“Dear brothers and sisters, pattern your lives after mine, and learn from those who follow our example. For I have told you often before, and I say it again with tears in my eyes, that there are many whose conduct shows they are really enemies of the cross of Christ.”
Philippians 3:17-18 NLT
As we have seen before in Philippians, Paul makes a statement of pure dynamic and unabashed power. Also, as we have seen, this statement would not be taken well in the current culture we are in. Seen as an extreme narcissism at best, or cultish behavior at worst, Paul admonishes the believers at Philippi, to consider his example as they pattern their lives. As leaders, this opens the doorway for making strong claims about our own lives to those in our care. This is at should be if the gospel really was effecting our lives in the transformative way we claim. Yet many leaders shy away from having themselves viewed this way. They would rather detach the effect of the gospel from their real world, for fear of not living up to its witness. Paul shows us that our lack of shame toward it, and it’s power to save, should not be. We should be able to use our lives confidently as a beacon. Just as Christ said, we are not to hide it under a bushel. We are to shine in the darkness as a city on a hill in the dead of night. Leaders who refuse to call their followers to be disciplined as they are disciplined are leaders we should be suspicious of. If Christ has truly transformed us, we ought to present it as a clear signpost on perditions’s road.
JOSH McGARY. COM 