A few Sabbaths ago I found myself watching the "hymnal guy" do his thing before and after services. This guy was everywhere; smiling and greeting members at the door; carrying a hymnal to an elderly woman who was already in her chair; scanning the congregation during the song service for anyone who may have forgotten to pick one up in the lobby; making his way down each isle to collect hymnals randomly strewn among the chairs after the service had ended; everywhere.
The care and concern this gentleman paid to such a seemingly mundane task was nothing short of amazing. The "hymnal guy" had been quietly performing these acts of service, without accolades, without praise, without recognition, week after week, Sabbath after Sabbath, as long as I had been attending.
As I observed this man, the thought struck me that I wasn't just watching someone pass out hymnals, I was observing true leadership in action.
When it comes to leadership, we Christians, including yours truly, are often overly influenced by the definitions of the culture around us. The quarterback on the field, the power player in the board room, the guy at the head of the table, the loudest, most eloquent, confident person in the room; these, our culture would have us believe, are true models of leadership. It's the image on the outside, rather than the quality of the character on the inside, that is portrayed as the ideal.
Jesus came modeling, and teaching, a decidedly, other worldly concept of leadership.
In Luke 22, he says "'The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them, and those who exercise authority over them are called ‘benefactors.’ But not so among you; on the contrary, he who is greatest among you, let him be as the younger, and he who governs as he who serves. For who is greater, he who sits at the table, or he who serves? Is it not he who sits at the table? Yet I am among you as the One who serves."
And, in a move which completely rocked the disciples worldly paradigm of leadership, Jesus performed what was, at that time, considered one of the lowliest, most menial of tasks. He stooped to wash their feet.
The true leader in God's eyes? The person with the ability and confidence to stand in front and inspire others to follow? Maybe, sometimes, but not primarily.
Leadership, as God's sees it, is primarily defined by character, not ability. It's the one who consistently and selflessly chooses to do for others what most would not.
It's the person who sees the needs within their families, within their churches or their community and steps in to fill it. It's the father or mother who goes to a thankless, unfulfilling job day after day, year after year, sacrificing personal goals and dreams, in order to provide food, shelter and clothing for their family. It's the spouse who remains loving and faithful through good times or bad, through sickness and health. It's the parent who, not only teaches, but consistently strives to model God's love and way of life to his or her children. It's the person who refuses to compromise what is right, even in the face of ridicule and rejection by their peers.
It's a type of leadership to which the world pays little respect these days but one, upon which our Savior, beginning with His disciples, began building and developing in His church some two thousand years ago. It's the kind of leadership He desires be promoted, encouraged and developed within His body still today.
I Corinthians 1:27 tells us that "God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty."
Ultimately, God is preparing leaders to rule with Him at His return to establish His Kingdom. It's a government which will confound and bring to shame all false notions of leadership for it will be a government led, not by quarterbacks and executive types, but by foot washers and, yes, "hymnal guys."
Originally posted November 19, 2011
Re-posted today in honor of the recent passing of Mitch, "the Hymnal Guy"
Your labor of love will be greatly missed.
It's Not About the Toaster (Annual Re-Post)
The Days of Unleavened Bread. A toaster's day in the sun. Only during these days does a normally mundane appliance get thrust center stage in the relentless endeavor to purge out the leaven, aka, sin, from every corner of our homes.
It's a ritual re-enacted every Spring by those of us who take seriously the command to keep the annual High Sabbaths, given by our Lord in the Old Testament and observed by Him, and His Church, in the New, reminding us of His sacrifice and the covenant relationship we have entered with Him.
Our toaster is of course not the only item in our home that gets the attention of our vacuum cleaner. In our valiant effort to eradicate every vestige of the symbol of sin from our dwelling no appliance, no couch cushion, no cupboard is left untouched. But our toaster, being perhaps the greatest potential carrier of the sin virus, has typically commanded the top spot. We've fretted about it, inspecting it with the intensity of police dog sniffing for narcotics, meticulously scouring every last nook and cranny where a wayward crumb or runaway piece of crust might linger, no matter how minuscule or incinerated it might be.
In short, for a brief period every spring, our toaster became a rock star.
If our family toaster could speak it would probably tell you that the last few years in our house it's begun to suffer from an identity crisis. It just hasn't been treated like the rock star that it once was. Oh, it's gotten some attention, but its commanded nowhere near the spotlight it held back in the glory days.
Why?
Well, our family simply came to the realization that these days of Unleavened Bread, for lack of a better way of putting it, are not about the toaster.
In Colossians 1:26 - 28 we read, "...the mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations, but now has been revealed to His saints. To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory."
Above all things this season is to teach us is that it is His life, living within us, that is the hope we have of salvation. While Passover reminds us that we are justified by His blood, Unleavened Bread reminds us that we are saved by His life, the "Unleavened Bread of Sincerity and Truth" living within us, continually covering our sin.
There is a reason these are called the Days of Unleavened Bread rather than the Days of De-leavening. The primary focus is on the putting in, not the taking out. We take in of Jesus Christ, the Unleavened Bread of Sincerity and Truth, for seven days. In the Bible the number seven represents completion. The symbol of taking in of His life, His nature, for seven days pictures the completeness of the work He is doing in His people.
