Do we make room for Jesus to be head of the Church?

Over 20 years ago, Marti and I had the privilege to visit a youth congregation that had sprung up from revival.  It had been the youth group of a conservative evangelical church but had outgrown the definition of a youth group.  The entire church had been turned upside down by the presence of the Holy Spirit.  One of the powerful experiences of the few days we spent with them was the way they worshipped, and the worship leader was both anointed to lead by the Spirit and an unusually talented musician.

Several years went by and the worship leader and his wife were called by God to missions, and they ended up at the Kona campus.   It was great to see the flood of worship leaders, worship groups and new songs with missions’ emphasis.

We recently had the opportunity of talking with that worship leader once again and recounted his conversation with Loren Cunningham after he had been accepted on staff.  He was so surprised that Loren asked him, “What do you think God has called you to?”  What kind of leadership is that? Loren has also visited the youth church and had seen this gifted man leading worship.

I tried to put myself Loren’s position:  an outstanding worship and music leader was sitting opposite me.  He represented an answer to prayer to strengthen that part of the life on the Kona campus.  Would I be asking what he was called to do??  I think I would presume, enthusiastically, that he was to be our new worship leader.

So, why didn’t Loren do the obvious thing?  Because he was always committed to the headship of Jesus over the Church.

I am tempted to try to take control of who does what, and to try to place people where we most need them.  That’s the way things are done in the contractual world.  People are placed where they are needed whether or not they are called to that role.  Money compensates for the misfit.

It is obvious in YWAM that we are called to trust God for our physical and material needs.  We know what it is like to work without remuneration and to believe God that he will add to us all that we need.

Earlier today, I received a very encouraging message from a young couple with one child who came to be on staff here for just a few months. They sent a thank you note and one of the paragraphs was,

“The first week [we learned that] one of the values of YWAM Harpenden is “high trust, low control”. As we experienced this being walked out as new staff in new roles, it was so, so healing for us. We’ve felt trust, released, championed, and stretched. Functioning this way isn’t always easy, and it would be easier and often more efficient for leadership to take control and make things happen faster. But we think it’s so beautiful the way you trust and release each other and is true to the vision and values of YWAM. “

They are right, “it would be easier and often more efficient for leadership to take control and make things happen faster.”  But efficiency is not the primary metric of the Kingdom of God.  The primary metric is our commitment to obeying the Word of the Lord—together!

In the body of Christ, we recognise that the Lord to calls people, gives them gifts, dreams/vision and to place them in the Body—1 Cor 12.  As leaders, we cooperate with that.  One way to see an apostolic leader is the ability to discern where people fit, if needed help them see it, and make room for them.

That does not mean that we refuse serve in jobs that just need to be done, nor do we never ask people to do those jobs.  If they know we have a heart for them, we can ask them to serve sacrificially, but not make them feel stuck in an inappropriate role.

We never want to make people feel used, just served to find their place.

Photo by ©Nikko Tan: https://www.pexels.com/photo/brown-wooden-church-bench-near-white-painted-wall-133699/