The Heart and Art of a 21^st Century Servant…Who Leads

Wayne Cordeiro
Senior Pastor, New Hope Christian Fellowship Oahu, Hawaii

New Century: New Church 2
September 23, 2001

Aloha from Hawaii! It’s going to be a wonderful conference and we’re so excited. Things are sort of ambivalent right now. We’re starting to come out of the events that have just taken place. We’re in this electrical field of colliding emotions that spark feelings of shock and then sadness, and then give birth to helplessness, then anger.

The events of two weeks ago have now been eclipsed by the barrage of questions that beg to be addressed. And then we start to dig through the rubble in our own hearts for answers. "Why did God let this happen?" some might ask. Or "Are we going into a recession?" "Should I fly?" "How long should I morn?"

In times like these, you know, you want to just get going, but it’s kind of difficult to know how to act. I mean, when do we play our games again? When can we start laughing again? When can we have a birthday party with the new way we want to show respect to the many heroes that have risen to the task and with respect for the many lives that were lost in such a heinous, atrocious act? We’re caught in the middle. What do we do?

In the book of Nehemiah, Chapter 4, there’s an example of what we should be like. Some terrorists came and Sanballat and Tobiah tried to destroy the building of what God had assigned for the people of God to do. They tried to destroy it with cursing and fighting, tried all kinds of underhanded ways to destroy the work of God. When they found out that God was about to thwart their efforts, it says that the people of God continued the building, but with one hand they held a weapon and the other hand they held a trowel. They would build and war. When I read that, I felt the Lord say, "Tell them that is the posture that the leaders should take. Tell them that we are people who will have a trowel in one hand and a sword in the other. We’re going to build and we’re going to protect. We’re going to do spiritual ministry, and we’re going to do spiritual warfare. We’re going to take times of rest and then we’re going to take times of risk. We’re going to build and we’re going to battle. We’re going to care and we’re going to confront." That’s the posture God will give as an anointing to His leaders as we break through this time.

How then should we break through the pall that’s settled in? How do we open hearts that have been shrouded by these events? Again, I was drawn to the Scriptures, and I found in the book of Job where Job’s family was attacked by the Sabeans and the Caldeans and were destroyed. And then the remnant of his family that wasn’t yet destroyed was taken over by a hurricane, destroyed by a tornado. And then David, his illegitimate son through Bathsheba, died. And I saw that the first thing the leaders would do in response to this was to fall on their faces and worship God.

God often starts the process of resilience through leaders, God’s leaders leading people in sustained worship. We don’t want in any way to diminish what’s taken place, but to focus afresh on the One who is the redeemer, who is the answer. The devil would want you to worry, but God wants us to worship. The devil would love for us to be shrouded in anxiety, but God is saying, give shouts of allegiance, and instead of being appalled, we need to applaud the redeemer. I’m going to ask you as leaders in the body of Christ, in no way to diminish any of the heroism and the lives that were lost, to lead the body of Christ through continuing to build with a trowel in one hand and a sword in another. We’re going to not focus on the enemy. We’re going to focus on the task God’s given to us. So I’m going to ask you right now, would you stand and give the strongest applause offering to the King of Kings and let’s say, "Lord, it’s time to break through, and we’re going to start building again. Let’s establish in this place a bulwark of brave and let the devil know that he has no place in this conference. Lord, our confidence is in you and you alone, in Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

Ephesians, Chapter 4, says this, "We gave some as apostles and prophets and evangelists and pastors and teachers for the equipping of the saints, for the work of the service, to the building up of the body of Christ until we all attain to the unity of the faith. And of the knowledge of the Son of God to a mature man, to the measure and stature which belonged to the fullness of Christ. And as a result, we are no longer to be children tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine and by the trickery of men or the craftiness and deceitful scheming, but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head even Christ. The whole body being fitted and held together by that which every joint supplies according to the proper working of each individual part causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love."

