Kingdom Leadership

Transcript

Leadership Extremes And Power

SPEAKER_00 0:00

All right, welcome. My name is Cameron. I'm one of the pastors here at Cross Point. I am frankly shocked at how many of you are here today, given it was the 4th of July yesterday. So good for you. I don't know, extra gold star or whatever, whatever we get when we are faithful, even when it's difficult to wake up in time. Alright, I want to start with letting you think about something for a minute. I want you to think about the worst boss you've had, or one of the worst if you have a big list. And I want you to think just for a minute about what made working for that person or with that person so negative or such a struggle. No, I'm just kidding. Um, but also this is being recorded, so anything I say could get back to whoever I talk about. So I didn't really want to do that. But I thought maybe you could think about who some of those people are. Uh we're talking about leadership and power, and especially in the church today, because that's what Paul is talking about in First Corinthians. And as I was thinking about some of the negative experiences with leadership and power I've experienced, I think they kind of fall on a couple ends of a spectrum of how our world approaches leadership and power. And so here's like kind of two extremes. Maybe you've experienced this as well. Um, on one side is someone who's really controlling, right? It's all about their ego. Like we talk about top-down power or they're pushy or demanding. Like, and this is for many people in the world what we think of as a good leader, someone who pushes and gets results no matter what, right? Just makes things happen. Um, and sometimes in our culture, though, I've seen a pendulum swing all the way to the other side, where we don't want to be pushy and demanding and toxic. And so people on the other extreme can be timid, really like lack any leadership presence, be people pleasing. And those people can be just as difficult to follow as those that are really pushy and demanding, right? Who never quite tell you what's going on or never really push for what you need in your organization. Now, today we're talking specifically about leadership in the church, and I think one of the problems with uh church leadership just in general in this age is that our imagination for leadership in the church often comes from outside the church. So, you know, on the one hand, on the one kind of end of the extreme, is we have pastors who are see themselves as the CEO and the boss and pushing people around and like all in the name of getting results for the kingdom. Or as I talk to other uh pastors from other churches and stuff, a lot of times elder boards or leadership teams can be this way. Like really successful businessmen who um, you know, get promoted to being an elder because they're good at business, uh, don't have maybe the spiritual life that they need and end up being pushy and demanding. Um, you know, we had someone, this was years ago, leave our church when one of our pastors talked about going to therapy. Because he's like, it shows a weakness. A leader should never show weakness, right? And so that's like one extreme that's clearly being imported from the culture around us. But on the other hand, I think we another thing we see in church leadership and in leadership in the church is in an effort to look more Jesus-like. And again, this is like an image of Jesus, you know, holding a lamb and petting it with a bunch of children, just really gentle, which is Jesus is gentle, but Jesus was not timid, right? Jesus was not a people pleaser. Jesus didn't lack leadership. He clearly stepped into really important moments when he needed to. And so I think as we think about how do we lead in the church, how do we not just look the way our culture does, we need a new imagination for how we exercise our leadership and our authority, how we relate to the things we have responsibility for, and how we relate to getting results. And this is important for all of us, not just like for those that are serving in some way in the church, because we all have some sort of leadership and influence in the world, whether it's over your children, whether it's at work, right? Even though it's not quite the same as being in the church, like you, we want to look like Jesus in everything we do. So if you're leading in the secular world, like hopefully your leadership looks something like Jesus, right? Uh maybe you do serve at church in some way, but we all should also be discipling others. And so the way we all have some uh stake in how we lead and how we exercise the authority and responsibility God has given us. And our passage we're gonna look at today in 1 Corinthians, I think gives us a really good imagination and a really good image for what this can look like.

