All Hands on Deck

By Steve Jamison

As a young man, I was part of a five-man crew on my father’s boat, fishing for halibut in the open ocean stretching across the Gulf of Alaska. I fished with him from the time I was ten. The work was grueling, but I loved the feel of the ocean and the challenge of being a member of a high-powered crew.

When you watch Deadliest Catch, you see the captain up in the pilot house directing the crew on the deck. Our boat wasn’t the size of the huge crab boats (which require someone in the pilot house), but it was a great halibut and tuna boat, 62 feet long and able to hold nearly 30 tons of fish. Dad stood on the deck with the rest of us as he manned the wheel and controls and oversaw the hauling gear. The setup was entirely his design. He wanted to be in the thick of things. He’s a hands-on leader.

His presence on the deck set the tone for the crew; we could see and feel his level of commitment to us and our success. Actually, Dad was more exposed to the weather than the rest of us. We were often in a covered area in the back called the bait shed, but he stood in the open, catching the full fury of every storm’s howling wind, lashing rain and crashing waves. Imagine this: He was not only navigating the boat from mid-ship, keeping the boat into the wind and protecting the line from the hull and propeller, but he was also using a hydraulic foot control to run the roller and allow him to gaff and land the fish. It’s the most challenging job on the boat. Union captains aren’t allowed to leave the pilot house, but my dad wanted to be on deck with us.

In the summer, at the latitude where we fished, there was only a couple of hours of darkness every day. On one particular night, we’d been fishing hard for days, and we were exhausted. That stretch of darkness seemed to make things even more intense. The fish hatch was a heavy wooden rectangle in the middle of the deck and is a center of activity when fishing is good.

We dressed and scraped the fish on top of the hatch, and on the front of the hatch we had a station where we chopped bait. As the fish were ready, we would open the secondary lid and slide the fish below the decks to be iced and stacked. A young, strong man named Chris was a member of the crew on that trip. He was a terrific worker, but on this night he was utterly spent. We were on opposite sides of the hatch, and in the glow of the onboard lights I could see that he was in bad shape. When you work that long and hard, back muscles can spasm, and Chris was in agony.

He yelled to me to come over and hit him in the back multiple times with a rod we used to hang hooks. I hit his back over and over again, being careful not to hit his shoulder blades or spine. Chris flexed and stretched … and went back to work. Soon the pain was so intense that he stopped and placed his hands on the hatch to hold himself up. With his face grimacing, he said, “I’m done. I can’t go on. I have nothing left.”

At that moment, my dad made a rare move: he stepped away from the controls and walked toward Chris. He quickly leaned over the hatch and looked Chris in the eye and shouted, “Chris, you’re becoming a great fisherman!” And he returned to the roller without looking back.

Those words went through Chris’ heart and body like a jolt of adrenaline. His words of affirmation and confidence gave Chris the strength to stand back up, grab his gaffe hook and press through. It was a breakthrough moment in the midst of the pain. Leaders lead, and leaders inspire, but you can’t do it effectively without presence and connection.

A SACRED TRUST

Barna Research found in a post-COVID poll that 42% of pastors are considering quitting the ministry because of the division and strife inside the church.¹ We have also witnessed some well-known pastors and leaders deconstructing their faith for any number of reasons. At the same time, our secular culture has been trying to convince believers that our commitment to the Bible and absolute truth is archaic and should be rejected.

In the midst of this challenging time, God is standing alongside us with a booming voice calling  us to rise up and lead a rebirth of faith that can change both the church and our communities. Pastors and Christian business leaders across the country are sensing the Lord stirring a passion for His presence and a call to walk in a fresh anointing of His Holy Spirit. We need this level personal encounter with God to give us power, humility, and confidence to lead effectively.

At Eastridge Church, the congregation where I serve as lead pastor, we teach that spiritual leadership is a “sacred trust.” I believe if we could rediscover the power of these two words, it could bring the return to authentic leadership to lead spiritual renewal and revival in our time. The concept of sacred trust is simple: ministry leadership is a gift from God to His church. Those who lead in God’s name need to have the highest level of personal integrity and a sacred responsibility to love and lead well.

We often talk of the church as a family, but I also see it as a crew with a purpose. There is something very special about being a part of a great crew. In Alaska, we were working in a dangerous and challenging environment, so it’s even more important to know that your crew is committed to each other and to the success of the trip, no matter what we face. You need people who will watch out for your safety and won’t quit on you when things get tough.

I see a powerful correlation to where the church is today. We’re in a day of opportunity, but threats and challenges are all around us. This day calls for authentic leadership to step up in the church and the business world to lead with a commitment to biblical truth as the anchor to the soul, and to walk with emotional intelligence to care for people and ethical intelligence to bring integrity to lead.

As seminary president Albert Molher states his book, A Conviction to Lead, our leaders must also lead with conviction: “Leaders without emotional intelligence cannot lead effectively because they cannot connect with the people they are trying to lead. Leaders lacking ethical intelligence will lead their people into a catastrophe. But leaders without convictional intelligence will fail to lead faithfully, and that is a disaster for Christian leaders.”²

In his first letter, Peter addressed the leaders of the church scattered by persecution: “Be shepherds of God’s flock that is under your care, watching over them—not because you must, but because you are willing, as God wants you to be; not pursuing dishonest gain, but eager to serve; not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock” (1 Peter 5:2-4).

And then he leans into those who are followers:

“In the same way, you who are younger, submit yourselves to your elders. All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another” (5:5a).

The second side of “sacred trust” is what every Christ follower needs to see as their part of being a part of God’s crew. The dedication to stand with the same sense of urgency and dedication to the Lord as they expect from their leaders.

