The Foresight and Diligence Required to Lead in a Fogged Up World

All Scripture quotations are taken from the New American Standard Bible 1995 Ed. (NASB95)

To be a leader of someone means that in some sense, someone is following you. In the body of Christ, leaders are those brethren that have reached a level of wisdom and love that surpasses those that learn how to live from them. To be following someone means that you’re lacking in some qualities that are possessed by your leader, especially in experiential knowledge.

To put it differently, leaders have already walked the section of path that followers are now walking. Hence, those who lead ought to have a sense of what dangers lie on that part of the road. That’s why one of the most repeated aspects of Christian leadership in the New Testament is admonishing or warning. Paul recounts this practice of his leadership when he speaks to the elders of Ephesus for the last time in Acts 20:31:

“. . . night and day for a period of three years I did not cease to admonish each one with tears.”

If you read the letters in the Bible, they are full of warnings of potential dangers that believers could face to their obedience in the future. This is because the good leader not only helps his followers with their current situations, but also with the problems he foresees them dealing with soon. A good shepherd understands the temptations of the flesh, and the enticements of the world and devil, and helps his students prepare for them. Why? Because the novice or immature Christian hasn’t yet learned the wisdom and discernment to see the signs of every temptation and trial that is in his path, or headed for him.

In a word, the Scriptures teach leaders to be proactive about their teaching and counsel of followers. It’s up to those with people under their care to take the initiative in learning about their condition, and giving appropriate encouragement and advice. And yet I’ve often perceived Christian leaders failing in their responsibility to be diligent overseers and counselors of their disciples. Too often, older men especially refuse to recognize their responsibility to reach out to immature believers, and help them with their problems. Or even check up on how they’re doing consistently!

Obviously, the reasons for this vary, but one of the chief ones is a fear of learning of the failures and trials that younger brethren are suffering from. It can also be from a fear that the counselee will feel oppressed, belittled, or domineered. Yet these fears often aren’t valid. Even if dealing with a younger brother’s sins requires severe and stern words, the Proverbs assure us that,

“Faithful are the wounds of a friend.” (Prov. 27:6)

The fact is, the younger generations especially, are longing for fatherly and spiritual leaders to guide and oversee them. There has long been a vacuum in the place where godly authority figures should have been shepherding young people. And this vacuum in western Christian circles needs to be filled by diligent, compassionate, and proactive men and women of God.

For the Christians who are currently filling leadership roles, whether formal or otherwise, they must take the initiative in their guidance of their followers.

One of the other major reasons that there’s such a lack of influence and connection from mature believers in a position to lead is that younger generations also lack initiative. Even when they feel a void in their lives for a wise and loving guide, they usually feel too scared, intimidated, or embarrassed to ask for help. The sins and temptations hindering those under 30 now are often sins that are intensely subtle, secretive, and incipient. It’s often hard to bring them out into the open because they are so intertwined with the normal habits of everyday life. What do I mean specifically?

The temptations and sins that most often infest the thinking and lifestyles of young people are usually strengthened, introduced, and protected by the Internet and technology. So to ask for help in those areas requires radical honesty and openness regarding the most regular habits that young people have. And often these temptations are mainly kept alive by habitual, obsessive, and addictive social media and Internet use. I could think of several examples of sins that are committed through the lifestyle use of the Internet, such as pornography, greedy mindless spending, gossip, slander, foolishness, pride, and selfish ambition.

The sins and temptations that young people face, as well as most that are living in our technological culture, require much more accountability, encouragement, and counsel to deal with than they’re receiving. The younger brethren in our lives need father and mother-figures, and older brother and sister-figures, who will consistently and diligently counsel, guide, talk with, teach, and warn them.

And if you’re an immature believer, you must come alongside an older brother or sister, and learn all you can from them about how to be increasingly obedient and devoted to the Lord.

It’s time that western Bible-believing Christians take the call of the Lord for leaders seriously. Those who lead are expected to love as Jesus did with intense interest, concern, and persistence. Before Peter denied the Lord, Jesus even prayed for him, “that your faith might not fail”. And He prepared them for the monumental trial they would face when He was arrested by spending hours with them promising them what He would do for them, and reminding them what He’d taught them. The New Testament letters are consistently warning Christians of the dangers that they can expect to face in this world, and explaining how to prepare for them. And the apostles and early church leaders didn’t just occasionally teach and counsel their followers, but were constantly checking up on them, discerning their needs, and giving them counsel and instruction. This is the kind of leadership that’s required if we want to see people consistently grow in their wisdom, knowledge, love, and all the rest of what it means to imitate Jesus. Let us all strive to be the proactive, vigilant, and consistent leaders that our followers and learners need. This is one of the ways that we “equip the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ” (Eph. 4:12).