"Passing the Torch" or "Torching the Passer"

Due to news breaks on ESPN yesterday (Monday) I am given another excuse to return to one of my favorite topics - football, but particularly my football team, the San Diego Chargers. For those of you who don't know, LaDanian Tomlinson has been officially released by the San Diego Chargers. As a San Diego fan this is a very sad, but exciting day all at the same time. It is sad because a truly great player is leaving. Ten years ago the Chargers were at the bottom of the stack. They had just picked a rising star in QB Ryan Leaf. He had just won the Rose Bowl convincingly and was supposed to be an amazing talent. A year later everyone knew he was one of the biggest mistakes ever made. He just recently ended up on the 10 biggest busts on an ESPN website article. So the Chargers drafted LaDanian Tomlinson from TCU (Texas Christian University) and he became one of the greatest Running Backs (if not the greatest) to play in this past decade. He has set and broken countless records and always done it with class. He has never been responsible for any off-field problems and is a devoted family man. Amazingly the worst thing he has ever done is appear to be sulking when he was injured during a game at NE and couldn't play. Bottom line, he is a hall-of-fame (easily) RB who has handled himself well and never been a problem in the locker room through his entire career. 

So what now? He is leaving. What is amazing to me is that it appears fairly obvious to most football fans (including myself) that LT is not his former self, yet he still believes he can go out and put up big numbers. So he will be looking for another team, and, who knows, maybe he will succeed. Not likely, but always a possibility. This story reminds me of some valuable lessons that older pastors and leaders in Christianity had a hard time learning. Continue reading to see what they are.

If we learn anything from history it is that we have not learned from our history. In every generation "great" leaders arise in Christian circles. Too often there is a pattern. A young pastor or Christian leader with a dynamic personality begins a ministry, church or movement. He develops quite a following and the church/ministry grows to a great size. He is hailed as a great example and is asked to speak at all the prominent conferences and meetings. But eventually he grows older and begins to move past his prime. At this point it begins to get interesting. Rarely does this leader ever replace himself and step down gracefully. Usually they hold on to their dying breath. Then after their death the church of 25,000 quickly dwindles to a few thousand or even out of existence entirely. The church/ministry looks back to those glory days with wistful longing, but it will never be again. What do we learn from this?

• FOLLOW GOD, NOT MEN - Unfortunately it reveals that we are extremely superficial people. We attach ourselves to great personalities rather than a Great God. We jump on board the bandwagon and lift up certain men instead of lifting up Jesus Christ. In many ways we create idolatry through the worship of Christian leaders. A friend of mine once said, "There is no such thing as a "great" man of God, but only a man greatly used by God." He is exactly right. We will never see this pattern change if we continue to worship a dynamic personality rather than a living God. When we place God first in our lives then we will realize that these "great" men are merely God's servants obediently living out their lives for Him.
• POWERFUL PRIDE - I am sure you have all heard the saying, "Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely." Once again, we discover that Christian leaders aren't so different than the CEO's, Kings, and secular leaders of our day. While God alone is the only one who can judge their motives we can see their actions. Many Christian leaders seem to get caught up in the popularity contests that are rampant today, placing fame as a higher priority than God's Word. Please understand that I am not saying that any pastor or leader of a large church/ministry is corrupt. What I am saying is that historically popularity and "power" often seem to change Christian leaders. What happens is that they begin to believe that the church/ministry is something they built, rather than something God built. When this happens they believe that they are indispensable. The line of reasoning seems to be, "How could a younger man come in and run all this? He wouldn't have my wisdom or talent? I built this after all." I have even seen leaders retire and after a few months come back to their church/ministry and overthrow the new leadership because the new leadership was changing too much or heading in a different direction than the founder intended. What I take away from this is that the sin of pride is alive and well in church leadership. We must be constantly on guard to the temptation that we have done anything by our own power. It is God and God alone who will build his church. We are simply tools in His hands.
• TRAIN LEADERS - In many ways this last point is simply the result of the first two. When people follow a personality and the leader becomes lifted up with pride there is no way that the leadership will start looking for a successor. Anyone with the talent or ability to take the leadership position will be viewed as a threat. They are someone to be wary of and guard against. They must quickly be sent on their way so they don't develop a "following." You can see how this is a problem for the church and other ministries. God commands us to be seeking after and training up godly leadership in our churches (2 Tim 2:1-7). But I believe this is exactly where the church has failed. We don't train leaders in our churches to take the initiative, think outside of the box or take risks. We train people in our churches to be dependent upon us and our teaching. Yet God commends those people who ask hard questions and search the Bible for their own answers (Acts 17:11). We must be willing to invest our time, energy and resources into the qualified people in our churches so that we produce Christian leaders that can be greatly used of God.

So, while I am sad about LT leaving the Chargers, I am also excited. It is a new day and we will be looking for new players for next year. It will be an exciting season next year to see what fresh, young talent will bring. As I look forward to the future of Christianity I pray that the Christian leaders of today will humble themselves and find young men and women who will take up the torch to carry on the work of God. Let's pass the torch - not torch the passer.