Paul’s Picture Of Church Leadership

SPEAKER_00 5:17

Now, a little context. Uh in our passage last week, kind of right as Paul's wrapping up, he talks about um how the Corinthians, like, there's been this theme kind of coming over and over that some of them say, like, I follow Paul, some say, I follow Apollos. So two guys back in the Corinthian church or that were instrumental in their church. Um, and so Paul does not like this. He doesn't like that they're dividing over which leader they like better and who they're gonna follow. And oh, I belong to this person, I belong to this person. And instead of just saying, hey, you guys need to stop, although he does do that too, he gives them a new imagination for how to think about leadership and how to relate to their leaders. So this is from 1 Corinthians chapter 3, verses 5 through 9. Paul says, What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants through whom you came to believe, as the Lord has assigned to each his task. So Paul and Apollos are both only servants through whom they actually came to belief in God. I planted the seed, this is Paul talking. Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow. So he kind of draws on an agricultural image that would have been familiar at the time of someone planting and watering and growing a crop. So one does one thing, one does the other, but God's the one making it grow. So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God who makes things grow. Right? Paul and Apollos, their contribution is so small compared to what God is doing in the Corinthian church. The one who plants and the one who waters have one purpose. So, you know, they're trying to divide Paul and Apollos and be like they're two different, but Paul's saying, no, we're all on the same team doing this. We have one goal. And they will each, each of the people working in the kingdom, will be rewarded according to their own labor. For we are co-workers in God's service. So we're talking about him and Apollos, they're co-workers, they're not rivals, they're not people to divide over, they're co-workers. In God's service, you, the Corinthians, the church, are God's field, God's building. And so that last little phrase, God's building, is gonna transition to the metaphor he uses next week that we'll look at. Um, I'm gonna unpack this a little bit more as we talk, but our bottom line for today from this passage is that spiritual leadership is humble service to God for the sake of others. Right? It's not about just wielding power and being in control and getting results, it's humble service, service to God and for the sake of other people. Now, there's kind of two, when we read this passage, there's kind of two uh layers of application that we can talk about. One is how it applies to us as a church, right? Because remember, when Paul was writing this letter, he wasn't writing it to individuals, he was writing it to a whole church community that was struggling. Um, but there's also, I think, some really good lessons for us to learn from this when Paul gives this new imagination for what leadership can look like. Because most, again, most of us have areas that we have influence over other people and we have authority and we have power. And so we're gonna spend some time talking about both

