Saya baru selesai membaca tulisan John Piper: The Marks of a Spiritual Leader. Mungkin tulisan ini lebih cocok disebut booklet daripada buku karena isinya hanya 43 halaman. Saya kira Piper memang tidak bermaksud menulis buku yang berbobot dibarengi dengan riset yang memadai. Dia hanya menuliskan perenungannya, tentunya berdasarkan pengalaman dan pengamatan pribadinya, tentang kepemimpinan rohani.
Apa yang dia tuliskan adalah sesuatu yang umum - seperti hal yang "semua-orang-sudah-tahu". Tetapi gaya tulisan Piper dan kaliber pelayanannya memberi bobot tersendiri pada nasehat-nasehatnya.
Di bawah ini adalah sebagian dari nasehat Piper yang saya beri garis bawah:
A spiritual leader must be a person who has strong confidence in the sovereign goodness of God to work everything together for his good. Otherwise, he will inevitably fall into the trap of manipulating circumstances and exploiting people in order to secure for himself a happy future which he is not certain God will provide.
The spiritual leader must be a person who meditates on the Scriptures and prays for spiritual illumination. Otherwise, his faith will grow weak and his love will languish, and no one will be moved to glorify God because of him.
There will be no successful spiritual leadership without extended seasons of prayer and meditation on the Scriptures. Spiritual leaders ought to rise early in order to meet God before they meet anybody else.
It is unthinkable that we should be content with things the way they are in a fallen world and an imperfect church. Therefore, God has been pleased to put a holy restlessness into some of his people, and those people will very likely be the leaders.
Criticism is one of Satan’s favorite weapons to try to get effective Christian leaders to throw in the towel.
Lazy people cannot be leaders...He loves to be productive. And he copes with the pressure and prevents it from becoming worrisome with promises like Matthew 11:27–28 and Philippians 4:7–8 and Isaiah 64:4.
If we are to lead people to see and reflect God’s glory, we must think theologically about everything.
O how we need people who will devote just five minutes a week to dream of what might possibly be.
My dad once told me that the reason he thought many pastors fail to see revival in their churches is that they leave just before it is about to happen. The long haul is hard, but it pays. The big tree is felled by many, many little chops.
