Leadership Style of Jesus

Jesus builds and gathers leaders. This is a crucial aspect of his ministry. He has 3 years. With leaders he can impart vision and involve them in fulfilling it. To put it loosely, one can see the 4-tier leadership. There were the 12, the 70, the 120 and finally the 500.

The leadership style of Jesus can be generalized into 2. It may be simple yet profound. The first type is Task-oriented. It is directive, commanding, I-know-best, everything-depends-on-me and dictatorial (Matt 4:19; Matt 16:18-19). It is mostly applicable during vision casting and preliminary phase of the project/ministry. However, this should only be there for a season.

Task-Oriented

Thereafter the style should move into a more People-oriented style (Matt 20:28; John 13:12-14). It is participative, I-am-the-coach, supportive and empowering people. This is after the followers understands the vision, working has a team and well into the project/ministry.

People-oriented

I will say this: different style for different season. In the church and organizational lives it is made up of different projects/ministries each in different phases of implementation.

A wise leader must be versatile and understand the sign of times and also the direction of where the church/organization is heading towards.

Ready, Responsive and Fertile

The Rationale for Church Planting and Evangelism.

a. Church Planting

Matt 28:19

Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,

Making disciples, not conversion or proselytisation. Disciples are made in the context of the church not in a vacuum.

b. Evangelism

Mark 16:15

And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.

The world today is almost 13 billion strong. Only 10% are Great Commission Christians. Another 20% are nominal. So there is a need to reach out to the rest of the 70% (approx. 9 bil) by evangelism and church planting.

What are we waiting for?

The world is ready, the fields are ready and the people groups' responsive.

a. The World is Ready

Matthew 9:37-38

Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.”

b. People Groups are Responsive

The Macedonian Man

Acts 16:9-10

And a vision appeared to Paul in the night. A man of Macedonia stood and pleaded with him, saying, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” Now after he had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go to Macedonia, concluding that the Lord had called us to preach the gospel to them.

c. Hearts are Fertile

Parable of the Sower

Matthew 13:3,8,9

Then He spoke many things to them in parables, saying: “Behold, a sower went out to sow. But others fell on good ground and yielded a crop: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. He who has ears to hear, let him hear!”

Let us reach out, reach up and reach down.

Reach down to the disenfranchised, uneducated and the poor. Reach up to the influential, rich and educated.

It is interesting to note that besides a general commissioning commandment to reach out to all creation, strategies could be learned on how reaching out could be done effectively.

a. Reach out for those whose hearts that are fertile

Parable of the Sower

Matt 13:8

But others fell on good ground and yielded a crop: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. 9 He who has ears to hear, let him hear!”

b. Reach out to the ‘sons of peace' (SOP) in each area.

Luke 10:1-6

1 After these things the Lord appointed seventy others also,[a] and sent them two by two before His face into every city and place where He Himself was about to go. 2 Then He said to them, “The harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few; therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest. 3 Go your way; behold, I send you out as lambs among wolves. 4 Carry neither money bag, knapsack, nor sandals; and greet no one along the road. 5 But whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace to this house.’ 6 And if a son of peace is there, your peace will rest on it; if not, it will return to you.

c. Reach out to the ‘seekers of God' (SOG) like the Ethiopian eunuch.

Acts 8:26-40

26 Now an angel of the Lord spoke to Philip, saying, “Arise and go toward the south along the road which goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” This is desert. 27 So he arose and went. And behold, a man of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority under Candace the queen of the Ethiopians, who had charge of all her treasury, and had come to Jerusalem to worship, 28 was returning. And sitting in his chariot, he was reading Isaiah the prophet. 29 Then the Spirit said to Philip, “Go near and overtake this chariot.” 30 So Philip ran to him, and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah, and said, “Do you understand what you are reading?” 35 Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning at this Scripture, preached Jesus to him. 36 Now as they went down the road, they came to some water. And the eunuch said, “See, here is water. What hinders me from being baptized?” 37 Then Philip said, “If you believe with all your heart, you may.” And he answered and said, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.”

d. Reach out to the ‘God fearers' (GF) like Cornelius.

