Veggie Tales on Leadership

I read the following in a devotional today. I thought you might be inspired by it. At a minimum it might inspire you to watch the new Veggie Tales video. 

Read: Ephesians 3:7-12

I became a servant of this gospel by the gift of God's grace given me through the working of his power. - Ephesians 3:7

TODAY IN THE WORD
In a recent Veggie Tales production, “Lord of the Beans,” the main character, Junior Asparagus, was given a magic bean and sent on a perilous journey of discovery. Junior had to sort out among competing possibilities what the bean could do and what he should do with it. In the end, he learned that gifts are given so that we can employ them to help others. He then used the magic bean to provide for the needs of a desperate community.

Paul used the gifts of leadership and the gospel to reach out to the world with God's grace. How did he become a leader? Did the early church hire a consultant to headhunt and recruit him? Hardly. He became a leader only by God's grace and through God's power. In a dramatic confrontation on the road to Damascus, Christ rescued His chosen apostle—as He rescues us today—from being God's enemy. When Paul called himself “less than the least” (v. 8), it's not a crisis of confidence or a wallowing in self-pity, but an accurate assessment of who receives the credit and glory for Paul's life.

Paul defined “leadership” simply: to be a leader means to be “a servant of the gospel” (v. 7). Leaders obey their callings, in his case, to preach to the Gentiles. The overall calling of the church is to bear witness to God's plan for history, the mystery now revealed in Christ (v. 9).

Paul also clearly identified the purposes or goals of leadership. The point was not his personal reputation or even the number and size of churches planted (though God had given him a passion for unreached places). Instead, it was ultimately all about the good news of Jesus Christ, the redemption He bought with His blood, and the growth of His kingdom (vv. 10-11). All leadership roads, or at least all the holy and worthwhile ones, lead to and from these central truths.

Source: MBI - Today in the Word