Hebrews 13:7: Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith.
Can I tell you a secret? My college degree was in “Practical Theology.” Okay, that’s not a juicy secret. Its a boring one, honestly. I can hear what you are thinking because many have the same response: “How can theology be practical?!” At the time I started, I didn’t give much thought to the degree’s name. I just had to choose a course load I was interested in. So…”Practical Theology” it was.
In this case, what “Practical” meant was to train us in certain skills: leading a meeting, preaching, teaching, studying, creating mission statements. Stuff like that. I don’t remember a class on “talking to real humans” or “being there when people are hurting” or “how to be prioritize your family over work.”Those things see more practical to me.
I bet you would agree.
There is another practical question that was left unconsidered: what makes a “spiritual leader”? Notice that I am not merely talking about those people (like me) whose income comes from being an official leader. I am talking about those of us who God puts in position of some sort of influence with other people so that they might trust Jesus. That means every follower of Jesus, in varying ways. Does someone have to get a “Practical Theology” degree to be used by God to encourage, build up, and challenge other followers of Jesus?
I bet you know the answer to that question.
I live in a religious world in which we speak of trusting in God’s work through us, but tend to celebrate and rely on skills. The one with the greatest set of skills gets the most attention, the most accolades, the most respect. That is normalized and (almost) unquestioned. In this respect, the “world” I live in is not much different that how the other “worlds” function.
In reality, it is easy to believe that all we need is skill and then we can be an effective leader. That is the default mode in how think about most things. It is often the default mode in how we think about spiritual leadership.
“There is no need to rely on God’s Spirit. We have everything we need in our skills.”
Notice the difference between that thinking and the way of thinking that the author of Hebrews had. Where we seek out greater and sharper levels of skill, the Spirit inspired the writer to focus on faith.
Now, in light of the context of this part of Hebrews, “faith” is not equal to Christianity or a belief system or possibly willful, ignorant “trust” (read: “blind faith”). “Faith” is a substantive, intelligent, reasoned confidence in the God who is alive and at work…reliance on a Person who makes promises and gives us a heart to believe he will fulfill his promises.
The Spirit inspired these words to reshape our thinking on what matters to him. It is not mere “skill” that our God is interested in, but a man or woman who is growing deeper and deeper in a heart confidence in a Father who loves to give good things to his children.
The main skill (will you allow me to put it that way?) that a spiritual leader needs is not something we can practice like public speaking or throwing a baseball, but an inward posture of child-like trust. People do not need our skills nearly as much as I believe they do. What they need is a model. They need someone who has surrendered to a loving Father and found him to be practically loving.
The theology that is most practical is the theology- knowing God- that leads us to trust him despite difficult or disappointing circumstances. A knowing of a Person that affects us more deeply than the trouble that surrounds us.
I am going to go as far to say that the leaders that the writer of Hebrews is talking about are not really Spiritual leaders unless they possess a growing confidence in the Father instead of a reliance on their own abilities.
We want people to imitate our simple confidence in a faithful God, in real life everyday stuff. We want them to believe Jesus’ words, the Father’s heart, and the power of the Spirit. Trusting in our abilities may be entertaining if we do it well, but that confidence will not be life-giving for them.
People need to trust in the One who can (and will!) come through for them. Our role is to model that type of life so that they will say to themselves “I want the authentic faith that I see in him!”