So my biggest pet peeve…..

Today’s church is full of so called leaders who believe that the “business” of church isn’t 100% founded on the spiritual direction, vision and leadership God has ordained!

If you don’t understand that statement you’re either extremely lucky (I hate that word!) or you’re simply blind! The modern church is filled with men who have decided that there is somehow a divide between business and spiritual matters. That is NOT true!

The scriptures are full of instructions for every area of life. God has mandates for all things spiritual and “secular”. Ephesians is filled with instructions on marriage, children and the relationship between employer and employee.

This fact is often lost with people who find their way into leadership within the church. They have a tendency to believe that decisions and processes having to do with personnel, finance and strategic planning fall outside of the realm of “spiritual”. There is some sort of an idea that the “spiritual” matters in a church are only teaching, counseling, praying and studying the Bible. This is in no way true!

The decisions we make within church in regards to spending money, hiring staff and even planning a building are highly related to the spiritual direction within a church. All of those things are tools that are used to facilitate the spread of the Gospel and the ability to do ministry according to God’s call for the church! Nothing falls outside of the bounds of spiritual leadership in God’s church. After all, the church is the Bride of Christ……Therefore anything within the church that is relegated as “non-spiritual” is a perversion of God’s Church!

Acts 6:1-7 tells us that those charged with handling the work within the church were men of “good repute” and “full of the spirit”. They were accountable to the Apostles and therefore fell under the direction of the men charged with spiritual leadership.

We see in Acts 11 that God built the church on the shoulders of men who founded every decision and action on the preaching of the Word! They took every step in the direction that scripture would lead them. They found that every action based on the “spiritual” produced great results. Those results were people finding hope in the Gospel.

Hebrews 13:7 says that the leaders who God has set apart to lead His church are highly accountable. Those leaders, you and I as pastors, must give account for the condition of the souls of the men and women in our churches! That is weighty. It gives us clear warning to be the leaders in all things as we steward God’s church.

The reality is this……You and I must be BOLD. We must lead in all areas from the spiritual guidance we draw in our walk with Jesus. Anything less is simply our cowardice and our disbelief in the calling God has on our lives. If God has called us to lead His church, then He has given us the ability to lead in ALL things. Stand firm, push through adversity and steward God’s church in every area.

This is my pet peeve because I struggle with this daily. My prayer for you and I is that we can stand firm on 2 Timothy 1:6-14 that we will be bold and steward well the Bride of Christ which has been entrusted to us as its leaders.