Why holiness, hunger and humility can prevent moral failure in the Church

Bullying. Sexual Immorality. Narcissism. Misogyny. Financial irregularities. Stealing.

Over the past few years, the dirty washing of one Christian leader after another has been aired almost every week. This month, there’s been more allegations. Next month, there will no doubt be others.  

The body count of fallen leaders has been stacking up. Worse, the body count of individuals hurt by these leaders has risen exponentially. People have been damaged badly. Really badly.  

It is obvious that much repentance and reform is needed. But is there any hope? 

Into the light 

During the Covid-19 pandemic, the leaders of our group of churches gathered online. Mark Sayers, pastor of Red Church Melbourne, Australia, helped us to think about the ways God might be using the pandemic to challenge the Church.  

He encouraged us to pay attention to the self-promoting shadows God was bringing into the light during our time of enforced solitude; shadows that had lurked behind the bright lights of the platforms of our ministries; shadows we could see more clearly because there were now no platforms to stand upon.  

We need leaders with vision and competence. But we need holiness and hunger more 

Acknowledging our need to authentically lament and learn from the heartbreaking stories of fallen leaders, Mark provoked us towards a more hopeful and redemptive reflection. What if God might also be using that wilderness period and time of testing to raise up an entirely new cohort of leaders around the globe?  

Mark described that new breed of leader as “the holy, the hungry and the humble”. That simple sentence somehow took hold of our hearts. One friend literally fell off his chair as the fear of the Lord drove him to his knees. Mark’s words reminded me of the prophet Hanani’s rebuke to King Asa: “For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him” (2 Chronicles 16:9).  

Elevate and occupy 

And yet words like these don’t draw many followers. In so many parts of the Western Church, spiritual thrill-seekers still bounce around churches, conferences and events, aping and idolising the latest flavour-of-the-month leader who will deliver their next fleeting shot of inspirational pleasure.  

There seems to be an intrinsic part of our fallen human state which aches for a mascot, someone who will represent us and validate our ideologies, and so we elevate these individuals to places in our minds that they were never supposed to occupy.  

The children of Israel were not content with the leadership of their great deliverer, Yahweh, but hankered after a king like other nations (1 Samuel 8). So we, too, often confuse Jesus with a 21st century charismatic leader.  

Like Peter, we are addicted to the revelatory moments of the mountaintop. Yet we are not prepared to incarnate these inspirational soundbites into a life of sacrifice bound for the cross. And because this kind of hero worship is so dangerous, it elicits that unforgettably harsh response from Jesus: “Get behind me Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns” (Matthew 16:23). Ouch!  

There’s nothing new or surprising about the crisis of leadership integrity that the Church is experiencing. We’ve allowed worldly wisdom to influence the Church, and it’s become entrenched.  

But what if we re-oriented our leadership back towards the way of Jesus? Not so much onwards and upwards, but backwards and downwards. Jesus’ way was so climactically demonstrated at Calvary. We, too, need to go down on our knees in repentance at the foot of the cross. 

A new generation 

And amid the ruins of so many failed models, we begin to hear reports of young men and women showing up at churches. What if we are beginning to witness the quiet stirrings of…revival?  

What if God has been preparing a new breed of leaders to lead his Church in the secret place – holy, hungry and humble ones - who seek his presence above human methods, ministries and models.  

In this current cultural moment, we need leaders with vision. But we need holiness more. We need leaders of competence. But we need hunger more. We need leaders who are confident. But we need humility more.  

An intrinsic part of our fallen human state aches for a mascot, someone who will validate our ideologies 

Maybe the answer to the current leadership crisis is not a rejection of leadership. Maybe it is cruciform leadership. Surely the luminous counter-cultural nature of the cross should be the defining characteristic of kingdom leadership. As Scot McKnight put it: “The character of a king shapes the character of that king’s kingdom, and the character of our King is cruciform.” 

Paul gives us a description of the cruciform life in his letter to the church at Philippi when he exhorts these early Jesus-followers to embody the same mind as Christ. I’d encourage us all to stop co-opting the words from the latest celebrity leadership guru or obsessing over the biggest online influencers and instead take a fresh look at Philippians 2:6–11. 

What if we returned to scripture and simply followed the leadership of the Lord Jesus himself? We need to read these words in a spirit of humility and repentance. For they not only speak to the death of Christ in his crucifixion but his life, too; of cruciformity.   

Crucified with Christ 

The cruciform way is an ongoing participation with Christ in a life of joyful sacrifice which makes room for others to come into the glorious knowledge of the Father’s love and the recreation of all things.  

Loving God and loving our neighbour – this is the cruciform way, and the world is crying out for leaders formed in this way. I believe that church leaders are being invited to submit ourselves to a process of relearning what we know about leadership at the feet of that luminous Nazarene.  

So where are these quiet leaders? Who are the holy, the hungry, the humble? When I think and look around, most aren’t online or on conference platforms. You probably won’t have heard of them.  

For me, most are pretty close to home. In my own community, my own church, my own family even. Maybe yours too, quietly serving God over the years in the authentic way they’ve always done. Those are the ones I want to learn from.  

At times like this we may be tempted to feel sceptical of leadership, but we must take care not to become cynical. God can use the smouldering ashes of this intense refining to remake crowns of beauty (see Isaiah 61:3), placing these upon the heads of holy, hungry and humble servants he has been quietly preparing for this moment in history.  

Alain’s new book, The Cruciform Leader, is available now from Muddy Pearl