Acts 10:22-23

22 And they said, “Cornelius the centurion, a just man, one who fears God and has a good reputation among all the nation of the Jews, was divinely instructed by a holy angel to summon you to his house, and to hear words from you.”

e. Reach out for to the ‘worshipper of God' (WG) like Lydia.

Acts 16:13-15

13 And on the Sabbath day we went out of the city to the riverside, where prayer was customarily made; and we sat down and spoke to the women who met there. 14 Now a certain woman named Lydia heard us. She was a seller of purple from the city of Thyatira, who worshiped God. The Lord opened her heart to heed the things spoken by Paul. 15 And when she and her household were baptized, she begged us, saying, “If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come to my house and stay.” So she persuaded us.

f. Reaching Up and Down the Social Scale

However, reaching out may not panned out the way it should be due to lack of boldness and vision. The are also many barriers to the work of an evangelist and church planter. Due to each background, culture, respect of the elders and protocol the evangelists will not reach up but will be reaching down from his/her station of life. It is like the caste barrier.

I saw this 'reaching up and down' phenomena in Mongolia. The church I was in was meeting for Easter in 2008 in Chinggis Khan Hotel, a top-rated hotel in the capital city of Ulaan Bataar. I met a ‘sewer rat’ testifying of how he was saved. He was once homeless and living in huge underground sewers under the city. He is a back-up singer in the worship team. On the other side of the spectrum was a very famous musician playing the keyboard for the same service. This church is only 3 years old. And 80% of the congregation was saved the last 2 years.

I feel that this has happened to the Chinese underground church (mostly peasant and uneducated), Vietnamese underground church (mostly peasant and uneducated), Myanmar churches (pre-dominantly tribal and minority). There are more examples. From my experience this is ever present in many countries in Asia. I wish to see the church reaching up and reaching down in the efforts to reach out.

Hypothetical example:

If District XYZ have 24 villages and each village has 100 families. Assuming only3 families are receptive in each village. These are the SOP (or SOG, or GF or WOG).

Rather than focus on the 100 families in each village of District XYZ, look for the 72 SOPs in the 24 villages in the District XYZ. This is a job and evangelist can do easily, more difficult in country where persecution exist. The 72 SOP can be trained in stages as they are won and equipped and discipled by the evangelists to do his work. These born again SOP can do the job better as they are 'locals', accepted, speak their language and understand the local customs.

Win the 3 SOP in each of the 24 villages

You Have Been Left Behind

You can still do something to reach out to your love ones even though the Rapture of the church had taken place.

For USD40 a year, You've Been Left Behind LLC you can have on standby up 62 email addresses where you can send your post-rapture messages. You can even reveal to them your safe combinations, passwords to Internet bank account, hidden valuables etc. These are encrypted.

Messages of love were sent together with earthly possessions. This is a wonderful window of opportunity for them to turn to God as all that you and the church had said and shared will tied together.

This is also another way of getting back at the anti-Christ government that will be set up. The love ones will not need to wait for 7 years before a court order can be obtained to get to the assets legally. A tagline I heard from a will writer goes like this, "Why let your love ones go through hell when you are going to heaven."

If you think it is expensive, the organisers says that the price will come down when the number of subscriber increases.

This is how it works:

1. There is 250Mb allocated to each account. 150Mb will be encrypted. The 150Mb will contained the sensitive scanned documents, passwords and last testament. It can be uploaded to 12 email addresses. The other unencrypted 100Mb can store normal documents that can be uploaded to the other 50 email addresses.

2. The documents and database can be updated at any time.

3. The organisation have 5 persons scattered all over the USA. If 3 of them fail to log in over a 3 day period it will trigger the system. Thereafter another 3 days are given to avoid a false alarm. Technically, 6 days after the Rapture the emails will be released.

