LEADERS!

Yesterday, a national tragedy struck Poland. A plane crash took the lives of Polish President Lech Kaczynski (and his wife, Maria) and a number of Poland’s elite: 96 of them were killed when an aging Russian Tupolev aircraft plunged into a forest in Smolensk, in Western Russia. Perhaps the worst disaster for Poland since World War II.

The Prime Minister of Poland, Donald Tusk, wept when he heard the news. Thousands of Poles were laying flowers and candles, and praying around the presidential palace in central Warsaw. Flags were lowered to half-mast. The nation proclaimed a week of national grief. Twenty monks rang the Zygmunt bell at Krakow’s Wawel cathedral, the traditional burial site of Polish kings of the past—a tolling reserved for times of profound grief and loss.

Among the dead yesterday were, besides the President, Poland’s army Chief of Staff, the commander of the navy, and heads of the air and land forces, the Central Banker, deputy Foreign Minister, deputy Parliament Speaker, several members of parliament, Olympic Committee head, Civil Rights Commisioner, bishops, …. A ravaging of the upper echelons of Poland’s leadership.

Loss of leaders.

I’ve often wondered what it must have felt like for the early church to lose its leaders, not to old age and decrepitude, but to murder.

James the Greater (one of the sons of Zebedee), beheaded by Herod Agrippa I in 44 AD. James the Just (the brother of Jesus) and leader of the church in Jerusalem, stoned to death in 62 AD. The apostle Peter crucified (upside down, tradition says) in Rome in the late 60s AD. Paul beheaded, around the same time, and in the same place. And whenever and wherever the church has been persecuted, such tragedies have continued to (and continue to) occur. A ravaging of leadership.

But the church is never left rudderless.

… the gates of Hades
will not overpower [the church].
Matthew 16:18

Another generation of leaders there always will be. Indeed, a key goal of growth into maturity is so that there will always be leaders. Or perhaps, it should be stated the other way round: leaders are those who have grown into maturity. And thus one might well say that the criteria for leaders are the benchmarks of maturity.

Certainly, the mark of growth is Christlikeness.

… the building up of the body of Christ;
until we all attain to … a mature man,
to the measure of the stature
which belongs to the fullness of Christ.
Ephesians 4:13

And, of course, this Christlikeness will be manifest in the “fruit” the Holy Spirit produces.

… the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy,
peace, patience, kindness, goodness,
faithfulness, gentleness, self-control ….
Galatians 5:22–23

But I submit that the leadership qualifications in the New Testament are also yardsticks of maturity, norms to which all—yes, all believers—are expected to attain.

Loyal to spouse, temperate, prudent, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not addicted to intoxicants, gentle, uncontentious, free from the love of money, a good manager of the household, not a new convert, one with a good reputation outside the church, not self-willed or quick-tempered, loving what is good, just, devout, holding fast the faithful word, and above reproach.
1 Timothy 3:1–7; Titus 1:5–9

Let’s all press on … to leadership. Let’s excel!

… we request and exhort you
in the Lord Jesus,
that as you received from us
instruction as to how you ought
to walk and please God …
that you excel still more.
1 Thessalonians 4:1

The church ravaged of leaders? Never!