After my husband and I got married, we were in desperate need of godly married couples. We talked to the pastor in our church, and he said, “Since you need it, you should lead it.”
So we started a group. We didn’t truly know what we were doing, but we started a Sunday school group. We got a book, and we led every week out of that. Eventually, people left the group. We had struggles. I sought counsel and learned how to lead everyone through the different struggles we had the best I could. But I didn’t know what I was doing. Neither did my husband.
During that time, because I was studying the Bible at a different Bible study somewhere else, the love of Jesus struck me in the heart, and suddenly I understood my need for Him more than ever. I understood how to have Him in every part and every area of my life, every day. I started to bring this truth to the group, but nobody could even understand it. It was incomprehensible to them. All of a sudden, I was wacko. It was crazy.
But I know so many people who need to belong or need to be free from something, so they start a group. They become a leader and try to lead people into freedom when they are not free themselves. My theory is the needer should never be the leader. If you have the need, you probably should not lead. You need a leader.
I think it’s interesting that broke people try to lead broke people into financial freedom. Poor and addicted people try to lead poor and addicted people into freedom. If you don’t know how to be free and you haven’t had any sustainability, can you honestly teach someone else how to be free?
Many times, people get together and talk about their problems. They talk about their desires, and they talk about why they do it. But the Bible never says discussing your problem will set you free. It says the truth will set you free—the truth and the truth only.
If you have to pick up a book to lead someone through it, to help them break free, or to help them grow, then are you truly the right person to lead that group? If you can’t lead it straight out of the truth—the Word of God—from your own walk and your own testimony that you have gone ahead of them, then are you the right person to lead someone else into the authentic freedom of Jesus Christ? Are you the one who should be leading?
I believe the needer should not be the leader. If you have a need, find someone who has walked through the fire, has a testimony, and has paved the way for you. Maybe they are a pioneer. Ask them for help. Consider having them start a group to help you so you can experience the freedom they have.
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