Last-Day Leaders

God is depending upon us to give the quality of leadership that will match the awesome hour in which we live and serve.

Robert H. Pierson is president of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists.

 

WHAT A responsibility is ours! God has called us to be leaders in His church in one of the most decisive hours of its history. He is depending upon us to give the quality of leadership that will match the awesome hour in which we live and serve. He expects more of you and me than of any leaders who have gone be fore us, because we are serving nearer the time of Christ's return than any of our predecessors.

We lead by both precept and example. Nothing is more effective than example leadership. Our lives are to reveal to those who follow the quality of Christian life we desire them to achieve. Our love, our thoughtfulness, our kindness, our integrity, our liberality, our zeal for a finished work, will be reflected in the lives and service of those whom we lead. We must reveal to them what we desire them to become or achieve.

Our preaching does much to convey to our congregations the fact that we long to see them ready to meet our Lord. Our listeners want to be fed fed on the Word, fed on that spiritual food that made them members of God's church. So many of them are tired of listening to sermons, no matter how perfect in exegesis and how flawlessly delivered, that contain no life or light from Heaven.

Jesus' discourses were "plain, close, searching, and practical." Shouldn't His ambassadors follow His example? "If ministers will in meekness sit at the feet of Jesus, they will soon obtain right views of God's character and will be able to teach others also. ... In every dis course fervent appeals should be made to the people to forsake their sins and turn to Christ." —Testimonies., vol. 4, p. 396.

Feed the flock, brethren! The cross, faith, prayer, repentance, conversion, revival, reformation, practical godliness, the work of the Holy Spirit and its final outpouring, the love of God, last-day events, the return of our Lord—all Christ-centered and Bible-based—these will supply spiritual food, meat in due season for those who sit under our ministry.

Let us lead our people into great fellowship of prayer—in our own closets, in the field offices, the local conferences, unions, divisions, and General Conference offices, and in our educational, publishing, and medical institutions. If two and three-fourths million Adventist workers and members around the world join in praying daily for revival and a finished work, something is bound to happen! Something must happen! Something will happen!

Then most certainly will follow a great forward surge of God's work in every department, every institution! "The leaders in God's cause, as wise generals, are to lay plans for advance moves all along the line." —Gospel Workers, p. 351.

"We are altogether too narrow in our plans. . . . We must get away from our smallness and make larger plans." —Evangelism, p. 46.

As leaders in this last hour, we must give prayerful heed to these admonitions given us long ago. We must do something about it in our fields, in our departments, and in our institutions! This is the hour not only for Pentecostal living but also for Pentecostal under takings!

We must not fail God nor the thou sands who are expecting so much of us! Let us pray for and with one another! Let us move forward on our knees to a finished work—in our own lives, in our churches, and in the world in our generation.

"And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world" (Matt. 24:14).

May God bless and guide you!

Robert H. Pierson is president of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists.

May 1977

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