Quote:
Originally Posted by aron
That, my friends, is Leadership. And that is Obedience. Now who can follow that, and elevate themselves above the flock? That was his acts. And his teaching was apace: "If you get invited to the feast, take the least place" Luke 14:8. So his life and teaching was a continuous whole. In this light we can interpret Paul, and the book of Acts, and the epistles. Only in this light. If we take Paul's epistle to the Ephesians, "apostles, prophets and teachers" and use human organisational principles, we get the weird stuff that we see.
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Great point, aron.
Self-promotion is incompatible with servant-leadership.
The LR self-promotes on every level: Their founder, their movement, their ministry, their bible, their churches, their songs, everything, all are "God's best."
Neither Jesus nor Paul had such an attitude. Jesus was literally the Son of God, but we have to search for clues in the Bible where he hints that he is God, because he was trying to model servant-leadership for us. Paul knew he had an important message, but called himself "less than the least," and credited the "grace given" for what he had done in service.
When was the last time you heard anyone in the LR credit grace for what they claim to be?
This should be a guiding principle for all of us, and a strong indictment of the LR.
Things truly of God don't self-promote. I'm not saying that you can't let people know you are here. I'm saying any hint that you think you are better than anyone else should be viewed as a red flag. God doesn't share the stage with anyone--not only because he's the only one who deserves glory, but because he knows it is not good for anyone for someone to "think more highly of himself than he ought to." It isn't good for the boaster, and it isn't good for the people who believe the boasting.
One great thing about humility is it's hard to fake. A proud person just cannot resist promoting himself, even while trying to pretend to be humble. Some of the time the LR doesn't even try.