Several years ago, a friend called me to talk about an internationally known Christian leader who lived near him. During the “great recession” of 2008, this leader advised (and then pressured) my friend to liquidate his retirement account and to invest all that money in silver.
In January 2009, my friend followed the advice of this Christian statesman, sold his IRA stock holdings of $350,000 and staked it all on silver.
Ten years later, my friend realized that the leader’s incompetent counsel had cost him half a million dollars! During those ten years, his old S&P 500 indexed fund increased 300%, while the highly recommended silver investment increased only 30%. This literally means:
- His silver investment only increased from $350,000 to $455,000.
- But during those ten years, it would have increased to $1,100,000 (over a million dollars!) if my friend had only ignored that snake-oil pastor’s counsel.
My friend was very honest about his own foolishness: he had succumbed to the persuasive passion of a financial nincompoop. But my friend also expressed frustration with this Christian guide’s self-importance, how he bullied others with his own opinions about an area in which he had no training, expertise, or experience.
My friend concluded his phone call with these reflections:
Why in the world is [name deleted] so addicted to giving advice? He doesn’t know a debit from a credit. Yet he dispenses financial advice like he’s doling out trick-or-treat candy, but with a gun.
He seems to care more about gathering followers than helping them.
What’s The Deal With Modern Leadership?
Amazon currently lists over 50,000 items with “leadership” in the title. Thousands of those are specifically Christian. And every day, four new leadership titles are added. I’ve read that 20% of books that pastors read each year are books on leadership.
What is going on?
Years ago, I received an offer from another famous Christian who taught “leadership and platform.” His email offered a course that promised to get you “five thousand followers” in three months “even if you don’t have … a product yet.”
In other words, the course’s leadership philosophy didn’t care for the followers (it didn’t matter if you had any) and it didn’t care for the message (it didn’t matter if you had one). It only cared about YOU, the glorious and mighty (and humble) leader. It promised YOU: fame, fortune, and a following the size of Texas.
Shepherdship
After the resurrection, Peter repented for denying Jesus. And Jesus restored him to leadership. But Jesus never promised Peter thousands of followers, royalties from bestselling books, expertise in the stock market, or a personal jet. (Not even a personal chariot.)
Instead, Jesus anointed Peter to “shepherdship,” and He did so with these simple words: “Feed my sheep.” Jesus followed Peter’s ordination with these scary words, “And you are going to die doing it!” (Only slightly paraphrased).
Maybe we should ban the phrase “Christian Leadership.” It is infected with the worldly virus of self-glorification. Maybe our focus should be on the care and feeding of God’s people, and maybe (just maybe) we should let Him increase while we decrease.
Gandalf damned Saruman’s leadership with six words: “He will not serve, only command.”
“So What!”, You Say
What good is this article for you? You don’t want to be a leader: you don’t care if your own shadow follows you, you laugh at the idea of internet-influencers, and you can’t even spell, “leadership” (though you are tempted to spell it L-E-A-D-E-R-S-H-I-T).
The world desperately needs help. It needs people willing to serve. It needs us. Not the “us” that longs for glory, nor the “us” that dispenses advice on everything from marriage counseling to particle physics. It needs the “us” who are willing to lay down our lives, to wash feet:
- The thief had nothing on the cross, not even a leadership seminar attendance badge. He just repented, and his single cry for help has influenced more people than Billy Graham.
- Mary Magdalene came empty to the tomb, not even as an essential oil influencer. She saw the risen Jesus before anyone, and for a time, she was the first witness to Christ and the first and only member of the Church.
- Two thousand years ago, an unnamed boy with a lunch barely big enough for himself, gave what he had to Jesus. Jesus multiplied that tiny gift to feed twenty thousand people, maybe thirty thousand.
How is the world going change? When people give their nothing (or their five loaves) to Jesus in humility, and they don’t care two mites for themselves. Those are the people whose spiritual-investment advice I will follow gladly.
Many Christian pastors nowadays no longer counsel the anxious, visit the shut-ins, or pray for the sick in hospitals. They leave those services to others. What are these pastors doing instead?
Reading books on leadership.
Sam
Embracing A Transcendent Pursuit: A Journey of Spiritual Growth
This is a wonderful article, Sam, thank you. The focus of our culture on “leadership” has always bugged me a bit, but I never really thought it out (because, you know, what could possibly be wrong with “leadership”?). You have always had a great gift of cutting through the fog like this. THANK YOU
Well written Sam. As someone who has been in “leadership” positions in business for many years, the concept of leadership should be modeled on Christ. In that it should be a “servant leader”. If your pastor is not acting as a servant leader or shepherding his flock, then consider a new church.