Qualities of Quality Leadership (Titus 1:5-16)

“Most high achievers”, says leadership guru John Maxwell,  “spend time developing their professional skills. They seek to be highly competent. Fewer focus on their character.”  Maxwell encourages his readers along with developing crucial skills to focus on their character as that is equally if not more important than competency. He encourages them to develop integrity, “being scrupulously honest even when it hurts”, authenticity, “being your real self with everyone”, and discipline, “doing the right thing every day regardless of how you feel”. In lists of attributes people look for in a leader these character traits rank highly. Conversely, we’ve seen recently the damage that even highly competent people in positions of power can cause when they are lacking in character… The Harvey Weinstein scandals has bought to light sexual misconduct, we have examples of issues to do with money and the abuse of power. On a grand scale we’ve watched the dictator Robert Mugabe being forced to give up the power he had used force to impose on Zimbabwe for so many years and on a smaller scale heard stories of exploitation of migrant workers in New Zealand and workplace bullying.  Sadly, the church has not been immune to these issues; Gifted and talented, and respected Leaders have fallen to the unholy trinity of sex, money and power. AS Paul sets Titus the task of establishing leaders for the churches in all the towns on Crete his focus is on Blameless Character, that they live out the faith they hold to.

We are working our way through what are known as the Pastoral Epistles, Paul’s letters to co-workers, leaders in the church, as they deal with different challenging pastoral situations.  Letters in which Paul encourages and instructs them, and gives us insight not only to Christian living and community but also into Christian leadership. Leadership which is not just a call to a select few, but to all who would follow Jesus Christ, as we grow in maturity and ministry.

The passage we had read to us today is split into two sections. Firstly, Paul instructs Titus to appoint Church leaders in every town on Crete and he provides Titus a code of what to look for in elders and overseers. Then he moves to set the scene in which the Church in Crete finds itself. The need for such leadership because the church faced false teaching from a group called the circumcision party who focused on ritual cleanliness like the Jewish food laws rather than Christian ethics, so there was a disconnect between gospel teaching and gospel living. It should not surprise us in this environment that character was of such important in the leaders being appointed.

Before we look at the character of the leaders Paul identifies, we do need to make some comment about the leadership structure Paul talks about. In this passage Paul uses two words for Christian leadership. The first is elders, it has its basis in Jewish society, where the family heads who provided leadership for the villages and the nation. Moses consults with the elders and gives them judicial responsibilities. During the time of the judges they formed the basis of local government, and under the monarch they were like an advisory panel whose voice needed to be listened to. They were the magistrates in local villages, with the jewish diaspora they became the leadership model for the synagogues. They were not the main teachers in Jewish society that was more the priests. So when Christianity comes along and there is a need for leadership in churches, it is natural to have adopt the idea of Elders. Of course, as a Presbyterian Church, ruled by elders we have focused on this model and we believe it is agreeable with scripture. It’s not perfect, its not the only way but it is what we have discerned in history as a good form of church governance.

The other word that Paul uses here is overseer. The Greek word is Episkopos, which we interperate bishop, the Anglican church in the US is known as the Episcopalian Church, a church governed by bishops, overseers. Overseers come from Greek culture where they were the slaves put in charge of their master’s household, or business ventures or property. The Old testament example is Jospeh who when he is sold as a slave rises to be overseer of his master Potphar’s household. It fits in very much with the idea of Christian leadership being a service and the early church being built round groups that met in people’s houses. The leader of that basic unit could be described very aptly with the term Overseer.

In this passage the two terms seem to be interchangeable, referring to the same people in each town. In 1 Timothy they seem to be two different offices, as Paul gives similar codes for the conduct of elders in chapter 3 and one for overseers and deacons in chapter 5. It maybe that the church in the towns on Crete were small and so the two roles were synonymous, where as in Ephesus where Paul wrote to Timothy it was large enough that Elders and overseer were different roles. It is easy to get caught up in different styles of church governance and historically that has been one of the issues that has kept the church apart. The focus of Titus is not the structure as much as the character of the leaders.

We need to turn our attention to that.

Paul uses the word blameless twice in his list of what to look for in a Christian leader. We might look at that and think that You must be perfect to be a Christian leader. The reality is that if you wait till you are perfect then you’ll be waiting a very long time. I wonder if part of many church leaders falling into abuses of power and money and sex is that they live with such a high expectation and start believing the hype about them, and it becomes arrogance. Blameless is a legal term which means that no charges can be bought against a person. It’s more than a background check for criminal convictions, its a life style test for present commitment to faith convictions.  Paul is asking for leaders to have a good reputation in the community and the church, a solid reputation, integrity, not simply a pretty façade.

