1 QUOTE

“If with your tongue you utter speech that is not intelligible, how will anyone know what is said? For you will be speaking into the air.”

- 1 Corinthians 14:9

1 NOTE

As the President of USC, Stephen Sample, and his inner-circle of lieutenants, spent many hours with lawyers. The laws changed every year and Sample and his senior advisers needed to stay on top of things. He lamented the massive volume of lawsuits that should never have gone to litigation, but solved through common sense and human compassion. The United States is particularly fond of suing one another. We have more practicing lawyers and lawsuits per capita than any other country. Sample created a simple criteria test when dealing with lawyers. He would ask a complicated question and wait for a simple answer. If the lawyer defaulted to, “These matters are too complex for me to explain to you” that lawyer would immediately be dismissed. Sample’s reflections on lawyers should inform our leadership.

A few years ago there were two promising people we were considering for an important ministry task. Using Sample’s method, I gave them both the same assignment: “Please write a one-page paper explaining the New Testament sexual ethic standard to a seventh-grader.” I wonder if a CEO of a tech company can’t explain AI to a 12 year-old, do they really understand what is going on. One week later I received one assignment. The leader clearly explained God’s sexual gift of one man and one woman in the protection environment of marriage. The second leader did not write a paper, revealing either a heretical position or inability to communicate. Or both. Church leaders, at any level, must able to clearly explain their orthodoxy (theology and belief in Jesus) and their orthopraxy (conduct and acting in faith). Especially to a seventh grader.

1 QUESTION

Do you have a method for evaluating experts, especially in matters of church leadership?

Until Next Tuesday,

John