Calling them to Himself, Jesus said to them, "You know that those who are recognized as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them; and their great men exercise authority over them. "But it is not this way among you, but whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant; and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be slave of all. "For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many." (Mark 10:42-45)

The concept of leader as servant is deeply embedded in the Bible. This is not a minor or fringe teaching. It is central to everything the Bible says and shows about leadership. Yet I think this teaching has been ignored by church leaders more than almost any other. Growing up in church and spending my adult life serving in or near churches, I have witnessed again and again men (and women) motivated and pursuing power much more than servanthood. They want their way. They try to protect their jobs. They get defensive, protective, aggressive. When attacked you get a bunker mentality. I see it in families too where the Dad thinks that he needs to rule and dictate and control the house. Now I want to be clear. I Understand That! Boy do I ever. As a church leader, I have felt those emotions, been tempted to those reactions. What saves me, what has to define me, and all leaders, is the Biblical teaching of Servant. We are servants, not rulers. The Mark 10 passage is so clear. And here is the totally cool part. The hidden secret power that those who cling to power, prestige, and control miss. When you become a servant, you become invincible. That's right. When someone is shooting at you, what is the safest thing to do? Drop to the ground and lay low. The very picture of humility. Servants bow, they get down. This is not about surrendering authority or being a doormat. It is about focusing on what others need, not on what you want. Jesus is the perfect example. When being arrested, he focuses on the need of the man whose ear got cut off. Hanging on the cross, he asked for forgiveness for the people and took care of His mother. You might say to me, "but Ira, Christ wasn't invincible. They killed Him." There you would be wrong. That is the wonderful power of servant. Others have no power over you. Jesus said ""For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life so that I may take it again. "No one has taken it away from Me, but I lay it down on My own initiative. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This commandment I received from My Father." (John 10:17-18). Jesus service went as far as being willing to give up everything. By giving up everything, no one could take anything from Him. The same goes for us. I don't need to protect my job, my pride, etc. I need to give them up. Here is another great passage showing the invicibility of servants.

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things? Who will bring a charge against God's elect? God is the one who justifies; who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Just as it is written, "FOR YOUR SAKE WE ARE BEING PUT TO DEATH ALL DAY LONG; WE WERE CONSIDERED AS SHEEP TO BE SLAUGHTERED." But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. (Romans 8:31-37)

So throw it at me. Criticize my faults? I've got a ton of them and will freely admit them to you. I'm not perfect, I'm just trying to be used of God. I might need your help. Feel I'm inadequate? Boy you got that right. I'm working on letting God shine through me and work through me. Don't like me? That's ok. God loves me, even knowing my shortcomings and flaws. Want my job? You can have it. There is so much service to perform, I'll never get it all done myself.

This is an awesome article!! You really should read this article about the late Manute Bol.

Anyone who has been to BCBC lately knows that we continue to grow. At this point we are starting to actually have discussions about moving to two services. This is not something I am excited about, but with us running out of seats, we may have no choice if the current trends continue. That is not the subject of this blog post though. I want to talk about the implications of the growth that we have been experiencing. Obviously we have been watching God really blessing us for the last three years as growth has been steady. I think that two of the causes (within God's blessing) of why we are growing are: 1)the expansion of the children's ministry. and 2)decentralization and partnership. One of my goals from day one has been to spread the leadership and ministry work out to a broad range of people. I cannot and should not be doing everything myself. As a result of more people being involved in and responsible for the work, more is getting done. There is still much more to do and we need to continue to involve more people, but we have come a long way. This has resulted in many great things happening at church, many of which are not my fault! :) An outgrowth of this is that our need for people is expanding too. With all the new people, we need more people to be involved in reaching out and building relationships with people. The small groups are helping with this, but that is not enough by itself. We need to continue to grow in reaching out and connecting to the new people who keep appearing at church. It is only as we connect to them and build relationships with them that they will get integrated into the family. This is too big of a job for any one or two people. It is something we all must challenge ourselves with. I look forward to what God is going to do as we do better and better at following up with all the new people that are coming in and in turn train them to help us with those who come after.

Here is another great article again showing research (not from even a Christian perspective) that a family with a mom and a dad at home is the best for a kids development. No surprises for me in this article. Just a great reaffirmation of what the Bible says.

Job had a great life. Then one day it all fell apart. Bad news comes pouring in. Everything is gone, including his family. At that point, Job makes a truly incredible comment. "He said, "Naked I came from my mother's womb, And naked I shall return there. The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away. Blessed be the name of the LORD." Through all this Job did not sin nor did he blame God." (Job 1:21-22) For me, the incredible part is not the gave/taken away part. It is the Blessed be the name of the Lord. People who have not dealt with powerful loss cannot understand those words completely. I do not believe that I have ever experienced loss deep enough to appreciate what went into Job uttering those words. The better things go, the easier it is to appear to trust God, and to think that you are. This was satan's point to God when he demanded permission to hurt Job. He thought Job's trust ran only as deep as his comfort. Satan was wrong. Job's trust ran very deep indeed. Even as he was desperately hurt and then sick, he never stopped trusting, even though he longed to understand. The deeper the ache of hurt, the greater the trust must be. I struggle with trusting God when I just fear the ache. Those who know me know how much I can worry over my family. Trust does not remove the ache, but it gives you a handle to hold onto while you live the ache. It lets you remember that there is a world and reality beyond the ache in your heart. I want to direct you to the blog of some friends of mine, Bill & Teresa Legere who lost their 9 year old daughter a few years ago. It was on the news at the time. They are active in ministry in our sister church East Auburn Baptist. I cannot read their writing without tears and what must be a faint echo of the ache that they have felt. Yet they demonstrate what faith can do in not removing or soothing the ache, but giving you the strength to survive it. Post 1, Post 2, Post 3 The Lord gives and the Lord takes away. We do not always (or even often) understand why, and at those times, whether it is small stuff or big stuff, our faith is tested. It reveals to us how much we really trust and cling to God. It also allows us the opportunity to cling more strongly, to trust more deeply, to be more real in what it means to believe in and follow Christ. If we become defined by our hurt. If hurt turns to anger or bitterness, it shows that our trust is mostly talk and play acting. If we become more tender, more caring, more gentle in the midst of hurt, it shows that God is at work to use the ache to further conform us to His image. This is deeply personal for me as I continue to go deeper with God. I have a LONG way to go. But with the (relatively small) aches that He has allowed, I can so far say, "Blessed be the name of the Lord."