What does it mean to have power and authority over someone else if you are following Jesus? 

This is a huge question in the church. And one we are deeply uncomfortable answering. We give people power and authority but we don’t teach them, or have any real understanding of how they should hold and exercise it. And then we act surprised or even shocked when people to whom we give power and authority, with no training or even a working framework to understand what they have now, go off the rails and abuse their position. 

It happens way too often. I speak to you as someone who has had the duty to clean up the mess on a number of occasions.

Executive MBA programs teach that sort of thing, but they are working out of a different set of goals and assumptions. And they have, I imagine, a different expectation about what success looks like in their design.

If we don’t learn this in the daily life of the church, or in our seminary formation, where do we learn it?

I make a try at answering that question in the sermon this week.

You find a direct like to the sermon video here.