Leading From A Healthy Soul
By certified church consultant, Dan Abbatiello
A very wise carpenter told me, “The time taken to sharpen your tools is never wasted.” According to author Lance Witt, “a pastor’s greatest leadership tool is a healthy soul.” To acquire skill and technique and neglect the soul is dangerous because it leads to leadership failure. Ruth Haley Barton wrote, “It is possible to gain the world of ministry success and lose your soul in the midst of it all.”
It is quite clear that the culture in which we presently live and minister is more morally and ethically broken than previously experienced. The days of Ward and June Cleaver are gone forever. Moral decline and brokenness has certainly infiltrated the church and church leaders. More church leaders come from broken and bruised upbringings than ever before.
It is naive for us to assume that a seminary education and a church position equal a healthy soul. The truth is that ministry is an inside out proposition. We can only minister to others based on how healthy our insides are. Luke 6:45 states, “The good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth what is good; and the evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth what is evil; for his mouth speaks from that which fills his heart.” The Apostle Peter wrote, “Since you have in obedience to the truth purified your souls for a sincere love of the brethren, fervently love one another from the heart.” So how can we begin the journey to lead from a healthy soul?
1. Accept the fact that all of us are broken in various places and need the Spirit of grace to bring us wholeness.
2. Realize Gods will is your wholeness, therefore have the faith to pursue it. Paul told the Philippians, “For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work among you will complete it by the day of Christ Jesus… for it is God who is at work in you, both to desire and to work for His good pleasure (Philippians 1:6, 2:13). Peter told his readers, “Seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust (2 Peter 13-4).
3. Be courageous enough to take an inward look into the depths of your soul even though you may (will) see things and feel things that will be less than pleasant. When Isaiah the prophet took his inward look, what he saw startled him greatly. His response was “Woe is me, I am ruined because I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of Hosts” (Isaiah 6:5). The blessing however, was that the Father brought healing. He touched my mouth with it (the coal) and said, ‘Behold, this has touched your lips; and your iniquity is taken away and your sin is forgiven (Isaiah 6:7).
4. Realize that if there is bad fruit there must be bad roots. Dealing with internal things on a surface level or by merely trying harder will be ineffective. Mowing the dandelions only makes them proliferate. They must come out from the root. Jesus said, “So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. So then, you will know them by their fruits” (Matthew 7:17-20). “See to it that no one comes short of the grace of God; that no root of bitterness springing up causes trouble, and by it many be defiled” (Hebrews 12:15).
There was a question John Wesley frequently asked his followers in the early days of Methodism. How is it with your soul? So, I ask you today, “How is it with your soul?” What are roots the Holy Spirit wants to unearth? What is the Holy Spirit sharpening in the tool of the soul on the way to wholeness? If you will listen you will hear.
