Centre Church

What does it take to be a great leader? Charisma? Charm? Power? Money? Centre Church is a recent member of The City Church, a group of eleven+ local congregations seeking to please God in his desire to see unity among His followers across “denominational” lines. At a time when Centre County has lost a centralizing figure in Joe Paterno and is struggling at best to trust the leadership at Penn State, questions of unity and leadership could not come at a more opportune time.

In his best selling book “Good to Great”, Jim Collins explores what makes some corporations rise and remain far above the cream of the crop. In terms of leadership, he cites humility and will as key factors – not charisma and killer strategy as some might expect. Such leaders “channel their ego needs away from themselves and into the larger goal of building a great company.” (Collins 21) It is not that great leaders have no ambition, but rather that “their ambition is first and foremost for the institution, not for themselves.” It could be argued that Joe Paterno was such a leader. Abraham Lincoln was such a leader. Jesus was such a leader.

As Jesus completed his three years of ministry on earth, his training camp for the church if you will, he concluded (John 17) with an epic prayer on our behalf.

“My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message,that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.” John 17:20-23

Jesus had gathered 12 disciples to himself, and at least 70 other followers whom in Luke 10 he sent out to preach the gospel. Of course we know that from the moment of Jesus’ resurrection those numbers began to exponentially grow. Jesus appeared to over 500 believers after his resurrection, and Acts 2 says that Peter’s message at Pentecost resulted in over 3,000 new disciples. We might expect that a great leader would have thousands of followers and then leave his work to a lesser man so that the magnitude of his leadership might be verified and for the sake of his legacy never again matched.

Not so. Jesus was preparing his rag-tag band of followers to do far greater things than he had ever accomplished. He thought first of the Kingdom of God and prepared for its advancement after he was gone. His plan and his heart were that those who came after him would do exceedingly more than he had been able to accomplish… though a great leader may have the power and the authority to achieve feats of monumental proportion, true greatness in leadership is measured by the disciples he has prepared for the next phase.

“I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity.”

Sunday night, Pastor Harold McKenzie of Unity Church of Jesus Christ spoke of a symphony. If you have ever heard a symphony in its warm up stages, it is a cacophony, albeit a somewhat beautiful noise. One might fear these musicians have no idea what they are doing. This is only because warm ups find these exceedingly talented musicians in an every-man-for-himself phase. Each instrument must be in tune. But when the conductor steps to the front and raises his wand, an expectant hush falls over the room and what ensues next is the most powerful display of harmonic bliss that the instrument world has to offer. A world class oboist playing a solo may be recognized as very controlled, in tune, displaying great skill… but that same world class oboist worked into the unity of a symphony is exponentially more awe inspiring.

Pastor McKenzie also talked about an illustration from the book EntreLeadership by Dave Ramsey (gotta fit Ramsey in somewhere, right?) Belgian draft horses are one of the largest breeds in the world, each able to pull about 8,000 pounds! Conventional math would dictate that two Belgians yoked together would thusly pull 16,000 pounds; instead they are able to pull over 20,000 pounds, almost three times as much as one horse can manage. Pastor McKenzie mentioned this same truth (and God math) to be found in Leviticus 26:8.

Five of you will chase a hundred, and a hundred of you will chase ten thousand, and your enemies will fall by the sword before you.

The bottom line is here: If we lead as one, putting aside our time of symphonic warm up and committing to the symphony, we will wield an exponentially greater influence in Centre County. This is not every church for itself – it cannot be. Despite our doctrinal differences, to not come together now would severely limit each church’s, and as a result, the kingdom’s influence.

From now on, when people ask where you go to church, say, “I attend ______, but I am part of the City Church.” When people ask you, “What is the largest church in State College?” answer The City Church. This is a paradigm shift we must make in order to lead in the power of One. After all, we are going to ask God for the impossible – this city.