envelop spinner search close plus arrow-right arrow-left facebook twitter

Leading With a Just Heart: Day 2

How do you evaluate Christian leaders? What dangers come when practice and values diverge?

by David Joynt on July 11, 2016

Leading With a Just Heart: Day 2

MATTHEW 23:3b

 

The criteria for legitimate teaching is simple—faithful exposition of the will of God. The obligation to obey, to follow instruction, is absolute, as long as a teacher conforms to scripture. This is the criteria that should be used in evaluating Christian teachers, preachers, and leaders.

But in our verse today, there is a trenchant critique of leadership. Jesus points out that often leaders fail to practice what they preach, to embody the values they seek to inculcate. There is a divergence between their words and deeds. Too wide a divergence and teaching becomes hypocrisy.

 

How do you evaluate Christian leaders?

What dangers come when practice and values diverge?

 

Tags: just, leading

About the Author
David Joynt

Dave Joynt began his service as a pastor at Valley Presbyterian Church in Paradise Valley, Arizona in September 2014. This meant a move away from the Northeast, where he has a long history, growing up in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and then serving congregations in Delaware and New Jersey for a total of 23 years.

Dave was nurtured in a great church in Bethlehem where his parents, Anne and Carey, served as elders. He graduated in classics from Lehigh University where his Father taught, and then from Oxford, where he met his wife Julia. Ordained in 1988, he completed a Ph.D. from Princeton Theological Seminary in 1993.

He and Julia have a son, Tristan, and a daughter, Madeleine.

More from Pastor Joynts Devotionals

return to Pastor Joynts Devotionals