PRAYER OF CONSECRATION
Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.
Jesus, I belong to you.
I lift up my heart to you.
I set my mind on you.
I fix my eyes on you.
I offer my body to you as a living sacrifice.
Jesus, we belong to you.
Praying in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen.
Acts 27:18–26
We took such a violent battering from the storm that the next day they began to throw the cargo overboard. On the third day, they threw the ship’s tackle overboard with their own hands. When neither sun nor stars appeared for many days and the storm continued raging, we finally gave up all hope of being saved.
After they had gone a long time without food, Paul stood up before them and said: “Men, you should have taken my advice not to sail from Crete; then you would have spared yourselves this damage and loss. But now I urge you to keep up your courage, because not one of you will be lost; only the ship will be destroyed. Last night an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I serve stood beside me and said, ‘Do not be afraid, Paul. You must stand trial before Caesar; and God has graciously given you the lives of all who sail with you.’ So keep up your courage, men, for I have faith in God that it will happen just as he told me. Nevertheless, we must run aground on some island.”
CONSIDER THIS
At times leaders hold recognized positions. Unfortunately, a lot of the time (and sadly, often in churches) the people who occupy recognized positions of leadership are not actually the leaders. Then there are leaders who do not hold recognized positions of authority. And that’s the rub, isn’t it? I am coming to believe that “positions” can’t actually hold authority. Only people can hold authority. Positions can carry responsibility but they can’t hold authority. The challenge is to match people who carry authority with positions of responsibility. That’s the other rub. True authority only comes from deep humility. And people of deep humility aren’t often vying for positions of leadership. The good news is they will lead whether in position or not and people will follow them. Sadly, they are often perceived as a threat to the positional leaders—not because they are a threat but because the leaders are insecure. The leaders are insecure because they lack authority, and they lack authority because they lack humility. You see, the only authority a person can ever possess derives from their God-given identity, which is also the source of their security, which when embraced becomes their humility. This is the real leader. And once in a blue moon, the real leader is actually the person in charge. (I would cite as exhibit 1-A the kings of Israel and Judah).
Where do you see Paul in the present scenario among these options? The ship held 276 souls; some of them soldiers, many of them prisoners, still others made up the crew and captain, and finally Julius the Centurion. Paul held the distinguished rank of prisoner yet today’s text shows him clearly emerging as the leader of the ship.
Remember, Paul warned the official leadership, Julian the Centurion, and the ship’s captain not to proceed on the journey as planned.
Below are a few thoughts about the quality of real leadership drawn from Paul’s life and evidenced in today’s text.
1. Real leaders speak up, regardless of whether they hold positional leadership or not. I’ve heard people say in order to qualify as a leader you must have followers. Not necessarily. To qualify as a leader you must speak up and provide leadership; whether people follow you or not. In this situation, Paul provided leadership that was not followed. His counsel, though not heeded, proved prescient.
2. Real leaders keep taking initiative despite being rejected. This is the test of a leader. It’s too easy and quite typical for someone whose counsel is rejected to become an armchair quarterback and snipe at the people officially in charge. Yes, Paul did take a shot with his “I told you so” comment, but he went further and provided more leadership.
3. Real leaders understand their primary calling as putting courage into people, especially in crisis situations. Listen to Paul again on this point, “But now I urge you to keep up your courage, because not one of you will be lost; only the ship will be destroyed.”
4. Real leaders do the hard work of cultivating holy instincts, which is to say an imagination steeped in the “nothing is impossible with God” possibilities of the Holy Spirit. Angels abound for those with eyes to see. The Word of God always speaks to those with ears to hear. The eyes of faith see beyond the thin veil of the visible into the deep mysteries of the realm of the holy unseen.
5. Real leaders risk it all on a word from God. They work from an authority beyond their own. They live with a boldness beyond mere grandiosity. From day one on the Damascus Road to yesterday’s word from an angelic visitor, Paul banked everything on the living, active Word of God.
Would you like to be this kind of person? It’s entirely possible. Answer that question.
THE PRAYER OF TRANSFORMATION
Lord Jesus, I am your witness. I long to be like you.
I receive your righteousness and release my sinfulness.
I receive your wholeness and release my brokenness.
I receive your fullness and release my emptiness.
I receive your peace and release my anxiety.
I receive your joy and release my despair.
I receive your healing and release my sickness.
I receive your love and release my selfishness.
Come, Holy Spirit, transform my heart, mind, soul, and strength so that my consecration becomes your demonstration; that our lives become your sanctuary. For the glory of God our Father, amen.
THE JOURNAL PROMPTS
How might you articulate leadership thought number 6 and add to the list above? What do you make of this connection between deep humility and real authority?
THE HYMN
Today we will sing “I Want a Principle Within,” (hymn 313) from our Seedbed hymnal, Our Great Redeemer’s Praise. Get your copy here.
For the Awakening,
J. D. Walt
P.S. Word and Spirit Journaling Workshop
You don’t want to miss our August 26, Word and Spirit journaling workshop! Register here.
And speaking of journals, our Exodus Wake-Up Call series begins September 2. Order Exodus: A Wake-Up Call Journal here and use the code SOWEXODUS to save 50% on orders of two or more.
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5 Responses
The qualities listed here as attributes for a true leader sound a lot like the Spiritual gifting of a prophet. The deep humility present in a true prophet comes from the wisdom of knowing that they are merely being faithful to speak God’s words, not their own. They are sharing God’s words so that all glory goes to Him alone. The prophet burns within to share the word of the Lord come hell or high water. Whether they are successful in convincing folks to change direction or not is not their concern. What truly matters is that God’s wisdom has been shared, the prophet has been faithful.
6. Real leaders are led by the Spirit. The leading of the Holy Spirit isn’t found in the subjective inaccuracy of your thoughts, feelings, desires, and opinions. The leading of the Spirit is the inner manifestation of the reality of “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” It occurs when a person inwardly hears, discerns, and follows the direct objective communication of the living God — His “still, small voice” — the witness of the Spirit that aligns with Christ’s love, mercy, His call to repentance, and His forgiveness. The leading of the Spirit produces visible objective fruit in a person’s life: “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
My thought for leadership quality number 6, in my humble opinion, should be number 1. J.D., I interpreted your comment that 1-5 lead to leading from love and I believe that. I believe leading from love should be number one. I am retired now, but was a small business owner for many years. The business was moderately successful until my focus changed from finding ways to make it more successful, to making my team feel that they were my most important asset…that they were loved! Only then did my business begin to flourish. I have often wondered what might have been if love had been my primary leadership trait from the beginning.
Following up on Jeff’s comment:
I’d say real leaders are servants. Of course, this flows from love. I think of this because there was a trend in the workplace for a while for “servant leadership” (there may still be; I’m retired).
I always thought it was ironic that some self-help guru coined that phrase to encourage people to do something that would make them leaders. The idea comes from Jesus, but they usually miss the point. Forget leadership. Focus on being a servant and the leadership will take care of itself.
Perhaps Paul was a leader because he had been so grasped by the love and grace of Jesus
that humility and leadership resulted