In nine years of ministry I have watched leaders quietly become puppets
In 9 years of ministry, I see Christian ministry leaders often fall into these categories. A prophet is someone who says what God is saying and does what God is doing. In contrast, there is the puppet.
Puppets have someone or something else pulling the strings of their life.
Sometimes it is the squeaky wheel. In a Christian organisation it is the managers who never want to leave their chairs, complaining constantly about preferences. They choose what kind of staff they want to work with, whom they can control, and how to get work out of them while keeping a limit on their talents.
Some managers hold their position for years. How? When you are talented, innovative, creative, and show the marks of a leader, they suppress your conduct, pull you down and keep you in your place. They take the credit for the good things employees do, and redirect the blame when something goes wrong. That is just a glance at the Christian workplace today.
So, let us see who is the Puppet?
The supreme leader of the organization! And they make decisions on the manager's preferences or their own.
Leaders need to lead out of principle, not preference.
Leaders need to program services by principle, not preference.
If you allow those with the preferences to make the rules, then not only are you a puppet, but according to the Bible, you have become a judge — thus asking God to move off of His throne and let you sit there with your heart that has evil intentions.
Yet, for others, they allow controlling personalities or the spirit of Jezebel to lead their life and ministry.
We have all struggled between the role of prophet and puppet at times.
Premasis Satman
Elijah
One of the clearest cases in the Bible is that of Elijah. On the mountaintop, he was God's man calling down fire from heaven, proving to his generation that God was indeed God. Then he hears word that Jezebel is after him. He went from prophet to puppet just like that — literally running for his life, and falling under a tree, praying he would die.
Biblical leadership includes direction from above. David says, “He makes me lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside quiet waters… He guides me in the paths of righteousness.” (Ps. 23:2,3) The world assumes people will automatically know the best direction based on following their feelings. God rejects this idea, and instead advances the idea of leadership and authority. In his view, we often need outside direction on which way to go.
Biblical guidance is important in ministry, but we are still left to apply biblical teaching in area after area, and these are often judgment calls requiring wisdom and experience.
Success in ministry can lead to the wrong conclusions
We may conclude that because we succeeded, our ministry methods must have been especially correct.
Meanwhile, our success may be the result of something completely different. Our attribution of success to our superior methods is wrong, but we usually have no way of knowing that until we fail using those same “miracle methods.” The experience of failure throws us into a state of amazement and disillusionment, and this confused state of mind is exactly what God needs to bring us out of our ego-driven paradigm. Only then can we listen to new ideas, new ways of explaining past success, and engage in original thinking for the future to make right decisions.
We must cut ourselves free from those people, as well as preferences, that control and manipulate us in making right decisions.
We must be willing to lead and be the prophet, not a puppet!
Premasis Satman
Founder and Executive Director of 5Talents Magazine, writing from Hyderabad. He has written the magazine's editorial column since the first issue in July 2012.