Leadership Fail #3- King Saul

    As We've seen in the previous two posts: Ownership Fail and Listening Fail; Saul has had a ton of "Epic Fail" moments where he dropped the ball BIG time in his time as King over Israel.

  The more I read his story, the more blunders I find.  It's absolutely amazing to me how many "fail" moments he actually had in his leadership.  Several of the fails are similar and end up coming down to the same problem.  Today's Leadership fail (and the final in this series) is no different.  Once Saul began down this path, he continued to make this fail a lifestyle.  In fact, this fail from this point forward defined the rest of his career. 

Leadership Fail #3- Apprentice Fail

  One of the best new leadership models is the model of Apprenticeship.  It is a model which encourages leaders to reproduce themselves in younger, emerging leaders.  It challenges the old guys to seek out young guys who will bring new life, new vision and new direction to the positions, companies and churches they are leading.

  It is an exciting movement in the leadership world which will help make the future of those positions, companies and churches brighter and more vibrant.  It is also where Saul failed the most in his leadership.

  Saul loved the spotlight, he loved the accolades that were poured onto him as king.  Saul loved power, prestige and butt kissers.  Anything or anyone that made him inferior was something to be pounced on like a lion.  He didn't want to be out-shone, nor did he desire to share the glory with any man...or even God.

  He took credit, owned the glory for himself and tried to kill those who may interfere with his glory.  This was the case with David.

  Saul at first was relieved when David showed up on the scene.  David killed Goliath...but when David started gaining more facebook fans...Saul got a bit peeved.

"And the women sang to one another as they celebrated,

 "Saul has struck down his thousands, and David his ten thousands."

And Saul was very angry, and this saying displeased him. He said, "They have ascribed to David ten thousands, and to me they have ascribed thousands, and what more can he have but(C) the kingdom?" And Saul eyed David from that day on." (1 Samuel 18:7-9)

"And Saul hurled the spear, for he thought, "I will pin David to the wall." But David evaded him twice.

 Saul was afraid of David because the LORD was with him but had departed from Saul." (1 Samuel 18:11-12)

"And when Saul saw that he had great success, he stood in fearful awe of him." (1 Samuel 18:15)

  Saul had messed up as king, so God had left Saul and stopped giving him favor.  Due to Saul's wicked and unrepentant heart God was forced to choose another king.  God chose David and began showering favor upon David and had His Spirit rest upon David.

  This success peaved Saul off to no end.  Instead of celebrating that God was giving Israel a better king, Saul became jealous and sought to end David's life...further seperating himself from the Lord and the Lord's will.

  I will be the first to admit that as a leader it is hard to see those under you achieving success.  It's hard not because I'm so great but because my sinful nature wants to be better than them.  We judge ourselves in comparison to others.  I've even found myself wondering why someone on facebook has more "friends" than I do....that's pretty freaking low and pathetic!

  However, we are jealous of others success, aren't we?  Someone gets promoted over us, we get ticked.  Someone younger than us gets more accolades for their effort than we do...it makes us freak out, because after all: we've been doing it longer!

  True, honest leadership I'm learning is leadership that develops others.  A strong leader may be effective for 30 or 40 years, but if they invest in the up and comers, they celebrate the success of a younger person and seek to make that person better...they are investing for much longer!  When we apprentice, our skills and our gifts sometimes get transferred...so even if we die off we are still a part of that younger leaders life!  Our influence goes farther!

  Saul sought only his glory and so he jealously kept all his leadership stuff to himself.  There was no attempt to teach a younger guy how to be king.  He hated the success of David and the moment it looked like David was blessed by God to take the throne was the moment Saul went ballistic.

  We as leaders need to be seeking how to invest in the future...even if someone eclipses us in the process...especially in the church!  It's not about us...it's about Him!  Saul as the king over Israel was supposed to be pointing the whole nation to God...instead he was trying to point them to himself.

  His reign was all about his glory...not God's glory.  Saul cared more about his image than he did the image of God.  Brothers ans Sisters, we can't be like Saul! 

