Another important area as a leader is worship. This does not just mean singing or praising God. We worship Him whenever we do what He says to do with the proper heart attitude. That’s important to remember, because it causes others to want to follow God, when they see you behaving in a Godly manner.
We sometimes hear people say they worship a person. This is always wrong. Even God’s angels refuse to accept our worship. (The “Angel of the Lord” in the Old Testament was worshipped, but that’s because He was Jesus before He came to the world in human form.) It was customary in the old days to have kings and queens that were called “Majesty’ and “Lord,” but that took away from God.
People in authority should be given respect, of course. They should be honored and obeyed. But, no person should be held to the level of God. We’ve mentioned how to act when people’s and God’s commands disagree. The key here is that, as a leader, you should never put a person in a position where they have to choose.
At the same time, if you do a good enough job as a leader, your followers may start to see you in a more positive light than they should. This is where humility plays such a key role. Always remind others that you are trying your best, but that you, too, fail at times. You should always try to stay close to God. But, Jay Bell saw his dad as the best example of Jesus he could imagine, because his dad made every effort to be like Jesus, but was always humble enough to admit his mistakes and apologize, and learn from those mistakes so they didn’t happen again.
That, then, is the key to worship when you shepherd others. Service is also important, of course, and we’ll see later in this part about how you can do that. But, for now, remember that your desire and your goal should be to be like Jesus.
