Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible." -- Lord Kelvin, President, Royal Society, 1895 "This 'telephone' has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us." -- Western Union internal memo, 1876 "Louis Pasteur's theory of germs is ridiculous fiction." -- Pierre Pachet, Professor of Physiology at Toulouse, 1872 "Airplanes are interesting toys but of no military value." -- Marechal Ferdinand Foch, Professor of Strategy, Ecole Superieure de Guerre "Everything that can be invented has been invented." -- Charles H. Duell, Commissioner, U.S. Office of Patents, 1899 "Are you sure the power is off?" "The odds of that happening have to be a million to one!"
The last words of outstanding individuals have fascinated me for some time. Somehow their whole lives are measured by their words at the end of their lives. From their words we can measure our understanding of the world. This fourth Sunday of Epiphany brings us to some famous last words -- those of Moses as he was preparing to leave his people. For forty years he had led Israel across the Red Sea and the burning desert. For forty years he had suffered their rebellion, immaturity, ingratitude, and complaining. Now it was time for him to say good-bye. After the long course his task had been completed. The plagues were over, the shadow of the death angel was gone, the sea of chaos crossed, and the murmuring of the people was over. Their thirst had been quenched and their hunger filled. Now he stood upon his mountain as the people worshiped in exultation in the presence of Jehovah God. Moses knew that he had truly been called of God to do this task, but who would follow after him? What kind of leader would the people select for the future? Of course, he was interested in who would follow him. These were his people. They were a part of his very soul and he would not entrust them to just anyone.
In this part of his famous last words he outlined the type of leader they would need for their future. These are as appropriate for us today as they were for the Israelites at this moment in their history.
Moses knew that leadership was important to the task before them. As we look back from our vantage point, we know that Israel did not have another superlative leader for another two hundred years. This period of their history reflects their need for leadership. Our need today is for leaders who fit the profile outlined by Moses. The church needs leaders -- not power holders, not hype artists, not influence peddlers or manipulative demagogues. In the eighteenth century, Europe desperately needed spiritual leadership. Revolution was raging in France, and England was in moral decay. God supplied the needed leadership in George Whitfield and John and Charles Wesley, who became flaming evangels, carrying the message of God throughout America and England. John Hudson Taylor founded the China Inland Mission. John Barnaroll began mission work in London which rescued and trained 70,000 homeless children. William Booth organized the Salvation Army, which is now a worldwide organization for righteousness. God uses leaders to save civilization and give it spiritual direction.
We live in a culture that is afraid of leadership. We now believe that a decision is good only if a large number of people have been a part of making it. We are enamored by the thought that anybody's word is as good as anyone else's word. Our credo is to lead from the middle, suffer fools gladly, preach from the back of our heels rather than the balls of our feet, and conceal competence in the interest of extending democracy.
We seem confused about the role of leadership and the need for leadership. Leadership can be defined as the discipline of deliberately exerting special influence within a group to move it toward goals of beneficial permanence that fulfill the group's real need. Vince Lombardi said that leadership is the ability to get a team to do what they do not want to do so that they can be what they have always wanted to be. The group is not served when no one is at the wheel. When we enter an airliner, we do not want to see the captain carrying a textbook on flying. I have made many trips overseas, but I have never seen the captain let the passengers vote as to whether he should turn on the radar.
George Buttrick, longtime pastor of the Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church in New York City, was asked if he would have a layman preach on Layman's Sunday, and his reply was classic: "When they have Layman's Day at Mount Sinai Hospital and let me operate." A leader is one who is trained, competent, a visionary, and an agent for change. Regardless of its theology, denomination, or form of worship, no church ever makes progress toward its goals without a strong leader at the top. I recently attended a denominational meeting which had a "break-out" session for the laymen. Its purpose was to seek ways in which they could become more involved in ministry. No mention was made of "gifts for ministry" or needs in the community. The sole concern seemed to be to find ways to keep their pastors from leading. Yet they complained about the ineffectiveness of their churches.
