Leadership vs Discipleship

Leadership is about people leading. Discipleship is about people following Christ. These are distinctly different things. The goal of leadership is to tap into people’s potential. The goal of discipleship is to grow into the fullness of who we are in Christ. The Bible places a strong emphasis on discipleship. On leading… not so much.

During the last few years that I was part of a traditional church, I started hearing the word leadership used more and more. The emphasis on leadership increased greatly, reflecting a discernible shift in core values. Seminars and books about how to elevate your leadership skills, and how to recognize and develop other leaders, were extremely popular. Leadership was championed as the key to being successful. And this brings into question how most churches define success.

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The Downside Of Topical Preaching

Topical preaching is the most common approach to ministering God’s word. This means that the speaker chooses a topic they want to present, and then they select scriptures that they feel will help to communicate this topic to their audience. In some churches, each sermon will be based on different, random topics, while some churches will do topical series, where several sermons will focus on a particular topic. But both of these methods utilize topical preaching, with the speaker choosing the topic they want to focus on.

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Jesus Has Expectations

It’s hard to comprehend the measure of love that motivated Jesus, the Son of God, to leave the glories of heaven, with the purpose of dying a criminal’s cruel death on a cross. Scripture says the love of Christ surpasses knowledge. But, by the power of the Holy Spirit, God wants us to know and even to comprehend this amazing love, and to be rooted and grounded in this love ¹. We cannot over-emphasize the love that Jesus has for us. However, we can, and often do, misinterpret what this love looks like in action.

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Finding God’s Plan

Over the years I’ve had lots of conversations with people who were concerned about figuring out God’s plan for their life. Often, they would be frustrated or even anxious because they weren’t getting answers to their questions. But usually, the things they were so intently focused on were things like, where they should live, what career they should pursue, who they should marry, you know… the natural, physical, temporary things of this life. Jesus said the pagans run after all these things, but believers should seek first the kingdom of God ¹.

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