Paul gives a list of positive traits to look for and negative traits to avoid that make up the idea of blameless. Sort like red lights and green lights for a potential leader. Family relationships are in order, there is fidelity within marriage, in a very new and difficult setting like Crete it was important that the whole household believed. That is wasn’t split with the Children involved in the wild side of Cretean behaviour. The false teaching was disrupting households, to counter it they needed to have a household that was keeping the faith and keeping together. It was important not to have a family which could be pointed to as out of control by those outside the Church. I think it is a protection for families and marriages that are struggling as well, not putting them under the added pressure and scrutiny that comes with leadership.

Then Paul gives a list of negative traits, ‘not overbearing, not quick tempered, not given to drunkenness, not violent, not pursing dishonest gain. ‘These are the direct opposites of what is happening in pagan Crete society and specifically with dishonest gain it mirrors Paul allegations that the circumcision party are in it to make money.  Paul had had to defend himself against such allegations, telling the Philippians he appreciated their gift but was not asking for anything and had learned to be content in all situations. He also tells the Thessalonians to remember that he had worked as a tent maker while he was with them so not to be a burden.

Paul then follows that up with a list of positive character traits, hospitality… which is generosity, sharing what God has given. In a church that met in peoples houses it is also an essential attribute. In Phillipi, part of Lydia’s repose to the gospel was to open her house up to Paul and his team, we must assume that as where the church started and met as well.   Who loves good was seen as the opposite to being about self-gain, it reflects Jesus Beatitude, blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,  self-control and disciple speak of having ones emotions and appetites under control. Upright. Speaks of being committed to justice and fairness in all dealing with other people, Holiness in greek ethics meant “living in accordance with the wishes of your god”. It describes the condition of the whole person… we might use the word integrity, our outward actions, are in harmony with our inward beliefs. Jesus would say it ‘if you love me you will keep my commandments’.  In all these traits people would see that the Candidate for Christian leadership lived out the gospel they believed in.

Paul adds a skill to his list as well that the person hold on to the trust worthy teaching they have received and be able to encourage others with sound doctrine and refute those who oppose it.  Paul’s not looking for people with a theological degree here, but rather people who  know the gospel and show they now it by how they live. There is a competency element here being able to teach. But also that they set an example for others to see and follow.

How do we bring that from the there and then to the here and now.

The elephant in the room is does this passage say church leadership is only for men…Married men.  As we looked at last week when we looked at the household code and leading where we are, we noted that people have tried to take the household codes of patriarchal society and impose them as binding on todays society. In Paul’s time household leader’s elders and overseers were gendered roles. However,  I’ve mentioned many times that Paul affirmed women in leadership roles, Lydia was the leader of the church in Philippi. In Corinthians Paul talks of Chloe’s people coming to him with concerns about what was happening in Corinth, which implies she was a leader in that church. As we are a society now that values women in leadership, I know we still have a long way to go, we must ask how we apply Paul’s code to women. The answer is that the teaching on fidelity in marriage and other character traits to do with attitudes to the use of authority and money are equally as relevant, for men and women… As we look at 1 and 2 Timothy next year we will deal with some difficult passages about women in leadership.

It’s interesting that in the list of attributes Paul used Greek terms and concepts to describe the qualities of a leader. He has taken the Jewish gospel and translated the best of the qualities that Jesus epitomised and made them relevant for the situation on Crete. The attributes and moral integrity that the Greeks themselves values Paul is able to call Christians to live those out. It’s a key principle for us as well, to see Christian Leadership be about people reflecting the best character traits virtues and qualities that our society holds up for leaders, Maxwell does that by using words like integrity, honesty, authenticity, discipline cover the traits Paul had talked about. This word picture behind me reflects  leadership qualities people saw in Martin Luther King Jr, many which reflect his Christian faith. The list of the top attributes that people look for in a leader today like dependability, transparency; having no ulterior motive, empathy, compassion and care for workers and those we lead, all reflect a Christ honouring life, a person who hears Jesus words and obeys them. That are able to be examples of what it means to follow Christ. In their relationships, inside the family and outside.

When I was at Knox Theological college the then principal showed us this diagram to do with ministry formation, and he asked us which of these quadrants we felt that we needed to work on in our time at Knox. Professional skills and developing gifts, knowledge, spiritual growth, character development. I actually think it is a good way of thinking about not only ministry development but also leadership development and Christian discipleship. To be well rounded in Christ we need to grow in all those areas.

