Leading a Healthy Church Culture - Lesson 14

This is a summary version of the Christ-Centered Leadership class in the Certificates section that includes a study guide and additional resources.

Dr. Rick Sessoms
Leading a Healthy Church Culture
mc610-14
Discussion of Luke 5:1-11
Lesson Transcript

[00:00:01] Was a way of getting into the discussion tonight. I want to look at a passage with you. This become a, uh, uh, uh, a really special passage to me as I think about Jesus leadership and in this motif and you can't see that real well, but those are the four, what we call the four pillars of Christian leadership about relationship, about influence, about follower potential, and about common purpose. Let me read for you. There are so many places in Scripture that we can see these principles that Jesus taught and lived. But one special one is in Luke chapter five, when He called the First disciples and let me read this text to you, and then let me unpack it for just a few moments. Luke tells us one day as Jesus was standing by the lake, Nasser it with the people crowding around him and listening to the word of God he saw at the water's edge to boat, to boats left there by the fishermen who were washing their nets. He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little from shore. Then he sat down and talked the people from the boat. Verse four when he had finished speaking, you said, as Simon put out into deep water and let down the nets for a catch. Simon answered. Master, we worked hard all night and haven't called anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets. When they had done so, they caused such a large number of fish that their nets began to break. So they signal their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both boats so full that they began to sink.

[00:01:43] When Simon Peters saw this, he fell at Jesus knees and said, Go away from me, Lord, I am a sinful man. For. He and all his companions were astonished at the catch a fish they had taken. And so were James and John, the sons of Zebedee Simon as partners. Then Jesus said to Simon, Don't be afraid. From now on, you will catch men. So they pulled their boats up on shore, left everything. And followed him. This is an incredible account of Jesus calling his first disciples. And as the text goes, as he finished his teaching, Jesus said to Simon, put out in the deep and let down your nets again. As Simon and his coworkers had worked all night. And it had been a very, very facialist night. Time after time, they'd thrown their nets into that black, dark, warm water and held the ropes as their nets sank. And all night long they waited for a tug that the fish. If you've done a net fishing, do. That would signal their haul for the catch. But all night it didn't happen. At morning's dawn, the boat was still empty. After loaning their boat to Jesus for an impromptu teaching session, Simon was preparing to go home. He was tired. He had fished all night. Jesus engaged him. He said some push out and let down the nets one more time. Now, if we could read between the lines, Simon may have thought, at least this is what I would have thought, quite frankly. And I'm not inspired, but this is what I would have thought I would have thought in my mind. What in the world do you think we've been doing all night? I mean, we have let down this net. Dozens, if not hundreds of times.

[00:03:42] My back aches. My hands are blistered. Rabbi. I see you mean well. And you're a pretty good preacher. And I'm happy to loan you my boat for the sermon. Why do preachers think they know everything? You know, it's one of those kind of things. Regardless, though, of what Simon was thinking, he did as Jesus asks. He could have said, Look, we're the fishermen, you're the preacher. Stick to preaching. We'll take the fishing. But instead, he let down the nets once more and approximately every fish. And like going after it jumped into the nets. To lead people. Leaders understand people's needs first point and they discover those needs through relating to them. Jesus demonstrated first his concern for Simon. The man, the fisherman. Now, when Simon recognized the power of this one, who was sharing the boat with him? What did he do? Get down on his knees and said, Go away. Right. I'm in holding presence now. Again, I'm not inspired. But if I were him, I would have said. Let's think about this. Maybe we should go into business together. Jesus and Simon Incorporated. What do you think? That would have been my first reaction. But instead, Peter immediately fell to his knees, as Jim has rightly said and said, Lord, go away from us, from me, for I am a sinful man. In all those, Simon had an accurate view of himself. Because that's true, right? That's a true statement. There could never have been a more true statement, particularly as he was faced face to face with his son of the Almighty God. Jesus saw Simon, however, as a follower of great worth. And a priceless potential. And to enlist people in a vision leaders. Jesus shows us that leaders see the potential in others and enable them to see the possibilities within themselves.

