FollowtheLeader.indd

FOLLOW THE LEADER

An effective leader – just like a successful businessman – is always asking
himself questions like these:

“Does it work?”

“Is it time effective?”

“Is it cost efficient?”

“Does it produce the desired results?”

“How can it be done better?”

“Are real needs being met by this activity?”

Over and over again the Bible asks pragmatic questions to sinful rebellious
people. Through these many questions and “earthy descriptions” of the
problem, God wants to show man how impractical and foolish his sinful and
selfish way of life is. Consider just a few such practical exhortations:

“Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor

on what does not satisfy?” (Isa. 55:2).

“My people have...dug their own cisterns, broken

cisterns that cannot hold water” (Jer. 2:13).

“Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard its

spots? Neither can you do good who are accustomed to

doing evil” (Jer. 13:23).

“Give careful thought to your ways. You have planted

much, but have harvested little. You eat, but never have

enough. You drink, but never have your fill. You put on

clothes, but are not warm. You earn wages, only to put

them in a purse with holes in it” (Hag. 1:5-6).

The whole Book of Ecclesiastes is a pragmatic personal study to show
that all of life’s pursuits without God are ultimately nothing more than
“vanity and striving after the wind” (Ecc. 2:11, KVJ). There is a lot of
church activity...mission activity...para-church activity that is little more
than religious vanity and striving after the prevailing winds of society – rather
than being billowed by the winds of the Spirit! In order for individuals
and groups to face and deal with these tradition-bound mentalities and
failed methods, some real pragmatic questions have to be asked.