The "All Our Ducks In a Row" Church

“Then I will give you shepherds after my own heart,

who will lead you with knowledge and understanding.”

Jeremiah 3:15

 

God never calls ‘managers’ to shepherd His church.

He calls leaders.

Leaders lead.

To lead is quite different than to manage.

Some of the best leaders tip over the apple cart, they break it into pieces and they burn it up.

Why?

Because, so often a ‘well managed’ church is a church where everything runs so smoothly that there are absolutely no hiccups and the last time God stopped by for a visit He was escorted out the door.

Ministry can get messy.

We have looked at the fact that if your God can only do what you can explain then you have a pretty shallow God!

But we like routine.

Our flesh likes all our ducks in a row. 

We put plans and programs into place that may not, of themselves, be wrong but too often they exclude the supernatural move of God.

After all, that wasn’t planned for nor is it welcome.

A manager will not do well with this.

The man called of God to lead will recognize that ultimately he leads under the authority and direction of the Holy Spirit and the church is not a business, it is the very Body of Christ to do with as He wills.   

Of course, we do not have license to surrender to reckless abandon.  

Rather, it is a surrender to the Spirit of God, allowing Him to move as He will!

I don’t want to reduce this blog simply to trite sayings and cliché’s but I do remember something I used to hear that makes a lot of sense:

Let go and let God!

God will lead us to the degree we learn to follow Him.