What Does the Future Leadership of the Church Look Like?

Let me ask you a question: What does the future leadership of the church look like?

I asked that question a few weeks ago during our Wednesday night Bible study. I really wasn’t surprised by the answers: “bold”, “confident”, “gentle”, “compassionate” are just a handful of the adjectives that were listed.

Know what terms weren’t used? Terms like “reckless”, “zealous”, “violent” and “blasphemous” didn’t get mentioned once! That doesn’t exactly surprise me – those really aren’t positive personality traits!

Can I tell you something? I think we are missing something if that is our perspective! Give me a chance to explain what I mean. Those positive attributes that were listed are good – no, they’re great – but they represent the finished product. They describe the way leaders in the church should be. What they don’t take into consideration, though, is the way a future leader may be right now.

Case in point: The Apostle Paul was bold, confident, gentle and compassionate. However, the Pharisee Saul was zealous, violent and blasphemous! Same guy, different point in life. Nobody who knew – or knew of – Saul would, in a million years, peg him as a future leader of the church! He was busy trying to destroy it for crying out loud! And yet God saw beyond who/what Saul was to who/what he could be as Paul.

Transforming people is God’s Modus Operandi. Jesus looked over the crowds that followed him and picked hot-headed fishermen, a national traitor/tax collector and a political/religious zealot just to name a few. Why? Because he could see the potential. Of course he didn’t put them into leadership positions instantly. They committed themselves to him first. They walked and talked with him. They grew. They were transformed by their relationship with him.

I’ve got a hunch that, were we to ask Jesus what the future leadership of the church looks like, we might be shocked by his answer. My prayer is that we might begin to see people as God does – that we might learn to look beyond their past (maybe even their present condition) – and see the potential end product! 2 Corinthians 5:17 says: “…if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” (NIV)

I wonder if that has anything to do with why Jesus told us to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us? Could it be that, in doing so, we could be loving on and praying for future pastors, missionaries and evangelists? Just a thought…