Kings are popular for their charisma, power, presence and forceful personalities. Judges are better.
Jim Collins' book on good to great leadership effectively supports a Judge model as opposed to a traditional King model.
Kings are not good for any organisation. The whole purpose of any leadership role, in business as well as church, is to be a steward. A public officer of a company is a steward of shareholder value and a leader of a church is a steward of Kingdom value. The owner of either a business or the church is generally external to the organisation.
Shareholders own public and many private businesses, but as for the church, well that only has one head, Christ.
God has entrusted stewardship of the kingdom to us, to continue that work which Jesus started in His lifetime and will complete on His return.
Kings get in the way of all that. They speak of vision, but Moses spoke about implementing the pattern God showed him on the mount.
Kings also worry about numbers, but David incurred God's wrath for doing the same.
Kings look at externalities (stature, presence) when considering leaders, but God has always entrusted His kingdom to faithful hearts.
Kings will tend to appoint "yes men", but better decisions come through consensus that discerns the heart of God.
Kings are a law unto themselves, but Judges intermediate between the people and the laws of God, providing relevant direction, doctrine and discipline within the context of God's Word.
Kings execute their opponents and exalt whomsoever they favour, even Egyptian wives, as Solomon did. But who are we to subjectively judge whom God uses: after all, subjective decisions overlooked David, a great king, but favoured Saul's impressive resume.
Kings are program-driven. They love building structures and organisations and systems. To achieve their goals, they co-opt the human capital of the firm or the church. But Judges are more organic, working collegiately, to build consensus and influence the organisation and its heartbeat. They are always more effective in the long run, even though Kings can produce visually impressive results through fear and control.
Kings are also ego-centric, building the organisation around themselves, whilst Judges build the organisation around principles, through team-building and empowerment of people. Kings therefore tend to centralise and bureacratise the organisation, whilst Judges build people away from themseves through empowerment and respect for diversity.
Kings believe things cannot work without them. God believed that rejection of the Judges in favour of Kings, was a rejection of the whole purpose of a kingdom that existed for and by the Great God above.
Kings supplant the purposes of God with their own agendas. They run off on their own missions without waiting on God and they make the stakeholders beholden to the organisation, not vice versa.
Kings confuse, Judges clarify. Kings wear themselves out, Judges equip others. Kings impose themselves, Judges build a culture. Kings keep power in the family, Judges empower the people. Kings tend to have conflicts of interest, Judges are always accountable to their constituencies.
Most disturbing of all is that people will follow Kings as they lead the organisation into decline and bankruptcy, as Israel did when they followed their Kings until the enterprise was bought out by the Babylonians. Judges preserve the organisation through transparency, strident debate, reinforcement of values and articulation of principles.
(c) Peter Eleazar at www.bethelstone.com
Jim Collins' book on good to great leadership effectively supports a Judge model as opposed to a traditional King model.
Kings are not good for any organisation. The whole purpose of any leadership role, in business as well as church, is to be a steward. A public officer of a company is a steward of shareholder value and a leader of a church is a steward of Kingdom value. The owner of either a business or the church is generally external to the organisation.
Shareholders own public and many private businesses, but as for the church, well that only has one head, Christ.
God has entrusted stewardship of the kingdom to us, to continue that work which Jesus started in His lifetime and will complete on His return.
Kings get in the way of all that. They speak of vision, but Moses spoke about implementing the pattern God showed him on the mount.
Kings also worry about numbers, but David incurred God's wrath for doing the same.
Kings look at externalities (stature, presence) when considering leaders, but God has always entrusted His kingdom to faithful hearts.
Kings will tend to appoint "yes men", but better decisions come through consensus that discerns the heart of God.
Kings are a law unto themselves, but Judges intermediate between the people and the laws of God, providing relevant direction, doctrine and discipline within the context of God's Word.
Kings execute their opponents and exalt whomsoever they favour, even Egyptian wives, as Solomon did. But who are we to subjectively judge whom God uses: after all, subjective decisions overlooked David, a great king, but favoured Saul's impressive resume.
Kings are program-driven. They love building structures and organisations and systems. To achieve their goals, they co-opt the human capital of the firm or the church. But Judges are more organic, working collegiately, to build consensus and influence the organisation and its heartbeat. They are always more effective in the long run, even though Kings can produce visually impressive results through fear and control.
Kings are also ego-centric, building the organisation around themselves, whilst Judges build the organisation around principles, through team-building and empowerment of people. Kings therefore tend to centralise and bureacratise the organisation, whilst Judges build people away from themseves through empowerment and respect for diversity.
Kings believe things cannot work without them. God believed that rejection of the Judges in favour of Kings, was a rejection of the whole purpose of a kingdom that existed for and by the Great God above.
Kings supplant the purposes of God with their own agendas. They run off on their own missions without waiting on God and they make the stakeholders beholden to the organisation, not vice versa.
Kings confuse, Judges clarify. Kings wear themselves out, Judges equip others. Kings impose themselves, Judges build a culture. Kings keep power in the family, Judges empower the people. Kings tend to have conflicts of interest, Judges are always accountable to their constituencies.
Most disturbing of all is that people will follow Kings as they lead the organisation into decline and bankruptcy, as Israel did when they followed their Kings until the enterprise was bought out by the Babylonians. Judges preserve the organisation through transparency, strident debate, reinforcement of values and articulation of principles.
(c) Peter Eleazar at www.bethelstone.com
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