[00:05:58] That the future holds. And so he said to Simon. Simon. You're not only going to catch fish. I want to give you a dream that you haven't even begun to think about. You're going to catch men. And he led him into a future. Max Dupree is is is one of my favorite leaders. He told the story of his granddaughter who was born with special challenges. I don't know if you've heard this story told. One day his granddaughter came, came to see him and said, Grandma, Grandpa, would you like to see me run? She's about three years old at this time. And the press that I got to tell you, my heart jumped. I thought to myself, This little girl can hardly walk. How is she going to run? She has special needs, but like good grandparents. The priest said, Yes, I'd like to see you run. And so he said she walked over to one side of the room and store, started to run across the room, right across in front of his desk and directly into the side of the refrigerator. And it knocked her on her back. And there she lays spread eagled on the floor with a big grin on her faith face. And. And the priest said, Tori said, honey, you've got to learn to stop. And she looked up to him with a big smile and said, Yeah, but Grandpa, I'm learning to run. Isn't that great. The human potential with a dream remains a mystery. More than you and I can imagine. But that potential is also very, very fragile. And in that moment, Simon was fragile as well. Some years ago, I was invited to speak at a very little, very small church, which I often do and I like to do, as was the custom of that church I was in the pastor's home for lunch, invited me for the noon meal at the service, and we sat down on the table and I could tell that little lunch was different than the usual lunch.

[00:08:04] I mean, they had out the special plates and, you know, they didn't have the paper napkins, they had folded cards and all that. They and I could also see that the three children had been told to keep their mouths shut beforehand, not to do anything that would embarrass them while while the guest preacher was there. And I particularly recall the older boy. He was a tall, lanky kid and but I remember him particularly because because he had cerebral palsy. And after a bit of silence, I said to him, I said, Alan, I remember his name was Alan. I said, What subjects do you like in high school? Just trying to have conversation. And with a smile, he said, Algebra immediately said algebra. I love algebra. Well, I asked him, I said, What do you want to do after you graduate from high school? And with some hesitation, he kind of responded. He said, Well, some someday I'd I'd kind of like to be a math teacher. I said, So where would you like to go to college? At that moment, his father interrupted. And he said, Alan's not going to college. He's handicapped. He can't go to college. And I could feel the hope drain away from that boy in that moment. What leaders really believe about people becomes evident. Jesus knew that ordinary people make great disciples. And so he said, it's Simon, Don't be afraid. From now on, you will catch man. What a dream. You've been catching fish. Now you'll catch people. And like all effective leaders, Jesus communicated with a familiar image that Simon understood vividly with his mind's eye. He described what the results would look like even before they started the project. So when Jesus called Simon to Fish for Man, Luke recorded that.

[00:10:03] They pulled up their boat boats, left everything and followed Jesus. Now think about that. Was it because Jesus had positional authority, positional power over them, or was it because he was the big boss? Well, the answer is no. He had no positional earthly authority at all. Effective leaders seldom command they all they most often inspire. And so inspired was Simon's catching men that his purpose, the Jesus purpose, became his purpose to. And it says that Simon left all. And people, people personally sacrifice when they have embraced the purpose, particularly the purposes of God. So I find this to be an absolutely phenomenal story that captures these pillars in an amazing way, not because these pillars are so critical, but because Jesus so demonstrated these things over and over and over again during his earthly ministry. Reflections. Thoughts. What strikes you there? What? What? What grabs you? About this this approach to leadership. You've got to realize the work. Potential singing. You get to know the potential issue. You just have so much relational clout with them that they would follow and just sort of after that one experience, they've there's just certain people that, you know, you just trust and are excited to be around and want to follow them. And like you said, not because of any sort of particular authority they have or you just because of that relational clout they have. So true. Take him so much further beyond what he'd done. No fishing than to show him the greatest fishing trip in the show and tell him that to start with, is familiar territory. He's an inspiring. John. I know you didn't really want to give. This leadership approach is very other oriented. It's not self-branded as a leader, but it's very other.

[00:12:39] It's not command and control. I really appreciate your statement about the potential human potentials of mystery, but it's very fragile. People forget that we're trying to get a particular result in trying to command and control. However well-intended the command and control may be. So true. It just reminds me, I was sitting with a former colleague just a few weeks ago in a restaurant. We were just talking. And he's been battling with some sickness and has struggled in his career. And I just stated to him at one point, I just stated, Steve, you got to get yourself well, because there's a lot more that God has for you to do. And when I say those words, he just began to weep uncontrollably sitting there in that restaurant. Openly in front of everyone because he needed those words, that sense that that sense of hope, that sense of potential. Because quite frankly, he's in a pretty oppressive environment and he isn't hearing those words of the potential that resides within him. And it just simple words like that created that kind of response. So it's real. It's real among us.