When We Put Leaders On Pedestals

SPEAKER_00 8:40

of those. But we're gonna start with as a community. What are the community ramifications for this passage? Because this is the primary reason Paul was writing. Right? He's writing to a divided community that's struggling because they're kind of dividing over their leaders, and he's trying to unify them by giving them this new imagination. Um, so remember the Corinthians, we've talked about this before, but a little recap in case you haven't been here or you have like me and have a very bad memory. The Corinthians were putting their leaders on a pedestal and then dividing over them. So a lot of commentators think Paul uh was someone who, you know, we know we know some things about Paul. We know he was a tent maker, so he's like a manual laborer. He had a craft and a trade. Um, we also know from the context of the letter that he specifically says, I didn't use really wise, like big fancy words with you guys when I was preaching. I was trying to keep it very simple in order to help you see the simplicity of the gospel and like really hone in on the cross. So a lot of commentators think because of those things, that in Corinth and the Corinthian church, and we'll see later in the letter, that there's a lot of divisions between the upper class and the lower class people, that a lot of maybe the lower class, more like working people, liked Paul's preaching, right? Because he kept it simple, he kept like they could relate to him because he worked with his hands and did all this stuff. Although we know Paul he of his letters that he can speak very eloquently, but he chose not to in Corinth. And then at some point, Apollos came in. And Apollos probably used more of like a lot of the modern rhetorical tools of speaking that would have been common at the time. He would have sounded a lot more charismatic, probably, and kind of wowed people and dazzled people and talked about, like maybe even referenced like all sorts of different philosophers and stuff, like drawing on the wisdom of this world as well. And so probably the more upper class, like you know, worldly successful Corinthians would have loved Apollo. So, yeah, this is the guy we want, right? We want someone who's well spoken, who speaks our language, who like makes us feel like we're important, because this is all really important to them. And notice instead of Paul weighing in on who is better or who they should follow, he reframes for them how they're even relating to their leaders and to leadership. So uh here's a little graph I'd add to make. So some people thought Apollos or Paul was better than Apollos, other people thought the other, like, no, Apollos is better than Paul. Well, Paul's saying is no, no, no, you guys got it all wrong. It's more like this. Like, next to God, we are nothing. Like any of these little differences that you're gonna see in our styles and how we communicate are nothing compared to the greatness of God. They are, Paul and Apollos, and both their different styles and preferences, are vessels through which the Corinthians can access God and see how great and amazing God is. Now, of course, if Apollos was not preaching the gospel, Paul probably would have come in very strongly and corrected him. But because he was, really the thing the Corinthians were dividing over was kind of petty stuff in comparison to the gospel and all that God had done for them. So Paul is reminding them that from the very beginning, the point was never about the leader and the person preaching and the person who planted the church or helps the church grow, right? He says, only servants through whom you came to belief. It was never about them, they were just servants. You should never say, I belong to Paul, or I belong to Apollos, or I belong to this person, because the only slogan we should have is we belong to God. God is the one who is worthy of our undivided attention and gratitude and adoration and devotion. No matter how much I've done for you or Mac has done for you, anyone else on our staff or leadership team, any other pastor at a church you've been a part of, any other random person you found on YouTube or Instagram, right? It's nothing compared to what God has done for you. It'd be like if, you know, my wife Megan, you know, uh made a really big dinner and like worked really hard on this meal, and then our little three-year-old Rosie says, Hey daddy, dinner's ready. Like I would tell her, Thank you, Rosie. But it would be ridiculous if I said, Wow, thank you, Rosie, for making this big meal for me. Like, like that would be confusing the messenger with the one who really did all of the work, right? Now, of course, I'm happy Rosie announced it, otherwise I wouldn't know it was dinner time. Uh, these are important things, uh, but they're not nearly as important as all that Megan did to make the meal for us, right? And so, in the same way, as a leader, the very best I can do is be like a little toddler who comes out and says, Hey, look at this amazing thing that happened, right? It has nothing to do with me, nothing to do with what I've done, but everything to do with what God has done for us. The best thing I can do is to embody that kind of love. Not so you go, wow, Cameron's a really great pastor, a really good preacher, a really good whatever, but so that you can experience the goodness and the bigness and amazingness of who God is. Right? So it's good to love your leaders. Like, I don't want you guys to walk out and be like, all right, cool, we're just gonna be mean to Mac and Cameron and everyone on staff now, right? That's not the point. Uh so it's good to be kind, to love, to be encouraging, all of those kinds of things. But when our respect or our fondness or the things we like lead to an exclusive loyalty or pull us away from God, it becomes more about a person than what God has done, then that is a problem. Now, broadly, and like the American church, this is like a big problem, right? We've talked about this before. Um, you know, with politics, like we divide over leaders that aren't even spiritual leaders or people we even know, but we can divide over them if we're not careful. Uh, there's like a celebrity pastor culture, right? And social media has just made this way worse, where we put people on pedestals and think like, wow, they're the most amazing thing in the world. Um, and it does really bad work for people, both the people who are preaching and like us who put them on pedestals. Um, and we've seen this kind of uh celebrity pastor culture has created a whole lot of problems in the church, right? It allows a whole lot of unhealthy things to happen. Because if someone is above reproach or on a pedestal, then we don't question, or the system kind of exists to protect them, and there's been a whole lot of abuse and all sorts of things like that that we've seen in the American church. But when I look at our church at Cross Point, I actually think we do a really good job of this. Um, you know, structurally at Cross Point, I talked about this a little bit last week, that we've tried to set our church up so that it all is not like centered on one person, right? It's not all centered on Mac, our lead pastor, that it doesn't flow to whoever that is, that he's not like the person like we worship the ground he walks on, right? Or any of us as leaders don't become that. Although there is like some natural tendency of things like move upward in the organization, and that's totally normal and natural, and not necessarily a bad thing. But we all on staff have seen examples of when that power has gone too far, right? And none of us want to be people who get into that position where people are putting us on pedestals because we know it's gonna do really bad work for our souls. So we try to resist that as much as possible. You know, one of the things you'll hear uh us say, you've hear Max say, and is that he's one of the pastors. And so a lot of times new people who come to our church are like, who is the person, who is the lead pastor here, right? They're a little confused. Um and it's kind of silly. Sometimes uh, this is a couple years ago, someone made a nameplate for Max Dore where it just said one of the pastors to cover up his lead pastor uh label. Um, and so it's you know, sometimes it feels like we kind of like tease him about it or whatever, but it is not an effort to like abdicate leadership or to like not be in charge. It's uh from a genuine posture of wanting to maintain humility, wanting to not pretend like any one of us is better than the other person or more important, and to resist that flow of everything kind of centering and falling towards whoever is at the top of the organization.

