I don't want 'mature' or 'strong' Christians as leaders. I want "...ing" leaders in my life and our church. I mean leaders who are grow"ing" (present active verb tense) in Christ, in grace, in love, in truth and holiness. Leaders with this current ambition:
"Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 13 Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus." Philippians 4:12-14
I learned in the early years of our church not to defer to what I had received as conventional practice as to who is a 'strong' or 'mature' Christian and therefore prefer those with the best past, the most time in church, the greatest collection of knowledge about the Bible, those most able to speak the insider lingo of Christians. In addition to baseline biblical qualifications, I learned to look for 1. Grow"ing" recently in teachable Spirit-led ways. 2. Demonstrated recent high character in touchy relational or shepherding situations in Christian community. 3. The measurable fruit of love in their relationships. 4. And in the case of a tie-breaker, I learned to pick an emotionally mature young Christian over a conventionally 'spiritually mature' (from my past meaning 'full of knowledge') Christian.
Yesterday, one of my favorite perpetual "...ing" leaders in our church kindly put her story of Jesus' grace in her guilt and shame on display in the worship service. I'm so thankful for Tracy Grubbs, her husband Algie, and all the other leaders at LFC who are trophies of God's grace, not of their own perfection or conventional Christian pathways. This is a profound story to me. Enjoy the video:
