Leadership Archives - Pastor Marvin McKenzie

Mark 14:1-2 (KJV) Proper Concerns in Leadership

Mark 14:1-2 (KJV)
After two days was the feast of the passover, and of unleavened bread: and the chief priests and the scribes sought how they might take him by craft, and put him to death.
But they said, Not on the feast day, lest there be an uproar of the people.

As much as we might want to rail on the chief priests and scribes here, experience has taught me that there is a warning and lesson for everyone interested in doing the Lord’s work here.

Notice that these leaders of religion had come to the place where their concern was not for the rightness of their plan or the truthfulness of their actions. Their concern was only for the reaction of the people.

It is easy to slip into a place as a leader of the work of God where your interest is in how it affects the people more than in how right it is how moral it is or how true it is.

The ordinances of the church are frequently contorted away from what they are seen to be in the Bible because, if the preacher insists on practicing the Bible with the ordinances, he may lose potential members.
Stands on subjects that are particularly sensitive may be softened because some who attend or might attend would be turned off by these stands.
Individuals may or may not be placed into positions in the church because church leaders are concerned about the reaction of the general membership over those persons.

In order for the Christian faith to move untouched to future generations those who serve the Lord must see that their only concern is the Lord and the propagation of truth. The response of the people to that truth, while important, is always secondary to that.

To my reader:
I would love to hear from you. Leave comments below.

For this and more than 3000 earlier Daily Visits with God visit Marvin McKenzie’s blogger page. There you will find daily visits going back to 2006.

Mark 14:1-2 (KJV) Proper Concerns in Leadership

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2 Samuel 20:4-6 (KJV) The Right Sort of Follow

2 Samuel 20:4-6 (KJV)
Then said the king to Amasa, Assemble me the men of Judah within three days, and be thou here present.
So Amasa went to assemble the men of Judah: but he tarried longer than the set time which he had appointed him.
And David said to Abishai, Now shall Sheba the son of Bichri do us more harm than did Absalom: take thou thy lord’s servants, and pursue after him, lest he get him fenced cities, and escape us.

One of the greatest concerns that President Lincoln faced during the early years of the Civil War was the ineffectiveness of his generals. McClellan was especially guilty of this because he had, at the beginning of the war, a clear and huge advantage over the South in numbers of troops but was too cautious to use them. McClellan’s inactivity, choosing to build and train troops rather than getting them into the field of action, created conflict between he and President Lincoln and probably extended the war by a number of years. It was not until General Grant took charge of the Army that President Lincoln finally had a man who understood and was willing to fight on the level that expected.

David found himself in the same place. Joab had proven himself to be an untrustworthy leader, choosing to do things his own way rather than following the orders of the King. Amasa was put in charge of the army over Joab. But Amasa turned out to be a pour choice for a general in that he tarried longer than he should have, giving the enemy valuable time to mount an effective campaign against King David. Joab, though crude and brash, knew how to get the job done.

Good servanthood is a combination of the two. It is loyal and devoted to the wishes of the leader and, at the same time, active and aggressive in the work.

Christians ought to be solidly for God, not willing to do anything in opposition to the Word of God, even for what we believe to be the good of God’s work. At the same time we need to be aggressive in doing all that the Lord has commanded in His Word.

To my reader:
The combination of aggressive obedience to the Word of God without crossing over into willful presumption is a rare quality indeed. Take a moment to ask God to examine your heart. Are you loyal enough to God to not presume to do the will of God while at the same time fully obeying what you know to be His will? I would love to hear from you. Leave comments below.

For this and more than 3000 earlier Daily Visits with God visit Marvin McKenzie’s blogger page. There you will find daily visits going back to 2006.

2 Samuel 20:4-6 (KJV) The Right Sort of Follow

2 Samuel 18:4 (KJV) Good Leadership

2 Samuel 18:4 (KJV)
And the king said unto them, What seemeth you best I will do. And the king stood by the gate side, and all the people came out by hundreds and by thousands.

I understand the principle of servant leadership. David was king for the benefit of the people and not the other way around. But in yet another biblical example of the mistake of bowing to majority rule or popular opinion, the battle between Absalom and David goes in a less than ideal direction because David did what pleased the people rather than owning leadership:

Joab ignored David’s clear instructions
A foot soldier was placed in the position of having to obey what he knew to be David’s instructions or the wishes of his immediate superior, Joab and
Absalom died

All because David did what pleased the people.

Good leadership always takes into account the pleasure of the people because leadership is there for the benefit of the people. However good leadership looks beyond the immediate pleasure of the people to find the long term good.

To my reader:
I would love to hear from you. Leave comments below.

For this and more than 3000 earlier Daily Visits with God visit Marvin McKenzie’s blogger page. There you will find daily visits going back to 2006.

