The Importance of Spiritual Leadership Part II: The Death of Direction

With this post, I would like to continue discussing why I believe spiritual leadership is so important. With the last post I examined how without spiritual leadership in society the truth is only one generation away from dying out. To show how this seemingly impossibly idea is possible, I used the example found in Judges where it states how a generation grew up who did not know the truth. I believe that another risk that comes with the lack of leadership is what I am calling the death of direction. 

As someone reads the book of Judges there is a common phrase that keeps coming up, "in those days Israel had no king, and everyone did what they thought was right in their own eyes." Although I know that a king is not necessarily a spiritual leader, I believe that there is a practical insight with spiritual leaders.

If one was to look at the history of the Israelites a pattern can be seen. This pattern shows the importance of the necessity for a spiritual leader. All throughout Judges and even before and after, as long as there was a strong spiritual leader, Israel flourished and did what was right. They worshiped and obeyed God and God blessed them. However without a strong leader, Israel had not since of direction. They had no idea what they needed to do or how to do it. Because of this, they quickly fell. Nations came in and conquered them taking their land and belongings. 

Another thing can be seen upon examining the history of the Hebrew people. Once they did establish their "kingdom," even though they had a "leader" to guide them, Israel would still abandon their direction if that leader was not grounded in God. I mention this point because it doesn't matter what type of charismatic person may be, if that person is not a grounded leader, he cannot give a good direction. In other words, he will lead his followers astray. This is very evident when reading kings. 

This, I believe, is another things churches and Christians need to realize. They must realize that without a strong leadership there can be no direction. Without a grounded leadership there will never be a good direction, if there is any at all. 

To close, a must for leaders if they want to be good is that they must have and seek good counsel. There are many times in the books of Kings when a king would seek advice from his counsel and several times that advice was horrible. In the times this happened and the advice was followed, it almost always lead to bad things.

So, who do you feel qualified to be a leader? If so are you grounded in God? Who is your counsel?