Focusing Leaders

So don’t boast about following a particular human leader. For everything belongs to you — whether Paul or Apollos or Peter, or the world, or life and death, or the present and the future. Everything belongs to you, and you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God.

I am proud of my mentors and never thought of that as an ungodly attitude. I like to tell people about the leaders who have invested in me. But it can be ungodly when it becomes a point of pride that says I am so great because I am a disciple of this person or part of that organization. The focus becomes human accomplishment rather than fulfilling God’s purposes, which ought to be the motivation for all of us, not exaltation of any particular gifts or roles or personalities. In Christ’s body we are all part of something bigger and better than any particular leader or movement - we are part of what God is doing on earth! He is our leader, the body of Christ is our movement!

PRINCIPLE: We ought to get our fulfillment out of contribution to God’s purposes rather than affiliation with a particular organization or leader.

Lord, help me be filled with zeal to accomplish your purposes rather than filled with a desire to be part of a great human movement. And protect me from ever appealing to peoples’ pride (longing to be part of something great) to be a part of my ministry, but rather motivate them to contribute to your work in whatever way, shape, or form you are leading them to it.