Leadership is highly cardinal in every aspect of our lives and this does not leave out the business arena, the church, politics and every circle of human endeavour. What are the major marks of Leadership and how could leadership play the influential role which it’s meant for? Here is a chat between Ayo Afuye, Editor, Vessels of Virtues Christian Media, and Steve Karma, Lead Pastor, Hope Church Lancaster on a new series titled : Marks of a Spiritual Leadership.
“We need to begin to see ourselves as missionaries. We need to learn the language, culture, tradition and the ways of life. We need to see how the gospel fits into the vacuum in our world. The problem sometimes in the church is that there are people who know the Bible, the theology and the spiritual life really well, but they do not have the knowledge of the culture.” Steve Karma.
1. Vessels of Virtues: In your own view, how would you assess the spiritual leadership in the 21st Century with regards to preaching the true gospel? When we say “true gospel”, we mean the undiluted word of God. “But as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, even so we speak, not as pleasing men, but God who tests our hearts.” (1 Thessalonians 2:4).
Steve: John Stott wrote a book titled “Between Two Worlds”. And basically, what John Stott 
teaches is that there are two worlds which we need to inhabit as preachers, which I feel answers your question. One is the world of the scriptures which means we need to read the scriptures and know our Bibles well, we need to be praying, we need to engage in fasting. We need to spend time with systematic theology; we need to spend our time meditating on the word of God. I like speaking the scriptures out loud. I also like memorising and listening to scriptures. Then another thing we should be able to inhabit is the world around us, as we need to understand the hopes, dreams and the fears of the people around us. We need to understand what communicates to them, and that is difficult. This reason it is difficult is that the world we live is really complex. Twenty years ago, if I have watched the biggest movie of the year, I knew that 90 per cent of the people would have watched that. But today, I don’t know who is watching what. Either they are on Netflix or YouTube. I can watch top ten films of the year and also read top ten books, and when I am speaking, people in the congregation might not know what I am talking about, which means we need to spend time with the people we are trying to reach, particularly within the western world. We need to begin to see ourselves as missionaries. We need to learn the language, culture, tradition and the ways of life. We need to see how the gospel fits into the vacuum in our world. The problem sometimes in the church is that there are people who know the Bible, the theology and the spiritual life really well, but they do not have the knowledge of the culture. Some know the culture really well, well connected culturally. They could be stand-up comedians, broadcasters, but what they don’t know is the bible and the basic truth of the gospel. What they do not know is how the Spirit of God operates and they also lack the knowledge of what discipleship means. Now, we need to get those two things together.
“there is an element within preaching that should be offensive. The word of God is not always palatable. So if you think of some of the prophets; Amos speaks against the government because of high interest rates.” Steve Karma.
2. Vessels of Virtues: Since you have been in ministry and preaching, have you had any issues with followers or listeners for speaking the truth of the gospel? How did you cope with such situation?
Steve: Preaching is something that I feel called to and gifted. Though, I am not claiming to be any good, but it is something I feel called to. Having said that, I would also say it has been an area of development. So I wouldn’t be ashamed to preach some of the sermons I preached when I began, like I did not know as much as I know now, and like one of the other questions, you know the preacher is even more important than what is being taught. I have grown and have changed and developed. As I always tell my congregation that the soil is as important as the seed. The second thing is that the gospel can be offensive. I don’t want to offend people because I have used languages that are derogatory or inflammatory. I don’t want to confuse people, but there is an element within preaching that should be offensive. The word of God is not always palatable. So if you think of some of the prophets; Amos speaks against the government because of high interest rates. You think about John the Baptist, he talks about how sexually immoral Herod is. You think about prophet Jeremiah, he talks about the situation of the people in captivity in Babylon. He said they conquered us, destroyed our temple, raped our women, probably killed our kids, and he claimed it was difficult to express love to these people who have done this to him and his people. That is very offensive. And the fact Jesus said “be careful when men speak well of you” We have to understand that the word of God brings healing like anti-bacterial, but stings before the healing is made perfect.
