Lessons in Leadership: Honoring God Before Others

Scripture Verses that caught my attention today: Acts 4:19-20 But Peter and John answered them, “Whether it is right in God’s sight to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge; 20 for we cannot keep from speaking about what we have seen and heard.”

Observation: Quite a bit of confidence. But then again, they realized that they were speaking of one with great power.

Application: Whenever you are in a position of leadership/authority, there will always be some who are disappointed in your work. Whether their disappointment is rational or irrational makes no difference: it is disappointment all the same. As a result, sometimes these disappointed people get angry.

Almost every pastor, rightly or wrongly, has probably experienced brunt of such angst at one time or another, if not multiple times. So have other people in leadership. What then?

Well, if the people who are angry do not appear to have much power and/or influence, we might just go on (which could be bad, because it’s possible that these people had a point that should have been considered.) But if they do appear to have power and/or influence, we might be tempted to flinch (which might be bad, because we might compromise our values rather than sticking true to principles).

At that point we might want to take a cue from the disciples who recognized two very basic principles. First, they were speaking of Jesus who they realized clearly had more power than the authorities before them. The disciples realized that, even if the authorities brought them to the point of death, Jesus had the power to bring them back to life. So while the disciples respected earthly authority, they would not ultimately bow to it.

Second, the disciples spoke about what they had seen first-hand. It was a testimony that could not be denied. They did not launch out into the realm of speculation. No, they stuck with what they had heard and seen. Others might try to deny it, but they cannot prove it otherwise.

This is another reason why it’s helpful to be in some sort of daily devotional discipline. A regular diet of exposure to the workings of God as recorded in Scripture (including an honest look at the variety of ways that the Biblical writers understood such things) and seeing applications in our daily lives gives us a basis for our witness that is authentic and personal. Then we, like the disciples, cannot stop from ‘speaking about what we have seen and heard.’

Prayer: Lord, I’m not currently in any big struggle (at least to my knowledge!), but I know that such things do naturally occur periodically in leadership. In such times help me to endeavor to always honor the people, but never at the expense of honoring you. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

(readings today included: Nehemiah 13, Malach 1-2, Acts 4)