Nico Smith, like most Afrikaners of his era in South Africa, grew up drinking a doctrine of white superiority with his mother’s milk.  When the 1948 elections brought the Afrikaner Nationalists to power, nineteen-year-old Nico took to the streets to celebrate the arrival of government sponsored apartheid. 

In his thirties, as an influential figure within the Dutch Reformed Church, Nico was recruited to join the elite fraternity known as the Broederbond.  This group connected many of the most powerful members of society in a secretive brotherhood, working behind the scenes to advance the Afrikaner political and ideological agenda.  These connections soon propelled Nico into a respected professorial position at Stellenbosch University. 

But on a visit to Switzerland in 1963, Nico met the great theologian Karl Barth.  Near the end of his visit, Dr. Barth approached Nico and inquired politely,  “May I ask you a personal question?” Nico nodded.  He viewed conversing with the famed Christian thinker as a high privilege. 

“Are you free to preach the Gospel in South Africa?”  asked Barth. 

“Yes, of course I am.”  Nico replied pleasantly.  “Freedom of religion.”

Barth shook his head.  “That’s not the kind of freedom I am asking about.  Are you free in yourself?”  If you come across things in the Bible that are contrary to what your family and friends believe, will you preach it?”

Nico shrugged.  “I’ve never come across something like that.”

The elderly theologian would not be dissuaded.  “Are you so free that even if you come across things in the Bible which are contrary to what your government is doing—that you will preach it?”

A crimson blotch rose on Nico’s cheek, and he looked away.  It was an awkward question, and he did not feel he had an adequate answer. 

Nico was soon safely back in South Africa, but Barth’s questions had somehow managed to travel with him.  They lodged in his thoughts and stuck, like seed-carrying burrs caught in one’s sock—not growing, but certainly not comfortable either. 

It was a full ten years later at a meeting of the Broederbond that the revolution Barth had gently seeded finally took root.  As Nico pondered the attitudes and actions of his associates, the answer to Barth’s question sprang into his mind: I’m not free!  He stood and walked out of the meeting. 

Nico knew that quitting the Broederbond was social suicide. 

As best, he could hope to step away without drawing much notice.  He would live quietly, keeping a healthy separation between his newfound Christian convictions and political issues.  For several years he did.  But the questions would not be so easily satisfied.

When the government bulldozed a group of black squatter homes on the outskirts of town, some of Nico’s students asked him what the Christian response should be.  More questions.  As he pondered the answer, he realized he could remain silent no longer.  Nico drafted an official criticism of the government action and offered it for publication.  There was now no going back. 

A political firestorm began to envelope Nico.  With little else to do, Nico sought guidance in prayer.  As if in answer, the next Monday morning a telegram arrived from the black township of Mamelodi.  The residents were asking that Nico become their pastor. 

“God, no, I didn’t ask for this,” lamented Nico.  Emotion surged over him, and he began t cry right in front of the postman.  As he waited for his wife Ellen’s return, Nico began to hope that she would reject the idea, giving him an easy out with God.

Ellen, however, provided him no excuses.  “Nico, you realize that we’ll have to go,” she said after reading the telegram.  The decision was made. 

In the face of staggering social and even physical risks, Nico and Ellen left the university at Stellenbosch and filled the pastorship of the Mamelodi parish.  Initially, they lived in a white suburb within driving distance of the township and commuted to the church.  In time, however, they realized they could not truly minister to the people of Mamelodi without drawing nearer.  A short while later, Nico and Ellen became the first whites under apartheid to receive official permission to live in a black area—the only white residents in a township of 300,000 people. 

Nico and Ellen Smith’s labors continue to bring healing to a torn nation. The seeds of their transformation were little more than a few simple questions.

• It has proven the most effective leadership style.
• It has the danger of becoming leader centered.
• It has the danger of becoming hyper visionary.  Count the cost.

Luke 14:28-32 (NIV)
²⁸ “Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Will he not first sit down and estimate the cost to see if he has enough money to complete it?
²⁹ For if he lays the foundation and is not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule him,
³⁰ saying, ‘This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.’
³¹ “Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Will he not first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand?
³² If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace.

• The leader can become autocratic.
• The leader must listen or skilled incompetence will emerge.  Avoid the CEO disease. 

Proverbs 18:13 (NIV)
¹³ He who answers before listening– that is his folly and his shame.
 

1 Corinthians 4:7 (NIV)
⁷ For who makes you different from anyone else? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not?

