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FAITHFUL LEADERS: And the Things that Matter Most
Rico Tice with Foreword by Alistair Begg
RICO TICE opens this new book with the following words from his Introduction--
One of the strange realities of being a pastor is that you spend more time at funerals than anyone else (apart from undertakers). Some are particularly joy-filled—celebrating a long life well-lived and now enjoyed into eternity. Some are particularly tear-stained—remembering a child, or a tragic self-inflicted death. Some are simply particularly memorable. So I’ll never forget the funeral at which an old lady said to me, “Rico, do you know what failure is?” “No—tell me,” I answered. What she said next has stuck with me ever since: “Failure is being successful at the things that don’t matter.”
My best friend from university died in his thirties: he dropped dead of a pulmonary embolism. That was another memorable funeral, for all the wrong reasons. I remember standing at his graveside with his father, and his dad saying to me, “Rico, what do I write on my boy’s grave? What epitaph do I put on there?”
The sobering truth is that one day, someone will have to decide what epitaph to write on your gravestone too. I’ve been to a lot of funerals—one day people will gather at mine. Will they say I’ve been a success? What even is success? We all want it—no one wants to be known as and then remembered as a failure or a fool—but for Christian believers in a position of influence (whether that’s around the family table at home or preaching from the pulpit in a church) what does success look like? What would failure be?
Here’s what: the metric of success and failure is not what your relatives write on your gravestone but what God says to you that day you die. For to some he will say, “You fool,” just as he did to the man in Jesus’ parable who had lived as though his own self-advancement and self-gratification mattered most (Luke 12 v 20). And I don’t think being a church member or a pastor insulates us from hearing that verdict. The fire of God’s judgment will “test the quality of each person’s work” in ministry (1 Corinthians 3 v 13). And… “If it is burned up, the builder will suffer loss but yet will be saved—even though only as one escaping through the flames.” (v 15) There is a category of saved fool—of those who are saved by grace but whose lives were not well spent.
And yet to others our Lord will say, “Well done, good and faithful servant,” just as was said to the men in Jesus’ parable who used all that their master had given them to the uttermost, for his glory and their eternal joy (Matthew 25 v 21).
Of course, “it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast” (Ephesians 2 v 8-9). I make sure I remind myself regularly of the three tenses of salvation that I learned when I was a young Christian. By grace I have been saved from the penalty of sin. By grace I am being saved from the power of sin. By grace I will one day be saved from the presence of sin.
But as trophies of grace, you and I are “created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do” (Ephesians 2 v 10). My salvation is based only and always on Christ’s finished work for me, but whether or not I hear “Well done” when I meet him is based on Christ’s work through me— on my ministry in his service.
So just imagine hearing those words—that affirmation of your work from divine lips: “Well done”. And just imagine hearing those words—that rebuke of your life from divine lips: “You fool”. If God welcomes you into his presence on the cusp of eternity and fixes you in the eye and says, “You fool”, all the achievements and accolades and accumulations of this life will not matter one jot. Failure is being successful at the things that don’t matter. And if God welcomes you into his presence on the cusp of eternity and smiles at you and says, “Well done, good and faithful servant”, then all the sacrifices and service and striving will have been infinitely, eternally worth it.
Hearing your Creator and your Father say, “Well done”—that’s all that ultimately matters, isn’t it? That’s the measure of a life worth living, whatever they say of me in a eulogy and whatever they write about me on my headstone.
This book is about what it takes to live that kind of life: what it looks like to hear “Well done” instead of “You fool”. It is a book for anyone in any kind of church leadership. (I’ll use the word “pastor” a lot—just substitute “elder”, “youth worker”, “Bible-study leader” or whatever applies to your own life.) It is by no means the last word on, or the only book you’ll need about, Christian leadership. Nor is it (I hope) an easy read—I hope it will jolt you or change you. I’m not writing as someone who has all this sorted, but as a fellow struggler—from the trenches, as it were, rather than from the mountaintop. These are all things that I need to hear on repeat—and that you do too. Why? Because to a large extent, the spiritual health of a church leader determines the spiritual health of his congregation. That means that our success, our faithfulness, our progress and our leadership matter—and matter eternally.
I want to be a faithful leader. I want to hear my Father look me in the eye and, surveying my ministry, say, “Well done”. I want you to hear it too. That means we need to define success, to fight our sin, to lead ourselves, and to serve our churches. Which sounds simple when I put it in a sentence; but, if you’re like me, it’s going to be the battle of our life.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Foreword by Alistair Begg 9
Introduction 15
1. Define Success 19
2. Fight Your Sin 39
3. Lead Yourself 61
4. Serve Your Church 83
Afterword 105
Questions for Reflection or Discussion 108
ENDORSEMENTS
“In Faithful Leaders Rico Tice raises his voice to urge us to refocus our ambitions on what matters most. He does so with his characteristic passion for Christ and sobering directness. But he also writes as a humble fellow pilgrim, not as one who has arrived without a struggle. The author comes on his knees to serve us and to urge us to ‘strive … for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord’ (Hebrews 12 v 14). That is a posture worth imitating and a lead worth following.” -SINCLAIR B. FERGUSON, Author, Devoted to God; Chancellor’s Professor of Systematic Theology, RTS
“This book is timely, realistic, honest, searching and relentlessly biblical. Above all, I found it searingly challenging in a way which moved me to take action in my own life. We don’t just need to read Faithful Leaders but to live it.” -GARY MILLAR, Principal, Queensland Training College, Australia; Author, Need to Know
“Faithful Leaders is a joy to read. Full of wisdom and focused on themes that leadership books ought to be about (but often aren’t), it is somehow both challenging and encouraging at the same time. Reading it made me reflect, and write notes in my Bible, and pray. Wonderfully done.” -ANDREW WILSON, Teaching Pastor, King’s Church London
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