Chapter One
Confronting The Spirit of Ahab
“The nature of leadership is to stand out in front and call others to a higher place, but the Spirit of Ahab causes leaders to lag behind with apathy and malaise.”
When a church suffers decline, its leaders often look for something to which they can assign blame. Quick to form committees and conduct surveys, pastors and deacons hope to implement some exciting, new program that will remedy their “trouble.” While this approach seems to bandage their concern for the moment, it does not confront a deeper cancer that is slowly strangling the body: the crises of leadership.
In I Kings 18:17-21, Ahab was a leader with problems. A terrible drought seized his country, the agriculture, industry and economy were in depression. Poverty, sickness and suffering were everywhere. Moreover, Syria—a powerful enemy was mobilizing for attack. His response to this national crises was the same as many frustrated leaders—blame it on something. Notice what Ahab said to Elijah in I Kings 18:17: “Is that you, O troubler of Israel?” Elijah was to take the blame for Israel’s trouble.
Elijah, however, retorted with a statement that reveals the heart of God towards leaders. “I have not troubled Israel, but you and your father’s house have, in that you have forsaken the commandments of the Lord and have followed the Baals.” In effect, the Lord was saying to Ahab, “You are king—the authority over this people. Look at yourself before shifting blame. There is something in you that hinders My plan. There is something about you that is ‘short circuiting’ what I intend for this nation.”
When a body is dying and its people are powerless, when worship is dry and the altars are barren, when ministries are unfruitful and immorality is swelling, those who are charged with leadership must be the first examined. James 3:1 says “My brethren do not desire to be masters, knowing that we shall receive stricter judgment.” The programs should not be faulted; the facilities should not be blamed. Judgment must begin with the character and capacity of the leaders. How are the people being led?
The Spirit of Ahab
There is a spirit attacking leaders in the church today. Simply stated, it is a spirit that causes leaders “not to lead.”
The nature of leadership is to stand out in front and call others to a higher place, but this spirit causes leaders to lag behind with apathy and malaise. When they should be pointing the way, challenging the prevailing attitudes of mediocrity, this spirit induces leaders to sit idly on the sidelines with hands in pocket blending into the background of apathy and disinterest.
Where are the clarion voices of prophetic urgency that once blazed a trail through sin, worldliness, discouragement and fear? Where are the church’s leaders who were once the first to build an altar, first to call down the fire, and first to lay down their lives? Where are they? They have gone the way of Ahab—mere figure heads having titles of authority but no spiritual authority. They have positions of influence but no drive to inspire the ones they are called lead. They hold offices but have no power to hold people; they fail to understand the God given mandate to pull their followers out of lukewarm slumber and into spiritual fervor.
Leadership is not just having a title. It’s more than sitting on a committee. Leadership is about people. It is having such an effect on people that they take ownership of the same attitudes, values and convictions of the one leading them.
To lead is to be in the “place” God wants for His people and then “pull” people into that place by the power of one’s own passion. Sadly, many believe that because they attend board meetings or have a respected title that they function as a leader. They are mistaken. Trustees who manage a place of worship but do not show people how to worship in that place are not leading. Deacons who affirm their belief in prayer but do not attend prayer meetings are not leading. Elders who “amen” their agreement with the concept of holiness but do not openly demonstrate repentance and display a passion for personal purity are not leading.
Leaders are “first.” They do not wait for an invitation or rely on encouragement from their peers. They lead. Leaders are the first ones to worship, the first ones to give, the first to pray, repent and weep over sin. They are the first to serve, the first to shout “amen” and the first to the altar for deeper consecration. Leaders constantly look behind at the ranks that follow and challenge complacency by the force of their own example. They do not wait for someone else to determine the environment, they decide how the environment should be and set out to change it.
True leadership can be likened to a thermostat regulating the temperature of a room. If the spiritual climate of a house grows cold, the leader turns up the heat by the intensity of his own passion and converts the environment to his own character. On the other hand, leaders having gone the way of Ahab are more like thermometers. Instead of influencing the environment, they are influenced by it and conform to it. When watching the character of an Ahab, one will not see a passionate example of where God is calling His body to; instead, one will see a mere reflection of the tired lukewarmness that has gripped the community and is destroying it.
Continued...