Team Leadership And Shared Responsibility

SPEAKER_00 17:07

Right? And we've seen, you know, well, Max's been in the hospital this last week and a half, that like there's something really good about this, that our whole church does not hinge on one person being in the building for us to be okay, right? That God is working through a multitude of people, and so when one person can't be there, or like last summer when I was on a sabbatical, like we could cover and things would keep going just fine, right? You see this on our preaching team that we have a team of people preaching. Um, you know, we we've also seen that when you're up on stage every week, it can do really bad work for your soul uh to be like in the spotlight all the time and people being like, oh my gosh, you're so amazing, right? Because it's not true. Um, I appreciate when you guys say that you think I'm amazing, right? I'm not gonna say don't ever say that. Um, but it's also not true. And so, but if you're up in the spotlight all the time and hear that, that doesn't do good work for you. Um and there's also the benefit of everyone on our team is very different, like on our preaching team. And it would be really easy as a church community to divide over that, right? Over different preaching styles, different leadership styles. And I am sure that everyone has favorites, right? I'm sure that in kind of this last couple weeks of crazy things happening, when you saw that I came up here for the third week in a row, some of you went, Oh, look, Cameron, and some let out a big sigh and went, oh boy, here we go again, right? I just know that's gonna happen, right? I don't take it personally, it's true. Um, but one of the things I love is we get a surprisingly few number of weird comments that people make about who they like better, right? Back when we first started doing this, there was a lot more of them. People would be like, I think you should be preaching more. And I'm like, okay, thank you. I've you know, or I think Mac does a better job than you. I'm like, okay, I don't know what I'm supposed to do with that information, right? But like now, that doesn't really happen. And I think that it would be very easy because of the diversity of styles and and leadership presence and all of those things to like create divisions in our church body, and it just does not happen. So I'm really thankful to be a part of a community that I feel like lives into this really well. Um, or if you do believe it, you you're not stupid enough to tell me that because you know I don't want to hear it, right? Um, so that's kind of on the corporate level, right? There's some uh important things to keep track of, but as a church, I think we're on the right track here.

Leadership As Humble Service

SPEAKER_00 19:31

But now I want to shift to us as individuals, learning to exercise our leadership and our authority in Jesus-looking ways, um, both in the church, but also in your family and in your workplace and wherever it might be. Here are some lessons I think we can pull from Paul's image here of what leadership is in this new imagination. And the first thing is that leadership is service and requires humility. Right? Paul had a lot of words and images he could have used to explain leadership and to talk about it. Uh he chooses the word servant and the image of someone working on a farm as like a manual laborer. Now, a servant is uh in the Greek someone who serves, right? A really, really deep thought there. Uh, usually doing unskilled work, like a waiter, not quite as low as like a slave, but kind of a level above that. And so the to the Gentile ear, this word that Paul uses for servant would speak of low social status, unlike the word apostle. So when he says, Hey, uh, you know, it's only God, like we are nothing, it's only God. Like he's talking about we're servants. Um, it's the same word he uses in Matthew chapter 20, verse 26, where Jesus says, Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant. It's the same word he uses in Matthew chapter 23, verses 11, verse 11, that Jesus uses the greatest among you will be your servant. Um, Paul has been talking a lot about the cross and how this is like central to the gospel and the good news and what God is doing. Um, but it also serves as the basic model for Paul for ministry, right? Because Jesus was a servant. He went around teaching and feeding people. Even we have stories of when he's exhausted and tired, but people need healing, that he still goes to serve them and to heal them. And in the ultimate expression of service, he gives his life for many people, for the ransom of many. So leadership is service and requires humility, right? We are servants. Now, no, humility and being a servant doesn't mean you don't ever do anything important, right? Sometimes I think we get this false picture of like humility means like I just stay out of the spotlight at all costs and don't ever do that. Uh that's kind of like a false humility. To think you're incapable of doing what God has called you to do. So instead of saying yes and relying on him for strength, you just say no, I can't do that and kind of like peace out of what God's called you to do. Paul can be humble about his place in the world and in relation to God. He can see himself as a servant and still do really important things for the kingdom. Being a humble servant isn't a limit on what you do, it's the posture from which you do what you do. It's not meant to limit us or keep us from doing what God's called us to do. It's the posture from which we do everything. One facet of using this word servant is to remind them, Paul's trying to remind the Corinthians, that servants aren't to be followed, right? They're serving someone else. So one commentary I was reading said in verse 6, Paul and Apollos are compared to humble farm workers, the sort of manual laborers, the elite in Corinth despised, right? So the Corinthians, like the really high class people, thought everyone else was beneath them. And so he's Paul is kind of like uh shaming them a little bit in the moment to be like, look, you guys are fighting over servants here. Like you're fighting over humble farm workers. You know, another way to see it is if you think of like the Victorian era dramas, like Danton Abbey, Pride and Prejudice, it's like you guys are fighting over butlers right now. Like, what is your problem? Like, this is not what you should be doing. Like, you guys look ridiculous doing this. If you want to follow someone, you should follow the master, not the servant. Because God is the one in charge of all of this. It's not about Paul or Apollos. Right, which leads to the next kind of thing we can pull from this, which is that leaders answer to God.

