Leadership in Tongues
Disclaimer: For all my charismatic friends you will be deeply disappointed at the lack of theological sophistication
I have an iphone. One of my geek pleasures was lining up the day it was released and being one of the first in my city to have one. As much as i love my iphone i have had some issues with it’s ipod functions. Up until the other day i just considered it to be a glitch and then it spoke to me!
I was on the treadmill listening to some old talks from Catalyst. I selected Groeschel’s talk from 07, one of the greatest, and zoned out on the treadmill. After about 8 minutes of his talk on being a practical atheist the glitch kicked in. The phone skipped over to a talk by John Maxwell, after about a minute it skipped to a talk by Andy Stanley then a couple minutes later back to Groeschel, then Francis Chan, then Rob Bell, and on and on. As my resentment to the glitch began to grow i decided instead of stopping my run and throwing the phone against the washboard abs of one of the trainers, who seem to think if i pay them thousands of dollars i will end up looking like them despite my passionate love affair with kettle chips, i listened on. I listened for about 30 minutes and heard the craziest collection of thoughts, something like this (i am paraphrasing these leaders, so i won’t use quotes)…
Leadership is a stewardship, it’s temporary and you are accountable -Stanley
I decided in my life to add value to people – Maxwell
I realized i didn’t care for the people in my own church – Chan
Doing the work of God was destroying the work of God in me – Hybels
If i blame myself for the decline in my church then i am likely to blame myself for the growth-Groeschel
When Jesus realized he was the most powerful person in the room he washed the disciples feet – Stanley
I had become a full time pastor and a part time Christian – Groeschel
Before long the talks started to run together and a theme emerged. In leadership our primary motivation has to be for the people we are leading. The only source of that selfless motivation is the Spirit of God alive in our own hearts. Okay maybe this wasn’t God lining up the talks, but it at least proves Solomon correct, “there is nothing new under the sun.”
