Chapter 10

True Leaders Are Tough

By Dr. Lester Hutson

II Timothy 2:3

"Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ."

A good many people have a very wrong mental picture of church leaders, particularly pastors. They see them only as a rather wimpy, half feminine, weak lot. Some see them as borderline sissies who are in the ministry because they don't want to get their hands dirty or get an honest job. Even Jesus is viewed by some as being somewhat weak and effeminate. Somehow society has come to associate brawn with masculinity and brains with femininity.

That is not an accurate association. Some who wear the title of pastor or other church leader are weak and wimpy, like other men in secular positions of authority who would be considered wimps. These are not true leaders, pastors or secular authorities. These pastors do great disservice to the cause of Christ and ministry in particular.

True leaders are tough. One doesn't have to have big muscles and go around like a rooster ready to fight in order to be tough. True leaders have a great capacity for sustaining spiritual punches. They're hard to knock down, and even if they're knocked flat, they have the ability to bounce back and keep going. They not only have a winning attitude, they have the capacity to absorb life's lumps and go on.

Tough Defined

Tough means "tenacious, hard to break or pull apart, hard fibered, strong." Tough is a tough word to explain. It surely carries the idea of strength, durability and resilience, yet toughness does not necessarily mean hardness. Leather and rubber is tough, but not always hard. Wool clothes are downright soft and supple, but they're tough and extremely durable. I don't think anyone who even slightly comprehends the word tough associates weakness with it.

Tough people are not weak. They may be soft and tender, yet extremely tenacious, strong and resilient. Toughness does not automatically carry with it the idea of obstinacy and stubbornness. Tough people don't have to be cruel and mean; they can be the most gentle, warm, flexible people of all. But to mistake their meekness and gentleness as weakness is a foolish mistake. In fact, many a time, the tough people will still be around, carrying right on, long after most of the hard, brassy, obstinate ones have fallen by the wayside.

You see, the tough ones have learned to bend where others break. They've learned the art of flexibility and pragmatism. They know how to roll with the same punch that would knock others out cold.

Shepherd - not a wimpy job

Shepherding is a job demanding extreme toughness. Shepherds do not have to be really brawny with heavy muscles. Usually they're of the lanky, slender type. They spend much of their time alone, talking only to their sheep, so they need not be of the brassy, bragging variety. The shepherd's job seldom involves one titanic performance which is over within a few minutes or hours. The emphasis of shepherding is mostly on stamina over the long haul. A shepherd takes the sheep out for months, often into terrain that is extremely rugged. The shepherd stays there, ever watching, bearing the hardships and loneliness and tending the sheep.

Surely one of the greatest qualities of the shepherd must be toughness. If he's not tough, resilient and durable, he'll never make it as a shepherd.

Every summer the high sierras of the rugged Rocky Mountains of south central Colorado provide a striking picture of the shepherd's toughness. In late spring or early summer shepherds take flocks of sheep numbering into the thousands and move ever upward into the most remote of places. They go up the canyons, up and past the steep mountainsides, past the timberline to the Continental Divide. At altitudes of 11,000 and 12,000 feet the shepherd lives in a simple tent with only a horse and a dog or two. He must be in peak physical shape just to get there, over two miles straight up where the air is thin and always cold. Just staying clean, eating, getting water, staying dry and warm are constant challenges. Up there, it freezes almost every night, and in mid-August, in mid-day, it's likely to sleet or snow a few minutes any day. Mighty wind gusts are common, and the danger of lightning is ever a lethal menace in the high country. Coyotes, bears and mountain lions ever threaten the sheep.

The sheep must have water, be led to green pastures, and watched for disease and injuries. They look to the shepherd for everything. Lost sheep must be found, and protection must be provided.

It's mighty lonesome up there. It takes far more than a romantic inclination for camping out to be a shepherd. Shepherding is not for people who are looking for a couple of weeks of excitement before getting on with their main goals in life. Toughness and endurance are the hallmarks of true shepherds. There's not a weak bone in a good shepherd, yet sometimes shepherds are perceived as a little on the weak, wimpy side.

