A Culture in Need
Our culture is in desperate need of leadership. We turn to the government and we see a leadership vacuum. We turn to the Business world and we see a leadership vacuum. We turn to the church and we see a leadership vacuum. Don’t get me wrong there are many that claim to be leaders and there are many that have their own followers yet the fruit of these leaders is continually found to be producing chaos and destruction of the moral fabric of our society. As we look at the fruit of the current leadership models being offered to lead our society then we are left with two important observations: (1) The current leadership models being offered are insufficient to restore the hopes, dreams, faith, strength, and morality of the people of our culture. (2) We observe that these models are creating a leadership vacuum where the appearance of leadership is given but the fruit of leadership only brings about corruption, chaos, and confusion. Ken Blanchard observed,
             The world is in desperate need of a different leadership role model. Pick up any daily newspaper, and 
             you will quickly find examples of abandoned values, betrayed trust, exploitation, and manipulation 
            committed by people of power and influence…Church leaders experience a crises of integrity, 
            compromising their churches and breeding skepticism and disillusionment.”[1]
The only hope of fixing this leadership vacuum in our culture is to see the people of God turn to the “Expository Leadership” model that is offered only through Jesus Christ. The Expository Leadership model is more than simply training up Christians to live according to Biblical principles rather it is training the current and future generations to lead by replicating the leadership example of Jesus Christ in their own life. John declared the importance of this principle in 1 John 2:6 (NLT) as he states, “Those who say they live in God should live their lives as Jesus did.” There is a difference between living according to the standard of Jesus and simply living life according to Biblical principles. We are observing that the newest generation of Christians have it impressed upon them that they simply have to live accordingly to Biblical ideals and lead in this manner. These individuals have been taught that what really matters is “What does the Bible mean to ME?” while they reject the Biblical meaning of each text which results in a expository leadership vacuum within the church and creates humanistic Christianity (if it even be lawful to call it such.) The results of this type of leadership was reported in December 2003 in a report titled “A Biblical Worldview Has a Radical Effect on a Person's Life”[2] where it was observed,
           Only 4% of adults in America have a biblical worldview as the basis of their decision making.
           Only 9% of born again Christians have a basic, biblical worldview.
       What did he mean by a biblical worldview?
          For the purposes of the research, a biblical worldview was defined as believing that absolute moral truths 
         exist; that such truth is defined by the Bible; and firm belief in six specific religious views. Those view were          that Jesus Christ lived a sinless life; God is the all-powerful and all-knowing Creator of the universe and 
         He still rules it today; salvation is a gift from God and cannot be earned; Satan is real; a Christian has a 
         responsibility to share their faith in Christ with other people; and the Bible is accurate in all of its 
         teachings.
Application of the Expository Leadership Model 
 We observe that due to an expository leadership vacuum, then the church is becoming increasingly more like the world and less like Jesus Christ. What is the solution? The solution is stated by Peter as he declares,
              1 Peter 2:21 – For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an         
              example, so that you might follow in his steps.
We are called to become imitators of the love, humility, service, and sacrifice of Jesus Christ as we lead others in the world into a closer relationship with Him by our example, words, and lessons that we teach. The first steps to short circuit the expository leadership vacuum in your own life and the church can be found by applying the ABC’s of Expository Living.
ABC’s of Expository Living

• Apply the Word of God in Your Life (James 1:22) 

• Believe Wholeheartedly in the Inspired Word of God (1 Timothy 3:16)
• Choose to Glorify God with Your Life (1 Corinthians 6:20)
• Declare the Meaning of God’s Word to a Dying Culture (2 Timothy 2:2)

Bibliography
[1] Ken Blanchard, Phil Hodges. Lead Like Jesus: Lessons from the Greatest Leadership Role Model of All Time. (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2005), 3.

