Time To Clean-Up My Father's House |
Part 1 - Introduction | Part 2 - True Disciples | Part 3 - The Road Back to Christ | The Road Back to Christ cont...
Time to Clean-Up My Father’s House
– Part 3: The Road Back to Christ cont...
13th August 2007
The road back to Christ involves placing God on His rightful throne. That has to be your number one priority. Once God is first in everything you do, you will exercise the characteristics of a Christian leader. Constant growth will be evident in areas such as your personal spirituality; emotional maturity and ministry competence. This will be evident in your relationship with the people you lead. When God is number one in your life, there is no conflict with your personal and public lifestyle. You will lead, having the authority from God to lead the people in your care.
Below are some points and questions to consider as you search your ways and see if they are pleasing to God. They include some of the bible verses I read, which led me to doing this series of leadership articles:
Your responsibility as a Leader:
- Rescue those who are unjustly sentenced to death; don’t stand back and let them die, says Proverbs 24:11. It continues by saying that you should not avoid responsibility by saying you didn’t know about it. For God knows all hearts and He sees you. He keeps watch over your soul and He knows you knew! And He will judge all people according to what they have done (Proverbs 24:12). The Lord is more pleased when we do what is just and right than when we give him sacrifices (Proverbs 21:3). Then followed a warning:
Those who shut their ears to the cries of the poor will be ignored in their own time of need (Proverbs 21:13).
- Teach your children to choose the right path, and when they are older, they will remain upon it (Proverbs 22:6).
We often refer to scriptures like this one as a message for paternal and maternal parenting. However, as Christian leaders, you are in charge of the children of God. Therefore, this scripture reading very much applies to you – providing guide for your leadership. Each member in your church is a child of God. They are all at different levels in their spiritual growth. So, what is needed as a priority in one person’s life, may be different from what another desperately needs.
Pay close attention to the different groups and their needs. Get to know your members beyond the smile on their faces, during worship service and you’ll have a better understanding of their level of spiritual growth.
You don’t need to exhaust yourselves running from one member’s house to another to get to know where the need lies. A remedy for this is teaching from the Word of God. Introduce these teachings in relevant forms through other forums like youth groups, women’ fellowship, men’ fellowship and other groups relevant in your church such as couples or parenting groups.
During the worship sermon, most churches have a specific time in which the service needs to run. Therefore, messages are generalized, and sometimes very few people grasp the full context of the message. Discussing this in smaller groups and applying relevant experiences brings life to the sermon and the message better understood.
- Live the life you preach: Don’t just preach — teach as well, and live by example. James 1:22-25 teaches us to be doers of the Word and not just hearers. It is a message to obey, not just to listen to; otherwise, you are just fooling yourself. ‘But if you keep looking steadily into God’s perfect law—the law that sets you free—and if you do what it says and don’t forget what you heard, then God will bless you for doing it.’ Your life needs to be a shining example for all to see. If your members do not see evidence of this in your lifestyle, they will not take you seriously when you stand on the pulpit.
- Take heed! The Word is not just for your congregation; it is for you as well. Spend time in the Word of God, so you can walk right and teach with the authority given you by God. Leave flesh behind and exhort the people, under the direction of the Holy Spirit. This way you can preach and teach with confidence and allow the Holy Spirit to convict the individuals to examine their lives and start to clean up their act.
- Take note of warnings: Warning given to your predecessors still applies to you today: “Destruction is certain for my rebellious children”, says the Lord. “You make plans that are contrary to my will. You weave a web of plans that are not from my Spirit, thus piling up your sins. For without consulting me, you have gone down to
- Exercise self-control: A person without self-control is as defenceless as a city with broken down walls (Proverbs 25:28). Anger is a terrible thing! Getting angry at a situation is not a sin in itself but without control, that anger gives a mighty foothold to the devil and you can strike a might blow. James 1:19-20 teaches us to be ‘quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry. Your anger can never make things right in God’s sight.’ Many Christians suffer at the hands of angry leaders who applied no self-control to their tempers. I have been a Christian for more than 20 years now and have seen too many situations escalated out of control, even causing people to leave the fellowship for this very reason. Small intimate groupings, like members meetings, are often the place where I see this evil develop. The main service session doesn’t allow for much after session fellowship, in some churches, and therefore smaller gathering should allow for this development. Unfortunately, because of this behaviour some members feel intimidated and as a result refuse to contribute in anyway to the church’s development.
This abuse of leadership (a display of misplaced power/ misguided authority) I have seen displayed in my schools when I was growing up. Students suffer abuse at the hands of teachers and prefects. I have now come to a place of ‘safe haven’ – the church, and find it to be no different. Leaders have used their authority to ‘lord’ it over the people. They stop learning the moment they begin to lead and so soon enough they are going with their own guidance / opinion rather than that of God’s. This is not right people – it has to stop! Allowing this lack of control can see you represented in the following verses:
- Promote the truth. Never let it be said that, “…you are the children of your father the devil, and you love to do the evil things he does. He was a murderer from the beginning and has always hated the truth. There is no truth in him. When he lies, it is consistent with his character; for he is a liar and the father of lies.” (
Remember now: You cannot claim to be a Christian without actually following Christ (1st John 2:6). ‘Whatever is good and perfect comes to us from God, who created all heaven’s lights. Unlike them, He never changes or casts shifting shadows. In His goodness He chose to make us His own children by giving us His true Word. And we, out of all creation, became His choice possession.’ Therefore, it will benefit you to feed on the Word of God and sharpen your discipleship/leadership skills.
See also: Three Steps Getting Back on Track, which developed from this series, in light of those who find themselves not in line with the will of God. Then ‘…get rid of all the filth and evil in your lives, and humbly accept the message God has planted in your hearts, for it is strong enough to save your souls.’ (James 1:21).
