SERVANT LEADERSHIP - The Blue Letter Bible Institute

Servant Leadership – Lesson 27 3
An Abiding Relationship with Christ by Brian Brodersen
I was involved this past weekend with a church where there has been a resignation and just a lot
of really bad things have happened in this fellowship over the past couple of years. In the course
of events, the pastor had ended up resigning and so forth. The assistant got up and said to the
congregation, “Pastor So and So wants you to know he really loves you.” I just think if he really
loved them he would not have done all this stuff that he has done and dragged them through the
whole thing.
That is what I mean. Sometimes we talk about loving, but it is more theoretical than actual. It is
more theoretical than practical. When you look at Jesus, He really loved people. He did not see
people as a commodity. He did not see people as a means to a greater end. He loved people for
who they were. He loved them because they were precious to Him. I think if we want to consider
what it is to bear fruit, this is where we have to begin our consideration: do we love people? Do
we love God’s people? Do we really care about them? Do we see that that is what the ministry is
all about?
I remember years ago when I was an intern at Costa Mesa with Pastor Chuck Smith. He would
call us in once in a while to have a little pastors’ meeting with us. A problem that occurs over and
over again is that there are tons of people, there are all kinds of needs, and the pastors quite often
cannot be found because they are busy studying. Pastor Chuck would often bring up the question:
“What are you guys in the ministry for? What is your goal? What is your object?” And of course,
it was to minister to God’s people. But every time a ministry opportunity came up, we seemed to
be saying, “I am too busy for that. I have got to study right now. Please do not call me. Call
somebody else.”
We can forget so easily that the ministry is about loving people. Preaching is an important thing,
obviously. Teaching the Bible is vital to any ministry, but you can sort of undermine what you
say by how you treat people. How you deal with people and the attitude that you demonstrate
toward them is vital. People always knew one thing about Jesus—they knew that He loved them.
And if we are really bearing fruit, I think God’s people are going to see that in our lives. They are
going to see that their pastor is interested in them and he cares about them.
You guys have all had this experience. We have all had it. There is nothing worse than talking to
somebody that you really want to talk to, but you sense as you are talking to them that they do not
really want to talk to you because they are looking away. “What were you saying? Uh-huh.
Right.” They are looking all around and you know that they really would rather be talking to
somebody else. Sometimes that happens at conferences. I have talked to people over the years
who have come and said, “When I talk to my pastor I just feel like he is not really interested in
anything I have to say. He seems to be distracted. He does not really look at me. He is always
looking away. Then he just sort of dismisses what I say and runs off looking for the next person.”
That is just an example of what can happen when we lose perspective on what Jesus is really
talking about and what it is to bear fruit. Personal godliness is going to manifest itself, first of all,
in love.
Secondly, as we consider Jesus, we would of course all agree that Jesus was holy. He said, “I
always do those things that please the Father” (cf. John 8:29). It is so easy to get caught up in
ministry and making sure that you are getting the right message out to everybody else, that you
can neglect your own personal development. You can just overlook your own need to increase in
holiness and become more and more like the Lord. Sometimes in our quest to be relevant, we
compromise holiness. I think there is a lot of that going on in the church today.