To begin, I grew up an elder’s daughter, meaning my dad sat on the board of elders–and often chaired it–for the majority of my childhood. This made ours a well-known family, and one very much under the microscope. I spent Sundays listening to sermons on grace, followed by Mondays through Saturdays experiencing a significant lack of it. Expectations abound toward those in church leadership, and in some cases rightly so. While I believe those who lead the church should be held to a high standard, I don’t think that standard includes prohibiting them from any semblance of humanity, and certainly not their in-progress children who didn’t choose their position but were born right into that church nursery under a blanket of expectations.

On the other side of my childhood years and as a member in multiple churches over the years, I’ve seen the best and worst of elder and deacon boards. There’s no need to get into the bloody details, but my experience with church leadership has often left me perplexed and aching for what God intended in the beginning. Because what I’ve seen certainly can not be the leadership God designed for his bride.

All this leads me to wonder if our leadership lacking and the secret for its remedy sits in that first verse Paul penned in his letter to the Philippine Church:

“Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus. To all the saints in Christ Jesus at Philippi, together with the overseers and deacons…”

Paul writes to the church and her leaders, but as the leader over both groups he sets the standard with four simple but strong words: servants of Christ Jesus.

Servants. Not masters, or dictators, or indifferent followers, or naysayers, or heavy-handed rebukers. SERVANTS. Servants of Christ, with him as the authority, the source of love, grace, mercy, wisdom and correction.

Regardless of whether you’re an elder, deacon, women’s ministry leader, Bible study facilitator, or mentor, your first step in leading is by serving, and by remembering Who you serve. Tension will still raise his ugly head from time to time, as long as humans lead humans. But serving is the knife that cuts through the tension and allows grace–the grace of Jesus–to abound.

They are wrong.  I love God as much today while my days are spent trying to potty train my son to no avail as I did when I pored myself into youth.  I pray as much as before.  I still read the Bible.  And God still loves me.  Just as much.  Just the way I am.  Even on my native soil.

All too often we get hung up on someone’s position, especially if it pertains to something within the church.  In no way am I trying to disregard the hard work of pastors, elders or missionaries.  Peter Drucker, the late leadership guru, said that being a pastor is one of the four hardest jobs in America.  I personally know some of the hardships of serving overseas.  I hold elders in the utmost respect, who work at their full-time jobs and then diligently help meet the needs within their churches and communities.  They aren’t easy tasks, yet neither is living out Colossians 3:17 while collecting trash, fighting corruption or scrubbing toilets. 

This same leveling of the playing field is seen in the beginning of the letter to the Philippians. 

I am writing to all of God’s holy people in Philippi who belong to Christ Jesus, including the elders and deacons.” Philippians 1:1

All of God’s holy people.  If “holy people” is too overwhelming for you, simply think of it according to The Message’s interpretation: “all the followers of Jesus.” This isn’t intended solely for the church leadership or the ultra-Christian (whatever that faulty notion might mean).  Matthew Henry says it best in his commentary on the whole Bible.  “It is directed to all the saints, one as well as another, even the meanest, the poorest, and those of the least gifts. Christ makes no difference; the rich and the poor meet together in him.” 

Don’t dismiss a single word in the book of Philippians by rationalizing that it was written solely for those higher up in church leadership.  That simply is not true.  I can’t wait to meet here with the rich, poor, mean, ugly, married, single, divorced, mother, janitor, lawyer and everything in between as together we study this incredible book.

The same holds true for my Bible. Even though one of the apps on my iPhone is the Bible, nothing beats my navy, leather bound, gold-engraved, marked up, Bible that I have had for years. And let me tell you the “apps” in this book are just as amazing. One of my favorite books in the Bible is Philippians. The four short chapters are packed with nuggets of truth for everyday living. I hope you will join us the rest of this year as we journey through Philippians and unpack some amazing truths that will apply to our everyday lives.

Philippians is one of many books in the New Testament written by the Apostle Paul. Paul and his companions established the church in Philippi on his second missionary journey, which is recorded in Acts 16. This letter to the church in Philippi is believed to have been written in 61 A.D. At this point in Paul’s life he is imprisoned in Rome for spreading the gospel message to the Gentiles.

Let me stop right here. He is in prison. Please keep this in mind as you read through the book of Philippians. I’m often in awe when I read Paul’s words about joy, unity, Christian living, and humility, and the circumstances in which he is writing—imprisonment.