Serving People Under God’s Authority

SPEAKER_00 23:49

When we talk about servant leadership, which is kind of like a buzzword sometimes, the impression can be that you're serving the people you lead. And in some ways that is true. Like Paul and Apollos are both serving the Corinthians, but it's also kind of not true because they're not ultimately serving the Corinthians, they're serving God by serving the Corinthians. So, like the Lord is the one who assigns each to their task, and they will each be recording to rewarded according to their own labor. For we are co-workers in God's service. You are God's field. Like you don't serve the field, you serve the master who's the one who's going to pay you, right? So uh their ultimate master is God, not the people that you lead. Um, you serve the people you lead as an extension and under the authority and direction of God. It's all gods. We are just stewards of what he's telling us to serve and love and lead in and exercise authority over. We serve people because it honors God when we do it. Right? One of the things Megan, my wife, says when our girls are a little feisty, she says, I love to serve you, but I'm not your servant, right? Um, and that's the same thing for like in leadership is that we love to serve people, or we should love to serve people, um, but we're not like servants to be ordered around. We're ultimately God's servant. Um, another uh kind of example that I was trying to like wrap my head around this is like when we hire a babysitter, right? Uh, which by the way, most of our babysitters have graduated high school. So if you were babysitting, please let me know. I'd love to love to talk to you after the service. Um, the best babysitters uh serve my kids, right? They love them, they play with them, they do what the kids want to. If the kids want to have a silly dance party, they'll do a silly dance party. Like they will serve my kids, they will clean up after them, they will cook for them, like all of those kinds of things, right? But they don't do everything my kids want, right? Because my kids will make some unrealistic demands and they have to say no to those things, because while they're there to serve my kids, I'm ultimately the one who's paying them when they get back. Right? They are accountable to me, not my children, even though they're there to serve my children.

unknown 26:10

Right?

SPEAKER_00 26:11

And the same is true for us in leadership, is that there are times uh when God will call us as a church to either lean into things or to say things and talk about things that will make us uncomfortable or that will challenge us, or that we might not want to deal with or talk about or lean into. But that is okay. If that's what God is calling us to do, that's what we're going to do, right? Because ultimately, as a church, we serve God. We don't just serve like the whims of what people want, right? Of course, that's part of how we discern what God is up to. Um, but ultimately we want to be faithful to God.