In this passage Paul is not telling Titus to look for the superheros of the faith, the exceptional Christian person, rather when you have a look at the qualities of a quality leader, you see that they are examples of people who have grown into maturity in Christ, it is God’s call on you and I In Ephesians four Paul states that  God’s purpose for Christian leadership and ministry is  that the body of Christ, all of us, might grow into the fullness of Christ and be equipped for every good deed. As we saw when we looked at Paul’s instruction to Titus about people in every status of Cretean society was that as followers of Jesus they are examples of the Kingdom of God in this world, ambassadors for Christ. To be like these street lights starting to take effect in the dusk in a town on Crete, or where we are here and now.  WE are called to a Christ honouring life and as we live that some will be called into positions of leadership in the Church… We are all called to have the qualities of quality leadership… as we serve and grow in the qualities of Jesus Christ. 

Lead Where you are!... reflections from Titus 2

This message was preached at a café style service at St Peter's and was designed to get people reflecting on how they could lead and live out the gospel in the situations and places in which they live. It has discussion questions incorporated at the end... 

Recently I listened to a podcast of a pastor from South Africa talking about how their church moved from seeing themselves as simply members of a Church to being people who were all called by God to serve in the city and place they lived, and see the good news of Jesus Christ bring transformation.

He illustrated this by talking about an unemployed woman teacher who asked the church to pray for her to find a job. The next week the pastor got a phone call from the women to say she had got an offer for a job, teaching, but she didn’t want to take it because it was in the worst school in the worst area of the city, the people were the wrong colour, it was full of problem kids, drug dealers and crime. The pastor said that he though as she was called to be a teacher and they had prayed for a job that just maybe this might be God answering that prayer and giving her the place God wanted her to serve. Long story short, She taught at the school and got to know the kids and their families, that lead to the church getting involved in the community.. They got involved in the notorious housing estate next to the school that many of the families lived in. One of their congregation was called to be a lawyer got involved in the body corporate, and used his legal skills to stop apartments being used to manufacture and distribute drugs. 

We might not see it when we look at our own lives and circumstances, but God has called each one us, and placed us where we are and its there that he calls us to serve and to lead, and see his kingdom come. In the passage we had read out to us today Paul continues to speak to Titus who he has left in Crete to establish the church in what is a difficult situation.  We are looking at it as a way of gaining insight into Christian leadership as maturity and ministry.

Paul tells Titus to teach what is appropriate to sound doctrine. The gospel of Jesus Christ results in his followers living the gospel out in the society in which they live. Paul relates that to how should Christians live in the very structured society of Crete. Paul give Titus things to teach people who are at different levels in that structure, because of age, gender and weather they are free or slave: from top to bottom, he is to teach them how they can serve God in the place they are. Then he underpins that by articulating the sound doctrine that they are to live out. Paul finishes by exhorting Titus to teach and not to let anyone despise him, it is an exhortation for him to lead where he is.  

On Crete there seems to have been a disconnect between gospel teaching and gospel behaviour, and people in the church were getting caught up in the more indulgent and promiscuous society round them. So Paul starts by teaching Christian character and behaviour.  He also starts with households because he had talked of the false teaching happening in Crete impacting on households. Household is also a metaphor that was used as a metaphor for the Church.

Greek and Roman society was built around a very rigid and enforced social structure. Aristotle summed up the system very succinctly when he put it in a series of three authority relationships…’ Master and Slave, Husband and Wife, father and children’. It was a very strict patriarchal structure, that had very codified and rigid gender roles and expectations.

Paul’s applies the gospel to that structure in a very radical way. He speaks to the older men who would be seen as the heads of the households and in positions of authority, not to be indulgent and simply accept the privilege of that position, rather to be temperate and self-controlled, to be worthy of that respect rather than simply demanding it. In a radical way he talks of being sound in faith, and in love. It becomes not about power but about care and concern and self-giving service. Likewise the older women were not to simply indulge in gossip and wine, but be about teaching younger women to follow Christ. Teaching is of course an important role in the church, passing on the faith to new generations.  The word for older women here up until the fourth century was also seen an official role in the Church of women elder.