Leaders, especially pastors, are the Lord's spiritual shepherds. Good leaders are the toughest people you'll ever meet. They can take the heat and go on. They get up when they're knocked down. They'll be kind and soft-hearted. They'll stretch and give like elastic, yet you cannot seem to break them. They seem to have a durableness that will withstand any shock.

As a young boy, I recall a certain punching bag which stood on the floor in the form of a boxer. It was weighted in the feet so that anytime it was knocked down, it promptly popped right back up. Give it your most devastating knockout punch and down it would go, but it would pop right back up, and stand there looking you straight in the eye. True leaders are like that punching bag.

Yet, many church leaders, including pastors, can't take a punch. Gossip, opposition, financial hardships, a false accusation or some other painful punch comes, and down goes Bro. Pastor. He feels so mistreated, alone, discouraged and sorry for himself. His drives goes out. He may even feel bitterness and revenge. He grows more cynical and disillusioned. His church goes down, and he wonders why people won't follow him like they follow some of his preacher friends.

Folks, I'm talking about the substance leaders are made of. When a leader lacks the toughness to endure hardships and disappointments, he's not going to make it as a leader. True leaders do not have "glass jaws." They have to be able to take a punch. The ability to do so is one of the ingredients God uses to blend with other ingredients into a life which others want to follow. again it is obvious that leadership is not some mystical, ethereal quality reserved only for the select few. No. Leadership is made up of plain and simple ingredients which anyone can have in his or her life.

Paul told Timothy, "Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ," in II Timothy 2:3. He's talking about endurance, which is the very heart of toughness. James wrote, "Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord," in James 5:7. Then he continued in verse 11, "Behold we count them happy which endure." Get hold of that, brother, sister. Shepherds, leaders, pastors must be tough. They must be durable, not easily nor quickly discouraged or dissuaded from the work. This sometimes is the critical difference between those who are getting the job done and those who aren't.

The Hebrew word for shepherd is raah (raw-ah'). It literally means "to tend a flock; to pasture it." From it comes the word "pastor." The word is translated "pastor" nine times in the King James Version Bible. The word "pastor" is used in Ephesians 4:11 and comes from the Greek word poimem (poy-mane') meaning "a shepherd or pastor." What's a leader, especially a pastor of a church, to do? He's to tend the spiritual sheep. If he's going to be a successful tender of sheep, pastor, leader, he's going to have to be tough enough to endure hardship, for toughness is one of the ingredients successful leadership is made of.

Look at pastors in your Bible.

MOSES

"Moses was very meek," according to Numbers 12:3. Yet, he was one of the toughest men of whom you'll ever read. Leading those people for forty long years in the barren Sinai, enduring the murmuring and rebellion he faced constantly, standing up to the daily supervision of the affairs of state, holding together a people always in a crisis and on the verge of disaster. You talk about a tough character! Moses was one tough shepherd.

JEREMIAH

God chose Jeremiah to be a prophet from his mother's womb. (Jeremiah 1:5) God told him in Jeremiah 1:19 that the people to whom he was being sent would reject him and even fight against him. They did. They accused him of treason, smote him, threatened to kill him, burned the letters he wrote, put him in prison and starved him in a dungeon full of mud and muck. You can see it in Jeremiah 32, 37 and 38. You talk about tough, Jeremiah was tough.

EZEKIEL

In the midst of their rebellion against God, God called out Ezekiel to be a shepherd prophet to Israel. God told Ezekiel ahead of time, "But the house of Israel will not hearken unto thee; for they will not hearken unto me: for all the house of Israel are impudent and hardhearted," Ezekiel 3:7. He said to Ezekiel,

"And thou, son of man, be not afraid of them, neither be afraid of their words, though briers and thorns be with thee, and thou dost dwell among scorpions: be not afraid of their words, nor be dismayed at their looks, though they be a rebellious house. And thou shalt speak my words unto them, whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear: for they are most rebellious," Ezekiel 2:6-7.

