Into the Fire

The devil is most displeased when godly leadership is exercised for the good of the church. I felt I was thrown into the deep end, into the fire as I chaired the church council meetings for the 4th time since I became pastor. Though it is not my duty to do so, as I do not hold any administrative post except being the church pastor. I am most glad to relinquish it, though I know it will create a new set of problems if meetings are not conducted properly and decisions not followed through to their conclusions. I wonder why some people think becoming a leader is top of their agenda even if they do not have the ability to lead, not alone to bring changes to the congregation. I am happy to do less unless doing more really brings forth fruits for God’s glory.

For the past week, I have struggled with weariness. Before recovering from my weekend trip to Sandakan where I preached two long sermons which brought evident joy to the church, I had to chair a meeting on Tuesday that included a number of contentious issues. Praise God for granting me wisdom to lead the meeting to a successful conclusion. In 10 days’ time it will be our church’s AGM, and I had planned for it since coming on as pastor on 1st Dec. I had conducted a leaders’ retreat that attracted 32 church members (one third of the church membership) and the seminar on our denomination’s constitution attracted 25 participants. When the AGM picks its new set of deacons and deaconesses as our constitution sets the period of service at 3 years and at the end of 3 years or earlier an AGM must be called to elect new leaders. Sure, elders are no longer elected and that makes it so important to appoint elders who are truly qualified to be elders in the first place.