Tonight, let me address a leadership non-negotiable in the heart and art of a 21st century leader. You’re going to be going to many wonderful seminars and workshops here at this conference, but let me take on one component tonight, one critical component that if missed, all the rest will be moot. If glossed over or de-prioritized, it will cause untold grief in years to come and relegate your ministry to its most elementary stages.

I was in a restaurant some months ago having breakfast when a pastor came and said, "Wayne Cordeiro, can I sit with you?" I said, "absolutely," so he sat down and looked at me over the table and said, "Give me a new program to spur on my church. Come on, our church is lethargic and we just need to get them off dead center. Give me a new program, a new idea, a new video, something." I said, "Let me start with the basic, How’s your church?" He said, "Oh, it’s coming through as well as can be expected." I said, "Well, what do you mean?" He said, "I mean the transition. I just came on as pastor and boy, we’ve got to change this church." Then he told me about the resignation of his former pastor. I asked, "How did he leave?" He said, "Well, one Sunday morning the pastor came up to the platform, looked over the congregation, and said ‘Could I have the elders and the board members stand?’ They stood up. And then he said to the congregation, ‘It’s because of these people, I’m resigning the church.’ Then he took his Bible and left."

I looked at this guy and said, "No way!" He said, "That’s how it happened." I said, "You know, it didn’t happen that Sunday," and he said, "Oh yes, it did. I was there." Then I replied, "No, it didn’t happen that Sunday. It happened a year or two before when healthy relationships in the church were de-prioritized and broken friendships became acceptable. It just came to a head on that Sunday."

I told the pastor, "Here’s your assignment over the next six months. Do not initiate any new programs. No new techniques. You go on a crusade against broken relationships and snagged friendships. You look every person in the eye and if you detect even a hint of hurt, a hint of unresolved relationships, anything that has somehow gone underground, do not pass go, do not collect $200, just stop and repair. And start with you as a leader. Ask all your leaders to do the same thing with you. That’s your program for the next six months."

"If there are broken relationships," I said to him, "and it’s being tolerated and people have harbored enmities between one another, the body cannot build itself up in love. I’ll give you a secret, Pastor. You can go to 100 seminars and get all the best programs and the best techniques, but if there are broken relationships and unhealthy relationships in that local body, then no program will fly, even the best one. The people will make sure it doesn’t fly. They will sabotage that program."

"On the other hand, if there are healthy relationships in the church and people are excited to be with one another, and there are no enmities, no unresolved issues, then any program will fly. Even if you had no programs, if people were just excited about being with one another, you know what will happen? Because of the condition of the soil, fruit will start to burst. The gifts in the body of Christ will just start popping up, and it will self-organize if there are healthy relationships. But if not, you will work like the dog to organize and it doesn’t fly.

It’s like a farmer conditioning the soil before he plants new seeds. If he’s got the best seed from the market but it’s hardened soil, weedy soil, shallow soil, rocky soil, and if the soil is not conditioned, it won’t grow anything. And if a seed does survive the bad condition of the soil when it grows, it’ll grow up mutated and stunted at best. It is the condition of the soil, the health of the environment that affects the fruit and when you have healthy relationships and you work on it, that’s like conditioning the soil.

A year ago I took my family to the Opryland Hotel in Nashville, Tennessee. It’s a great place. Fifteen acres under roof. It was the middle of summer, so you know what that’s like out there. On the inside, though, it was temperature controlled and humidity regulated, so inside this huge air conditioned area, the flora and the fauna, the plants were tropical. It was like plants we had in Hawaii. I was amazed. But when you went outside those glass doors, it was like checking your turkey at Thanksgiving in the oven. Your hair’s gone and your eyebrows are singed.

Inside what should have been dying was thriving. What should not grow was healthy and vibrant and fruitful. I looked at that and thought, what a picture of the church. No new programs will fly without the conditions of growth. No new incentives will be fruitful without the condition of fruitfulness.