De-leavening in this context becomes, then, a symbol, not of my efforts to become sinless, but of my becoming de-leavened, sinless through the cleansing sacrifice of our Lord. I put the leaven out, not to symbolize my struggle to overcome sin, but to symbolize what He has done through His sacrifice for me.
Don't get me wrong. I am not among those who believe Christ has done it all so there is no need to obey. We do need to overcome. We do need to strive to become like our elder Brother. We do need to struggle against sin. But the season of our overcoming, of growing up in Him in all things, is more appropriately pictured after, not before, the Feast of Pentecost, picturing the giving of the Holy Spirit which helps us in that process. The period between the Spring and Fall harvests represents a time of growth. Just as the crops, having been planted in the Spring, are allowed to grow to maturity and produce their fruit, so you and I grow to spiritual maturity and produce spiritual fruit prior to the return of our Master, Jesus Christ.
These Spring Harvest festivals, Passover, Unleavened Bread and Pentecost, are awesome pictures of the love He has showered on those He has called to be the first fruits of His harvest. It is right that our focus this season be on Him, not on ourselves. He gets all the glory.
The truth is that no matter how clean I get my toaster, or anything else in my home for that matter, no matter how determined my effort to make myself spiritually clean, I fall miserably short of God's standard. My righteousness before God is as filthy rags. It's His life continuing to live in me that makes me worthy, that allows me to be in relationship with the Father. "We who were once far off have been brought near by the blood of Jesus." That's the awesome lesson of these days.
Yeah, my toaster might be feeling a little more lonely this Spring but it will just have to get over it. It's not as if it's getting completely ignored, it's just not the rock star it once was. That spotlight is shining elsewhere, off of the toaster, and onto the Master.
It's a ritual re-enacted every Spring by those of us who take seriously the command to keep the annual High Sabbaths, given by our Lord in the Old Testament and observed by Him, and His Church, in the New, reminding us of His sacrifice and the covenant relationship we have entered with Him.
Our toaster is of course not the only item in our home that gets the attention of our vacuum cleaner. In our valiant effort to eradicate every vestige of the symbol of sin from our dwelling no appliance, no couch cushion, no cupboard is left untouched. But our toaster, being perhaps the greatest potential carrier of the sin virus, has typically commanded the top spot. We've fretted about it, inspecting it with the intensity of police dog sniffing for narcotics, meticulously scouring every last nook and cranny where a wayward crumb or runaway piece of crust might linger, no matter how minuscule or incinerated it might be.
In short, for a brief period every spring, our toaster became a rock star.
If our family toaster could speak it would probably tell you that the last few years in our house it's begun to suffer from an identity crisis. It just hasn't been treated like the rock star that it once was. Oh, it's gotten some attention, but its commanded nowhere near the spotlight it held back in the glory days.
Why?
Well, our family simply came to the realization that these days of Unleavened Bread, for lack of a better way of putting it, are not about the toaster.
In Colossians 1:26 - 28 we read, "...the mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations, but now has been revealed to His saints. To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory."
Above all things this season is to teach us is that it is His life, living within us, that is the hope we have of salvation. While Passover reminds us that we are justified by His blood, Unleavened Bread reminds us that we are saved by His life, the "Unleavened Bread of Sincerity and Truth" living within us, continually covering our sin.
There is a reason these are called the Days of Unleavened Bread rather than the Days of De-leavening. The primary focus is on the putting in, not the taking out. We take in of Jesus Christ, the Unleavened Bread of Sincerity and Truth, for seven days. In the Bible the number seven represents completion. The symbol of taking in of His life, His nature, for seven days pictures the completeness of the work He is doing in His people.
De-leavening in this context becomes, then, a symbol, not of my efforts to become sinless, but of my becoming de-leavened, sinless through the cleansing sacrifice of our Lord. I put the leaven out, not to symbolize my struggle to overcome sin, but to symbolize what He has done through His sacrifice for me.
Don't get me wrong. I am not among those who believe Christ has done it all so there is no need to obey. We do need to overcome. We do need to strive to become like our elder Brother. We do need to struggle against sin. But the season of our overcoming, of growing up in Him in all things, is more appropriately pictured after, not before, the Feast of Pentecost, picturing the giving of the Holy Spirit which helps us in that process. The period between the Spring and Fall harvests represents a time of growth. Just as the crops, having been planted in the Spring, are allowed to grow to maturity and produce their fruit, so you and I grow to spiritual maturity and produce spiritual fruit prior to the return of our Master, Jesus Christ.
These Spring Harvest festivals, Passover, Unleavened Bread and Pentecost, are awesome pictures of the love He has showered on those He has called to be the first fruits of His harvest. It is right that our focus this season be on Him, not on ourselves. He gets all the glory.
The truth is that no matter how clean I get my toaster, or anything else in my home for that matter, no matter how determined my effort to make myself spiritually clean, I fall miserably short of God's standard. My righteousness before God is as filthy rags. It's His life continuing to live in me that makes me worthy, that allows me to be in relationship with the Father. "We who were once far off have been brought near by the blood of Jesus." That's the awesome lesson of these days.
Yeah, my toaster might be feeling a little more lonely this Spring but it will just have to get over it. It's not as if it's getting completely ignored, it's just not the rock star it once was. That spotlight is shining elsewhere, off of the toaster, and onto the Master.
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