It's Not Just The Leaders

People Suck Too

Introduction

Leadership is simply the art of leading people, with the assumption that there is authority over said people whether expressed or implied, whether direct or indirect or whether there is a title or not. Therefore, to carry any position of leadership is to carry a great weight of responsibility and accountability. Not only is the leader responsible for those whom he leads but he is also accountable to those who stand over him and have granted said authority.

Ultimately, regardless of how many “higherups” there may be in any given chain of command, we are all accountable to God from whom all legitimate authority flows and to whom we must all give account. This is true in any sphere of authority whether it be the home, the church, or the civil and private sphere. Given the fact that a leader is to, well, lead. It’s been said that, as goes the leader so goes the people. As goes the father so goes the home, as goes the elders so goes the church, as goes the CEO so goes the company and so on.

Therefore, many have stressed that leadership is not just one more thing among many things, but is the main thing influencing everything. Regardless of what’s downstream, it got there because it flowed there from the top, or entered in somewhere along the way. This is not to say that it couldn’t have grown along the way or metastasized once there, but it is to say that it got there in some way and regardless of what way that may be, either directly or indirectly, knowingly or unknowingly by the leader, the leader is ultimately responsible and must take ownership of that.

Most of us hear that and think yes, and amen. In fact, one doesn’t even need to be a Christian to see that the heart of leadership means taking responsibility. Hence, the success of books like Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink, which is a fantastic book by the way. This means that leaders, by definition, have a tremendous amount of influence over those they lead. This also means that, by definition, they will always be held to a greater degree of scrutiny. The Scriptures both commend and warn of the weight of leadership.

Paul says,

“The saying is trustworthy: If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task” 1 Timothy 3:1

The office of overseer, or elder is a noble office and the aspiration to hold such an office is to desire a noble task. However James warns us,

“Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness” James 3:1

So then, the desire to be a leader in the church of Jesus Christ is a wonderful and noble thing but should also not be entered into lightly. The role of the leader is to rightly divide the Word of truth, discipling the saint to obey all that the Lord has commanded with the assurance that Christ is with us always leading us to this end, namely Christ likeness.

This is why Paul spends the time telling both Timothy and Titus what to look for in a leader. He does not highlight a towering intellect, a full bank account, or someone with a huge social media presence. No, Paul highlights the character of the man when he says,

“Therefore an overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not a drunkard, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. He must manage his own household well, with all dignity keeping his children submissive, for if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God's church? He must not be a recent convert, or he may become puffed up with conceit and fall into the condemnation of the devil. Moreover, he must be well thought of by outsiders, so that he may not fall into disgrace, into a snare of the devil.” 1 Timothy 3:2-7

“For an overseer, as God's steward, must be above reproach. He must not be arrogant or quick-tempered or a drunkard or violent or greedy for gain, but hospitable, a lover of good, self-controlled, upright, holy, and disciplined. He must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it.” Titus 1:1-9

Again, yes and amen. And again, this should help to remind us that all authority is derivative. That is, within the church of Jesus Christ, all shepherds are nothing more than “under” shepherds and overseers are nothing more than “under” overseers. That is, we lead because we are first led, and we lead with the intent that both leader and led would become more like our chief Shepherd and Overseers. Peter says,

“He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls” 1 Peter 2:24-25

So then, when we look at our world, which many have rightly deemed clown world, because it’s an absolute joke, but unfortunately in our case, it’s the Devil’s din. We’ve come to the conclusion that the answer to the question, or rather the solution to the problem is leadership. Given everything that I have just said about leadership, it would be impossible and hypocritical to not give a hearty amen to that. Accordingly, you have my amen. However, my amen is promptly followed by a “but,” or a “however.”

People Suck…

It is very easy to survey the leadership landscape of our country and barf in your mouth more than just a little bit. When you look at the leadership in the church, if you want to call it that, it is demoralizing to the extreme, not to mention it is also more than just a little bit emasculating. Like balls cut all the way off emasculating. Like Derek Webb marching down the streets of San Francisco in June emasculating. Like Russel Moore, just being Russel Moore emasculating. Like sitting down to pee emasculating. Any way, you get the point. Leadership in the church of Jesus Christ better resembles soft serve ice cream in the middle July in Texas than it does a mighty rock or a fortress.

And the weakness of leadership isn’t something that is exclusive to the church. In fact, I think one could rightly argue that when leadership in the church is about as hardcore as interpretive dance and as desirable as Lizzo doing hot yoga, we should expect to see exactly what we are seeing culturally. That is, if the church is the pillar and buttress of truth, which it is, becomes soft, and weak, and corrupt and effeminate, than that’s exactly what we should expect to see across the board. Perhaps, just maybe perhaps, a terrible, inconvenient truth that we don’t want to come to terms with is not that the church isn’t influencing culture, but rather that it is.

And when gayness and softness becomes the modus operandi in the church, it is not as though evil stays at bay, it metastasizes and grows tenfold, thirtyfold and hundredfold, because evil never stops itself. That requires a shepherds staff, and a prophetic voice that’s says, “knock it off” while carrying the keys to the kingdom of heaven. When that doesn’t happen, you get a Weekend At Bernie’s presidency. Actually, that would be preferred to what we currently have because at least Bernie was dead, and dead men tell no tales, and dead pedophiles are to be preferred over living ones.

