Chasing GreatnessSample

Kingdom Man

One of the critical elements in advancing God’s kingdom is in understanding that as a man, you are responsible for that which falls within the realm of influence that God has given you. A man who foregoes responsibility in the chaos or confusion of his realm, whether it is his direct doing or not, has thus prevented himself from remedying it. Not only does he lack God’s power to advance, but he has disqualified himself from even fixing what has been broken.

I pastor a fairly established church with over 200 employees. Most of the time the church runs smoothly. Yet occasionally I will get a phone call from someone who sounds upset telling me something that he or she did not like. 

I’ll never forget the time that a woman called to tell me that she had phoned the church five times the day before and could not get through to the operator each and every time. Every time this particular woman had placed a phone call to the church, the operator had been unable to answer, and so her call had gone to voicemail. 

My normal reaction was to ask her why she is not giving her complaint to the operator, and why she is giving it to me? I am the senior pastor, after all, of a several hundred staff run church, Christian school and outreach center. How am I supposed to know why the operator wasn’t there at that precise moment? Maybe she was on another call. No offense, but ask her.

Yet, even though that is what I feel like saying, that is not what I actually say. Because, in all honesty, the caller is right. She has tracked down and contacted the correct person for her complaint. 

As senior pastor, I may not be directly to blame for the issue regarding the missed phone call, but my position makes me ultimately responsible. So when I got that call, I handled it promptly. Why? Because I am ultimately responsible to see that it doesn’t happen again.

The same complaint got brought to Adam. Not about a phone call, but about a piece of fruit. The question is posed to Adam because irrespective of who did what first, he was the one held ultimately responsible. This is because Adam was accountable under God as the assigned representative to carry out, and to assure the carrying out of, God’s agenda.