Different Tasks With One Goal

SPEAKER_00 26:52

Thirdly, I think thirdly, uh, leadership looks different with different roles, is I think something we see in this passage. Right? Paul and Apollos had different purposes, even though they were all working towards one goal. The Lord assigned to each his task. And Paul's a little bit anticipating the reaction the Corinthians might be like, Well, why are you guys so different? Why are you doing different things? But the differences aren't meant to be something to divide over. Uh, they are like what God has asked them to do and ultimately for their good. Right? If they both just planted a bunch of seeds in the ground but no one watered it, nothing would happen, right? Or if everyone just is dumping water everywhere but there's not a seed, like nothing's gonna happen. And so the focus shouldn't be on the servants, the focus shouldn't be on like, well, what are they doing or how exactly are they doing it, but ultimately on God and what he's called them to do. Right? I think I just love this. Is one of my favorite um images in the New Testament is this idea of like them both working towards this, but ultimately it's God the one who's making God is the one who's making things grow. Because as a leader, it can be really discouraging sometimes investing in people. Right? There's a lot of times that I don't see the whole picture. Like the number of times that I've been involved in some sort of like weird crisis thing or something big happening in someone's life, and maybe we talk for like 15 or 20 minutes, and then I never see this person again. I'm like, I wonder whatever happened to that person who had this crazy stuff going on, right? This happens all the time. But I love this image of like we are just supposed to be faithful doing our part in someone's story, like our part investing in someone or in a group of people, or whatever it might be. And then we can trust that God is working beyond what we can see and what we notice and what we're even aware of. Right? Or sometimes uh I can compare myself to other people, right? And think like, hey, because I'm not like this person, like maybe I'm not measuring up or I'm not good enough, right? I work really closely with Mac and Katie, and I'm very different from both of them, right? And often think like, should I be here? Like, why am I in this room right now? Like, I don't feel like I belong here. Um, and but what I found is the things that make me feel like I don't fit, or don't like, I'm not like we're not on the same wavelength all the time, or it's the same kind of uh personality, the things that I feel like I'm not measuring up or I feel pressure to change, these are the very things that they appreciate most about me, right? And that this difference isn't something that's a problem, although it can cause tension at times. The difference is actually something good that God brings together for a good purpose. That even though we are all different, all with different spiritual gifts and personalities and all of those things, but as a church, when we come together, our goal is the same, even if our tasks are different as a church. Our goal is ultimately to serve God. And the best thing you can do for God's kingdom isn't to become more like Mac or become like some influencer you see on Instagram, but to figure out what role God has assigned you to and then live into that. Not as an excuse to like never grow or resist your unhealthiness, right? If you find yourself saying, hey, God just made me a jerk, this is just the way I am. Like, that's a problem, right? Like, those are things God wants, like when I say this, it's like the best version of you that God, like the fully transformed version of you is who God wants you to be. And it'll be different than me and for any of us. Um, and and that's a good thing when we can come together and allow those differences to complement each other as we move towards a common purpose together. Um, and then last thing, which I think is super important, I've already kind of touched on, is that ultimately it's God is the one who brings growth.