[2] George Barna, A Biblical Worldview Has a Radical Effect on a Person's Life. December 2003. www.barna.org

Our country is facing perilous times when it comes to effective, Christ-centered leadership. We are observing more organizations, institutions, businesses, and entire communities suffering from the lack of biblical leadership as these organizations continue to normalize immorality and promote ungodliness among the people. The church has also fallen victim to this same famine of Biblical leadership as we observe more churches pursuing secular models of leadership versus the model given to us by Jesus Christ. Dr. John MacArthur made a similar observation about these perilous times as he states,

• "A crisis of leadership faces both the world and the church. As I write these words, the headlines in the secular press are all about leaders in the corporate world who have been guilty of appalling moral negligence. They have bankrupted major corporations because of their own personal greed. They have engaged in illegal insider trading. They have lied, cheated, stolen, and swindled. The scope and scale of corporate corruption in the world today are almost inconceivable…In the visible church, sadly, things are little better. The televangelist scandals of the 1980's seem to be all but forgotten. Nothing much really changed in the wake of the scandals. If anything, the state of so-called “Christian” television is far worse than it was before. Most Christian TV celebrities are still making greedy, nonstop appeals for money. Christian recording artists keep embarrassing the church with scandalous moral failures. And we still regularly hear of pastors who discredit their ministries and disqualify themselves by defaulting in the one thing that matters most in leadership: character."[1]

The crisis of leadership that our nation is facing is directly connected to the famine in the country regarding the clear proclamation of the Word of God. Consider for a moment the results of a lack of Biblical Preaching.
People become Desperate: Confusion Increases, Direction Decreases 
 It is important to recognize that in times of a spiritual famine, people become desperate. Desperate people often will fill their life with anything that might bring them hope or peace for a moment, even if it is polluted. The words of Amos 8:12 [2] remind us that in times of this type of a famine then people will seek the word of the Lord but will not find it. Why? Because they seek the Word of the Lord as a means to get what they want out of life but fail to seek the Lord with a willing, humble, and obedient heart. 
People become Dangerous: Immorality Increases, Righteousness Decreases 
 We also observe that another result of a spiritual famine is that people become more afraid of the world and less afraid of the Lord. This leads to an increase in immorality and a decrease in the righteous pursuit of the Lord. Consider the importance of learning to fear the Lord from Proverbs 9:10, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight."
Death: Sin Increases, Faith, Truth, & Salvation Decreases 
 The final result of a famine of hearing the Word of the Lord is that faith decreases in the land. We understand from Scripture that “faith comes by hearing the Word of Christ” (Romans 10:17) and that “we are saved by God’s grace through faith”(Ephesians 2:8). This means that without the hearing of the Word of God then people will perish. In the midst of a famine of hearing the Word of God then we observe that sin increases (the wages of sin is death – Romans 6:23) and that salvation decreases. 
Solution to the Famine
The only solution to this famine in the land is found with churches that desire to turn back to the clear proclamation of the Word of God in a manner that leads to daily application in the life of each Christian. This can only be accomplished with the raising up of a new generation of Christians that desire to apply the leadership model of Christ instead of a secular model. This model has at its foundation "expository preaching and teaching" from each and every pulpit. Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, preacher of Westminster Chapel in London, once stated while lecturing at Westminster Theological Seminary, 

• “The most urgent need in the Christian Church today is true preaching; and as it is the greatest and the most urgent need in the Church, it is the greatest need of the world also." [3]
  

May we pray for Christ to be Proclaimed from coast to coast starting in the local pulpit and carried out by expository leaders into the world. May God bless you as you seek Him and His Word this day!
Bibliography
[1] John MacArthur, The Book on Leadership: The Power of a Godly Influence (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2004), 2-4.
[2] Amos 8:12 – They shall wander from sea to sea, and from north to east; they shall run to and fro, to seek the word of the Lord, but they shall not find it.
[3] Steven J. Lawson, Famine in the Land: A Passionate Call for Expository Preaching (Chicago, IL: Moody Publishers, 2003).