Lakeland Outpouring

It's been awhile since the last outpouring. Evangelist Todd Bentley and Pastor Stephen Strader of Ignited Church are in the limelight. It was spread by word of mouth (www included) and the media. It is been around for 50+ days.

How the Christians should respond to healings, the miraculous and the accompanying signs and wonders? Generally, regular manifestation of signs and wonders together with the miraculous over a period of time are associated with the term 'revival'. Usually people getting saved are also included as a criteria for revival. These are the deliverables.

I have heard much on outbreaks of revivals from North America since attending the 'Toronto Blessings' in the 90's. There is tremendous interest and expectations from the people at large (secular and Christian). In the face of such scrutiny from supporters and critics, the movement is under tremendous pressure. Every word and actions will be watched, studied and commented.

Twenty three years ago there was an outpouring in my local church for a season of a few weeks. This Malaysian congregation consist of 50 people. I was a college student then and was born again 2 years earlier. The church was 2 years old and planted in a 95% Muslim populated area. My pastor was 24 and he has just graduated from Bible School.

The church met for prayer every Wednesday evening and it seem in that season we have consistent and regular visitation from angels. It came to a stage that I mentioned to others that, "If you want to meet with angels, come and join the prayer meeting." It was also mentioned by other participants.

My wise pastor actually have to remind the people that we are in church to meet Jesus. From there I learned an invaluable lesson. We are to meet Jesus, love and serve Jesus, direct people to Jesus and be Jesus centric. Later on with some hindsight I would include transformation and fruits of repentance for folks who had gone through revival. After spending the 7 years in missons I would venture to add one more, i.e. the anointing and blessings should be taken into the streets of the world. Steve Strang, the founder of Charisma magazine, writing on Lakeland Outpouring has this to say about the focus of revival, "The focus of any revival or ministry must be on Jesus and on changed lives, not on revival itself or on the ministries involved .... A genuine revival must be more than lukewarm Christians flocking to meetings and getting excited once again about God touching their lives. It must change people's lives who then in turn change the culture around them. That is really the revival we need in America."

It is up to the wise leadership to chart and direct the course of the revival, stay humble and have the necessary checks and balances. With a steady hand the church I grown up in still has the miraculous, the sign and wonders regularly. The people has grown and the congregation size has steadily moved up to 1,600.

From the web publishers and blogs I have garnered the views of 3 different groups: the supporters, the critics and the Gamaliel-time-will-tell people.

The Supporters
1. John Arnott, senior pastor of Toronto Airport Christian Fellowship, blessed the Lakeland meetings.

2. John Kilpatrick, who pastored Brownsville Assembly during the Pensacola Revival of the 1990s, visited Lakeland recently to lend Bentley his support. He has this to say, "It saddened me that many weren’t willing to at least come and check things out,” ... “I made a vow before God that if revival ever broke out again, no matter where it was, that I’d at least go.”

The Gamaliel-time-will-tell Approach
1. Jack Hayford, president of the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel, said it’s important to “guard our souls from being either gullible, doubt-prone or resistant to whatever God may seek to do.” “With time,” he said, “whatever is taking place in Lakeland and through activities issuing from its happenings, will either verify or discredit the source of its manifestations.”

3. The AG also offered the cautious approach.

2. J. Lee Grady, from Charisma, listed 3 cautions and watch-outs before confirming it is genuine. a) Todd Bentley may be in danger of teaching on communing with angels and seeking revelation from angels. b) Uncontrolled, exotic and fanatical manifestations may be unchecked and sanctioned. c) Hype and sensationalism

3. Background checks were done on Strader and Bentley. Google their names and you will have pages to read. Some were balance while some were not. Wisdom and biblical ethics need to be applied here.

The Critics
You can check out what the critics says. Some are downright unethical. Again Google Lakeland Outpouring. From there one page will lead to another. You will find the supporters, critics and the Gamaliel types.