Three weeks from today you will be in charge of this flock.  It will require the wisdom of Solomon.  Happily, that is something we already have.  He went to great lengths to leave an inspired record of it.  It seems like the further you go in the Book of Proverbs the more material you get about leading (maybe this was designed to filter out undesirables who weren’t going to make it this far!).  The last third of the book is aimed at those who are called upon to lead.  The ideas are collected from Solomon himself, Hezekiah (he of the prayer warrior fame) and a couple of other kings I hadn’t heard of. Some gems:

 

Work hard: 20:13 - Do not love sleep or you will grow poor; stay awake and you will have food to spare. 

 

I know you already work hard.  But now you need “food to spare”. You have responsibility for a lot of other people.  I hardly need to tell you that leadership in God’s kingdom does not mean that other people do the work now.

 

Our business, one way or another, is communications and that is an area where I have had to work extra hard.  When I was national director in Ireland we had a visit from the (then) European Strategy coordinator, Jim Mulkey.  After a few days of observation Jim asked me a good question, “Why do you think that it only takes one statement of one of your pet theories for the staff to ‘catch on’, when Bill Bright reckoned that decade after decade he should keep repeating his simple message on how to be filled with the Holy Spirit?” (in the end five decades!).

 

Communications takes work – take it from someone who is still trying to learn the hard lessons.  

 

Money: 23:4 - Do not wear yourself out to get rich; have the wisdom to show restraint. 

 

Don't let the ministry be driven by financial considerations.  Money is important – otherwise the Lord would not have had so much to say about it.  But let’s seek the Lord about what we should plan to do, then find the money, then do it.  That was the preferred planning method recommended for our tower-building friend in Luke 14.  The Lord is not short of money.  We need to get better at finding it.  But let it not take the top spot in your interest.  

 

Shepherd: 27:23 - Be sure you know the condition of your flocks, give careful attention to your herds. 

 

Staff who read this may feel a bit funny being called flocks, but my point is simple:  You can't lead people you don't know.  This takes time, the most expensive commodity we have. 

 

I am not saying here that you will get things done more easily if you have oiled the wheels of personal relationships (although I’m sure that is also true).  It is worth knowing the staff for your own benefit.  These past few months I have been more aware than ever that these brothers and sisters are not working for me nor for you, but for the Lord.  They work with us, which is our privilege.  They are gold dust.  As for you and me – all we will ever be is under-shepherds anyway.

 

Exceptions: 29:4 - By justice a king gives a country stability, but one who is greedy for bribes tears it down. 

 

Don't bow to pressure - you will always regret personnel exceptions.  I should know – I have made some and it is hard to think of one I don’t regret.  The “HR rules” that people sometimes feel to be so onerous are simply guidelines that people like us write down in our saner moments.  Don’t doubt in the darkness what God has shown you in the light. 

 

Don’t shrink from unpopular measures that are right.  Of course you will want to take the best advice you can get.  But don’t decide by focus groups.

 

Look to God's word: 30:2,3 - "I am the most ignorant of men; I do not have a man's understanding. I have not learned wisdom, nor have I knowledge of the Holy One.

 

You are a Bible man.  Stay that way.  Right from the beginning of Proverbs to here at the end one thing is clear – indeed it is probably the book’s slogan – the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.

 

The airport bookshops beckon with all kinds of warmed-over human wisdom about leading people.  Some of it is clever, some is sensitive, some is New Age, some is bunk – but none that I have seen so far is based on the fear of the Lord. 

 

Marginalized: 31:8 - "Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute.

 

We expect you to influence the influencers.  The Bible expects you to look after the weak. 

 

When you get to a stage where your work with influencers prevents you from giving a decent chance to the voiceless then you’ve lost it.  The purpose of influencers (like yourself for example) is to open the gates for the weak.  This was the test of the kings’ leadership (just read their obituaries in Kings and Chronicles).  In the 1980s, “trickle-down” economics didn’t work because the resources didn’t trickle down.  In the Kingdom of God it is supposed to be different.  We want to pass on all the resources we can.  And we’re not trickling them “down” to people “below” us. 

 

Like dear old Francis Schaeffer said: “there are no little people”.