The right to follow

It’s telling that Christians in North America never seem to argue over who has the right to follow in the steps of Jesus Christ (1 Peter 2:23). We tend to argue over who has the right to lead (contra Mark 10:42). If someone is a leader, all he or she has to do is lead. People follow leaders, even when they’re not ordained. Bill Bright is eighty-one years old, and he is still not ordained. But the last I heard, Campus Crusade for Christ has more than thirty-two thousand paid staff members and five hundred thousand trained volunteers worldwide. Bill started that ministry about fifty years ago. He started it by leading, not by being ordained. The commandment is for each of us to follow in the steps of Jesus Christ (1 Peter 2:21). If you are gifted and called to be a leader in the church, then get out there and lead. Plant churches. Start from scratch. Enroll in seminary. Initiate a new ministry effort. Ask a few men and women to partner in ministry with you. Get people praying about the project in your heart. Ask for help. Ask more people for help. Use your freshest energy to cast a compelling vision to people you would like to join your team… If today we decide to enshrine the Great Commission as our boss verse (Matthew 28:20), then perhaps we might be willing to stop playing tug-of-war with each other. As it is, proponents of male leadership are tugging hard on one side, arguing that only men have the right to be church leaders. On the other side, evangelical feminists are tugging hard too, arguing that women have the right to be church leaders. I keep hoping that the church will drop the rope. When we look at the bigger picture, it’s more than evident that complementarians and egalitarians are teammates, not opponents. We’ve all been assigned to the same Great Commission. We cannot afford to be divided. (Sarah Sumner, Men and Women in the Church)