Here’s the secret that will save you thousands of dollars trying to get new programs. If relationships are poor and snagged friendships go tolerated and unresolved, then you can bring as many programs back as you want, and they won’t fly. On the other hand, if there are healthy relationships, even the most remedial programs will be defined. The homeliest programs will become glorious. There will be alchemy of divine intent that will change even the simplest efforts into something so profound and life changing. It’s the condition of the soil.

The same is true with my body. If I’ve got problems in this body, if I’ve got anxieties and if I’ve got worries, if I’ve got stress and unresolved issues, then I make myself very susceptible to illness and I get sick easily. But if I’m healthy and my body is doing good and I don’t have the toxins, stress and adrenaline overdose, then I rarely get sick. When I do get sick, I heal very quickly and I bounce back tomorrow. But if I’ve got stress and anxieties and fears, then my adrenaline turns into toxins, and there are tumors and cysts and acid. The body does not heal in the presence of stress. Before we talk about any program, the best thing you can do is to stop and make sure that there is health and no broken relationships, not unresolved issues, no snagged friendships.

Once a young man came to an old preacher and said, "Preacher, we need revival in this church. God hasn’t been moving in this church." As the young man continues talking, the old man gets a piece of chalk and starts to draw a circle around the young man as he’s griping and complaining. The young man said to the old pastor, "What are you doing?" And the old pastor said, "When revival starts in that circle, revival will start in this church."

You see, it begins with us. We’re going to be the ones that initiate the repair. When I consult with churches, I seldom look first at its organizational charts and programs. You know what I look at first now? I look at the church’s capacity for healthy relationships. Not that the other things of organization, etc. are unimportant, mind you, but they are not primary. The power of a church will be found in the capacity generated by healthy relationships. It is not from organizational charts or tasks nor hierarchies nor manuals, but things fundamental to building healthy relationships. Do people know how to listen and speak to one another? Is there an obvious basis of trust among the leaders in the church let alone leaders and people? Can people work well in teams? Are the times of celebrating one another often or infrequent? Is there a respect for people regardless of their position or role? Is there a spirit of teachability that’s exhibited? When there is correction that needs to be given or received, is there receptivity? Do people of greater authority and skill work well with those who may have lesser authority and skills? Does each individual leader have a daily devotional time with the Lord Jesus Christ so that they are personally growing in Him?

The larger a church grows, the more emphasis and time must be invested in maintaining healthy relationships and keeping the soil conditioned. As a church grows and the staff grows in size as well as in age, there’s going to be more baggage, more history. There are going to be more opportunities to have stepped-on toes and you walk right on without repairing anything, leaving behind limping relationships. The greater the relationships, the greater the capacity and potential for ministry. But if you have a breakdown, watch what happens to programs.

His name was Arthur and he was one of my greatest board members. In fact, when we built our first building in the first church that I pioneered, he was the one that led the charge. He was my stalwart right arm. But after ten years, all of a sudden, he’d start turning against me in board meetings. Anything that I wanted to implement, he wanted to get rid of, and if I said it was black, he said it’s white. I thought, what is grating on this dude and I couldn’t figure it out. Everything I did, he would sabotage and then he would get other men to sabotage. Pretty soon, I was getting a little miffed at this guy and it was eating me alive.

I remember so well. I was praying one Saturday morning, and the Lord said, "You go make it right." I said, "Lord, me make it right? It’s his fault, he’s the idiot. I’m the one that’s right". And the Lord said, "It doesn’t matter. You go make it right." So I remember getting in my car and driving to his house and knocking on his door. As I’m driving there, I’m praying, "God, please don’t let him be at home. I want to obey you, but I don’t want to go through this." So I knocked on his door and as he opens the door, his eyes get big and so do mine. I’m thinking, what do I do now? And I said, "Arthur, can I come in?" He said, "Yeah, come on in." So I went in and we sat down. As we talked, what came out was this. He said, "Wayne, when we first started this church, you would call me once in a while. You’d at least have lunch with me. But the church is too big now. You don’t even know my name. You have no idea what I’m going through. My wife was in the hospital. You didn’t even know. My kid got into an accident. You didn’t know." And as he began to enumerate some of the sufferings that he was going through that I was oblivious to, I was breaking. I said, "Arthur, would you stand up?" He stood up and I said, "Will you please forgive me?" He began to cry and I began to cry. We hugged and wept on each other’s shoulder. And I remember a miracle happening that day.