I fail here a ton, I am a people pleaser and I want people to like me, I want the glory, I want the spotlight.

  I, however must die to myself and start pointing to God.  My gifts are His gifts.  My ministry is His ministry.  My wisdom is His wisdom.  We, my friends, are simply stewards of all he has given us.  We don't own anything, not even who we are.  We had no control over who we would be...we simply have a choice to steward that which was given.

  Saul failed in developing an Apprentice.  We should not fail here, God has entrustedd our leadership roles to us to not only lead now, but to lead when we're gone.

We must look and see: who are the young leaders that have the Lord's Annointing on them?  How can we pick them out and apprentice them for what God has for them in the future?

Leadership Fail #2- King Saul

  King Saul has some huge blunders recorded from his career as king over Israel.  last week we looked at Leadership Fail #1- Ownership Fail. 
This week, we will look at Leadership Fail #2 from his life.

Leadership Fail #2- Listening Fail

  If I'm honest, this is probably one of the biggest struggles I myself have in leadership.  It's one of those leadership fails that attacks and you rarely know it has taken a hold of you.  It is a Leadership Fail that only close friends can point out and only they can walk beside you and help you conquer it.

  It's all about who we listen to and who we desire to please.

  Too often in my life I want everyone to be happy.  I want all the people that surround me in leadership; those above and below me; to be happy with my performance.  I hate criticism, and I dread ticking people off. 

  This is something I am working through, something God is refining me in, so when I share Saul's Fail here, I am very aware that I am looking in the mirror and telling my own story as well as telling myself the answer to getting over this fail.  Here's where Saul began his downward spiral in his position as king over Israel.

He waited seven days, the time appointed by Samuel. But Samuel did not come to Gilgal, and the people were scattering from him. So Saul said, "Bring the burnt offering here to me, and the peace offerings." And he offered the burnt offering. As soon as he had finished offering the burnt offering, behold, Samuel came.

And Saul went out to meet him and greet him. Samuel said, "What have you done?" And Saul said, "When I saw that the people were scattering from me, and that you did not come within the days appointed, and that the Philistines had mustered at Michmash, I said, 'Now the Philistines will come down against me at Gilgal, and I have not sought the favor of the LORD.' So I forced myself, and offered the burnt offering." (1 Samuel 13:8-12)

  Saul was supposed to wait for Samuel.  Saul had instructions to wait, but Saul didn't wait.  After he does what he shouldn't have done, Samuel calls him out: "What have you done!?"  Saul then shows to whom he would rather listen to.

  Saul saw his followers, his army, his trusted men going back home. He realized that they weren't please with him and what he was doing at the moment.  The people didn't want to sit around and wait for Samuel so they could worship God.  The people wanted to get away from that place and they were not happy that Saul waited. 

Some probably tested his kingship with words like: "Look at this king waiting around like a puppy dog for a prophet! Who rules who?  Who really in charge here, Samuel or Saul?"

The attitude and the voices of the people rang louder in Saul's ears than did the voice of God.  So Saul scrambled to make the people happy, he sped up the process and made a sacrifice to God on his own...even though he was supposed to wait.

Saul was worried about the people's feelings towards him and Saul was also worried about Samuel.  When Samuel came Saul reveals his heart for trying to make the people happy and he also tries to blame it on God as an after thought.  He says: "...and that the Philistines had mustered at Michmash, I said, 'Now the Philistines will come down against me at Gilgal, and I have not sought the favor of the LORD.' So I forced myself, and offered the burnt offering." (1 Samuel 13:11b-12) 

Saul, in an effort to appease Samuel says he was worried that if he didn't please God with this sacrifice the Phillistines would be allowed to crush God's people.  He also says: "I made myself do it.  Samuel I struggled and I really didn't want to, you have to see that!  I forced myself to disobey God because I thought I would die if I didn't!"

Saul needed to worry more about God's command than he did the grumbling and leaving of the people. 

We as leaders need to do the same.  Our hearts desire should be to please our Father, not His people.  As Shepherds entrusted to steward His flock, we shouldn't listen to the bleating of the sheep but the whisper of our Lord.

