…Be energetic in your life of salvation, reverent and sensitive before God. That energy is God’s energy, and energy deep within you… Phil. 2: 13a MSG
Society faces a local, national, and international leadership crisis. Unfortunately, the Body of Christ is not immune from the same crisis. When the Christian community does not address leadership issues for Christian life and ministry, it is guilty of engaging in life-threatening practices instead of life-giving. Poor Christian leadership affects lives in ways that are only sometimes immediately comprehensible but are always undoubtedly detrimental. One of the counterbalances to poor Christian community leadership is intentional instruction and forming or reforming those who are in Christ Jesus as reminders of how to live our lives in a faithful Christian ethic.
In writing to the Christian community in Philippi, Paul understands the Christian calling virtually as an alternative citizenship. Faithful Christian citizenship requires leaders who are not self-serving and egotistical but recognize that their actions are critical to the faithful uplift of the entire community. Paul wants to make the point that the Christian citizen and, by association, Christian leaders who serve and honor Christ are no longer held captive to ideologies of division and alienation characteristic of society nor to the selfishness, conceit, and pursuit of self-interest that are symptomatic of this kind of cultural ideology. Further, in his writing to Philippi, he invokes a confession of the Christian faith, which is popularly termed the “Christ Hymn.” This hymn, a synopsis of Christ’s life, death, and resurrection, calls for recognizing the need for self-emptying (Kenosis) and humility, which paradoxically leads to exaltation for the good of all.
Christian leaders and the Christian community who follow Christ’s example have a responsibility and calling empowered by the Holy Spirit to engage in patterns of thinking, feeling, and acting that facilitate emptying themselves of practices detrimental to community shalom. Paul encourages the community to engage in living lives “worthy of the gospel” [Phil 1:27]. Paul aspires for the Christian community to live in a way that holds up the excellence of Christ… an excellence shaped by kingdom principles and not the cultural malfeasance of a society tainted by self-interested ambition or complacency and mediocrity.
We are at the start of 2024; let’s covenant to live more fully in service to Christ and local faith communities. To do so necessitates a mindset change in which we perceive ourselves not as volunteers but as ones called Jesus called disciples.
Chris