The difficult part is to have both the knowledge/wisdom AND the courage/faith to direct this zeal that we have for God. :) And in doing so, that is why we actually have certain 'systems' in place where we have structured CGs and allocated shepherds and committees to plan certain events and the list goes on. However, let all (not just leaders) be careful not to be caught up in the 'system' of doing things.
Matthew 20:25-28
Jesus called them together and said, "You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave -- just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."
The system is likened to a tool which we use to help us to serve God effectively and efficiently. However, the spirit is that which gives life and moves the tool. Without the spirit, the system is but an empty shell. Things become a motion. And not just any spirit, but the Spirit of God.
As followers, we need to give our best to support our leaders. Because we know that our leaders grow us and do all these things for us not our of lording over us but our of love and kindness. As leaders, let it be so that we always remember that we are but servants or even "slaves", that our hearts may not keep pride and we continue to love the people around us.
1 comment:
Excellent reflections bro. Thankful that you're making sense of what's going on around you.
Something I wrote to Wenjiang in Oct 07 when he asked me about matric:
Spirit and systems
I think this may be an age-old problem.
Alpha (matric) was birthed on solid fundamentals of evangelism. It is very important to reach this group of freshmen and impact them for Jesus when they just enter Uni. It is crucial to get them at this stage before they are consumed by the world. Alpha gives us an excellent vehicle to do so without being mysterious about our Christian identity.
However, I think the spirit in the group has diluted over time, and we begin to look at the event and how best to run it first and foremost. I’m over-generalising here and do not intend to speak for everyone, but generally that’s the feel I have. It slowly becomes more about event that we’re running than about the freshmen that we’re trying to reach. We know that May/June/July period means matric, but not many are beaming about reaching freshmen and seeing their lives transformed by Jesus, and eventually make an impact for Jesus.
I see this in the exam period too. It started because a few people wanted to study together, and realised there was much benefit in brothers and sisters studying in the same place. People felt it was a good thing to volunteer to go down to the exam venue to pray for one another. After a while, systems were put in place to facilitate processes (exam timetables put up, prayer leaders scheduled). But eventually, it became more about fulfilling these things, rather than why we have it in the first place.
We should not do away with the systems. Many of them are excellent and help us be better in what we do. In fact, if we start from scratch, we’ll probably end up developing similar systems to help us. The thing we need to do is really emphasise a whole lot more on the spirit, which I think has diluted. Too few people really take ownership of the direction that we move, be it Alpha or any other co-ordinated efforts. It should not always be the leaders who are on fire for God.
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