PAUL

It's hard to carry on when people reject you and rebel against what you say. It's hard to preach to a church whose faces look like stone, who do not do what you preach, and who even talk against you behind your back. It's hard to carry on when there is not enough money and working conditions are so poor like they were with Paul.

JESUS

Jesus was the toughest one who ever lived. No one ever gave so much at such a high price. Yet, as He prayed to the Father in John 17:4, "I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do." As He died on that cross in John 19:30 He said, "It is finished." Brethren, true leaders are not "flash-in-the-pans." They don't run at the first smell of gunpowder or the sight of blood. They stay. They're the Eleazar type of II Samuel 23:9-10 who "arose and smote the Philistines until his hand was weary, and his hand clave unto the sword." The U.S. Marines have a little slogan. "When the going gets tough, the tough get going." That saying describes true leaders quite well. Those who are not tough enough to endure will never make it as true leaders.

Above and beyond

Church leadership demands an extraordinary toughness. In a church of much size, someone, and sometimes several, are unhappy with the pastor at any given moment. They may or may not be unhappy enough to quit or cause a big issue of it, but they're unhappy and almost always make sure the pastor knows it. In fact, they make sure he knows it if they're unhappy about anything in the church. It's sometimes because he didn't visit them or someone they thought should have been visited. It may be that the visit wasn't soon enough. Sometimes it's the preaching: too long, meddling message, right subjects not being addressed, not interesting enough. Sometimes the pastor's not on top of things; sometimes he's a dictator. His spirit may not be up, he's too hard, he wasn't tender or compassionate enough with someone, or he was too easy on someone. He's not keeping enough programs going, his personality clashes, or they heard a rumor. He didn't follow proper channels, and the list could go on and on. It's pretty hard not to get hard and "gun shy" when you are constantly "under the gun," but true leaders must be tough enough to handle that pressure.

Church rumor mills make it really tough on church leaders, particularly pastors. People jump to conclusions when they don't even have the facts. They assume someone is getting a raw deal or hear from someone else that he is. The pastor really gets criticized, but he can't even answer the matter. If he gets in the pulpit and explains the matter, it's perceived that he's using the pulpit unfairly to argue a case or pick on someone. Using the pulpit just spreads a matter and gives the illusion of big trouble. This draws in and alarms others. It's divisive, so the pastor just has to sit on it and take the flack. Beloved, that's tough to do.

For example, some member leaves the church. Pastor and others visit, call, talk and do all they can to keep the departer from leaving, but he leaves anyway. Some friend or family spreads around that nobody cared or did anything to keep this member. Others hear it and are offended, and may even quit. Boy, it hurts, but a pastor can't get in the pulpit and start explaining all he's done and others have done to keep Mr. and Mrs. Departed, so he just has to take it on the chin, and not let it stop his good work, nor let it make him bitter and cynical.

Lots of things in a church can really hurt its leaders. Sometimes they face open anger and get public dress downs. Their kids are expected to be perfect, and it's not unusual for anger and hostile feelings against the pastor to be taken out on the pastor's wife and kids. Often the income for church leaders is considerably lower than business jobs, and usually lower than the average income of the church members. They often struggle economically. Making decisions to change things that are hurting and holding back the church is hard, and those decisions often draw scorn and opposition, yet true church leaders must sometimes do it. It is not unusual for their motives and integrity to be questioned once they do.

Unconcern for the personal well-being of church leaders is common in churches. Churches rob pastors with parsonages, pay them meager wages and turn them out to pasture to fend for themselves when they get old and gray. Sometimes there's very little support and appreciation for the men of God or their messages. They're expected to be virtually all things to all men, eternally young, full of wisdom and wit and to hit a "home run" every time they stand in the pulpit. Very few understand the unique pressures of the ministry. It's often a very trying and lonely work. It is not easy, nor a calling which can be answered by a "fly-by-nighter" who can't stand a fiery furnace or den of lions.

Leadership, especially in a church, demands toughness, stamina, tenacity, resilience and lasting strength. Somehow, God is able to take those who have it, blend in the other leadership qualities, and use them to win great victories, while those who lack toughness usually sooner "wash out" sooner or later.

"It Does Make a Difference What You Believe"