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Marks of a Godly Boss · Pastor John Piper's answers

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  Speaker 1: Well, bad leadership makes everything about the leader. We've all
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  Speaker 1: seen this in some form, and that's why Jesus's teaching
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  Speaker 1: on leadership is so refreshing. It's so counterintuitive. He flips
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  Speaker 1: what so called leadership so often looks like in this world,
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  Speaker 1: and he flips it right side up. He says, if
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  Speaker 1: you want to become great, you must serve. If you
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  Speaker 1: want to be first, you must be last. If you
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  Speaker 1: want to lead, you must give yourself. Today we are
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  Speaker 1: looking at holy leadership, whether that is in your church,
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  Speaker 1: your family, or your workplace. If that sounds familiar, it's
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  Speaker 1: because we read it in our navigator's Bible reading plan
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  Speaker 1: today Matthew, Chapter twenty a text on the mind of
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  Speaker 1: Jonathan in Seattle, Washington as well. Pastor John, Hello, my
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  Speaker 1: question for you is about Matthew twenty verses twenty six
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  Speaker 1: to twenty eight. How has Jesus's radical redefinition of greatness
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  Speaker 1: that whoever wants to become great among you must be
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  Speaker 1: your servant. How does that challenge your own measures of
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  Speaker 1: success and significance and a culture that equates a leadership
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  Speaker 1: with privilege and authority. Christ offers a counterintuitive path where
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  Speaker 1: true power emerges through self giving. As you consider Jesus's
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  Speaker 1: ultimate servant act of giving his life as a ransom
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  Speaker 1: for many, how does his sacrificial standard reshape your approach
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  Speaker 1: to family and church leadership.
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  Speaker 2: Just to heads up here at the beginning for folks
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  Speaker 2: who want to know more about Christian leadership, I did
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  Speaker 2: write a little booklet called Marks of a Spiritual Leader,
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  Speaker 2: which is free at Desiring God, or you can get
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  Speaker 2: an audiobook of it. I didn't even know that until
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  Speaker 2: at Amazon the same reader reads that audiobook as reads
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  Speaker 2: as the new John Grisham novel. I thought that's cool. Okay,
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  Speaker 2: back to the point. That little booklet talks about an
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  Speaker 2: inner circle of characteristics that make us a leader, a
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  Speaker 2: spiritual or a Christian leader, and an outer circle of
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  Speaker 2: characteristics which mark all leaders, whether they're Christian or not.
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  Speaker 2: There are a lot of characteristics of what makes a
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  Speaker 2: person an effective leader that are not distinctively Christian, but
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  Speaker 2: are shaped it is for the Christian. They're shaped in
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  Speaker 2: Christian ways in their exercise by the spiritual marks of
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  Speaker 2: the inner circle. And it's that circle that Jonathan is
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  Speaker 2: asking about here, I think, and specifically Jonathan wants to
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  Speaker 2: know how jesus teaching affects our conception and exercise of
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  Speaker 2: worship in the teaching in Matthew twenty twenty five. So
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  Speaker 2: let me read that Jesus called his disciples to him
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  Speaker 2: and said, you know that the rulers of the gentiles
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  Speaker 2: lorded over them, and they're great ones, exercise authority over them.
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  Speaker 2: It shall not be so among you. But whoever would
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  Speaker 2: be great among you must be your servant, and whoever
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  Speaker 2: would be first among you must be slave of all.
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  Speaker 2: Even as the Son of Man came not to be served,
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  Speaker 2: but to serve, and to give his life a ransom
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  Speaker 2: for many. So before we can dig in to how
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  Speaker 2: Jesus' words shape Christian leadership, we need a definition. We
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  Speaker 2: need to define leadership so that we know what we're
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  Speaker 2: talking about. I define leadership in general like this, knowing
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  Speaker 2: where you want people to go and taking the initiative
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  Speaker 2: to get them there in such a way that they
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  Speaker 2: follow you. That's my definition of leadership in general. In
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  Speaker 2: other words, you don't have leadership if you don't have
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  Speaker 2: a destination, and you don't have leadership if you don't
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  Speaker 2: have a following. If nobody's following, you're not leading by definition,
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  Speaker 2: and you don't have leadership if you're not the one
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  Speaker 2: taking the initiative to get them to the destination. So
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  Speaker 2: there are always these three components in leadership. There's a
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  Speaker 2: destination or goal, and there's some kind of initiative that
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  Speaker 2: somebody takes, and then there's a following. Now, what makes
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  Speaker 2: leadership Christian or spiritual is that you bring Jesus Christ
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  Speaker 2: into that definition. So Christian leadership or spiritual leadership is
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  Speaker 2: knowing where Christ wants people to be and then taking
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  Speaker 2: the initiative to use Christ's methods to get them there
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  Speaker 2: in reliance upon the power of Jesus Christ, such that
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  Speaker 2: people gladly follow. That's what makes leadership Christian. So what
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  Speaker 2: I try to do in that inner circle of defining
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  Speaker 2: Christian leadership is give a biblical answer to the question
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  Speaker 2: where does Christ want people to be? If you're going
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  Speaker 2: to take them somewhere and lead them somewhere, where you're
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  Speaker 2: going to take people he wants people to live. My
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  Speaker 2: short answer is he wants people to live for the
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  Speaker 2: glory of God. He wants their lives to be filled
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  Speaker 2: with good deeds of love so that others see their
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  Speaker 2: good deeds and give glory to their Father in heaven,
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  Speaker 2: and the text that Jonathan refers to in Matthew twenty
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  Speaker 2: specifically addresses the peculiar method of bringing people to live
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  Speaker 2: by faith in love for the glory of God. The
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  Speaker 2: Christian leader is not left to choose whatever means he
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  Speaker 2: thinks might work. He listens to Jesus, He submits to Jesus,
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  Speaker 2: and Jesus says that the method he wants us to
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  Speaker 2: use is marked by servanthood. You must be the servant
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  Speaker 2: of the people you lead, or you're not a Christian leader.
