Demand More From Your Spiritual Leaders

http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2011/10/25/flashback-milton-friedman-on-good-capitalism/?test=faces

The clip above is from 1979 and is a classic response to people who want to criticize capitalism as being greedy and self serving.  Is it?  Of course the element of greed is in everything we do. Many of the so called spiritual leaders today are greedy.  It may not be for only money, but they want fame and be known, and they will say or write things that place them in that kind of position. Greed, Friedman points out is in the nature of man, and is in every form of government.  So it's not the system that is greedy, it's the heart of man.  That's what Friedman was saying, you can point out the greed in capitalism, but it is in communism, dictatorships and in monarchies. 

Let's face it, greed is in all of us.  Recently as I prepared for a sermon on Jude, it occurred to me that parishioners should demand more from their spiritual leaders. In other words, leadership should push the spiritual envelope so that people are challenged to grow, and contribute to the spreading of the gospel. Pastor and author Francis Chan has a good model of this on the market presently, in his book, "Crazy Love."  In chapter 4, he asks some hard questions about being lukewarm.  He goes through the list of what most people would consider good Christian activity, and points out how even good activity falls into the category of being lukewarm. It is a book that pushes the envelope for believers. It seems you have two kinds of leaders today, those who want to be liked and admired, so they keep safe in their comments and their views.  Many mega church leaders will not weigh in on politically hot topics, and when they do, they blunder their way through to making themselves look and sound stupid.  Here is an example of the pastor of the largest church in America telling us that Mormons are Christians. 

 http://www.onenewsnow.com/Church/Default.aspx?id=1465166

Now I am not picking on pastor Joel, it's just not conceivable that Joel should be that uninformed.  We should demand more from him, because his opinion on Mormonism is wrong. Mormons who hold to their church doctrine can not be Christians, because that doctrine does not accept Jesus as Lord and Savior, even if they say they do. 

So we have leaders who are so concerned about being liked, they miss the mark for Biblical leadership. On the other hand you have people who spend a great deal of time placing everyone under a microscope to see what germs are present. Here is an example of that.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SuZoHYUZ7o&feature=relmfu 

Now I actually like Todd Friel, but when we spend more time unraveling words other preachers use, rather than expounding on what the scriptures teach, we need to demand more from our leaders. 

Somewhere there is a kind hearted, truthful middle where truth is not compromised, and anger does not rule the ministry. 

There are two areas Christian leadership must be qualified in, if they are going to lead today's church Biblically.    

1. Warn the people, preach Biblically prophecy:  1/3 of the Bible tells us what is to come, and people in today's church are not in touch with what God says will take place.

2. Preach the inconvenient truth, no matter what, be kind, but be truthful. Leaders need to be prepared to defend the scriptures, to expound on prophecy, and preach the claim of Christ as the only way of salvation. 

Christian Leadership is not easy, it is demanding and requires humility and diligence to succeed. 

Demand more from your leaders. 

Keeping it honest and truthful...K