What passes for church democracy and congregational leveling is unbiblical and unwise. Everybody's business is no one's business and it demonstrates a basic distrust within the body. The pastor of a neighboring church called me for lunch one day. He sat across the table from me with tears in his eyes as he told me that he had been having difficulty with leading his church, especially in the area of preaching and worship. It seems that he moved the pastoral prayer to another position in the service. This created such an uproar that a special congregational meeting was called and they approved a resolution that instructed him to meet with a group of laypersons regularly concerning the order of worship. He was also instructed to preach only from texts and subjects approved by the committee and told that he must read from a manuscript.
Leadership is God's gift to his church. In Ephesians 4:11-14, he gives gifts to his people as individuals and the gift of leadership to the community of faith. A church in Florida which had experienced unusual growth with a strong leader and preacher instructed its pastoral search committee to find a pastor that was just the opposite. "We need a visitor, someone who will give us care," they said. "Preaching and leadership is not that important." The new pastor, who had great gifts in pastoral care, was ineffective in areas that had built the church. He was asked to resign in eighteen months because of falling attendance and budget. Leadership built the church and leadership will sustain the church. A sower went forth to sow -- not to build consensus or to be well-liked. A teacher went forth to teach! A leader went forth to lead! A preacher went forth to preach! The line of penetration runs from the pulpit to the pew to the pavement.
Moses knew the need for leadership as well as the power of leadership. His legacy may be the law or the journey to the promised land in the minds of some, but he knew that his legacy was the gift of leadership that produced the Hebrew religion. The people were fragile and could not survive the new situation without leadership, so he outlined his understanding of what was to be required of the next leader.
This new leader should be like Moses at Horeb (Sinai) mediating a fresh normative revelation of God. He should speak with God face to face and reflect the divine glory -- a mediator between God and his people. He should come from among the people. A stranger who was not familiar with their situation could not be their leader. The responsibility of the leader was to speak God's word, and the responsibility of the people was to hear and do the word. The test of the leader was whether the forth telling actually worked out in their lives. "The proof was in the pudding."
When these famous last words of Moses are closely examined, we see that Jesus fits this profile perfectly, and ultimately he became the head of the church and the leader of the people of God. As Moses led them from bondage in Egypt, so Christ leads from the bondage of sin. Like Moses, his life was spared in infancy. Like Moses, he was a powerful intercessor for his people, speaking with God face to face and reflecting the divine glory. Like Moses, he was a mighty prophet in word and deed who revealed God's will and purpose. Christ was a mediator of the covenant and leader of the people.
Jesus had a job to do and he got it done. He directed the activities of that band of followers. He did not begin the day by asking the disciples each morning, "Where shall we go today?" He was in charge. The modern church leader (pastor) has been too influenced by the miracle of dialogue, group dynamics, clinical pastoral education, and congregational democracy. He/she preaches "from the back of the heels rather than the balls of the feet."
Moses did not ignore the diversity of gifts, but he understood it and was pleading for a leader who would lead. When everyone is responsible for everything, no one is responsible for anything. The leader feeds the community of faith so that the community of faith can feed the world (Ephesians 4:12,13). There is a wisdom in congregations; they follow only as long as they are certain that the under-shepherd has contact with the Great Shepherd. More churches have been hurt by pastoral inaction than by pastor domination.
The leader Moses profiles is to be a mediator between God and his people. His responsibility is to listen to God and then to speak to the people. The people should hear the word and do it. The vision of God for his people is all-important. A group will disintegrate without a vision. Fortune magazine recently profiled the CEOs of the ten best corporations in America. They wanted to know what they had in common, what their strengths were. What can be learned from them? Each one possessed a vivid vision for what they wanted their organization to do. This vision dominated everything that they did and every decision that they made. They also possessed the ability to communicate that vision to their constituency. They were able to focus the resources of the organization to accomplish the vision.
Martin Luther King, Jr., made a speech in 1963 at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. He expressed his vision for America. He wanted "the riches of freedom and the security of justice" for all people. "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. I have a dream ... of that day when all God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty we are free at last!"1
1. Stephen B. Oats, Let the Trumpet Sound: The Life of Martin Luther King, Jr. (New York: Harper & Row, 1982), p. 260-261."