UNQUALIFIED AND SHADY LEADERS IN THE CHURCH

It boils down to two questions,
1. Do you truly believe that God knows what He is doing?
2. Do you believe that His Word is true when He says that every person is fashioned for His Glory and is unique and outstanding in their own way?

Leaders are chosen by God in church -whether good or bad - Judas and Saul were chosen by God.

They are chosen to lead others - Not that, in themselves they are qualified so; but God has favored them and given them an opportunity to co-work with Him in that capacity.

I say this as someone who has been under people who; I didn't understand why they had any right to lead me. To which God asked me the two important questions above, for when I felt the church had such unqualified and shady leaders in some places they had no right being. But I understand God - I understand the vastness of His Wisdom and foresight (He gives it as a gift for crying out loud). He is Wisdom. He is the End.

To any leader above you; good and bad alike, you give due honor to. Not because they have done something worth the honor - But because they hold the honor of being called by God to that post.

Have we not read of MANY Priests, Kings, Judges, etc in the bible that never lived up to the standard of the position they were called to? Other than Jesus, surely we can point out to the many flaws of the different leaders that were ever Graced by the opportunity to lead.

Lets do a recap of the Greatest leaders in the scriptures;
1.  Abraham - Father of faith - Friend of God. Whose seed we all claim to be, through Jesus Christ. Also liar. And if you defend him and say that he just told a partial truth; I will retaliate, and call him a deceiver, because he deliberately set out to deceive. Not once, but TWICE! With Pharaoh of Egypt, and King Abimelech in Gerar.

2.Moses - Meekest man in all of earth - Of whom God boasted to Mariam and Aaron that He talks to him Face to Face. Of all leaders, him alone is one, in the old testament, we see, spending recorded absurd amounts of time with God alone, and having God speak to Him not through Gifts of the Holy Spirit - But directly. Moses of course started out his journey back to Egypt, having not circumcised his son, a big thank you to his wife Ziporrah for doing the Woman thing (A blog post for another time). A clear not following Instruction issue. Moses would get angry - I mean, we have the 5 Torah (The 5 first books in the old Testament - Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deutrnomy) to prove this to us. Written by himself, you can still feel the anger in those books. But this man was entrusted by God to lead His precious Israel. Hundreds of thousands that he was called to lead.

3. David  - Man after Gods Heart. Psalmist. Greatest King of Israel. Also... (Honestly, maybe I should leave this part to you to phrase it).

4. Apostle Paul (I wanted to just slot in a new testament leaders, in case, in case)  - More than half the new testament was authored by Paul, as a testament of the vastness of his contribution to the current state of the church. Paul as a leader was definitely interesting. There is that scene where he rebukes Apostle Peter in public and writes about it with all  of his unapologetic stance. I mean...

And while, these four are undisputably amongst the greatest leaders to have walked the earth - as the author of Hebrews puts it - Of whom the earth was not worthy; they daily were walking towards the mark in different areas of their lives, including leadership.

When we study the bible, other than Jesus, we dont see perfect leaders. We see leaders that only got better and better because they relied on God. The one case of a leader; King Saul - who worked on perfection and not trusting God, ended up worse off than he started.

Now, as a person under such leaders, in the body of Christ - how do you look up to them and follow their lead?

it is definitely not by expecting perfection, but by trusting in the one who called them and placed in that position to be altogether true to His word, such that even this position of this person would work out for your good! That all leaders are ordained for your progress - because yes, thats how much God loves you.

The bible tells us about how much our heavenly Father is much more than the earthly father, and gives us even better gifts. This gift might look like David who kills someone in His army because he wants to cover up his sin (Not endorsed by God by the way - But you also dont see God rushing to strip him of his Kingship)


Finally, to really trip you up on this - Who sets the standard for leading anyway? And What is that said standard? Would it be Truth? (One universal standard as given by God) - Because I truly believe that if thats the case, then all God requires the church leaders is to lean on Him - Trust on Him. And just like King David, whose heart was sold out to Him - greater will be the dominion and Influence of such a leader.

But for you placed under any such leader, reread the two questions in our opening post.
Then;
1. Treat ALL your leaders with the honor that is demanded from you. Not by Man, but by God Himself.

2. Be joyful - Always! All things (Leaders) ARE working out for your good! You can never be disadvantaged.

Bye Katriel!