2 Samuel 18:4 (KJV) Good Leadership

Judges 9:1-3 (KJV) Come to Ruin

Judges 9:1-3 (KJV)
And Abimelech the son of Jerubbaal went to Shechem unto his mother’s brethren, and communed with them, and with all the family of the house of his mother’s father, saying,
Speak, I pray you, in the ears of all the men of Shechem, Whether is better for you, either that all the sons of Jerubbaal, which are threescore and ten persons, reign over you, or that one reign over you? remember also that I am your bone and your flesh.
And his mother’s brethren spake of him in the ears of all the men of Shechem all these words: and their hearts inclined to follow Abimelech; for they said, He is our brother.

Israel’s first king was not:

David, whom God anointed or
Saul, upon whom the people insisted or
Gideon, who was first approached by them to rule over them

Israel’s first king was Abimelech, Gideon’s son by a concubine.

It was not God who chose him or
A prophet who anointed him.
It was not the people who appointed him.

Abimelech approached them first.

Seeing their scattered and vulnerable state, sensing his own opportunity for advancement, he swayed them and them destroyed those he viewed as his only threat, his brothers.

Gill calls this, “a most bold and daring action;” and explains, “being done without asking counsel of God, without which no king was to be set over Israel, and by a single city, without the knowledge, advice, and consent of the body of the people of Israel…”

Nothing good could possibly have come out of this “daring action” and nothing good did. After three years the very people who had made him king revolted against him. Before it was said and done, Abimelech had devastated Shechem and Shechem had succeeded in killing Abimelech.

We do not need:

The one who climbs his own ladder or
The one who seems best to the majority

to rule over us. We need God to be our authority and seek His guidance in appointing our leaders.

Anything else will come to ruin.

For this and more than 3000 earlier Daily Visits with God visit Marvin McKenzie’s blogger page. There you will find daily visits going back to 2007.

Judges 9:1-3 (KJV) Come to Ruin

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Judges 8:23 (KJV) Longing for Leadership

Judges 8:23 (KJV)
And Gideon said unto them, I will not rule over you, neither shall my son rule over you: the LORD shall rule over you.

Jamieson, Fausett and Brown
“Gideon knew too well, and revered too piously the principles of the theocracy, to entertain the proposal for a moment. Personal and family ambition was cheerfully sacrificed to a sense of duty, and every worldly motive was kept in check by a supreme regard to the divine honor. He would willingly act as judge, but the Lord alone was King of Israel.”

Long before Samuel was demanded of Israel to anoint them a king, Israel had already made up their mind they wanted one to rule over them.

I have speculated that this longing for leadership may trace back to Joshua not providing for Israel a replacement before his own death. This emptiness may have led them first:

to scatter as sheep without a shepherd and then
to seek leadership indiscriminately

The Lord is the only ruler we ought to have but He has ordained that we be gathered around undershepherds.

A people not Scripturally led will either run off into anarchy or else choose to themselves leaders to their own destruction.

For this and more than 3000 earlier Daily Visits with God visit Marvin McKenzie’s blogger page. There you will find daily visits going back to 2007.

Judges 8:23 (KJV) Longing for Leadership

Joshua 11:15 Joshua Obeyed Moses’ commands

Joshua 11:15 (KJV)
As the LORD commanded Moses his servant, so did Moses command Joshua, and so did Joshua; he left nothing undone of all that the LORD commanded Moses.

That Joshua was the man of God for his hour was indisputable.

The Lord has appointed him to replace Moses
The Lord had parted Jordan River under Joshua as a sign of his authority
The Lord had spoken to Joshua even as he had to Moses
The Lord had given Israel great victories under Joshua

Joshua could have reasoned that he had never experienced the many rebellions and murmurings against his leadership Moses did and neither had he been rebuked and not allowed to enter the Promised Land as had. He could have manipulated this thinking into reasons not to have obeyed the commands of Moses. Joshua was of a different character than that. Moses was not there to supervise him and Joshua was a powerful leader in his own right. Still he honored the structure of authority.

God commanded Moses
Moses commanded Joshua
Joshua obeyed Moses

Would to God we had more of this sort of character among those proclaiming themselves to be men of God. So many today believe that

their college degree
their ordination paper or
their title as pastor

frees them to run away from the leaders God placed before them. Moses was gone. But Joshua obeyed Moses still.

For this and more than 3000 earlier Daily Visits with God visit Marvin McKenzie’s blogger page. There you will find daily visits going back to 2007.

Joshua 11:15 Joshua Obeyed Moses’ commands

Please consider helping our church’s teen department by signing up for cash back shopping at Bible Baptist Church Fundraiser. This program is free to you. Send me you e-mail and I will send you a free one month VIP upgrade.