The truth is that the church should be just as important to us as it is to Jesus. The kingdom of God centers on the church, His bride. The Lord has chosen to work through His church to change our lives and change the world. God uses His church to bring people together, to teach, comfort, and build ministry.

A healthy and powerful church is only found where the pastors and the people are equally committed to the gospel of Jesus and each other. The sacred trust is not just how a pastor should live to honor God; it’s how everyone in the church should live out our faith. This is time to dream again and envision what God wants to do today to anoint His people and build His church. The great news is that the book of Acts is His blueprint for the early church, and it’s just as powerful today!

THE RIGHT PLAN AT THE RIGHT TIME

The primary connection for a leader is with God: to love Him and serve Him with all his or her heart. The second connection is with the people being served, encouraging and equipping them to love, lead and serve. Pastors and business leaders need to create “leadership pipelines”: attracting, selecting, training, placing, and shepherding rising leaders as they assume positions of service.

Great leaders roll up their sleeves and invest in the growth of their people. This involves expressing trust in people and their decision-making abilities and equipping them with proper training to innovate and lead.

My dad couldn’t run a fishing boat by himself. He needed a skilled crew to operate the roller, bait the hooks, dress the fish and complete the dozens of other tasks on board. In the Old Testament, we see where Moses tried to be a one-man band. He was a terrific leader, but at a particular point in his story, he desperately needed to create a leadership pipeline, as he was singlehandedly settling the people’s disputes.

It took honest advice from his father-in-law to get him in gear, and Jethro didn’t let Moses off the hook by feeling sorry for him. He gave him clear directions to delegate leadership to trustworthy men in each tribe: “If you do this and God so commands, you will be able to stand the strain, and all these people will go home satisfied” (Exodus 18:23).

This is the first instance in the Scriptures of a leadership pipeline! Jethro’s advice was, in effect: “Select capable, godly men, appoint them over segments of the community, let them serve without micromanaging, and you can handle the really tough issues.” And the result? The new leaders will excel, your life will be much better, and the people will be served far more effectively—a win, win, win.

It’s very interesting to see that a father-in-law was the person who spoke into Moses’s life, and he listened. Jethro had a stake in Moses’s leadership. His daughter and grandchildren were affected by Moses’s exhaustion and the people’s complaining. Who else would have had the platform to say, “Hey, you’re killing yourself by working so hard, but it’s not working for you or the people. I appreciate the effort, but you need to make some changes.”

The Holy Spirit prompted Jethro to speak up. Moses was still the leader, but now he had a crew around him who were committed to the success of the venture. I’m quite sure they brought very different skills to the work. That’s part of the beauty of the family of God—we are a kaleidoscope of talents, forming new patterns of power and beauty as the Spirit of God works in us and through us.

As a lead pastor, I work hard to build a leadership culture which engages and equips our people in areas of service that best fits their talents and bandwidth. Leadership development must be our passion. Let me outline some of the most common reasons people hesitate to serve in a church:

•  Some are reluctant to serve because they don’t feel understood. No one has taken the time to get to know what makes them tick so they can be placed where their enthusiasm and skills can flourish.
•  Others are afraid that if they say “yes” one time, they’ll be saddled with an ever-increasing load of expectations. They feel like they’re about to fall into a black hole of responsibility.
•  Many are asked to do a job, but they receive very little training or resources. They feel like they’ve “been left outside to dry.”
•  Sometimes, leaders don’t explain how each role is essential to fulfill the overall vision of the church.
•  Some leaders push people to perform without shepherding them with love, so people can feel used.
•  Still, others feel overwhelmed with the burdens of life, and they can’t imagine looking beyond their own needs. Some believe they’re too young; others too old.

Moses figured out how to select, equip and lead his crew. That’s the challenge of today’s church leaders. The challenge of followers is to be open to new possibilities, sense the Holy Spirit’s directives and jump in with both feet!

Shared leadership is a core value in the New Testament church as well. In Acts chapter six, exposed needs called for a new leadership model. Greek-speaking widows felt overlooked because the Hebrew-speaking widows were getting more attention and resources.

The apostles heard the complaints, but they didn’t just tell the Greek-speaking women, “Get over it! Trust God. You shouldn’t complain.” Instead, they appointed seven men “full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom” (Acts 6:3) and gave them the responsibility to care for the widows. Who were these men? We get a good idea by looking at their names—they all had Greek names! Greek-speaking leaders were assigned to care for Greek-speaking widows.

The apostles didn’t see this as a mundane administrative job. The seven became servant leaders who also cared for the physical and spiritual needs of the widows. The apostles laid hands on the men and prayed that God would bless their work. And He did. “So the word of God spread. The number of disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly.”

The sacred trust between leaders and followers applied in the first century and it applies today. It applies in house churches and megachurches. The principles of integrity, compassion and truth aren’t relegated to one kind of leader; they apply to all. And the principles of openness, willingness and enthusiasm apply to those sitting on a sofa in a house church and to those in the farthest row in a massive auditorium.

It’s important for people to see and understand how ministry works. The methods of churches and the programs will vary greatly around the country, and that’s good. But there are some key principles of ministry that can work everywhere.

The principles of sacred trust and shared leadership will produce unity and commitment in any church family. They encourage people to grow strong in their faith and tackle the obstacles all of us face from time to time. In this hothouse of growth, we develop rich, honest, encouraging relationships that sadly are rare in the broader culture. And we develop a bold faith to ask God to use us in big ways.

FOOTNOTES:

1. Pastors Share Top Reasons They’ve Considered Quitting the Ministry in the Past Year,” Barna Research, April 27, 2022, https://www.barna.com/research/pastors-quitting-ministry/
2. Albert Mohler, The Conviction to Lead: 25 Principles for Leadership That Matters (Baker Books, 2012), p. 31.