FOLLOW THE LEADER

Let me begin this post with a disclaimer: Not EVERY leader is always worth following and that is usually because of some major moral failure on their part - NOT because "I don't like him/her."

Here is something we church-attending believers should pay attention to - we, all of us in a church, are called - dare I say, commanded - to follow our leader(s) ie: pastor, elders, staff, etc.  Acts 2:42 makes that pretty clear... "They devoted themselves to the apostle's teaching..."  The early church was "devoted" to their leaders.

Wow.

When you read further, you find a beautiful blessing... "the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved."  That is to say, because the church attendees remained devoted to the leaders (and to prayer, fellowship, serving and loving each other, etc) - God brought more people into their fellowship.  Certainly this is not an automatic "magic" activity - but - there is something we should pay attention to here... God cares a lot about how we follow our spiritual leaders.

What does it mean to follow the leader in a church?

Assuming my opening disclaimer was read, let's just agree that the pastor of the church is the one called by God to lead your congregation. Period. Yes, he/she works with the ruling elder board and the church hires a staff to fulfill the wider calling of the church.  But, ultimately, the pastor is the leader of the church, working in the calling and power of the Holy Spirit.

Now - please follow my logic here, because things might get a little sticky...

I'd like to do some "reverse engineering" if I may...

A church member sits in the pew and decides they don't like a particular song in the morning worship set.  Later, over a cup of coffee and a muffin, they express their angst about the song with a fellow parishioner.  This happens far too often, but that's another post for another day.  That church member probably thinks they have simply expressed their angst regarding the director of worship.  But the truth is, they have actually disrespected God.  How so, you might ask?

The musicians serve the director of worship.  The director of worship serves the pastor.  The pastor is following God's call on the church.  There really is a chain of "spiritual command" in a church and when we slam those in leadership over us, we are ultimately slamming our God.

Sadly, this sort of nonsense occurs in church far too often and, in almost every case, it leads to a  church-wide undercurrent of angst, distrust and even division.

All because a church member was miffed about a song. Or the color of the carpet. Or the angle of the communion table. Or one slide that didn't pop up at exactly the right moment. Or... or... or...

If you know someone (see how nice I was there?) who tends to bring a critical spirit with them into the assembly, please lovingly remind them that when they slam a particular staff member, or elder, or leader, or pastor of the church they are, ultimately, slamming their Creator.

Let's choose to follow our leader(s) as they choose to follow our Lord.