Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness. For we all stumble in many ways. And if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle his whole body. If we put bits into the mouths of horses so that they obey us, we guide their whole bodies as well. Look at the ships also: though they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs. So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things.

 How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire! And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire by hell. For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind, but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so. Does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and salt water? Can a fig tree, my brothers, bear olives, or a grapevine produce figs? Neither can a salt pond yield fresh water (James 3:1-12, ESV).

Leadership is a curious issue, indeed.

How it is defined; how it is lived out by those in places of authority; where and to what it leads followers is just as often as curious, and sometimes saddening.

Presuming upon Maxwellian philosophy, leadership is defined as influence… and that’s an indispensable point to this communication.

On a recent visit to one of our churches, my heart and head were left spinning over an encounter with someone in leadership who was enamored by another’s moral and social practices. The leader in our church was very impressed with how “genuine” and how “real” the pastor’s wife of another evangelical church in town was by the pastor’s wife’s public use of curse words in describing her feelings about a matter during a ladies retreat.

So many scriptural standards for church leaders’ conduct were violated it’s hard to know where to even begin but I’ll cite a few anyway: Psalm 34:12-14; Matthew 15:11; Ephesians 4:29; 5:4; Colossians 3:8-10; James 3.

The primary problem lies in that first, it breaks God’s heart when those whom He has charged with leading His sheep live like the world (I Timothy 3:1-8; Titus 1:5-16). The secondary problem lies in how this “lady’s” influence has now granted a moral permit for followers to talk like the world; that using curse words is acceptable communication for Christians; that the moral bar is now lowered for the congregation because one of its shepherds has led them to such pastures.

Must I go on with this, seeing it is such no-brainer stuff regarding godly leadership?

This is not an isolated incident. I’ve also heard cursing being used among younger pastors these days from across the doctrinal and organization spectrum including our own, tragically. My purpose in writing about this is isn’t to simply snipe at other Christian leaders, but to provoke you to avoid something that is a growing affliction in modern Evangelical circles. I adjure you: be faithful to God’s calling to holiness (Hebrews 12:14) and do not succumb to the spirit of this new age in which Christian leaders overtly practice “genuineness” that is neither genuine nor holy. Swelling numbers of sheep willing to heap unto themselves teachers who will tickle their ears is no justification to do so (II Timothy 4:2-4).

D.L. Moody summed this up well in saying, “The place for the ship is in the sea but God help the ship if the sea gets into it."

You are loved and prayed for by this office. Go out and be God-pleasers today and always!