we have stepped over the line. Fortunately, we serve a loving and merciful God who redirects us and sometimes disciplines us. But how do we know before we falter with ambition whether it is more self-serving rather than God-serving?
I experienced this several years ago when I was a puffed-up young man in my 20s and clinical director of a leading treatment center. I had fallen out of favor with the founder, who stated, “you know, Mark, your best thinking got you right where you are,” followed quickly by, “I was looking for someone when I hired you.” I discovered the line between career and personal ambition versus servant leadership and humility.
Oswald Sanders says it best when he states, “When our ambition carries out a burning desire to be effective in the service of God – to realize God’s highest potential for our lives – we can keep both of these verses in mind and hold them in healthy tension” (Spiritual Leadership, p. 12).
Paul did not call leadership an honorable ambition flippantly. The leaders of that time had to be willing to be persecuted because of Christ. Only a deep love for Christ and genuine concern for the church could motivate people to lead and risk one’s status or life. Perhaps we are not far from that today as worldwide and local church climates and politics change.
The question I believe for each of us to reflect upon is this: does our ambition center on the glory of God and the welfare of the church, or does it tend to wander and become self-serving? What are our motivations for what we do, when we do it, and with whom we may do it? Can we be so closely aligned with God’s view of us and our personal callings and abilities that we aren’t affected by outside influences? And so, I think, it boils down to a matter of the heart.
The primary way that I know how to keep my heart from becoming completely self-absorbed and able to hear and obey God’s voice is to keep Christ’s life in my mind – the circumstances of His ministry from birth to resurrection and the gift of the Spirit. I like to remember his words in Matthew 11:25-30 because it helps keep me humble. It helps me not to rely on my own way of thinking. It helps me maintain a shepherding attitude and a servant’s demeanor. It is not about me, it is about God, and it is for his glory.
Should we seek leadership? Yes. But we ought to seek it with fear and trembling, ever mindful of the snare of our hearts. The stakes of leadership are high. If our aspiration to leadership is our glory and the shape of our leadership is our charisma, then we ought to tremble at the devastation we can wreak. But if we aim our leadership at the glory of Christ and submit ourselves to the Spirit to shape us in Christ’s likeness, God is delighted as his people are blessed.
You May Also Appreciate:
What’s Your Whiteboard? Why Details Matter In Leadership
Photo by Steven Lasry on Unsplash