Who I Long to Be
Yesterday I had the pleasure of heading to Portland with a few great guys to attend the Spurgeon Fellowship. It was a day full of laughter and friendly ribbing, but the preaching of Scotty Smith was a salve to my soul.
In his two talks on "Leaders as Chief Repenters," Scotty opened Philippians 2 rightly pairing the imperatives with the gospel indicatives in the text and our place to lean into the finished work of Christ as we lead. A big part of this leaning is then repentance. We drop the pose and pretending and confront our own sin. We repent and embrace the comfort of our union with Christ.
As a result of this lifestyle of repentance, the chief repenter becomes a servant leader. He used the example of Jack Miller, one of his mentors, to reveal what it means to be a servant leader in the church. In ten points Scotty laid out the results of repentance and this list is who I want to become as a leader. Someone so enraptured by the gospel of grace that my astonishment increases as I age.
These are the things that a chief repenter sets the pace for in the church:
1. Gospel Astonishment (versus theological arrogance or coolness.)
2. Transparency and Vulnerability (versus posing and pretending.)
3. Owning and Confessing Our Sin (versus micro-managing one's reputation.)
4. Boasting in Weakness (versus denying or despising weakness.)
5. Foot Washing Servanthood (versus scepter grabbing control.)
6. Joyful Dependent Prayer (versus the illusion of competency.)
7. Loving the Least and the Lost (versus simply enjoying the saints.)
8. A Passionate Commitment to the Means of Grace (versus being too cool for spiritual disciplines.)
9. Walking with a Gospel Posse (versus living as an independent loner.)
10. Missional Passion and Engagement (versus being bored and boring others.)
In his two talks on "Leaders as Chief Repenters," Scotty opened Philippians 2 rightly pairing the imperatives with the gospel indicatives in the text and our place to lean into the finished work of Christ as we lead. A big part of this leaning is then repentance. We drop the pose and pretending and confront our own sin. We repent and embrace the comfort of our union with Christ.
As a result of this lifestyle of repentance, the chief repenter becomes a servant leader. He used the example of Jack Miller, one of his mentors, to reveal what it means to be a servant leader in the church. In ten points Scotty laid out the results of repentance and this list is who I want to become as a leader. Someone so enraptured by the gospel of grace that my astonishment increases as I age.
These are the things that a chief repenter sets the pace for in the church:
1. Gospel Astonishment (versus theological arrogance or coolness.)
2. Transparency and Vulnerability (versus posing and pretending.)
3. Owning and Confessing Our Sin (versus micro-managing one's reputation.)
4. Boasting in Weakness (versus denying or despising weakness.)
5. Foot Washing Servanthood (versus scepter grabbing control.)
6. Joyful Dependent Prayer (versus the illusion of competency.)
7. Loving the Least and the Lost (versus simply enjoying the saints.)
8. A Passionate Commitment to the Means of Grace (versus being too cool for spiritual disciplines.)
9. Walking with a Gospel Posse (versus living as an independent loner.)
10. Missional Passion and Engagement (versus being bored and boring others.)
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