Paul is radical in that he also speaks to the people in the positions of less or no power as well, showing them how to live out the Christian faith where they are.  Avoiding the excesses of the culture round them and acting in a way that reflects Jesus Christ.  They may have to do the things that they do because of their position in society, but he changes it from duty and demand to being about service, and showing Christs love, in fact it becomes subversive rather than submissive. To each group he tells them that their behaviour will help further the gospel… The young women while having more equality in ministry and leadership because of the gospel will show by their behaviour in managing their households…remember most women in Greek society were married at an early age and expected to have and bring up children…  will not give people any opportunity to malign God’s people… likewise the young men are to be self-controlled and have integrity, so that the opponents of the church will not be able to have anything to hold against them.  The slaves are told that by the way they show Christ like character that they will do more than that they will attract people to the gospel. These powerless people in society are empowered by Paul to make real change by their trustworthy integrity.  They can lead where they are.

The rigid social order of Paul’s day makes it kind of hard for us to work out how to apply what Titus is told to teach to today’s society. Sadly, some people have tried to apply the social structure and the household code of the then and there on the here and now. Man is the head of the house, women are to submit… with the emphasis on maintaining the power structures. Walter Liefield in his commentary on Titus gives helpful principles to how we are to apply Paul’s teaching to our very different cultural settings.

The first is that in every age and culture Christians need to evaluate how contemporaries of moral integrity view the relationship between men and women and apply Christlike love to that. In our age where marriage is viewed as a partnership between equals then it is easy to apply Paul’s teaching on the Christian household in Ephesians 5:21 “submit to one another out of reverence to Christ”… working out the nuts and bolts are a little harder.

The second is, that in all our interpersonal relationships like at work where we find ourselves in positions of authority or being under authority we show a level of integrity, that is as least as high as those of non-Christian people. I remember a speaker at a young adults’ camp we ran one Easter saying he knew his Christian faith was having an impact when his coworkers asked him to take on an advocacy role in the office. He was known for treating everyone no matter who they were with kindness and integrity and was never caught up in office gossip or complaining about everything, and could be trusted to keep confidences and do what he said he would do. People found that attractive.

The last principle is that while we point to Christ with our lifestyle, it does not simply take the place of sharing our faith and the gospel. At the end of teaching on behaviour Paul articulates the gospel truth that underpins that behaviour. That God has appeared and offers Salvation to all people, calling us to live out the Kingdom of God in this present age. Turning from the ways of the world to the ways of God. That Jesus Christ has made us his very own eager to do what is right.  As well as living out the gospel we need to be able to tell out the gospel.

In a very real way Paul is instructing the followers of Jesus in the places that they are to lead where they are.  To be an example of what the Kingdom of God looks like in a marriage and family life, at work, in the neighbourhood and community in which we live. In how we exercise authority or deal with other people exercising authority. It’s not simply to keep the status quo of a culture or society but rather Christ is about redeeming those structures and societies as people come to know his great love and reflect it…

I want to give you a few moments to have a think through this stuff in the groups you are in round the tables. Here are some questions which may get you thinking….

1.       What are the different areas of your life God has called you to serve in?

2.       In what ways do you see yourself able to offer leadership and reflect the gospel?

3.       How have you noticed that call change as you move through different life stages?

4.       How do you see it reflected in your relationships to people of different gender?

Insight into leadership from Paul's introduction to Titus (Titus 1:5)

In the past few decades Leadership has very much come into the spot light. People are fascinated with leadership and what makes a good leader…Tens of thousands of books have been written, copious theories have been expounded, courses run, seminars given, leadership development programmes instigated and it still seems quite an enigma. What constitutes leadership… When we see good leadership we see things thrive, and we have seen failures in, and abuse of leadership cause immense amounts of harm.

From now until Easter we are going to be looking at the pastoral epistles… 1 and 2 Timothy, Titus and Philemon. Letters that Paul wrote to people in leadership positions within the church dealing with hard real life pastoral issues. He writes to encourage them in exercising leadership in the Church, that they may grow in both maturity and in ministry. It’s helpful for us as it gives us insights for Christian life and Christian leadership. We are going to look at Titus before Christmas and then Philemon and 1 &2 Timothy from Mid January until Easter, focusing on leadership, as maturity and ministry.

Now don’t sit back and say, I can relax and turn off here because if Howard is talking about leadership he’s not talking to me. That’s not the case…

 In the first two chapters of Titus we see that Paul talks of leadership in terms of official church structure, governance, and then in Chapter two tell Titus to teach people to lead where they are in the very structured society of first century Crete. As we grow in the Christian faith we are called to use our gifts and talents to minister to others in the church and as we mature in our faith to inspire and encourage one another, to show leadership where we are. In Hebrews 10:24 it says we are to spur one another on to love and good deeds… and how we live out the gospel leads people outside the church to Jesus.

