Leadership Lessons from Paul, Part 3 - 1&2 Thessalonians

Biblical Leadership

Paul was quite a guy. He started life as a pharisee and ends it being an example to emulate. This is a great point to consider when we find that people don’t change. Actually, they do. It just usually takes the intervention of Jesus Christ and a little faith on the individual’s part. Too bad it isn’t on our part – if we could wish a person to change it would be great. Instead, we have to hope a person to change – envision what will come in the future – and pray for it. We too can change and become more like Paul, and today we have four more ways that Paul leads us in being good leaders. Paul was not a burden, he was encouraging, he suffered with others, and he was present.

Leadership: Not being a burden

When I say Paul was not a burden, he specifically talks about it in a financial and work sense (1 Thess 2:9, 2 Thess 3:7-9). Paul was an itinerant preacher/evangelist/church planter, travelling around the world to preach of Christ risen and stay to make disciples. Many such itinerant preachers today set up their tent and depend on the audience to provide offerings and donations which cover their expenses. Paul on the other hand worked as a tentmaker so that he specifically would not be a burden on others (Acts 18:3). Am I the only one that sees the irony in the fact that we set up tents to ask people for money, and Paul made them so that he didn’t have to ask? Please don’t mistake this discussion as one that is anti-tithing! Tithing is important and Biblical but will perhaps have to be a point of discussion some other time. This is a discussion on working and not burdening others. It is interesting too that Paul did not give up his job as he worked full time for the Lord. We can all continue to work and serve Him at the same time. So, the leadership that strikes me here is that Paul did not ask others to do what he could do. It reminds me of the phrase ‘I won’t ask you to do anything that I won’t do.’ I still take out the trash and clean the toilets, though I have the luxury of paying someone else to do it. Paul led others in his constancy of work and not presuming that others would do it. A supervisor who delegates everything and plays golf several times a week is the opposite of what I see Paul modelling. Paul was ‘doing’ alongside others were ‘doing’ as well, whether tentmaking or discipling. Nor is this comment one about full-time pastors and ministers! Oh my, what a mess this little topic has gotten me into. I suspect that Paul had fewer people to lead than most of today’s full-time folk. Full-time ministry and missionaries have come out of the little thing that Christ started, and Paul and 12 others continued. As leaders of our smaller groups (remember, we are all leaders of some kind – see Part 2), we are called to do our part and continue working toward the goal, whatever the goal may be- secular or Christian.

Leadership: Encourage Others

Paul was an encourager. This is also one of the founding reasons for this blog. We all need encouragement. Life is hard and Christian life is even harder; we go against the grain. Paul says specifically that he encouraged the Thessalonians (1 Thess 2:12), but I think when we consider the two letters, he encourages them by talking about their progress and their continuity in serving God. Reviewing our successes, clarifying the reality of the situation and outlining the hope that we have in Christ are the only real encouraging that any of us can do. The courage has to come from inside. Paul’s two letters are encouragements, and we will look at the reality of the situation and the hope of Christ later this month. Paul encourages by talking about how the Thessalonians become imitators of Christ and are his glory, both clear successes that can be remembered to gain courage. Just because we have not yet done something, does not mean that we can not do something. That is what encouragement is for, for when we have to do something new: new trial, new job, new relationship. It is for when we have to do something differently: a second chance. Paul encouraged others to do and get through and find triumph in life. We can and should too.

Leadership: Suffering with Others

Paul suffered with others. His letters are written to acknowledge and sustain the Thessalonians in the persecutions and trials they were in. He was so concerned that he sent Timothy to check on the Thessalonians, he also toiled and suffered with them while he was in their presence. I think this was as simple as sharing a meal or sitting in prayer with the person or family. I have friends who are thousands of miles away and suffering, as a loved one undergoes extensive cancer treatment. I suffer with them, asking for updates and keeping them in my prayers. A staff member was here and gone and here and gone recently, and it made me wonder if there was anything that she was suffering about. She wasn’t, I discovered when I was able to ask. It is the taking an interest in a person that Paul was good at. We need to understand what joys and sorrows are present in other’s lives. Suffering with others is also sharing our meal with the homeless or donating a Christmas dinner to those in need. Paul shared of himself in these cases and surely was stronger for it (1 Peter 5:10).

Leadership: Being Present

The last leadership thought for today is that Paul was present. Paul stayed with, lived with, and worked with the people that he was leading. He sought them out when he knew they were suffering, by writing a letter, by sending Timothy. Even when he was away, he sought to be present. In this day and age, we are rarely fully present. How often I go out to dinner in a restaurant and tables nearby are full of people on their phones. No one speaks to those at their table anymore! When I go out with people, I choose to be with them in that moment, and other than a family emergency, there is little reason for me to check anything on my phone. My husband even gets worried when I don’t answer my phone because it is on silent as I meet with others. I write that and am reminded how often I look things up that are questions in conversation, but mostly at home. I think I will have to work on that, though. But really, who wouldn’t look up underwater hockey when it is mentioned in conversation?! Paul spent time with the people that God entrusted to him. He was in contact with them and knew, even at a distance, that friends were suffering. We have a greater opportunity to know such things with technology and when technology is applied wisely, we can also be present, even when we are far.

I am interested in these Biblical leadership / pastoral notes from Paul and am trying to mentally see how I can follow a bit closer in step with them. Do you have a particular strength that Paul has taught us about too? Is there a point that the Lord is pushing you to work on? Will you share it with us below?