Three types of Leaders

In the first part of this teaching on the THREE TYPES OF LEADERS, we dwelt on the importance of leaders with a father’s heart as the only type of ‘laborers’ acceptable as workers in God’s vineyard.

This week, we will be taking a look at the first type, but only after we’ve reminded ourselves of the Master’s ‘prayer request’ as contained in our originating text:

Matt.9:35-38: 

Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people. But when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd. Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.”

THREE TYPES OF LEADERS

The first type of ‘laborers’ is to be found in Matt. 20:1-2.
“For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. Now when he had agreed with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard. 

Here, Jesus likens the Kingdom of heaven to a landowner who went out early in the morning to HIRE laborers to work his vineyard. These set of laborers negotiated their wage as a condition to go work in the vineyard of the Landowner. These type of leaders are called HIRELINGS.

• These ‘laborers’ will not go except they are ‘HIRED’. The vineyard they were going to work in is not their main concern! Their motivation is clear, “What is in it for me?” But personally, I wouldn’t blame them because mentoring, training and raising other ‘laborers’, though important, was not part of their deal! That is NOT where their heart is! Obviously, any Christian leader with this mindset cannot be a father-material.

• They took the time to negotiate their pay – the “Landowner” had to agreewith them. That was their MAJOR mistake! The Lord is a far more generous ’employer’ and ‘rewarder’ than you can imagine! At the close of the day, “they supposed that they would receive more; and they likewise received each a denarius. And when they had received it, they complained against the landowner, saying, ‘These last men have worked only one hour, and you made them equal to us who have borne the burden and the heat of the day.’ But he answered one of them and said, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? Take what is yours and go your way. I wish to give to this last man the same as to you. (Matt.20:10-14).

As we have said earlier, this group of laborers, though called and sent by God, is clearly not “father-material”. You can’t ‘hire’ a father! These can at best be ‘tutors’ or ‘caretakers’. Jesus said in the time of danger, they’ll flee. “The hireling flees because he is a hireling and does not care about the sheep” (Jn.10:13). No amount of money or material stuff can ‘pay’ for the sacrifices of working in God’s vineyard. The motivations we have for doing what we do are different. They are such as:

1. The joy of being used of God.
2. The satisfaction of seeing lives changed, transformed.
3. And hopefully one day, hearing God’s glorious affirmation, “Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord”.

Dear friend, we should never make money or material possessions the primary motivation for doing God’s work. We should rather trust God to recompense and reward us far better than any mortal employer. We will be looking at the second type of leader in our next letter. Begin your empowered week with testimonies and victories in Jesus’ name.