 In the passage we had read out to us today, Paul had left Titus in Crete to  complete the unfinished task of appointing leaders, elders, in the local church. While that was specific to that time and place, God’s work in building up the church and calling people into leadership is an ongoing unfinished process. Not just to keep the existing institution going, but raising up new generations with fresh vision and vigour, and like with Crete because God’s call is always for the gospel to reach into new and different places and spheres, God calls his people to be part of that to lead it. God is calling you?

That’s a good place to turn to look at the passage we had read to us today. You can see it cut into three sections, first the introduction, where Paul gives us extended insight into how he views the ministry that he is called to exercise. Then we have a section where Paul gives Titus a list of qualities for elders and overseers for the Church, that he is to use in the process of appointing leaders in the churches on Crete. Finally we see those qualities in the context of both Cretan society and the challenges that the Church faces. We see how those qualities for leadership are counter cultural and reflect the Kingdom of God rather than the realms of humanity. We are going to look at those qualities of leadership in depth in a two Sundays time.

Paul’s introduction right off the bat tells us some important things about Christian leadership. Paul starts his letter like all his other letters by talking of being a servant or a slave. Christian leadership is not about privilege or position, power or popularity it’s about service. Titus is the only letter that Paul introduces himself as a servant of God rather than a slave of Christ. Now servant of God by the first century had taken on a sort of honorific element from the Old Testament Prophets, it was a term of respect. The church in Crete, may not have known Paul well and he is laying out his credentials here, we don’t know how the church on Crete was started, we don’t have a record of Paul having a mission to Crete, people from Crete are mentioned as being present at Pentecost, the church could have its origins there and be more Jewish than gentile and more used to the term ‘servant of God’. Definitely the main opposition group Paul mentions, the circumcision group, would have understood it having more weight and authority. But it shows that for Paul first and foremost his understanding of his leadership was as a servant. Jesus is the role model for that “The son of man came not to be served but to serve’.  

We also see that he saw leadership as a call to serve others, he was called by Jesus Christ to be an Apostle, to further the faith of God’s elect, and their knowledge of the truth that leads to Godliness. Paul saw leadership as having a specific function and playing a role, which was given to him by Jesus. It is a call to serve Jesus it is a fulfilment of Jesus great commission, “to make disciples from every nation, baptising them in the name of the father, the son and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey all I have commanded you.” We may see this as a more individual thing but by using the word God’s elect Paul is seeing it as a community thing, not about simply bring individuals to faith in Christ but establishing communities of faith, churches. 

For Paul leadership and ministry also meant being faithful to the gospel, the hope of eternal life, which God, who does not lie, promised before the beginning of time and which at his appointed season he has bought to light through the preaching entrusted to me by the command of Jesus Christ. The good news about Jesus Christ is what Christian community and leadership is about. To Lead is to be faithful to that. When Paul talks of “preaching entrusted to me” he is not talking simply about his ability to talk in public, but rather the content of his message… the greek word means proclamation, and to the Corinthians Paul had talked of coming to them not with fancy words or eloquent talk but preaching Christ and Christ Crucified, so that they would see that they had come to faith not because of his oratory but by the power of God, the Holy Spirit moving in their lives as they heard of Jesus Christ.

Leonard sweet defines leadership as “the art of the future. A leader is one in whom the future shines through in support of the present in spite of the past.”  For Christian communities and leadership, that future is the kingdom of God, God’s eternal salvation plan, initiated by Jesus Christ, his incantation, his teaching, his death on the cross and his resurrection. We are called to live out that future hope in the here and now… Christian leadership is not about look at me, look at me and see what I have done… and how it’s made a difference…  but rather look at Jesus, look at Jesus and see what Change Jesus has made and can make. It’s not as a deflection away from a person but the direction of where we are called to go.

Paul as a leader was aware of the context in which he was called to serve God in. In his introduction he uses words like God’s elect to talk of the people of God, again a term which has Old Testament roots. It points to the fact that the church in Crete had a strong Jewish influence. But he also talks of God as the one who does not lie, he is aware of Cretan mythology and their gods who play tricks and deceive people, the father of our Lord Jesus Christ is not like that he can trusted to be faithful and keep his promises. Later in the chapter he will quote a person the Cretan’s consider a prophet, and his perception of the issues facing the church in Crete society is quite insightful, and colourful. Paul as a Christian leader is aware that God’s call is to serve God in a specific time and place, that does not change his mission or his message but he adapts it so it will be heard.  A good example is Billy Graham’s salvation tract “Steps to peace with God” which was effective in communicating the gospel to a generation that had gone through the second world war for whom peace was important.

