When everybody does what is right in their own eyes, and sheep have no shepherd, who will dare to lead them?
Few seem to have the courage to stand out against covert peer-leaderships which have taken the rostrum ... from Instagram and Tiktok influencers who sway many into new buying behaviours, to popularist agendas which dethrone God's absolute truth and enthrone personal pleasure. Anything which feels uncomfortable is rejected. It is the new unsanitised, unstable democracy.
Where are today's leaders? Some are really managers; they are able to get people to follow processes and use limited resources to achieve targets. But true leadership is much more difficult. It is about vision and inspiration, harnessing the diverse gifts of talented people in pursuing an authentic goal that is bigger than them, with flexibility and creativity - against the quick-sands of inertia and aggressive opinion that would swallow it up.
Where are the leaders in country and church who will dare to be true to God's Word? Where are the influencers like Bunyan, who will explain that each Christian's walk is a series of hard challenges, starting at the cross? Where are the preachers like Wesley, who said, “Give me one hundred preachers who fear nothing but sin and desire nothing but God - and I care not whether they be clergymen or laymen - they alone will shake the gates of Hell and set up the kingdom of Heaven upon Earth.”?
We are right to respect each person; every one is created in God's image. But are we so concerned not to offend anybody, that we fail to alert those who are sleepwalking to Hell? 'That's far too strong', I hear somebody say. But God uses His Elijahs and Daniels to waken the spiritually unconscious. And Paul pleads that Christians do not go back to unbelieving slumber -"Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you." (Ephesians 5:14).
Most ministry leaders have little training or inclination for this lonely prophetic task. As George Whitfield said, “If you are going to walk with Jesus Christ, you are going to be opposed ... In our days, to be a true Christian is really to become a scandal.”, and "It is a poor sermon that gives no offence; that neither makes the hearer displeased with himself nor with the preacher." Another strong statement in days when we easily camouflage the truth to protect sensitive ears. Is this why true spiritual leadership is so hard to find, and even harder to do well consistently?
BeaconLight earnestly seeks to give biblical courage to the preachers, and provide authentic gospel hope to the godless. Our impact may be small-scale, but each life transformed, and each leader emboldened, is a beacon of light which the Lord will use to penetrate the darkness.
Please pray with us that God will raise up courageous people to take the unerring truth of Scripture into the swamps of self-centred ideology. Without their vision and brave leadership the people will perish.