God spoke to my heart about allowing relationships to go bad. When you see the warning signs, stop and repair because the capacity of healthy relationships will be the power of a church. Some of you may need to write a note, some of you may need to make a phone call. Some of you may need to just make an appointment. We’re the leaders here, and it always begins with us.

Leaders have great responsibility to initiate healing so that relationships are clean. It’s healthy relationships that give a church the power to change. If you have healthy relationships with people and they believe in you and trust you and you respect and believe and trust them, change becomes each easier. You cannot change a church when you’re locking horns. When you heighten relationships, change or the difficulty of change decreases. You decrease healthy relationships, the measure of difficulty in change increases.

In Mark, Chapter 6, Jesus was with a group of people and speaking to them. He speaks on the Sabbath and begins to teach in the synagogue. Mark 6:2. "After He was done, the listeners were absolutely astonished, and they said, where did He get this wisdom? And the miracles that were performed by His hand, and they stopped and said, Hey, isn’t this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James and Joseph and Judas and Simon? Aren’t his sisters with us? And they took offense at it." And Jesus says in verse 5 that He could do no miracle there except that He laid His hands upon a few sick people and healed them, and He wondered at their unbelief.

I looked at that and thought if we take offense and we hold offense, then the miracles cease. Not too many times you hear Jesus amazed at their unbelief. I thought, "Lord, I sure don’t want you to come to our church and see all of the offenses that we’ve tolerated between people and we don’t speak to it. I’m just wondering, Lord, if you’ll look and say, ‘I’m just amazed at your unbelief. You know, I would like to do miracles here, but I can’t. The soil is not conditioned."

When I hold on to offenses, I release the presence of miracles because what happens is resentment starts to take root and the grace of God is then truncated. Hebrews 12:15 says this, "For see to it that no one falls short of the grace of God, that by it a root of bitterness springs up and by it many are defiled." When there is resentment, the grace of God can’t move. The miracles of God cannot increase because we would rather have offenses than miracles. I don’t know about you, but I want miracles. We’ve got to see transformed lives. We’ve got to see churches turn around and people released into ministry and that’s why it behooves us to make war on offenses and broken and snagged relationships and let nothing go underground. That’s our responsibility.

Resentment is such a dangerous thing. Resentment is like drinking poison and waiting for the other person to die. That happens all the time in our churches because resentment kills me first before it kills anybody else. And when there’s resentment, you sabotage each other.

Let me ask you to do this. Lead the charge. If there’s anything out of whack, start and ask your leaders, "Is there anyone that we need to write a note to, starting with us? Is there anything that’s gone underground?" Go do it. Lead the way. Make it right. And when you do, any program will fly.

We need to pray for our nation and pray for our churches so that as we move into this season, the condition of the soil is wonderful. Let’s pray.

"Lord Jesus, we’re so grateful that you have asked us to come together. You’ve asked us, Lord, to be the people of God, but not just in religious ways, because we understand that being religious alone is not enough to change the world. But we need to be people who understand what your Word is saying. Lord, help us to be a people of forgiveness. We pray for our churches, that you will allow this to happen in a great way this year. I pray, Lord, for our nation. When we see a cause as great as we have seen in the past few weeks, and everything beside that becomes trivial, we can see the power of unity and people pulling together. Oh, God, let the cause of Christ be so great that nothing comes in the way of that. So, Lord, I ask that you restore our nation, restore our churches. Start with us inside this circle. In the name of Jesus Christ we pray. Amen.

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