Paul models Christian leadership being about developing other leaders. In the pastoral Epistles we see people that Paul has spent time in developing and now sends out to do ministry. He disciples Titus as his true son which may mean he lead Titus to faith, Titus definitely had been part of his ministry team and had learned about leadership from Paul. Just like Jesus had spent a large portion of his time investing in the disciples who became the leaders of the first church, and Baranabas had mentored Paul, so we see Paul mentoring other leaders. We don’t know as much about Titus as we do Timothy, but he seems to be Paul’s trouble shooter, he gets the difficult situations. Here we also see that Titus’ leadership is about developing leaders in the church in Crete. Leadership can get caught in wanting to hold onto power and ministry and not letting it go, but the Jesus model Paul uses is to empower and enable others to do what you do.

In youth ministry we used a four step process for developing leaders, it was I do it You watch, we do it together, you do it and I watch and then you go and teach someone else.

Titus’s task gives us insight into Church governance. Like any organisation the church needs organisation. This is one of the only places in the New Testament that talks about the structures of Church governance. Titus was to appoint Elders in each town in Crete. Now St Peter’s is a Presbyterian Church and Presbyterian means a church that is lead by elders, our governance structure is that we believe that Christian leadership is a group activity. Biblically, we see it in the emphasis on group leadership in scriptures like Timothy and Titus. Although on Crete it could be that because the churches were small elder’s plural here could mean one per church. Historically that has been emphasised against the distrust of power being held by one person, that comes out of the reformation and the power of bishops and the pope.

 In our Presbyterian Church the church is governed by elders and the minister (which again emphasises the idea of servant) is set aside as the teaching elder, set aside for the teaching of the word and the right observance of the sacraments. Alongside that is another layer of leadership which you could call decans but has in the past been the board of managers, which are responsible for the more practical running of the church. Because of our size as a parish we have a parish council which incorporates both those functions. Over the top we have a system of governance for regional and national levels, presbytery and national assembly, and elders and Ministers from each parish are involved in those bodies. As Presbyterians we don’t believe that our form of governance is the one the scripture expounds as being the right way of doing things, when you are ordained as and elder or minister, you acknowledge that our form of government is agreeable with scripture. Let’s face it all the different flavours of Church governance look to the scriptures for their validity…

It would be great if Paul had given Titus a handbook or a book of order (which is what we Presbyterians call our rule book) so we’d know the process and procedures that he and the church in Crete used to set up leaders, but we don’t. Paul’s emphasis was on two things on the character of the Elder, and how it reflected Christ, rather than the society around them, and their faith, that they were able to teach and encourage the church in the gospel and defend the church against false teaching. It’s about maturity and ministry, knowing the good news of Christ and living it out. We will look at that more in two weeks time.

This is not an exhaustive look at the leadership needed in the church either it was the basic governance structure and God calls people to serve in a whole raft of different ways and roles.

In our strategic plan the parish council identified leadership as one of the eight key areas we need to focus on… That the development of leadership in all areas is a priority.  That we need to have in place processes for identifying, training and mentoring new leaders as well as providing training

opportunities for, and reviews of existing leadership. We are going to come back to this passage and explore Paul’s list of qualities for Elders after next weeks café service.

Many years ago a women came up to me in Church and handed me a piece of paper and said this is for you and walked away. On the paper were written the words ‘I will give you all the gifts you need.” I wondered about it, and came to realise that this was talking about the Holy Spiit working in me but alos the development of teams and  but for many years I kept it in my wallet, until the paper disintegrated and occasionally I would take it our and read it and would be encouraged. You see most days I find myself saying “who me God! Come on you’ve got to be joking right… right!”  I wrestle with self-confidence and question my own abilities, but God has used this amongst other things to make me realise that leadership and ministry are reliance on God to provide for the things he calls us to do.

We may be tempted to see Paul’s greeting to Titus ‘Grace and peace from God the father and Christ Jesus our savior’ as a generic, things you write at the start of a letter, sort of thing. But in blessing Titus with God’s grace and Peace Paul is letting Titus know God will supply all he needs to carry out the mission God has given him. What was true for Titus is true for us as well. AS God calls us to leadership, we can trust that he will give us the grace and the peace that we need.  The “who me!” is answered by Jesus promise, “and lo I am with you to the end of the age”.