SHOW NOTES
The Core of a Leader
Leadership in Context with Keith Tucci
Episode 177
2 Corinthians 11:28
Apart from such external things, there is the daily pressure on me of concern for all the churches.
If you read the whole chapter, Paul is dealing with people who want to be leaders, but they aren’t qualified.
2 Corinthians 11:13
For such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ.
Paul then gives a resume for himself as a leader. It is his teaching on how to identify a leader. Verse 28 is his exclamation point.
We live in a culture that resists pressure being put on anyone. Spiritual leadership requires ownership of the task. It also requires ownership of the problems, the circumstances, and the resistance that comes with it. There is an ownership of the pressure that is required of a leader.
The core of leaders is that they are burden bearers. Nowhere in Scripture is leadership painted as an individual pursuit. Leaders bear the burden, but they don’t bear it alone.
In Exodus 18, Jethro watches Moses do everything by himself. He tells Moses that it is not good for him to do it alone. If you are a leader of anything and you feel the burden of something, the object of your leadership is to not get rid of the burden, but to share the burden and train people to be part of that burden-bearing team.
You will never move in spiritual authority where human responsibility is not present.
Christ is the head of the Church. He is the ultimate authority of the Church. He took the responsibility for sin, something He had nothing to do with. Then He turned around and gave us that same authority. We must act the same way. When things come our way, we can’t dismiss them as not our problems.
This isn’t complicated. It just isn’t easy. Ultimately, when a leader encounters a problem, in their heart and attitude they take the posture of being the most responsible person in the room. Not the person with the title. Not the person with the tools or gifting or the most prepared. They see themselves as a Christ-bearer who takes on that responsibility.
There are many gifted people who can inspire us and have something to say, but they don’t carry a mantle of leadership on them. People will run from a leader that shifts responsibility rather than inviting them into the core of responsibility. The leader bears the burden, but not alone. The leader is the first one to step up to the plate. Out of that responsibility, there is a flow of authority that is beyond our gifting.
Don’t run from the burden that God has put on you. Paul had a core burden in him, a concern for the Church. That burden is what enabled him to endure beatings, imprisonment, hardships, humiliation, and accusations. He didn’t endure all those things because he was tough or had his own personal vision. He endured those things because the core of him understood the burden of the Church, and he was able to connect that burden to the work that he was doing.
Join us next week as Keith Tucci continues to put leadership truth in the context of the local church. And as always, please like, share, rate/review, and invite others to listen. See you next week!
