Run to the sound of the guns

“If I profess with the loudest voice and clearest exposition every portion of the truth of God except precisely that little point which the world and the devil are at the moment attacking, I am not confessing Christ, however boldly I may be professing Christ. Where the battle rages, there the loyalty of the soldier is proved and to be steady on all the battle front besides, is mere flight and disgrace if he flinches at that point.”

- attributed to Martin Luther, quoted by Francis Schaeffer in The Great Evangelical Disaster

(HT: Trevin Wax)



Dancing on the edge

This week I read Acts 5 during my devotional reading.  It was a bit convicting to read about the apostles who defied the rulers of their day when they were ordered to preach no longer in the name of Jesus.  The apostles decided to obey God rather than man. 
I, too, am under a gag order of sorts.  As a military officer, especially as a battalion commander, I am prohibited from proselytizing.  According to regulations, I cannot freely preach the gospel in my professional context.  I can make it clear that I am a Christian and I can live according to Biblical principles.  I am fairly safe to answer questions about my faith.  Even my chaplain is not allowed to proselytize except in the context of a religious service for his specific faith group.
Sometimes I struggle with this.  Should I be more forward about sharing the gospel and risk censure, or even losing my leadership position?  Or should I abide by the regulations to protect my position because I can still open about what my beliefs are without actually "preaching" or "witnessing"?  Obviously I am not going to be completely quiet about my faith and I am going to live according to Biblical morals.  But I want to do more and I wonder how much I can get away with, or even how much I should try to get away with. 
For now I have been trying to be content with just being clear where I stand.  I look for opportunities to share more when talk sometimes turns to the spiritual.  It gets tiring dancing around on the edge of regulations.  Maybe that is why I am interested in retiring and going into Christian ministry.

Training

Today my battalion is officially in the pre-deployment training program.  It is still about eight months until we deploy but I have been struck with how much training we need to do and how little time there is to do it.  It has been said that there is a moral imperative in command.  The moral imperative shows up in many aspects of command, but the one I am most aware of right now is the need to properly train my Marines and Sailors to be ready for the rigors of combat.  It is incumbent on me to ensure that they get the training they need to do their job as well as possible - lives may depend on it.  It is a heavy responsibility. 

It brings to mind a similar responsibility - that of pastoral shepherding.  There is a moral imperative for training there too, one that is so often neglected in the church today.  The pastors and elders have a responsibility to train the congregation to get them ready for the rigors of spiritual warfare.  The weapons and equipment are different than in physical combat, but every Christian should be proficient in their use.  The way most churches train their congregations in doctrine, in love and in service is like if the Marine Corps emptied out a few elementary schools and sent the students to Afghanistan.  Shameful!  May God have mercy on us and give us the grace to do better - to train the new believers to properly wear their armor and to skillfully use their swords and shields. 
The battle is joined! To arms!

Various thoughts

Sorry it has been a while since I last posted.  Not that I think anyone missed it, since I have all of one or two readers who show up every once in a while.  Rather, I am trying to stay disciplined and not doing very well.  It isn't that I haven't had thoughts that I could blog about, I just haven't taken the time to sit down and write.  So, a few updates on things recently...
- Started geocaching recently.  Lots of fun for the whole family.  Hikes with a mission.
- Had an earthquake today... 5.4, just south of Palm Springs.  We could feel it pretty strong where we live.  Pretty weird to feel the ground/floor moving under your feet.
- Speaking of the ground shifting, this article from Al Mohler took my breath away (in a bad way)... just amazing how sinful we humans can be.
- When they say leadership involves spending 90% of your time with 10% of your people, they speak truly.  It makes it all the more a joy to sign good conduct medal and promotion certificates.  It reminds me that the majority of my Marines are motivated professionals who want to do the right thing.

Chuch leadership 3

OK, so I let even more time elapse since last post.  It has been a mix of the first rush of blogging energy being over and a week of busy days so that I am very tired in the evenings with not much brain power left for writing.  I would promise to try to do better but I can’t guarantee.  I am sure there will continue to be up weeks and down weeks.

   In this post I will look at what direct instructions are given in God’s Word to church leaders and to the congregation in relation to church leaders.  If you read my first posts on this topic you will remember that I said that I would be making the point that Scripture shows church leaders being more authoritarian, i.e. wielding a great deal of authority, than we would be comfortable in modern evangelical churches.  They do this, however, as servant leaders, doing what is best for those they lead, not what is best for themselves.  Besides Jesus, Paul is the clearest example of this.  He obviously wields significant authority, such that he can command certain things be done, but he does so with humility for the good of the people under his charge.  In II Corinthians 10:8 he says he will not be ashamed of boasting of his authority, which the Lord gave for building the Corinthians up.

