Steadiness and Steadfastness
It has long been known that we all have personality traits that when combined together make us the unique individuals God designed us to be. Leadership styles proceed from these traits and help form our character, along with the spiritual qualities gifted to us by our union with the Lord Jesus and our conformity to the image of Christ.
Looking back on my earliest days as a pastor, I realize now what I don’t think I fully appreciated or understood then. I was then a very young, immature pastor, leading a young and immature church. I say that although there were a few among the people whom God had wisely placed among us who were much advanced in spiritual maturity and wisdom. Nevertheless, I was in a real sense a developing pastor leading a developing people. There was a love relationship in which they allowed me to grow in my spiritual development, my leadership skills, and my character as a servant of Christ and his Body, the church.
As we continue to process the character of spiritual leaders, let’s consider two qualities that are essential to those who have been called by God and entrusted with the great responsibility of leading and serving the people of God. Consider with me the two related, yet distinct, qualities of Steadiness and Steadfastness.
Steadiness describes the quality of having firmness of foot, an established faith foundation, a stable temperament, and a composure in all circumstances. No one will long follow a leader who is unsteady on his feet, who is uncertain in his faith, who is unpredictable in his temperament, or who comes unglued in times of challenge or crisis.
Jesus, of course, is our ultimate model of spiritual leadership. He was, therefore, the model of steadiness. In John 10:11-13, he says, I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 12 The hired hand is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. 13 The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. Jesus points out that false shepherds (He called them “hired hands”.) run away when they see danger approaching.
There is no instance in the Gospels in which Jesus might be accused of “coming unglued.” Even when he erupted in the Temple and overturned the tables of the money changers, he was not so angry as to be out of control, if we understand his actions in the right light. This act was not a spur of the moment unconstrained act of anger. Rather, it was a prophetic acting out of the wrath of the Father that would befall the Temple and Jerusalem in 70 AD when the Romans, the new Babylonians, would destroy the city. In keeping with the prophets of God before him, Jesus was calling the people to repentance and warning them of the temporal judgment of God that was to come.
Paul would later give young Timothy some wise instructions about pastoring God’s people. In II Timothy 4:1-5, he wrote: In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge: 2 Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction. 3 For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. 4 They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. 5 But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.
Only God knows the number of pastors who have lost their ministries because they couldn’t keep their heads in all situations.
The psalmist wrote: Praise the Lord! Blessed is the man who fears the Lord, who greatly delights in his commandments!…He is not afraid of bad news; his heart is firm, trusting in the Lord. His heart is steady; he will not be afraid, until he looks in triumph on his adversaries (Psalm 112:1, 7-8 ESV).
Next month, we’ll look at the second part of this topic and reflect on steadfastness.