FROM: Banbury, Oxfordshire, United Kingdom
ABOUT ME: Living the highs and lows of life in the adventurous pursuit of God Himself and of who I'm meant to be as the Bride of Christ.
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Wednesday, February 20, 2008,6:45 p.m.
MILK, MEAT AND LEADERSHIP
I've been pondering milk, meat and leadership today. About milk and meat the scriptures have this to say:
"About this we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil." (Hebrews 5:11-14)
This passage is actually a rebuke to the hearers, but what it says about milk and meat (solid food) is that, like all growing children, we ought to pursue eating the meaty spiritual things, not be contented simply with drinking milk, or knowing only the basic things that we have known since the beginning of our journey with God. Milk will not continue to nourish and strengthen and help us grow. Meat will.
As a leader, I sometimes see groups that are at that moment in time contented with drinking milk. They enjoy the milk, they crave the milk, and the meat, while it might seem to smell good, doesn't seem to satisfy the appetite like the milk does.
When something that we enjoy appears, we rejoice and we get excited. Milk drinkers get excited when they are hungry and milk appears. Meat might also appear on that table, but if milk is where it's at for them, then it is milk that makes them flock to the table, not meat.
Here is where my thoughts on leadership come in. If you are serving milk, and you have milk drinkers at your table, your milk is the best thing since, well, sliced bread (just to add chaos to an already full analogy). Your guests are excited, they drink with relish and feel full at the end of the meal. If you are a leader that serves up spiritual milk to milk drinkers, the feedback is encouraging.
But if you are a leader who understands that God desires His people to grow, you know that they need to be weaned off that milk and be given solid food - meat - to eat. BUT if your people don't like meat because they enjoy the milk so much, you run into a problem of trying to teach your people to eat meat instead of milk (or eat meat with the milk). It can be a real challenge and I imagine it feels like uphill work.
I think the danger is in being a leader who is fooled by the people's incredibly positive reaction to the milk and lack of interest in the meat. It could encourage a leader to believe that the milk is nourishing and growing and sustaining the people, and that it is actually what they need and is good for them.
But I actually think it is only an indicator of where the people are comfortable. And sometimes a leader's role is to gently make the people uncomfortable. A leader, with God's help, should cook and season the meat - the deep truth of God - until it is irresistable. The meat will deepen relationships with God, grow spiritual giants and soon release others into leadership.
Hopefully they, too, can cook.
"About this we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil." (Hebrews 5:11-14)
This passage is actually a rebuke to the hearers, but what it says about milk and meat (solid food) is that, like all growing children, we ought to pursue eating the meaty spiritual things, not be contented simply with drinking milk, or knowing only the basic things that we have known since the beginning of our journey with God. Milk will not continue to nourish and strengthen and help us grow. Meat will.
As a leader, I sometimes see groups that are at that moment in time contented with drinking milk. They enjoy the milk, they crave the milk, and the meat, while it might seem to smell good, doesn't seem to satisfy the appetite like the milk does.
When something that we enjoy appears, we rejoice and we get excited. Milk drinkers get excited when they are hungry and milk appears. Meat might also appear on that table, but if milk is where it's at for them, then it is milk that makes them flock to the table, not meat.
Here is where my thoughts on leadership come in. If you are serving milk, and you have milk drinkers at your table, your milk is the best thing since, well, sliced bread (just to add chaos to an already full analogy). Your guests are excited, they drink with relish and feel full at the end of the meal. If you are a leader that serves up spiritual milk to milk drinkers, the feedback is encouraging.
But if you are a leader who understands that God desires His people to grow, you know that they need to be weaned off that milk and be given solid food - meat - to eat. BUT if your people don't like meat because they enjoy the milk so much, you run into a problem of trying to teach your people to eat meat instead of milk (or eat meat with the milk). It can be a real challenge and I imagine it feels like uphill work.
I think the danger is in being a leader who is fooled by the people's incredibly positive reaction to the milk and lack of interest in the meat. It could encourage a leader to believe that the milk is nourishing and growing and sustaining the people, and that it is actually what they need and is good for them.
But I actually think it is only an indicator of where the people are comfortable. And sometimes a leader's role is to gently make the people uncomfortable. A leader, with God's help, should cook and season the meat - the deep truth of God - until it is irresistable. The meat will deepen relationships with God, grow spiritual giants and soon release others into leadership.
Hopefully they, too, can cook.
