Scripture
9We are glad whenever we are weak but you are strong; and our prayer is that you may be fully restored. 10This is why I write these things when I am absent, that when I come I may not have to be harsh in my use of authority—the authority the Lord gave me for building you up, not for tearing you down. 2 Corinthians 13:9-10
Observation
Everyone is familiar with “the love chapter” of 1 Corinthians 13. 2 Corinthians 13 shows leaders how that love is lived out when those you are serving are attacking you. Paul could have used his apostolic authority to attack the church for listening to those who were trying to discredit him. Instead of reacting out of self-defense he got raw and real and shared of his own weaknesses and his own personal struggles with pride and pain. “Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. 8Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. 9But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” (2 Cor. 12:7-8). What an amazing model of leadership to follow. Instead of using his authority to demean, debase, or put his followers in their place he used his authority to build them up, to invite them to learn from his mistakes. I really wish the leadership in The 21st Century Church knew 2 Corinthians 13 as well as the know 1 Corinthians 13.
Application
I was just listening yesterday to The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill podcast. It’s a podcast produced by Christianity Today chronicling the rapid success, growth, and implosion of Mars Hill Church in Seattle under Mark Driscoll. Having planted and pastored in Seattle during this period of time I had heard many of these stories second hand, but I am learning all over again about the danger of the misuse and abuse of power from the celebrity culture that’s become common place in The Church. So much good was done, so many lives saved, marriages healed, people filled with The Holy Spirit and set free under Driscoll’s leadership. I enjoyed his teachings and learned a lot from his strategic leadership and loved his heart for the unchurched. It broke my heart as I heard how he began to believe his own press and started “putting people in their place” which was often “under the bus.” In this week’s podcast entitled “The Tempest” one of his key pastors was handed a shovel at a leadership meeting. Not a shovel to dig in with Mark and to go deeper with the Lord as a team. No, he was handed a shovel to make sure he knew he was being called to the ministry of pooper scooper. Mark quoted the verse from Proverbs 14:4, “Where no oxen are, the trough is clean; but increase comes by the strength of an ox.” If Driscoll was the ox bringing the increase then that left the rest of his team to scoop the poop. I began to tear up when I heard this as it brought up a very similar conversation I had with a pastor I once served under. I was told I’d better not forget that “I was just lucky to be there” and to remember my place. He literally quoted this same verse all the time and made it clear that unless a person was a level 4 or 5 leader their job was to clean up the mess, to more or less scoop the poop. Have you ever stayed after the end of a parade? After all of the celebrities have waved, the music has been played, the horses have neighed, the clowns are tasked with cleaning up the place. No one cheers for them but someone has to scoop the horse poop right?
Prayer
Lord, forgive me for every place where I have used the authority entrusted to me to tear down those I have been called to build up. I was reminded of that time I got frustrated with a tech guy because the service didn’t run smoothly only to find out later from another leader how much this had broken his heart. I had to go back and repent to him and I repent to you. A follower of Christ does what You did Jesus. You have all authority in Heaven and Earth and yet You washed our feet. You laid down your life on the trash heap. You had every reason to “put us in our place” which would have been Hell. Instead you took our place and brought us to yourself. The quite accomplished apostle Paul said this of his many gifts and reputation, “But indeed I also regard everything to be loss on account of the surpassing knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, on account of whom I have suffered the loss of all things; and I consider them poop so that I may gain Christ…”(Phil 3:8). Let me never forget how I felt when an insecure leader had to make himself feel better by putting me down. If anyone has been called to the ministry of pooper scooper it’s the pastor and leader called to enter the messiness of life with others and remind them that our righteousness is filthy rags, but His righteousness makes us clean, pure and free. (Is. 64:6, Titus 3:5). You haven’t given us authority to parade ourselves around, but have called us to lift You up as we serve those around us.
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