Rev. David Holwick ZE
First Baptist Church
Ledgewood, New Jersey
October 5, 1997
1 Peter 5:1-4
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I. What kind of boss do you have?
A. Annual "Worst boss" contest.
One of the best-selling business books last year was "Best Boss,
Worst Boss" by management techniques expert Jim Miller.
The book grew out of a contest he began in 1992 to find the
worst boss in America.
The most recent winner is from the East coast.
He is an office manager who schedules fake business trips so
he can spend time with another woman.
He forcibly kisses secretaries on the lips.
He wears the same clothes all week, coughs in employees' faces,
passes gas and acts as though this is normal behavior.
What is more, he rigs company raffles and keeps the merchandise
for himself.
He rubs against employees whenever possible.
To determine which sandwich is his in the fast food order, he
takes a bite out of each one.
Having a rotten boss did pay off for the anonymous underling:
He got a one-week trip for two to Hawaii.
#4185
B. What does it take to be a boss?
1) Imposition of your will and power over others.
a) Claw and scrape way to top.
b) Nice guys finish last.
2) Emotional detachment.
Adolf Hitler in the fall of 1942 was on a train going to his
new headquarters.
His army was endangered at Stalingrad.
On Nov. 7, 1942, as he was sitting down to supper in the
rosewood paneled diner of his special train, a freight
car chanced to stop on an adjacent track.
The car contained a throng of starving and wounded soldiers
from the eastern front, who naturally stared in
astonishment at the Fuhrer in his diner just two yards
away.
"Without as much as a gesture of greeting in their direction,"
recalls Albert Speer, Hitler "ordered the servant to close
the shades." #43
II. God's View of leadership.
A. Not limited to church.
1) Focus is on church leaders, but broader application.
2) Anyone who influences a person toward God is a spiritual
leader.
3) These principles make sense for all human relationships.
B. Image - shepherd.
1) Peter modestly appeals as one of them, not apostle.
a) Witness of sufferings.
b) Though from a distance.
2) Be shepherds.
a) Ancient Old Testament image.
1> Usually they were bad, and God had to step in. Ezek 34
b) Flock belongs to God.
3) Under our care. 5:2
a) Christian bosses must be people-oriented.
The 1995 worst boss winner was from the Midwest.
He allegedly ordered employees to get back to work when
they tried to help a co-worker who had suffered a
heart attack.
Also, fearing a drop in productivity, he waited until
the end of a workday to announce that a missing
employee had been found dead.
#4185
b) We serve.
c) We are overseers. (oversight)
C. Experience. (elders)
1) Elders=bishops=pastors. Acts 20:17-28
2) Have to be old?
3) Genuine experience more important than time.
a) Are you learned from your efforts?
III. Marks of a Christian leader. 5:2
A. Attitude.
1) Volunteer, not draftee.
2) Nominating Committee - some turn it down because they don't
want to be turned down. (list of 25 trustees)
3) Leadership is like tithing - God wants it to be cheerful.
B. Motivation.
1) Servant heart, not mercenary.
2) Most other jobs are more lucrative, but anything can be
corrupted by greed.
a) Note television evangelists.
3) Jesus gives best example of servant heart. Mark 10:42-45
a) Put others first. (First shall be last, vice versa)
b) Don't be resentful of it, but eager.
Guideposts magazine told story of Mary Jo West.
She wanted more than anything in the world to be the
best at what she did.
When she landed her first news anchor job at KOOL-TV
in Phoenix, she was 24 years old and the city's first
female anchor.
At a young age she had everything she ever wanted.
But then her life began falling apart.
Working long hours she often went days without seeing
her husband.
He accused her of putting work above their relationship,
which eventually led to the break-up of their marriage.
After six years, Mary Jo was offered a job with CBS News
in New York.
Network news was her dream come true.
Now she was more driven than ever.
She routinely worked 12-hour days.
The program was a success, but she felt empty.
Other than work, she says, she didn't have a life.
Early one morning she went to church to pray.
She had grown up with a strong faith, she says, but it
had been a long time since she'd talked or listened
to God.
That morning she prayed, "God, what am I doing so far
from home?
I want to walk Your path, but I don't know how."
Within a year Mary Jo was back in Phoenix working at a
rival television station.
Things did not work out.
The ratings went from bad to worse.
Before too long Mary Jo was out of work.
She found it difficult to find another job.
She sat alone in her big house -- lost.
All her feelings of self-worth had come from her job;
now she felt worthless.
In her lifelong quest to finish first, she had ended up
dead last.
Mary Jo began working as a volunteer at a local mission.
She spent the next year as a volunteer, handing out
diapers and bus tokens, dishing out hot meals and
helping people find work or a bed for the night.
It was during that year when she reached out to other
people that she felt God's love as never before.
She discovered God's love in the eyes of a man who cried
as he thanked her for finding him a pair of size 13
boots so that he could finally get a job.
That year transformed Mary Jo West's life.
She learned to rely on God and to keep her life in
balance.
"I don't have the glamour or the salary of my earlier
jobs," she says, "but I do have something better:
love, happiness, and peace of mind.
That's God's idea of being first."
#2650
C. Method.
1) Example, not dictator.
a) We are examples whether we like it or not.
1> People are looking at us.
b) Lead by example.
John Keegan, in "The Mask of Command," analyzes
various leadership styles down through the ages.
In 323 BC Alexander the Great led his Macedonian Army
into battle against the fortified city of Multan.
At the head of his troops, he climbed to top of wall,
the ladder broke, he leaped to the fray and
slaughtered the enemy, even with an arrow in
his lung, until his troops reached him. #43
c) Don't be a control freak.
1> Tyrants may be feared, but not respected.
IV. Reward of a leader.
A. Jesus is ultimate example of a Shepherd.
B. At second coming, unfading crown of glory.
Copyright © 2024 by Rev. David Holwick
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