*He gave gifts to men:

Ephesians 3:7 (NIV)
⁷ I became a servant of this gospel by the gift of God’s grace given me through the working of his power.

*You are not superior to others.  You are simply leading through the gifts given to you by God.

*Pride is the root of all sinful leadership issues.  If you think you are above succumbing to leadership woes and sinful steps, you are in a position of pride.

Proverbs 16:18 (NIV)
¹⁸ Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.
 

I found out this weekend that a fellow church-planter resigned and stepped down from his leadership role because of moral failure.  You can read it on his blog here. 

I am saddened, mad and hurt to hear about a fellow leader that has succumbed to sin and forfeited his leadership mantle.  I know that leaders have big bull’s-eye on their backs and I know that I need people praying for me in order to keep my life secure from falling into sin that could disqualify me from my leadership role in the church.  Please pray!

Check out this Open letter to Pastors!  It is a must read for all of us and especially for those that feel they are above failure!

*He is the only foundation.
1 Corinthians 3:11 (NIV)
¹¹ For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ.

*Transformational/Servant Leadership is the key to leading.

*Transformation is the goal.  We team with people out of a biblical mandate.
2 Corinthians 5:17 (NIV)
¹⁷ Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!

*Servant Leadership is the mode.
Mark 9:35 (NIV)
³⁵ Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, “If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last, and the servant of all.”

*Transformational leadership reminds of our purpose while servant leadership reminds us of who we are.

You are the change agent but you cannot change anyone.

• In any and every context, change is difficult.
• True change in our context has to be the work of the Holy Spirit.
• We need to allow for constructive dissatisfaction and give time for the change process.
• The gospel of Jesus is perpetual new wine that will burst the old wineskines. 
  Matthew 9:17 (NIV)
  ¹⁷ Neither do men pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the skins will burst, the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved.”The hardest person to change is yourself.

• You have a new congregation each week. 

Whether it is new people or the same people, you are teaching and leading people that have new and different issues each week and you need to be aware as a leader of what they are going through.  Your character must be solid each and every week and you are a moral anchor of character for them to have a point of reference. 

Proverbs 27:23 (NIV)
²³ Be sure you know the condition of your flocks, give careful attention to your herds;

• You have a new community each week.
• The cauldron of circumstantial factors are never the same from year to year.  You must pay close attention to what is going on in the meta-narrative of culture and the microcosm of your environment. 

Read that last statement again!  That is huge for church planters and pastors in our rapidly changing culture.

1.  Character is always transferable but context is not.

Proverbs 4:23 (NIV)
²³ Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.

As a leader:

• How is your devotional life? 
• Do you embrace accountability or avoid it?
• Do you treat everyone as special or rather as a means to your goals?
• Are you eager or timid in sharing about Jesus?

We spent Sunday talking about being “Lion-Chasers” and glorifying God with our lives as men. 

Rick tells a story about two “lion-chasers” in his book.  Its about two traveling salesmen, John Nicholson and Samuel Hill. 

While sharing a room in a crowded hotel one night in 1898, both men discovered they were Christians.  Later that evening, after reading the Bible and praying together, they discussed forming a Christian association for traveling salesmen.  Their schedules, however, forced the new friends to part ways the next day before any ideas could be solidified.  Unknown to them, God’s hand was at work.  After meeting up again the following year, the two salesmen renewed their talk of creating a Christian association, and subsequently, along with William Knights, founded the Gideons. 

At one of the association’s early meetings, someone made the bold suggestion that the Gideons place a Bible in every single hotel room in the United States so traveling men would always have a Bible to read.  The challenge was accepted and in 1908, the Gideons delivered their first Bible.  Twenty years later, the association had distributed one million Bibles.  Today, according to their website, the Gideons place more than 59 million Bibles annually in hotels, hospitals, shelters and prisons in over 181 countries and in 82 different languages.  That’s an astonishing 112 Bibles every minute!

From random encounter to lofty idea to seizing the opportunity God placed before them, these three men and their army of “silent witnesses” played a major role in introducing millions of people around the globe to the love, teachings and salvation grace of Almighty God.  Just how effective are the Gideons’ efforts?  Some years back, a Fodors survey revealed that 23% of American travelers had read a Gideons Bible in their hotel room.  Talk about following the command of the Great Commission, that’s advertising God with extreme passion! (pp. 16 & 17)

That’s Chasing Lions!