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  Speaker 2: You must be the slave of the people you lead.
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  Speaker 2: If you would be great in your leadership, and with
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  Speaker 2: Jesus as your example, you must be willing to lay
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  Speaker 2: down your life for the people you lead and over
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  Speaker 2: against that, Jesus warns against lording it over people. In
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  Speaker 2: other words, a Christian leader does not use his position
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  Speaker 2: as a means of self aggrandizement. Leadership is not for
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  Speaker 2: the sake of puffing up the leader's ego or getting
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  Speaker 2: satisfaction from using power over other people or demanding rights
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  Speaker 2: because of a position of authority. The whole mindset of
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  Speaker 2: the Christian leader the spiritual leader is how can I
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  Speaker 2: spend and be spent for the earthly and eternal, and
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  Speaker 2: a fit of the people I lead. But here's the
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  Speaker 2: peculiar challenge of that text. When Jesus said, whoever would
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  Speaker 2: be great among you must be your servant, he was
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  Speaker 2: not denying that the aspiration of greatness and effectiveness in
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  Speaker 2: leadership was to be abandoned. That's important.
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  Speaker 1: He was not.
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  Speaker 2: Canceling the reality of leadership. He was defining the reality
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  Speaker 2: of leadership. This is really crucial, especially in our day,
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  Speaker 2: because I think a lot of people are skittish about
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  Speaker 2: the whole concept of leadership. It's been abused so many times.
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  Speaker 2: People want to keep their distance from it. But Biblically speaking,
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  Speaker 2: families need a dad to be a leader. Churches need
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  Speaker 2: elders to be leaders. Schools need teachers in administry to
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  Speaker 2: be leaders. Every organized group that is going to function
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  Speaker 2: with any kind of aspiration toward a goal is going
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  Speaker 2: to need leadership. God has simply designed it that way.
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  Speaker 2: We might think everybody should be on the same plane
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  Speaker 2: and nobody leading anybody. God simply didn't set it up
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  Speaker 2: that way. Hebrews thirteen seventeen. Obey your leaders and submit
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  Speaker 2: to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls
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  Speaker 2: as those who will have to give an account. When
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  Speaker 2: Jesus stripped off his outer garments and bound himself with
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  Speaker 2: a towel and got down on his knees with a
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  Speaker 2: pan of water and washed his disciples feet like a slave,
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  Speaker 2: nobody in that room at that moment doubted who the
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  Speaker 2: leader was. Servant leadership is not the abdication of leaderships.
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  Speaker 2: People are designed by God to be happily inspired and
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  Speaker 2: motivated by gifted leadership. That's the reality. And in the
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  Speaker 2: family and in the church, that means inspired and motivated
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  Speaker 2: by leaders who are not on an ego trip, who
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  Speaker 2: are manifestly humble, who are thrilled to be like little
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  Speaker 2: children in the care of a good heavenly Father, who
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  Speaker 2: are amazed that they themselves are saved, who are full
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  Speaker 2: of zeal to take a people to places of joy
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  Speaker 2: and faith and fruitfulness in the accomplishing of God's purposes.
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  Speaker 2: So Christian leaders need the humility and the love of
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  Speaker 2: a servant, and they need the goal oriented zeal of
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  Speaker 2: Jesus Christ.
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  Speaker 1: Outstanding Marks of a spiritual leader read by Michael Beck.
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  Speaker 1: Michael Beck the famous John Grisham audiobook narrator. So are
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  Speaker 1: you saying Michael Beck can read your books better than
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  Speaker 1: John Piper can.
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  Speaker 2: No, that's not what I'm saying. I don't have all
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  Speaker 2: the time.
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  Speaker 1: I wish here you go. Okay, I mean he may.
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  Speaker 2: I don't know. I haven't listened to it.
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  Speaker 1: Oh you haven't.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, No, No, I haven't listened to it. I don't
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  Speaker 2: listen to my book, I write him. I don't listen
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  Speaker 2: to it.
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  Speaker 1: Both think your best. Jud Jesus didn't deny leadership. He
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  Speaker 1: didn't cancel the aspiration of greatness. He just fundamentally redefined it,
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  Speaker 1: showing us that it's not just with words, but with
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  Speaker 1: a towel and a water basin. And you washed the
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  Speaker 1: disciples feet like only a slave would be called to do. Amazing.
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  Speaker 1: Here's the key, though, The strange part, nobody in that
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  Speaker 1: room at that moment doubted who the leader was. True
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  Speaker 1: Christian leadership means guiding others towards God's glory. There's a
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  Speaker 1: lot there to unpack. Thank you, Pastor John, thanks for
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  Speaker 1: joining us today. If you have a question to ask,
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  Speaker 1: Pastor John, find a link to email us and find
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  Speaker 1: our complete episode archive. I've at the same place, ask
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  Speaker 1: spector John dot com. Well hope for screw ups. That's next.
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  Speaker 1: I'm Tony Ranky, See you on Thursday.