June 1, 2003

Pastor Christa von Zychlin

Our Savior’s Evangelical Lutheran Church

Hartland, WI.  53029

How God Picks Leaders

Our Scripture reading from the book of Acts today brings up some interesting questions about how to pick a leader, and in a broader context, how to make choices & decisions in your church in your place of business, and in your home   Sometimes, (as Amanda pointed out in the children’s sermon) decisions are easy to make:

Like I said, sometimes even big decisions are easy to make, but sometimes they can be much more difficult.

 How do you choose a leader, or a co worker, or a project partner?

 The disciples in Acts 1 needed to choose a 12^th co-worker in the kingdom, a 12^th  pr man for the Gospel of  Eternal Life in Jesus Christ.  The world needs to know about Easter!  We need to find a replacement for Judas,” says Peter

 Ah yes, Judas.  That brings up an interesting point. 

 Why did Jesus choose Judas in the first place, if God, knowing all things, knew in advance that Judas would be the betrayer?

 Peter says, so that Scripture could be fulfilled. 

This shows

 Even if you are the best person in the world to make a decision,

Even if you feel very confident in the criteria for making your decision

 God may have an ulterior motive with your life choices.

 Do you know, for example,  that in the old Testament God told the prophet Hosea: here, here’s the woman I want you to marry!  And that woman ended up being a hooker on the streets… after their marriage!  Did Hosea choose wrong?  Did God direct poorly?  No, God had a bigger plan in mind, he wanted Hosea to be able to experience & articulate the pain of personal betrayal in marriage.  “Tell them about it, Hosea, tell them what it feels like,.” Says God.  And that’s how we get the beautiful sad, book of Hosea in the Old Testament.

  Whoa.  Our God is a bigger God and a more complicated God and a more awesomely strange God than we generally give him credit for.

 It’s delightfully strange, for example, how  throughout Biblical history, God has often chosen the least likely candidates for big jobs in the kingdom:

 Just a few that come to my mind:

 Sarah, the giggler, the one who laughed so hard when she heard she was going to get pregnant by that old man husband of hers that she almost fell off her chair, but the angel said, yes,  you will be the mother of nations, and so she was.

 Moses, the man who was such a poor public speaker that he had to have his big brother come along & do the translation for him when he went to the king, but God still asked him to be the one who physically walked his people out of the land of slavery, and so he did.

 David, the adulterer.  Someone who had all kinds of women at his beck and call and finds that’s still not enough, so he sleeps with the wife of his best general while the poor man is out fighting some war? But God still chose him to be remembered as the greatest of earthly kings.

 The list goes on & on & doesn’t stop in the New Testament:

 Jesus chooses Peter, the slow student, to be the chief disciple.

 James & John, the power hungry, to be powerful SERVANTS of the gospel.

 He chooses Mary Magdalene, Who’d ever heard of a woman preacher before Jesus told her to “go & preach it, sister!” ? And she does. 

 Several years ago in my  former parish, we were looking for a youth director.  Even though we had a good committee in place, I have to tell you that I had a pretty clear idea in my own head of exactly what we needed:

 First of all I have to admit that what I had in mind was a good male role model (since several of our other leaders were women,)

Then I thought the youth director should be married (to provide that stability we needed)

In the back of my mind I was thinking he should not too pretty or handsome (for obvious reasons)

And of course it should be someone with a strong Lutheran background ,

and preferably a great guitar player.

 And you know what?  I got him!  His name was Doug and he fit all the criteria. We prayed about him & the committee said THIS is the one we want!

And then he started his career with us by not showing up on time, or sometimes at all..

And then he forgot to call any youth about the service projects, so predictably, nobody came.

And then we found out he had this  theory that actually planning out youth meetings was not being grace-filled.

 Then I got to fire my first hire at this large congregation.

 Doug fit all the criteria, and I still think it was God’s choice, that we hire him, but mostly what I & my committee learned through the process is that even prayer & good selection criteria, as important as those are, they  still don’t mean a smooth ride.  Sometimes God wants us to learn something & grow through right choices that STILL lead to bumpy rides & life complications.

 What we got after Doug

Was a young woman named Lisa.  Someone who fit way fewer of my criteria – she a beautiful single college student from a nondenominational church,

Who didn’t even have a clue as to how to pick up a guitar…

But she showed up and she called up and she planned, and she prayed!

 Under her direction,

Youth meetings went from sporadic to weekly events,

She took youth on service trips & taught them tithing…

She did  conservations projects with them, took kids along on visits to the homebound & elderly,  worked with the area children’s home, went rock climbing, had shaving cream wars, talked to youth and parents about sex, drugs, hip hop music, in a Christ-centered context, she took kids to see cool movies like the first Matrix, & talked about discipleship themes in those movies, and two years before I lift she led a successful campaign to raise over $15,000 to take 6 youth on a life changing global mission trip to India.

  How do YOU make decisions, about who to hire, and which job to take, which school  to place your child, and which people to surround yourself with in your life’s work and challenges & pleasures?

 It’s good to

1-Be very confident & clear in the criteria for making your decision –

n     in Acts…. They had clear criteria for choosing the replacement disciple: it had to be someone with experience, a proven track record, and good at communications

 2- It’s good to make your decision not alone, but in the company of others – the disciples had a committee of 11

 It’s good to

3- pray honestly

 4- Sometimes, it may even be a good idea, if, like the disciples in Acts today,

You carefully narrow your search down to two options & then simply roll the dice…

 But the Biblical witness is that,  even after all that, you may still be left wondering about or even disappointed in your decision!

 And YET, The good news today is that God still has a plan:

 Interestingly enough, the disciple Matthias, so carefully & painstakingly chosen by the apostles… he’s never mentioned again in the Bible.  We have no clue whether he was a huge asset or possibly a deep disappointment to the cause of the kingdom.  But very soon after this careful choice in Acts 1, God raises up somebody totally different to carry the mantle of the apostles.  And unlikely fellow named Saul, today known as St. Paul.

 The good news of the Scriptures is that God is the one who is ultimately in charge.

 And the same God who raised Jesus from the dead, when things looked hopeless, will & does work gladly in your life and mine,

To redeem our choices, to make good our decisions, to build His kingdom upon our faith in his steadfast love, in his big picture plan, and in his  perfect leadership.

AMEN.

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