Lean on Them

 

The song says, "Lean on me..." but the question I have to wonder is who do we lean on? Or maybe I should ask are we leaning on anyone? Most pastors and church leaders would say, "I'm leaning on Jesus," but verbally or mentally say, "I don't trust in people." 

Let's be honest for most of us as church leaders we have had people fail us. The natural thing to do is to give people control but like the guy teaching me in driving school forty years ago keep a brake on his side of the car. The idea of leaning on them is of course out of the question because "I'm the leader., The buck stops here., I have to answer for what happened." These may be true but it isn't the way we see Jesus doing it. He sent out his disciples and he leaned on them. He trusted them to prepare the donkey, prepare the upper room and many more things that aren't mentioned in scripture. He trusted them to stay awake and pray with him. Yes, they failed miserably on that one but God sent angels when men failed. So, are we trusting that God might send help if people fail, or are we creating a backup plan?

All of this musing comes from reviewing Bob Russell's book, After 50 Years of Ministry, 7 things I'd do differently and 7 things I'd do the same.  One chapter was titled,  I would build a team of highly qualified leaders and lean on them (Bob seems to like long titles in this book). I didn't reread the entire chapter as I was just doing a review of the lessons I learned before when I read it, and it struck a cord. Are we training and are we leaning? As pastors, we often do a good job on training but I'm not sure we do a great job on leaning. 

Let's be honest if we do and something goes wrong we catch the heat. I was practicing this in a church once and had a retired pastor inform me that I needed to do it myself. Yes in that instance the people had issues but if I had taken his advice I would have had to spend a lot of time and energy learning this area of work and then a lot of time doing it. It would have said to the people who were supposed to be in charge they weren't trusted or really needed. I did that once and ended up losing that person from doing anything. This time I took the criticism and didn't back down. The people in question never did rise to the level I would have liked but then again I was able to focus on work that was in the long run more important. The retired pastor and I still disagree on this, but as I reread Bob's book I see that the principle of training and trusting does work. It isn't a pie-in-the-sky ideal. Will things go wrong? Yes, but it's worth the effort. Besides, it does seem to be the example of Jesus and last I read He is the one we ought to be following.

Pastor Sam and I are trying to do this. We aren't always successful and there have been issues, but if we are going to be all God wants we have to let go, empower others, and lean on them. Will there be problems? You better believe it! In fact, I promise it. However, when the church is everyone doing the job that God has called and gifted them to do, it is a beautiful thing. Think about it this way, if I were a foot in the body of Christ I might be able to prepare your food, but it would be awkward, uncomfortable, and maybe a little disgusting. Will a hand do it better? Yes, will a hand always be perfect? No, but eventually the foot will fail if it keeps trying. So let's give grace to those taking on new roles, correct when needed, love at all times, and trust that God will supply when men fail. 

Photo by Milan Popovic on Unsplash