   So, a snapshot of passages giving instruction to leaders and followers:

I Thessalonians 5:12-13:  Paul asks the Thessalonians to “respect those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you, and to esteem them very highly in love”. 
I Timothy 5:17:  Paul says the elders who “rule well” should be considered worthy of double honor.  So it expected that the elders would exercise authority.
I Timothy 5:19:  Charges against an elder should only be admitted on the testimony of 2-3 witnesses where the standard for regular people was only 2 witnesses.  This seems to show that there is a special trust given to elders and it recognizes they may be a potential target for slanderous charges.
Titus 2:15:  Paul tells Titus to “exhort and rebuke with all authority.  Let no one disregard you.”  Wow.  That’s pretty strong.  I suppose some elders/pastors may take that instruction wrong and act like a dictator; but it seems that most don’t recognize the authority they are supposed to be vested with.
And it is not just Paul.  Hebrews 13:17:  The author tells the readers to “Obey your leaders (speaking of church leaders not political leaders) and submit to them.”  I am sure there are a lot of elders/pastors out there who would love to have their congregations read that one and take it to heart.
Finally, Peter gives concise instructions to elders.  I Peter 5:1-5:  They are to exercise oversight as under-shepherds, but with three positive and three negative injunctions: 
       - willingly, eagerly and being examples
       - not under compulsion, not for shameful gain, and not domineering

So, the overall view of elders seems to me to be one of great authority as subordinate leaders under Christ (like in the military context we might see company commanders under a battalion commander).  They are to execute His intent and His specific instructions.  However, they are to do so as servant leaders who seek the good of those under their charge, not their own comfort, prestige or other sort of gain.

Church Leadership 2

    What approaches to leadership do we see in the New Testament?  What leadership environment and style is modeled by the leaders of the church at the beginning?  I will look at what is in evidence from narrative accounts in the book of Acts and what the writers say about how they approached leadership situations.  Right up front I will say that the view I get of these leaders is that they had a much more authoritarian approach to leadership than we would be comfortable with in the modern American church.  The view is a bit narrow in that the only leaders in view are apostles who, by definition, have a higher degree of authority than a church elder.  But, since these are the only leaders described in action, this will have to do for now.
    - In Acts 4-5 we see the members of the Jerusalem congregation bringing money for the church and laying it at the apostles’ feet.  I recognize that this may be a cultural idiom, but it sure gives me the picture of high authority.  Laying something at another’s feet is something you would expect of a subject doing to a king.
    - Paul talks in his letters as one with a great deal of authority.  I am not talking about his laying down of doctrine, we would expect that from an apostle.  I am talking of his direction with regard to specific issues for churches or individuals.  Examples that come to mind are the Corinthian church (I Cor 5) and when he tells Philemon that he could command him to do what he wishes with regard to Onesimus (Philemon 8). 
    - In III John, the Apostle John speaks negatively of Diotrephes who does not acknowledge his authority.
    This is a limited view because we don’t see much in the way of leadership in action other than Apostolic preaching and exercising of doctrinal authority.  Next entry I will look at what directives are given to church leaders about how they are to lead.  And, I will try not to let as much time elapse between posts as I did with this one.

Church Leadership 1

   OK, finally, here is the long promised (I am not sure I could say long awaited) look at church leadership in the New Testament.  I say “look” because this will not be a very in-depth study.  It will really only be a surface look at a few Scripture passages and what they suggest about church leadership style. 
   I was motivated to look at this as I considered that someday in the future I may want to (be led to?) step from my current role in military leadership to a more extensive role in church leadership.  I wondered what, if anything, may have to change in my leadership mode and style. 
   The military is obviously a fairly authoritarian leadership environment.  The rank and hierarchy sets it up so that one can order something done and those subordinate must obey.  Within that environment one can have different styles.  I have a fairly cooperative style:  I invite input for decisions from my staff and subordinate commanders.  However, once I make a decision that is the end of discussion and my decision must be carried out.  My concept for church leadership (how it generally is, not necessarily how it should be) is much more egalitarian.  In other words, the leadership (specifically elders/pastors) do not hold much, if any, inherent leadership over members of the congregation.  They must lead by persuasion and encouraging cooperation. 
   So, this line of thought led to wanting to see what the church leadership environment looked like in the New Testament.  Now that this post has turned into a background/context post, I will save the first actual look for next post.  In that next post I intend to look at leadership environment and style as modeled by actual leaders.  Then, in the next post, I will look at any commands given to leaders as to their behavior/style.

Post series coming

I don't have time for a post tonight because I have been spending too much time commenting on other people's blogs.  However, I want to start a series (I guess that is what all the cool bloggers do) in which I look at the leadership styles in the early church.  I have no idea how long it will take.  I may finish it in one post.   But, I want to take a bit deeper look than that, so we'll see.  More later.

Christian leadership in a secular context

I posted Wednesday about the best way to fulfill my oath to "support and defend the Constitution" being to boldly proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ because the greatest threat we face as a nation is our own sin and immorality. However, that is a source of great frustration to me. I cannot be as vocal as I would like to be because of the prohibition against prosyletizing. I have to be careful about creating undue influence or pressure towars Christianity from my leadership role as a commander. Don't get me wrong, I have been completely open about my faith. When I introduced myself to my staff the first thing I told them is that the most important thing for them to know about me is my Christianity, that I receive and process information through the grid of my Biblical understanding and that I make decisions in accordance with my convictions. However, I cannot lead the way I would like to, like I would, say, in a church context. I cannot lead the staff in prayer before making decisions. When someone is having trouble, or in trouble, I would like to point them to what the Bible says about that issue and reach back to God's authority in the matter rather than just my own. I can do that a little bit, in a rather indirect manner, but I have to be careful how I do it. I think the members of my unit know where I stand, but I cannot be as explicit as I would like to be. I pray that God use what I can say to His purposes. To me the greatest measure of my success as a leader will be the spiritual effect God has been able to have through me on the men and women under my charge.