I recently read an article on pastoral leadership, and as I was reading it, it just seemed inauthentic, and at the same time a little bit familiar. So after a little time with Google, I found out this article was actually two other articles, both penned by experienced pastors, both of which I had already read – but they had been joined together by this guy as part of his blog.
Sometimes people come to our church because someone else told them we are an Andrew Wommack-church, or a Kenneth Copeland-church, or a Dave Duell-church. They are soon shocked because I am not Andrew Wommack, Kenneth Copeland or Dave Duell. I am Ben Conway, and I am very different from those three people, even though I love and honour all of them.
A lady who was coming to our church on Sundays was starting her own church on Fridays, around the corner, trying to use our church as a base for inviting people to her church. She used to take the teachings I wrote for my elders to teach and pass them off as her own teachings, even passing off my testimonies as her testimonies!
All three of these things have a similar link: and that is that church leaders can often be much more of an echo than a voice. People find something that is popular and instantly try and emulate it, copy it, or in the worst cases – just simply rip it off. It’s lazy, it’s inauthentic and it ultimately does not work.
Now, there is nothing wrong (IMHO) if you have been studying let’s say healing for the last year or two, to take one of T L Osborn’s sermons on healing and preach it. It’s a great outline – it works, and it will be authentic because you are in the Word and know the Scriptures well, and understand the message for yourself. Kenneth Copeland started off preaching Kenneth Hagin messages – and most people know that, but they forget that he soon stopped doing that and started preaching his own messages, and his ministry has gone a very different direction to Rhema because Copeland is not a rip-off of Hagin, he is a prophet and teacher in his own right. Imagine how many great revelations and sermons would be lost to the body of Christ if Copeland was still teaching Hagin’s material.
There comes a day when you have to stop being an echo and be a voice. People coming to the Tree looking for an Andrew Wommack church are often disappointed in me. Some because they don’t know Andrew except as a voice on the TV, and are looking for a church that is nothing more than a voice on the TV where you watch and sometimes buy a DVD and are shocked when we speak about church things like culture, and serving, and punctuality, and dreaming and planning. They are looking for a TV show and got upset when they found a church.
Other people are upset the first time they find out I don’t agree 100% with Andrew’s opinions on EVERY SINGLE VERSE! Sorry, cloning hasn’t been invented yet – I am my own man with my own verse. They are looking for an echo, but they found a voice. But the truth is that I have a unique voice, and I have helped people in ways that other people could not – if I was still being an echo, the body of Christ would be diminished.
You have to find your voice. If your blog is just other people’s posts and your Facebook is just what you share, how will people ever know what you give a damn about, what you love, what you hate, what matters to you. Your voice needs to be heard. John the Baptist was a voice, he knew what God had called him to do and was doing it. That’s how you become a voice – you find out what God has called you to do and do it.
Echos fade away, they are easily misunderstood, you can’t stop an echo and clarify. If you are teaching sermons you could not answer questions on, you are an echo. If you are always having to use other people’s testimonies to back up your point, you are an echo. If you have to cut and paste other people’s blog posts and change the words slightly to appear wise, you are an echo.
If that’s you, go and lock yourself in a cupboard somewhere with a Bible, get on your face before God and ask Him: What is my message? Why am I in the body of Christ? What have you called me to do? It’s time to find out – we need voices in the body of Christ, and we need them now.
Inspiring and Challenging Dreamers 