Just some excerpts: Chapter 4 - 1 Corinthians 4Only rarely do those who dream of leadership, but who have never experienced it, think through the responsibilities, pressures and temptations leaders face. Almost never do they focus on accountability, service and suffering.
Christian Leadership means being entrusted with the "mysteries" of God.(4:1-7)
1. Christian leaders are 'servants of Christ'. They see themselves simply as servants and want other Christians to see them that way, too.
2. The gospel itself is the content of this mystery, God's wisdom summed up under the burden of Paul's preaching: Jesus Christ and him crucified.
What is required in some sense of all believers is peculiarly required of the leaders of believers. There is a difference of degree.
Those who want to be leaders in the church today, then, must begin by recognizing that there is no special, elitist qualification.
What it means to be a servant of Christ is to be obligated to promote the gospel by word and example, the gospel of the crucified Messiah.
In the West, we must repent of our endless fascination for "leadership" that smacks much more either of hierarchical models or of democratic models.
Christian leadership must prove faithful to the one who has assigned them their fundamental task (4:1-4).
There is only one person whose "well done!" on the last day means anything. In comparison, the approval or disapproval of the church means nothing. It is not even your own estimate of your service that is important. Feeling good about your ministry may have some utility somewhere, but surely it has no ultimate significance. You may think more highly of your service than God does. But if you are constantly trying to please yourself, to make self-esteem your ultimate goal, then you are forgetting whose servant you are, whom you must strive to please... It is the Lord who judges.
Those who follow Christian leaders must recognize that leaders are called to please the Lord Christ- and therefore they must refrain from standing in judgment over them (4:5-7).
...it is also important for the rest of the church to see them as ultimately accountable to the Lord Christ, and therefore to avoid judging them as if the church itself were the ultimate arbiter of ministerial success.
One-upmanship among those redeemed by a crucified Messiah is repulsive.