Strengths and Weaknesses

One of the primary issues we deal with has to do with our strengths and weakness. The “Peter Principle” states that “every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence.” (The Peter Principle, Lawrence Peters, 1969) Phrasing it in my own words, we will continue to be promoted until we are unable to fulfill the needs of the last promotion. When this happens, we become frustrated, discouraged, angry, sometimes fired, and unproductive. What does this have to do with leadership in the church? Often times the same thing happens in the church. We see someone who is doing a marvelous job in a particular ministry, move them to another, perhaps more prestigious, ministry and they don’t experience the same success they had previously. Perhaps a common example is an associate pastor, youth leader or small group leader that has been very successful in their ministry and is tapped to be the Sr. Pastor. When the change takes place they do a poor job and constantly struggle with just maintaining the status quo. What happened? They stepped out of their area of giftedness and skill.

As leaders we are expected to be competent in three basic areas: dealing with people, proclamation, and production (The ability to get things done and make things happen whether numerical growth, greater financial contributions or a successful building program, for example.) Few of us, if any, are actually competent in all three areas. This lack of competency causes us to find various ways of coping with our lack: blame others, blame circumstances, avoid issues and people, keep things focused on another area so our weakness is not seen, or demonstrating a humility about our inability and doing nothing to change. This is a quick rode to major trouble in your life and in the life of those who follow you. How do we deal with this?

Recognize your call and your gifting. Yes, “you can do all things in Christ Jesus!” but it doesn’t mean you should or are able do it all. We need to know what we can do well. Where our gifting lies and what skills we have. Then we need to work within those parameters. It all comes from God. (II Cor. 3:4-5 “And such confidence we have through Christ toward God. Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God.”) Rightly discern you gifts and talents with the help of those you trust. Jack Miller states the following spiritual laws: Only God is God; you are not God. See the problem is we have these confused, many times. If we put these laws in the right order we will find we are much more fruitful.

Do a self-evaluation. Ask the hard questions. What can I do that nobody else can do? What are my strengths? What am I good at? Where have I seen results? What do I enjoy doing? After you have answered these questions let someone else answer them for you—being sure to have an open heart to what God might be saying. Face the weaknesses others might see in you. Some of these weaknesses you can improve on with study and work. Others are more a part of who you are and you will need to work with that limitation.

One of the keys to being a good leader is to find people who can fill-in your weaknesses and work together with them. My personal conviction is that we were never meant to work alone. Churches should be led by plural leadership where men can fill-in what others are missing. Then we build a team of real strength under the guidance of God.

Where you can find ways (study, reading, classes, etc.) to improve you skills and weakness, do so. Where you cannot, acknowledge you are in over your head, have the courage to back out and move on, becoming a better leader.

Would love to hear you comments on the following questions.

• How well do you know who you are? What have you done to find out the answer to the question?
• How would you define your strengths and weakness?
• What do you need to do to discover, more fully, who you are and what you are to do?
• Finally, what is one thing you will do this week to become more acquainted with you?

HEART OF FLESH

Ezekiel 36:26 (NIV) ²⁶I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.

What does this heart of flesh look like? Where does this heart of flesh come from? What does it mean as a disciple of Jesus? What does it mean for a developing leader?

We need to understand that this heart of flesh is replacing one of stone. One that is hard, unfeeling, cold and unchangeable. The heart of flesh is the opposite. It is soft, tender, moldable and warm. There is one other characteristic that I think is perhaps the most important. The heart of flesh can be hurt. A knife can penetrate it. Parts can be cut from it. Not a very safe thing to have, is it?

The heart of flesh appears when we come to grips with the fact that we are not complete; that we don’t have all the answers. When we begin to pontificate about things spiritual and forget that God is even bigger than we are we are functioning with a heart of stone. When it suddenly hits us that we are not perfect, that God’s voice to us is through our own filters and many times misunderstood, and that we are pompous, we begin to understand the “heart of stone” and experience that “heart of flesh.” When loving is more important then being right, we are beginning to see the heart of flesh formed within us. And yes it is painful.

There are times when we are so caught up in ourselves that we think we can do anything. We take on a project that is far beyond our capabilities but we are sure we can do it. We have been taught to be independent and to stand on our own. We do it well—being independent and standing on our own. All of us, though, at some point find ourselves in the middle of some vast ocean, alone, and with no one in sight to help. This might be in our struggle with sin, with relationships, with finances, or any other area of our lives. We sink—once, twice, and as we go for the third time we cry out—GOD! Help me. Our Father hears our cry and we find that we are no longer in the ocean. We have been saved. We throw ourselves on His mercy. These are the times that our hearts become flesh. When life has gone too far for us to control and we know we need someone to take control—God.

It may happen when the world seems to be falling on top of us or slipping out from under our feet. Things beyond our control begin to chip away at our stability—at the ground on which we walk. Loss of job, death of loved ones, broken relationships, or other “disasters” strike our lives. We want to quit! We want out! We find ourselves collapsing under the weight of our “situation.” At some time in this chain of events we break down or we turn to one who is able to bring us through. We find ourselves, once again, to be children looking to our Father for his love and care, surrendering to his will. These are painful times.

There are other times when choosing to do the right thing is going to cause us suffering. Keeping my mouth closed when others are accusing me of wrong doing. I remember years ago when I took some action because of information I had as a pastor. It would have been wrong of me to share those details. There were some who were not happy with my decision and felt that I needed to pursue a situation that was really out of my power to change. I could not defend myself without revealing pastoral confidences. Those times will come your way. You will suffer. And yet it is those times, too, that will bring the “heart of flesh.”

We find ourselves in good company. Luke 4 shows us some of the rejection that Jesus experienced. He experienced the denial of his closest comrades. Paul suffered many times and in many ways as he followed his savior. John, the writer of the gospel and letters, suffered persecutions, as did most of the followers of Jesus in the early church. You may not experience persecution or martyrdom but rest assured you will suffer as you walk into the way of leadership.

Yet, I believe that it is the pain and suffering that allows the “heart of flesh” to be planted in our heart and that it is a key to the success of a leader. A leader who is not willing to suffer will never be the leader that God is calling for today.

As you pursue this "never-ending walk into leadership" and take up the position to which God has called you, you will know that you have a heart of flesh because of the pain you will suffer. You need to be able to love with no expectation of reciprocal love. You need to give when the person in front of you is a taker and never responds. Sharing the gospel with a sinner who rejects the gospel is a very painful experience.

A heart of flesh is also an open heart. There are people around you that the church says to stay away from because they will be negative influences in your life. We need to be in the middle of these people if our God is going to infiltrate their lives (Matt 28:19-21). Oh sure, some will come to faith because of a tract or radio or TV, but most will never consider the gospel because they have never experienced anyone who lives the gospel. What we live within the safe walls of our churches is a part of the gospel (Acts 2:42-77), if our lives are being transformed into Christ. But can this be the complete picture when we see that Christ walked among sinners—among the worst. He was willing to stop and listen, to heal and to teach, to touch and weep. Is today's church going to impact the world? Are we, as leaders going to get off of our self-made thrones and walk among God's (each one was made in his image) hurt, bleeding, and suffering people. The Prince and the Pauper is a cute movie that in a simple way shows what happens when we leave the protective walls of our castle—ah, church. Watch the film sometime and see what truth you can find there.

FOR YOUR JOURNAL

• Convinced that you have experienced both a heart of stone and a heart of flesh in your life explain how they differed in feeling and in outcome.
• How has your church experience encouraged you to move out into the world of the lost?
• Write about any fears you might have regarding having a heart of flesh.