Paul begins his letter like this: “I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” Philippians 1:3-6

There are times in my life when I feel shackled to my circumstances. I feel in bondage to the past, but here is a man who is physically in prison and writing a letter of thanksgiving to his friends in Philippi. Not only that, he tells them he is praying for them with joy. Say what?

I can honestly say that thanksgiving and joy are the furthest things from my mind when I face difficult times. But what if they weren’t? What if I focused less on me and more on God and others? What would that even look like? What if I held onto the confidence that Paul talks about and truly believed that He who began a good work in me will carry it on to completion?

How’s that for a free app?

Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” Philippians 1:6

Fireworks will soon fill the skies.  They will mark freedom, reminding us of what once was and allowing us to savor what now is.

Over the next several months, we’ll be studying the book of Philippians.  Today I viewed it for the first time as a book of freedom.  It, along with the entire Scriptures, provides the hope, source and keys to the freedom of living a meaningless life devoted to self.  During the remainder of the year, we’ll get to learn how to be free from:

• Living loveless lives (Phil. 1:9)
• Cowardice and fearfulness (Phil. 1:14)
• Discontentment (Phil. 2:2)
• A lack of joy (Phil. 3)
• Pride (Phil. 2:6,7)
• Complaining and arguing (Phil. 2:14)
• Anxiety (Phil. 4:6)

A friend was challenged to read the entire book of Philippians four times daily for a month.  She started skeptically, but soon found herself waiting for the next ay she’d ingest the four chapters of God’s word.  In thirty days, her life changed.  She’d open her mouth to grumble, then recall Phil. 2:14 and change the subject.  She stopped meditating on the things that worried or troubled her and began focusing on things that are true, noble, lovely and praiseworthy.  By the end of the month, she was still unemployed and there were still real-world issues that infiltrated her life, yet her countenance demonstrated one profound change: freedom. 

Let it ring in our lives, too.

“So many others have tried their hand at putting together a story of the wonderful harvest of Scripture and history that took place among us, using reports handed down by the original eyewitnesses who served this Word with their very lives. Since I have investigated all the reports in close detail, starting from the story’s beginning, I decided to write it all out for you, most honorable Theophilus, so you can know beyond the shadow of a doubt the reliability of what you were taught …” ~ Luke, follower of Jesus and teller of his story (Luke 1:1-4, The Message)

For six months now we’ve read the story of one man whose set out to research, evaluate, and wrestle with all the evidence about the man named Jesus. Overwhelmed by both this evidence and his personal experiences, Luke came to believe the man from Nazareth was so much more than just a man–Jesus was and is the Son of God. He then recorded his conclusion in a letter to “Theophilus” and to us, to make sure the truth of what he discovered continued to find voice.

But what about you? Have you carefully investigated what it is that you believe? Have you wrestled with the truth, examined all the facts, considered the implications for yourself and others? And have you made a determination on the man named Jesus? Is He simply a good man to you, or is He the Son of God?

Your answer to the above determines what you do next. If you’ve examined the evidence and found it lacking, there is nothing left to do but discard it and take your quest for truth elsewhere.

If, however, you’ve scoured Luke’s story, searched the stories of others, examined the evidence in your own life and have discovered Jesus of Nazareth to be everything we’ve ever hoped for and everything God ever promised for the redemption of humanity, then it’s your turn. Your turn to write your own story. Your turn to make your life into a letter on which the redemption of God is written and read by those you meet.

It’s your turn.

Ugggh. Can you imagine? Talk about hopes rising and falling. It reminds a little of the story we see unfold in Luke 24. Devastated by the death of Jesus, three women approached the tomb on the third day, only to find it empty. I can only imagine what they must have thought and felt in that moment. I’m sure they were taken back to the last days they had spent with Christ when He had clearly told His followers that He would raise from the dead on the third day. But in the tragic moment of His death many thought it was just too good to be true, and soon dismissed the idea all together.

“When they came back from the tomb, they told all these things to the Eleven and to all the others. But they did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense.” Luke 24:9, 11

Friends, the hope that is available to us who believe in Christ is unimaginable at times. We get caught up in our earthly trials and circumstances and the very thought of eternity in Heaven with our Lord seems like nonsense. Do you suppose if we tried with all our might to focus heavenward, rather than on the earthly, that hope might be more realistic? Not just too good to be true, but true!?!

“But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 3:13b-14