Weak Leadership
Introduction
In the midst of one of my frequent early morning times of feeling impotent and ineffective, just like the major prophets (Jer 12:1-4; Isa 53:1; Ezek 20:49 etc.), the Lord led me through today’s teaching. Its title is deeply ambiguous, it could mean “weak” as in fragile and ineffective, or, the sort of weakness consistently applauded in the Bible. The Old Testament reveals the foundation of Mosaic greatness, “Moses was very meek, more than all people who were on the face of the earth.” (Num 12:3 cf. 2 Cor 10:1 of Jesus). In the new covenant era, our focus must be on the weakness imparted by consistent Christ-centred leadership. This is greatly lacking in the Church of God today. For as they say, “leadership is the problem, leadership is the solution”, but not leadership “according to the flesh/from a worldly point of view” (2 Cor 5:16). Tragically, the Body so familiar to us is pervaded by addiction to competencies. I recall attending a theology seminar on a thesis about Paul’s self-perception, e.g. “Who is weak, and I am not weak?” (2 Cor 11:29), only to be astounded by the comment of a well-known high achieving pastor-theologian that they were rhetorical exaggerations for the sake of his Corinthian audience. No wonder we have so many ministers suffering from burn out! No-one seems offended for Christ’s sake when a congregation is referred to as “pastor x’s church”, whereas Paul chastises a church congregating around famous names, “Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?” (1 Cor 1:13). Obviously not.
The Scandal of the Cross
The way if the cross always offends the uncleansed conscience. Whereas the ESV has, “though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant” (Phil 2:6-7), as if it was unexpected for God to humble himself, NIV translates the Greek simply as, “who, being in very nature God…” . This latter rendering grasps the revelation that extreme humility is god-likeness. Paul defines this as “the mystery of godliness: He was manifested in the flesh, vindicated by the Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory.” (1 Tim 3:16). Given that “mystery” in the New Testament is a truth once hidden in God but now revealed to “holy apostles and prophets” (Eph 3:5 ,9), we are clearly lacking such holy ministries. The revelation is that to identify with Jesus who took on frail human flesh for us (John 1:14; Rom 8:3) is not to have our weakness removed, but to have it transformed in its basic orientation in Jesus. Whereas ESV translates 2 Cor 11:28 Paul as, “daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches”, NIV numbs it down to “concern for the churches”. Arguably Acts 18:9 should be translated as, “the Lord said to Paul…by a vision, “Do not be afraid any longer (mὴ φοβοῦ)…” (NASB cf. Isa 43:5; Mark 5:36; Rev 1:17). When the apostle testifies boldly to the triumphalist Corinthians, “I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling” (1 Cor 2:3), we hear the crushed Lord in Gethsemane “My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death” (Matt 2:38) shedding “sweat like great drops of blood” (Luke 22:44). Scripture expounds scripture as to why the Holy Father allowed his chosen apostle (John 17:11; Gal 1:15-16) to “despair of life itself” (2 Cor 1:8), “he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 10 For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” (2 Cor 12:9-10). Where are our manifestly weak apostolic leaders?! As always, the Lord has a strategy (Amos 3:7) to set his people free from binding leaders who are part of the old wineskin.
Get out of the Way
Many leaders I know are driven by forces external to Christ, by a fear of poverty, of “missing out”, needing to be accepted and so on. A friend sent me a video clip recently on the 1970 revival in Asbury College in America (https://youtu.be/OSkzQD74hEs), and what struck me was that the Spirit fell on the student body when the president was absent. Similarly, it was only after Western missionaries were expelled from China in 1948 that the Church began to explode, and how missionary friends have testified how they were absent when the Lord moved in Sarawak, Arnhem Land, and so on. The greatest revival move amongst Muslims in history is led by the Holy Spirit sending dreams and visions, and not by a nameable evangelist. I saw God move powerfully in a drunken Indigenous mob in Alice Springs in response to demonic manifestations. But when the caring Christian organisers called in security staff to restore order, all spiritual manifestations disappeared (1 Cor 12:7; Gal 3:5a). Tragically, fear-induced controlling Christian leadership will always kill revival (https://sites.google.com/a/lincoln.edu.gh/keithgreen/oru-near-revival).
Conclusion
Most immature moves of God peter out because zealous testimonies and emotional chorus singing cannot sustain the cultural transformation needed to cleanse the Church from false teaching and sin. Only the union of Spirit-transformed character and solid teaching lays a foundation adequate to bear the weight of glory (1 Cor 3:10-17). Whereas many “apostles” today arrange artificial light and sound spectacles for the masses, the apostolic-prophetic leaders in Scripture are the rejected “spectacle” (1 Cor 4:9 θέατρον/theatron/theatre cf. Luke 23:48) God provides visibilising the Gospel of the crucified-and-risen Lamb in their own battered-restored humanity (Gal 3:1; 6:17; Rev 5:6). Across Christian history (Finney, Spurgeon, Nee, Tozer, Wigglesworth, come to mind), confessedly broken people arise who in their own giftedness cannot perform. “A broken person has come to realize that he is nothing and can do nothing apart from God’s presence and enabling power. “No branch can bear fruit by itself, it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in Me… apart from Me you can do nothing.” (Jn 15:4-5) (Loritts). A continuous sense of radical personal inability to fulfill God’s call in one’s own strength is the heart of the mature weak leadership the Lord is forming amongst his people today. This, albeit gradually, is happening in Perth today.
God was willing to endure David’s adultery and murder to bring him to this point of confession, “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.” (Ps 51:17). There was no other way for the Spirit to reveal the unconditional forgiveness of the cross (Ps 51:1ff). In Christ, this is always the way of God with the leaders he knows we need (Luke 22:31-34). To sum up with a personal example, I was familiar with the writings, powerful teaching and Pakistan revivals of a close senior mentor, but it was only when he told me personally how he would “get up in the middle of the night and bawl his guts out for the Church” that I knew I was in the presence of a genuine apostolic-father (1 Cor 4:14-15). These are the sort of weak leaders we desperately need Now! (For a prophecy about all this received almost 20 years ago, see http://cross-connect.net.au/brokenness-will-rebuild-the-church-2/