Spiritual leadership is not easy.
Perhaps that’s part of
the reason so few Christians seem to seek it, especially these days. But unless
we opt out of family life and church life entirely, most of us are faced with a
certain amount of responsibility, like it or not.
Elders are leaders. And
in fact every Bible teacher, formal or otherwise, leads too. The act of writing
down or publicly giving voice to a spiritual conviction is invariably an act of
leadership that declares, “This way, not that way” or at least “This means X,
it doesn’t mean Y”, no matter how delicately or deferentially one chooses to formulate one’s opinion. In addition, all mothers and fathers lead their children,
or else their lives quickly devolve into an endless series of rather potent
miseries.