Leadership Is Not About Doing Things "My Way"
Biblical leadership principles from the Book of Numbers
An enemy can wipe them out, but so can God’s wrath! They must avoid at all costs the attitude that says, “I’ll do it my way.”
- Victor Hamilton
As mentioned last time, the Book of Numbers is primarily about how Yahweh saves His people through covenant relationship. But, there is also a big sub-theme in Numbers: Biblical Leadership.
Biblical Principles from Numbers 2:
God is a God of order. In His covenant community, He prescribed a certain order that was to be followed. Leaders should pursue this as well. They don’t idolize order but they employ order for the sake of being faithful where God has called them. At times, people will get frustrated with order. They like things “organic” or “not-so-serious”. There are times when our pursuit of order can run people over. We ought to avoid that. But, there is no such thing as leadership that is without order. In the church, we ought to order things according to ways that are faithful to God’s Word. Good order is necessary to be faithful to all of what God calls us to be faithful to. When order is not used, churches often become personality-centered. Some make the tragic mistake of saying that they are “people over process”. In reality, to downplay process is selfish rather than loving. Good process is good for all people involved. Good process keeps all parties accountable. Rejection of good process is often for the purpose of overlooking something that is probably wrong.
The way the camp in Numbers 2 is organized should remind us of an important principle: Play your position. Or, do your job. When we are jealous of each other and strive to do each other’s jobs then process will crumble. Leaders and their people must be content to play their part and work together.
(2:1) There are healthy times when we are to embrace “banners” that identify us. We are never to idolize these banners but it is appropriate to have banners over our lives. This can be our family last name, a seminary, a local church or ministry, a business, or even a city/town, state, or country. To be clear, these never are to be idolized nor held higher than our identity in Christ. These are never to be held up so high that they promote prejudice. But, we ought to strive to live in such a way that make others proud who hold up these banners. Leaders should promote a good reputation of their “banner” by living in godliness and embracing biblical ethics. We all know the embarrassment of a banner when a leader tragically fails.
At the same time, even when a leader fails we ought to remember the gospel of grace. Again, we live in “cancel culture” and that is most unfortunate. While there are appropriate times when a leader is removed from their position, we ought not to view them as being removed from the covenant of grace. It is a shame that Christians have at times done this. To be sure, removal from leadership with sharp rebukes for severe error is not the same as treating someone as losing their salvation. But, sometimes we can have that posture. We must call sin for what it is. We must uphold biblical justice and an orderly process when something like this happens. We believe in the biblical mandate of truth-in-love church discipline. But, we must never withdraw the promises of grace for those who publicly fail. What a shame that we are seeing this legalistic posture today. It is sad to see people make posts about a public failure for their own clicks and stats. Some Christians’ X accounts (formerly known as Twitter) or blogs or podcasts sound more like the world and less like the gospel when moments like this happens. Some appear to act more like Satan and go fishing for dirt on other Christians. It is despairing to see how Christians appear quick to functionally put someone back under the covenant of works the moment they sin (as if we thought heinous sin weren’t possible for Christians). Once again, this never excuses sin nor denies the need for holiness. In my opinion, for whatever it’s worth, I think we are in a season of great misunderstanding of the gospel of grace. We love to point fingers at others (even when not all the evidence is known). When Christians are eager to make posts about a Christian’s failure it is evidence of their lack of understanding the gospel. I have been part of the problem. And the more I have reflected on this the more I have been reminded of the severity of speaking in such ways about Christ’s Bride. If I get offended by someone speaking ill of my wife then what might this show me about Christ and His love for His Bride? It is one thing to make firm statements about doctrinal truth. Error must be corrected. It is important that we publicly promote and defend the truth. It is true that we must at times make public stands and sometimes that involves public rebukes—but not with an eager heart to throw someone under the bus. It is true, we can’t put people in positions where the truth is denied. We need to ask hard and honest questions. We can’t succumb under the pressure of fearing men and idolizing being liked. We ought to repent of a “good ol’ boys club”. We ought to repent of pursuing the popularity contest and celebrity culture. We have to have standards and defend those standards. But, we have had times when we have not done this well today. We have at times failed to correct the false statements and sinful actions of someone yet not treating a credible-profession-of-faith-Christian as somehow losing their salvation. We must never separate doctrinal faithfulness from personal graciousness. It is true that sometimes these controversies can reveal hard truths. And for those times, we must still speak the truth in love. There is no such thing as truth without love nor love without truth. What God has joined together let not man separate. Overall, let us be firm to stand for the truth while also embracing love and promoting the graciousness of God’s grace for wretched sinners.