 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
[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
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