Anyway, I think you get the point. Our country is in a bad way, all the way down and all the way through, which has left many desperately longing for bold, righteous, courageous, honest, valiant leadership. So then, why don’t we have that, because it’s not as though those men don’t exist. We don’t have that because, at least the majority of us wouldn’t have it to be so. We don’t have that because we actually hate those men.

Let me tell you a cold hard truth that those running for office won’t tell you for obvious reasons and what no elder will tell, again, for obvious reasons. We don’t have those men, because by in large it’s not just that leadership sucks, it’s also that people suck as well. Like a big, loud, obnoxious Stone Cold Steve Austin style, “you suck!”

Don’t get me wrong. I am not taking anything away from bad leadership, nor am I removing any responsibility from bad leadership. They have to own that and give an account for that. I am simply saying why we have such bad leadership across the board and why the best leadership that is actually out there is not commended and praised.

We are told,

“The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom, and whatever you get, get insight” Proverbs 4:7

But when there is no fear of God in man, it is not as though you simply get the

absence of wisdom. No, bat-shit crazy is what you get, and unfortunately, libraries and locker rooms all across our country smell like bat-shit. But it’s important to point out again, here on the frontend that a vast number of people identify bat-shit as roses and love the smell.

Which is to say that we have the leaders we do because they are a reflection of where people are actually at. I understand the cry for sound leadership. Again, yes and amen. However, you can cut and paste leaders all day long, but unless there is a change in the hearts and minds of the people nothing is going to really change, nor will we ever actually get a real paradigm shifting leader. We may get a good one here and there, but good luck getting rid of those idols in the high places.

The history of Israel’s kings could be compared to a five-inch-long skid mark four-year old’s tighty whities. However, there were some good kings along the way as well as some good priests and awesome prophets. Some of these men were legend, and yet, how did it go down for Israel? Or for any other nation that has not feared the Lord?

I have heard so many people say something like, “where are all the pastors?” over the last several years, but specifically over the last few. “Why are pastors not speaking out about this? Why are pastors not doing something about that?” The plain truth is that their congregations don’t want them too. Again, we have the leaders we do because of the people that prompt them up. Paul says it this way,

“I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.” 2 Timothy 4:1-5

Let me say it again, just in case you missed it,

“For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.”

People long to have their egos stroked and there is never a shortage of spiritual sluts for

hire.

Let me just illustrate this point. I don’t know how many people attend Joel Osteen’s church, but it’s safe to say a whole lot, like in the thousands. Let’s just say we remove Osteen on any given Sunday and put someone like Voddie Baucham in there. Do you think the people would say thank you because they have been longing for the Word of God and for a shepherd that would bring it to them and lead them in the Lord? Heavens no. You would hear weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth. They would crucify Voddie, but assure us that they had no choice in doing so because he was a white supremacist.

Many also think that if we could just return to the constitution that everything would just be fixed or if the church had the right affirmation of faith than everything would be ok. John Adams said that,

“Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”

The fact of the matter is, our Constitution hasn’t gone anywhere, we’ve just chosen to ignore it. This goes for churches as well. I know several churches that have the Westminster or the 1689 as their confession of faith and their churches are liberal trainwrecks because they just ignore them. All this to say, that even lex rex can’t lead a

people if they desire to be lawless.

The reason I say all of this is because we have a leadership savior complex, which enables us to use the leader as a scape goat, thus never taking responsibility for our own actions. We rightly understand the importance of leadership, yes and amen, but when the leader is unable to fix all of our problems or fulfill all of their promises we crucify the guy never taking any responsibility that we are the ones that put them there in the first place. Like Tolstoy said,

“everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing themselves.”

Let me make a profound statement that will blow your mind. Put it on a fortune cookie if you will. That is, "nothing changes if nothing changes." My point being that if we don’t change ourselves nothing else is going to change. We look at the world, and say, “wow this really sucks.” And we think to ourselves, “that must be because our leaders suck.” And as we’ve already noted, that’s not entirely wrong. However, the more we point our fingers solely at our leaders, the more they become scape goats for us which enables us to never actually take responsibility for ourselves.

When Chesterton was asked, “What’s wrong with the world?” He rightly answered, “I am.” We have got to get it through our heads that we are not going to see and really truly demand change in our country until we demand it in ourselves. We will never solve our leadership problem corporately until we solve it individually. My point being, that we don’t even know what to look for in leadership because we have strayed from the chief Shepherd and Overseer of our souls, namely Jesus.

All earthly authority flows from the Source and Standard of all authority and is to be exercised accordingly so that all glory, praise and honor go back to the Source. Jesus is the Author and Perfector of our faith. He is our Prophet, Priest and King. He leads us besides still waters and He restores our souls. We don’t need any scape goats and we don’t need to blame shift in any way, because Jesus has made full and final atonement for our sins.

When we repent and believe in Jesus, we are a new creation. When we see Him in His

preeminence and glory, we can’t help but want to be more like Him and live lives that are

pleasing to Him. In Christ, and through Christ, with Christ as our standard we want to be better men, and better husbands, and better fathers, and better employees and better citizens. The full accomplishment of this is unattainable in this life, however it is something we strive towards and in said striving we know what to ask for, and demand from our leaders.

Conclusion

We should require much of our leaders in every sphere of life. That is certainly one of the

burdens and responsibilities of leadership. The saying is true, you get what you tolerate. We’ve gotten what we deserve in leadership because of what we continue to tolerate in ourselves and until that changes not much else will.