God Brings The Growth

SPEAKER_00 30:41

Growth is not automatic. Like in the Jewish uh worldview, they would see like if you planted something, like it's not just a seed that did its own thing, like God kind of makes all of that happen. And the same is true spiritually, that God is the one who ultimately brings growth for people. Uh He cares more about the transformation of the people we lead, whether it's in a Sunday school class, whether it's your kids, whether it's at church, at work, whatever it might be, than you do. And compared to God, the work Paul and Apollos are doing, or the work we do, is nothing. Right? Our work is important. We don't want to neglect it. Like had Paul not planted the church in Corinth, I don't know what would have happened if someone else would have come along right away or not. But the so the work is important, but without God and his growth, it's worthless. Right? All we're kind of building is these empty husks without God actually growing, like making the growth happen. And I think this is really good news that we can't force growth, although sometimes we wish we could force growth in the people that we lead, right? Um, or the people we parent. You know, not me, of course, but other people do, I'm sure. Um, we can't force it. It's good news though, because it means we don't have to try to manipulate people. We don't have to try to like kick people to get them going. It means our definition of success can be more about seeking to be faithful planters and waterers and pruners rather than just getting results, which especially in church usually just means getting more people in a seat and more money for the budget, right? Um, often in the American church that's what it is, not even talking about anything spiritual, just like let's get more people here. If there's more people, it must be good, good things must be happening, right? Um, so our definition of success can be more than that, can be about faithfulness, um, and that we don't need to conflate faithfulness with results. Sometimes being faithful, we might not see all the signs of success on the outside, but that faithfulness pays dividends when we trust and we know when we're in step with God's spirit. Uh, it's good news because it means even sometimes the most hopeless cause is still worthy of whatever we do because we're only a small part of their story. Uh, that was one of the awesome things about being involved with Celebrate Recovery and just hearing so many people's stories, is there's so many people who talk about all these people along the way in their recovery journey who had an influence on them, right? And from the outside, you wouldn't think like that anything was getting through to some of these people by the way they were living their life, but all of those things mattered, right? And God used all of those little interactions in those times at church, even when it looked like nothing was happening on the outside. Right? I used to work with students when I was a youth pastor here and in Oregon. There's lots of times I'd be like, none of these kids are getting it, right? And sometimes it's like years later that I hear, like, wow, they'd be like, Cameron, you that really meant a lot to me. I'm like, geez, I kind of wish I would have known that back then, but you know, so a pre like something was happening even though I couldn't see it. We only get to play a small piece. Um, I think of our benevolence and our deacon team who meet with people in crisis, like whether it's a housing crisis or domestic violence or things like that, and then often never see these people again, right? The hope is that they would, you know, we would have develop an ongoing relationship. But sometimes all we can do is we're there for this one moment and we get to be Jesus to them and and speak truth into their life and help them, and we only get to be a small, tiny part of their story, but it's still significant, right? Because we can trust that God is working beyond what we see and notice. Um that's all we can do is play the part that we are called to play, whatever that role is, to play it faithfully and trust that God is working beyond what we can see or we're aware of.

Action Steps And Closing Prayer

SPEAKER_00 34:37

All right, as we wrap up here, here's a couple action steps, some things to think about. Again, we don't ever want to just like download a bunch of information and be like, cool, that sounded good, but actually do something with it. So these are all on the website as well. Um, if you want to kind of go back to them this week, some questions you can pray through if you think of that spectrum. Where do you tend to default? Are you more of like a power over people, or do you not use that? And again, just to get some awareness, so you can be a more faithful leader and influencer in the lives of people that you have influence over. And then spend some time thinking about a leader from your life that embodied Jesus-looking leadership and investment. What did they do? What do you want to integrate with your own life? You know, I thought of there's so many people in my life that I think, like, man, and well, also it's like, did I ever tell them this? Maybe I was the stupid middle school kid who never said anything when it mattered, right? Um, but people who meant a lot to me that I can that I can look at and learn from even years later. And then a couple action steps, like practical things you can do. Put something up as a reminder, like if that you are a steward in an area you serve. So, like if you serve in kids' ministry, something to remind yourself, like, I'm just doing my part in this, so you can be faithful to that. Start serving somewhere if you're not. Like, we have like at our church, tons of areas to serve. I know many of you are serving, right? We have uh uh with kids and middle schoolers and high schoolers a great opportunity to invest in the next generation and exercise some of that leadership and authority and power in order to serve people. Those are great opportunities to do that. And then thank someone for their role in your spiritual journey, right? Just to encourage them for what they've done for you. So uh, all right, well, I'm gonna pray for us. Uh again, thank you everyone for all your prayers for Mac and everything he's going through. Thank you for everyone who's reached out and asked how we as a staff are doing. You know, things, of course, we wish he was out of the hospital and doing well, but things are also going really well. And this is just one of those reasons why we have a team model of leadership so that when things happen, we can fill in and it doesn't have to be a huge burden on any one person or a struggle that we could keep moving forward as a church. So I just thank you for your continued prayers in that and keep checking the Facebook group for updates as we hear them. We'll put them on there. All right, let me pray for us. God, thank you so much uh for your love and your grace. God, that you work beyond what we're even aware of. God, that you um that you have called us into something beautiful, which is to serve other people. And God, I just ask that you would give us the courage to step into that calling, whether that's with our kids, whether that's at work, whether that's serving in some area at church. God, help us to step fully into that, trusting that you're working beyond our capabilities. Um, and God helping us to know what our part is in that so that we can play that part faithfully and well as we seek to embody your kingdom love here as a community. So we thank you for your love and your grace. It's in your name we pray. Amen. Have a good week.