Before I joined staff at Bent Tree about a month ago, I worked for BluefishTV & the RightNow Campaign - two branches of one amazing non-profit. One of the things they do is annually host a national leadership event called the RightNow Conference (formerly LeadNow). This past week, I had the privilege of serving alongside my Bluefish+RightNow buddies at this year's Dallas event. We heard from amazing speakers/pastors/authors/visionary leaders who challenged us, humbled us, and encouraged us. Over the next couple of posts, I wanted to share some take-aways from the event:
Tim Ross, young-adult pastor at the Potter's House in Dallas, kicked off Thursday with a ridiculously challenging message to today's leaders. He boldly asked, 'we all want to be leaders but are we worth following?' Using the text from Philippians 3:17-19, he pointed out how Paul had the audacity to say, 'if you want to be like Christ, if you want to get to the Cross, follow/imitate me.' It made me wonder, if people followed me 24/7 and imitated my lifestyle, would they become closer to Christ - would they get to the Cross - or would they get to self-centeredness or perversion or arrogance?Verse 18 mentions that many Christ-following leaders display conduct showing they're really enemies of the Cross - as a worship leader, it challenged me to search my own heart and ask tough questions to see if I'm an ally or an enemy of the Cross. Am I leading for the wrong reasons? Because it's cool to be up on stage, leading a band in front of thousands of people, traveling the region to lead at other events, etc...? Do I have an agenda other than leading people to have an encounter with the living God? We've all got to ask ourselves why we do what we do in the name of Christ - do we sponsor children to have a photo on our fridge or to provide hope and relief to a desperate kid? I see a generation on TV that's all about relief efforts and social action but what's our motives behind it all? As Kay Warren put it, who's the hero in the story - Christ or ourselves?
Verse 19 warns us about harping on shameful things - often times we see success in numbers. We feel like we have influence if we have a huge following. Tim challenged us that if we want to see the level of our influence as leaders, we shouldn't look to the numbers but rather to an authentic testimony of a changed life through Christ.
Do we have agenda's or are we in the business of changing lives through Truth in the Cross? Who's the hero in the story? We all want to be leaders but are we worth following?
