Tim Keller, leadership and marriage all in the mix!
I stumbled across this looking for leadership material. It’s from Darryl’s blog at dashhouse.com. It’s Tim Keller speaking at a conference in London England.
My dear friends, most churches make the mistake of selecting as leaders the confident, the competent, and the successful. But what you most need in a leader is someone who has been broken by the knowledge of his or her sin, and even greater knowledge of Jesus’ costly grace. The number one leaders in every church ought to be the people who repent the most fully without excuses, because you don’t need any now; the most easily without bitterness; the most publicly and the most joyfully. They know their standing isn’t based on their performance.
I’m especially interested in this because throughout the month of March I’m teaching a class on the spiritual life of leaders at Christ Community in Daytona Beach. I’m interested in hearing feedback not only on Keller’s comments about leadership but the previous post relating to this same issue.
At one point in his message Keller said some interesting things about repentance and the gospel in relationship to marriage as well as leadership.
All of life is repentance, and repentance increases joy. It’s not traumatic; it’s joyful and it’s healing. What this means for us is that as we look at the criticisms we are getting, especially from inside, it’s like when I do marriage counseling. A husband and wife are both saying something critical about the other. In each case, 80% of what they are saying is wrong. And yet 20% is right. Yet with the 20% that is right, the way it’s expressed may be exaggerated, and the motivation may be wrong. It may be expressed outrageously. It’s almost impossible for each side to hear the truth.
What I say to them if they are Christians is, “If you believe the gospel, you will be humble enough and assured enough that you can admit your sin and admit the 20% that’s right without excuses or rancor. Just ignore all the exaggeration and bad motivation and admit that ‘what you say about this is right and I’m going to repent of it.’ If you both do this, it’s a tremendous opportunity for growth. If you don’t do it, it’s because you don’t believe the gospel no matter what you say.”
Larry is the senior pastor at 
Tim Keller has accurately described one aspect of the foundation necessary for Godly, biblical leaders in the Body of Christ today.
Examples of these kind of leaders come from the Old and New Testaments (Moses, David, Peter and Paul) and were also taught by Christ.
Repentance is one of the keys to becoming transformed into the image of Christ and I agree that with that growth comes the joy Tim refers to.
My sins are remembered not by God, but since I don’t forget, they serve as a reminder to me to continue to thrive and grow in the new life provided by His ultimate sacrifice.
As this foundation is laid and built upon by the Holy Spirit in a leader, I’m curious how that leader becomes a shepherd to his flock? How does that flesh out?
Jonathan
I think Keller’s comments are right in the context of his talk and a much needed corrective for many churches. However competence in some areas is also important for the health of the church, David shepherded his people with integrity of heart and skillfull hands. Shepherding leaders have to lead, feed, and guard the flock. Keller’s comments underscore the need for deep humility based on a life rooted in the gospel. Also a willingness and even freedom to take criticism because you know your standing comes from Christ and His grace. Let me ask you: How do you think a leader becomes a shepherd to his flock? How does that flesh out?
Larry,
I am a rookie at this so please forgive me if I seem a little ignorant. In response to,”How do you think a leader becomes a shepherd to his flock?”, I looked up shepherd in my topical bible. In Ezekiel 34:3-5 it seems to illustrate how not to lead and in John 10:1-17 Jesus talks about being the Good Shepherd and laying down his life to protect and save his flock. Is this the type of leadership you are talking about? If so, I take it that the point is to put the welfare of those being led ahead of the welfare of the one leading. Is there any other scripture I should be reading in regards to this?
Chuck, That’s great, here are a couple of other Scriptures that relate to the same theme:
Acts 20:28 Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood.
1 Pet. 5:2-4 Be shepherds of God’s flock that is under your care, serving as overseers — not because you must, but because you are willing, as God wants you to be; not greedy for money, but eager to serve; 3 not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock. 4 And when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that will never fade away.
Notice in the first Scripture, Acts 20:28 Paul talks first about keeping watch over yourself . That ties in with what Keller said about leading through repentance. Of course the same theme is implicit in Peter also when he talks about being examples to the flock.
I see. So that goes back to what you said in class wednesday night about the self awareness aspect of the leadership matrix. You must examine yourself and your relationship with God before you can lead correctly. Thanks, I’ll keep reading.
This morning I was reading over this blog entry and the discussion on self awareness and keeping watch over yourself made me think of Psalm 139:23 Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. 24 See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.
Later in the day I was reading a cnn article on the Governor Spitzer situation, basically asking the questions why do these otherwise “smart” guys make these really dumb decisions. A psychologist that works with politicians and their families said this:
“In order to be in such a high-profile position, you have to believe that what you are doing is innately right,” said Renana Brooks, of Washington, D.C. “Anything that isn’t right, you may blot out. You can’t be tortured by guilt or indifference. It’s just virtually impossible to function at this high a level without limiting the amount of introspection you can do.”
I must admit that I was somewhat disturbed that this psychologist seemed to actually be advocating a lack of introspection and that its not only ok, but even necessary in high levels of leadership. What nonsense! This man certainly seemed to follow this advice. However, sadly this can happen to Christian leaders as well when they get full of pride, confidence power etc. and stop watching over themselves. And although I would say that other leadership traits are very important, I can’t think of one more important than humbling yourself to God and seeking after him in all areas of your life.
CNN Article http://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/personal/03/11/spitzer.psychology.ap/index.html
Mike,
I think you are right about this being nonsense. To fail to look at our own inner lives is foolish and irresponsible. Maybe this psychologist is on to something and yet missing something at the same time. Maybe it is virtually impossible to function at a high level (and for some of us as any level) without limiting the amount of introspection you can do, unless — and this is the crucial thing, unless you have a source of of love, acceptance and peace through the gospel that actually frees you to face the worst and know that although your sins are worse than your worse nightmares you are loved more than your wildest dreams in Christ!
To use the analogy I’ve been developing on this blog, to face the truth about yoruself honestly is a part of the dance that you can only perform when you are really listening to the music.
Note in Keller’s talk he said this:
He doesn’t mean you don’t believe the gospel in any sense. He doesn’t mean you are not a Christian, he means you aren’t trully, deeply believing in the message of the gospel as the source of your acceptance with and love from God. If you believe that you can face the truth and it will not crush you it will liberate.
Thanks for the comment and the link: