Spiritual Versus Natural: The struggle of building a work for God

Spiritual Versus Natural: The struggle of building a work for God

Let me start by saying I am not an expert on spiritual leadership but this article isn’t about that. I have spent a lot of time with leaders in general and I’m starting to see the same trends. As someone who has studied leadership in its highest form, I believe I can finally make some correlations. My desire with this article, is to build a foundation by which to help the next generation of spiritual leaders navigate the murky subject of spirit vs. natural.

The List

Often times, spiritual leaders (i.e. Pastors, Apostles, Bishops) find themselves in the hard position of doing a lot of pleasing. They are taught (depending on your denomination), that there is a hierarchy of priority. Typically, God is first, family second, church is third and self is last. The problem that I have discovered is that this list has to be interchangeable in order for the “individual” to thrive. At their core, spiritual leaders are still human and prone to error. How they handle everyday life will determine how high that margin of error is and how effective their ministries will be. Leaders must always remember that your everyday life will be your greatest ministry and people live to be inspired.

Back to the list, spiritual leaders have a variable that other sectors don’t have to account for and that’s the “God” factor. The only other types of leaders that deal with this are Third Sector (nonprofit) and they almost run parallel. A Spiritual leader’s priority list has to be interchangeable due to the nature of everyone’s needs. They must remember that God will always be first but a distinction has to be made. It is my belief that God has an expectation for his leaders to understand what’s important outside of him. Even the great T.D. Jakes understands the importance of interchanging his priorities. He knows how to shift from Pastor, to husband, to father, to leader and to just Jakes. It is the inability to shift properly that destroys ministries and the leader themselves. If you decide ministry is your lot in life, make sure that you understand where your priorities lie.

Not Exempt

For ten years, I was a spiritual assistant to a very gifted pastor in a small town located in South Carolina. She has been in ministry for almost 30 +years and I witnessed miracles people wouldn’t believe. Spiritually she was absolutely uncanny but measuring by a natural output rubric she failed miserably. Spiritual leaders are not exempt from producing tangible results for their parishioners to see and experience. Keeping this in mind, these types of leaders still must properly conceive, execute and implement the vision God has given them.

In keeping with the story, I learned early on that my leader hated dealing with anything “natural”
or the business side of the ministry. I am a planner by nature and my father was a trustee for the church. I used to attend church conference and watch the manner by which they discussed finances / church affairs. Try as I might, I couldn’t make those types of conversations with her any less uncomfortable. She was dead set on "God will make a way" despite the countless signs that we were financially sinking. This concept isn't a foreign one but it has become a safety net to account for seemingly poor judgment. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely believe that there is a certain level of Faith we should have (especially spiritual leaders) but we must also become accountable in our leadership positions. If we look at the Duty of Care in other arenas, doctors for instance, they are held to a certain level of "care" in the medical field. Meaning, that we hold them in high regard as it pertains to anything medically related. It doesn't matter how small the injury maybe, we still expect the highest level of care. Reciprocally, the same should be said for spiritual leaders in the field of ministry or spiritual guidance. We should expect them to operate under the unction of a higher power and this isn't just limited to spiritual advising. As leaders, they must be held to certain measurable standard that can yield measurable results.