Warriors in the Waiting

I'm really enjoying the Resurgence blog.  I think Mark Driscoll is one of the leading theological thinkers for emerging culture and he deals with important issues.  I love his passionate focus on Jesus.

This post deals with leadership selection, something I recently posted about.  It introduces a tension that I've been thinking about.  He is talking about the kind of leaders that a church planter needs to select to serve in his church.  He lists and describes several types of people who should be avoided.

• Needy People
• Insecure People
• Nice People
• Disgruntled People
• Seasoned People
• Church Kids
• Dreamers
• Flaky People
• Wolves

His thoughts make sense on a logical level.  All of these people have the potential to fail or at least hinder a ministry.  But I have one question.

Who is left?

There is the category of unchurched people who can be discipled to become leaders.  But alot of the unchurched people I have relationships with are needy, a little flaky, or even worse, nice!  Not to mention that if an unchurched family has kids, they will soon be church kids, and disqualified for leadership.

This list disqualifies me for leadership!  Yesterday I spent half the day feeling insecure.  I'm a church kid.  Most days I'm a dreamer.  And I'd like to think that every now and then I'm nice:)

What about Jesus' style of leadership selection?  He had an insecure guy (James) who worried about where his seat would be in heaven.  He had a dreamer (Peter) who lived with such high ideals that he struggled to actually do what he said he would do.  All 12 of them seemed to be pretty needy.  He even had a wolf (Judas).  I wonder if Jesus' knew at selection that Judas was a wolf? 

And then there's David.  Read this passage.  David started with three groups of people:

• Distressed people
• InDebted people
• Discontented people

David became their leader, and they became warriors. 

I wonder how many insecure people in our church are warriors in the waiting?  I wonder how many needy people in our church are warriors in the waiting?  I wonder how many seasoned people in our church are warriors in the waiting?  I wonder how many church kids might even grow up to be a warrior? 

I do believe that we need to put more emphasis on the gift of discernment in selecting leaders.  Leading the church that Jesus bled for isn't recreation.  It is for committed disciples.  But isn't it also for flawed disciples?  If Peter hadn't been selected by Jesus, he could have avoided hearing the rooster crow.  He also would have avoided the leadership adventure that is Acts 1-10. 

For what it's worth, the two types of people who concern me the most on Mark's list are disgruntled people and wolves.  My experience has been that people who come to our church mainly because they're frustrated with their old church will eventually become frustrated with ours.  And Paul tells pastors to specifically watch out for wolves (Acts 20.29).

Here's the tension I feel.  I want to select only the leaders that Jesus has selected.  I just can't help but wonder if some of the leaders He has selected have some imperfections.

I have more questions than answers on this one.  Thanks to Mark for inspiring me to think about it.

Comments

[Tiffany]

I'm glad you didn't just end this post with Mark's list... I was feeling kinda useless after reading those. I did go back and read his blog though and was glad to see that he was referring not necessarily to where people have been and what they have done as disqualifying them from leadership, but to conditions of the heart... motives, humility and discipline.

[Crystal Burkhart]

Thought provoking blog. In my experience there are two key things to look for in a leader: 1)Prayer life - "...pray in the Spirit...with this in mind, be alert..." (Eph. 6:18) and 2)Scripture memorization - "the truth will set you free"

[jr]

Well, Brad, nobody's perfect. God fills in the gaps when gaps are needed to be filled. Choosing a leader is a lot like choosing a career change- the only thing you can really use as a concrete foundation is the Holy Spirit's leading (Everything else seems to just be near-sightedness).