  Again as I shared above, I struggle with this fail like no other.  I get frustrated at myself when I notice myself doing it.  I pander, I appease, I've lied, I've wriggled out of things all in an effort to make people happy.  If I don't know an answer to something, I've even made stuff up in an effort to have people think highly of me.

  I can't worry about other people's opinions.  I can't worry about what they think, I need to be close to the Father so I can hear what he desires me to do...and then I do it!

I do what He asks me to even if: people get ticked; people don't understand; people jeer at me or even if people leave my side because the only voice that matters, the only voice I need to listen to is His voice!

  It can be so easy to please the crowd.  It can be so easy to "go with the flow"...but it can be very difficult to go upstream, against the current.  Sometimes (more often than not) God calls us to go upstream and go after things that may make other people ticked; he often calls us to step on people's toes (in His Name of course) to wake them up from the slumber they are in.

  Sheep like to slumber and as the Shepherds, we need to wake them up!

I think some practical advise in order to not have this Leadership Fail is our life is:

1. Yeild our desires to the Holy Spirit
2. Be ever ready to listen to His voice
3. Be dilligent to be in the Word to hear from our Chief Shepherd (because we too are dumb sheep in need of waking up)
4. When God directs, we follow...no matter who may get ticked

May we take the hind-sight lesson from Saul's life and dedicate our lives to hearing His Voice and following it!

Leadership Fail #1- King Saul

We've all read or at least heard about King Saul in our lifetime somewhere along the way.  He was a King who was good in most respects...until he started messing up, then his leadership skills took a nose-dive. 

   God said of him after a short-while (only 5 chapters after he was annointed King): "I regret that I have made Saul King, for he has turned back from following me and has not performed my commandments..." (1 Samuel 15:11 ESV)

  That's not a facebook fan page worthy of following...God regrets his decision to make Saul king...that's some hurtful stuff.  Saul must've really stunk...which of course he did.

  I've decided to do a blog series on all the messed up leadership attributes that Saul has displayed and if I'm honest I see an all to familiar reflection in these leadership fails....I see myself.

"And Samuel came to Saul, and Saul said to him, "Blessed be you to the LORD. I have performed the commandment of the LORD." And Samuel said, "What then is this bleating of the sheep in my ears and the lowing of the oxen that I hear?" Saul said, "They have brought them from the Amalekites, for the people spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen to sacrifice to the LORD your God, and the rest we have devoted to destruction." (1 Samuel 15:13-15 ESV)

Leadership Fail #1- Ownership Fail

One of the things that Saul continued to do throughout his life is put the blame on other people. He rarely owned his issues or his mistakes. The real kicker in this story that always cracks me up is his fake façade with Samuel. He pretends to be super happy to see Samuel and BRAGS about himself and the marvelous job he did by doing what God asked him to do.

Saul is so worried about his image (which we will get to in the next leadership fail) that he runs up to Samuel to prove his worth.

When Samuel calls him out on the spot where he neglected to listen to the Lord, Saul immediately blame shifts and states that: "They have brought them from the Amalekites, for the people spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen to sacrifice to the LORD your God, and the rest we have devoted to destruction."

He blames the people. He was willing to take credit with Samuel when he thought he could make Samuel think it was good but doesn’t own up to the failure! The scripture clearly states it was Saul and the People (1 Samuel 15:8-9)…not just the people!

We as leaders need to be the first ones to own up to a problem. We should be in the front honestly waving our hands when someone asks who is responsible. In my experience, I fear we pastors (and all Christians for that matter) are like Saul way too often.

When things go bad, it’s easy to point the finger and say: “The board wouldn’t allow me to make changes” or “The church members are too old to move, so we stayed stagnant” or “I have too many office hours to fill so I don’t spend time in the community”.

Leaders MUST own problems. When the people we follow see us owning up to our failures, they can feel free to own up to theirs. When we admit our junk as it is: junk; we can get free of it and grow. However, if we neglect to own it…it won’t change because we’ll continue to sweep it under the carpet and pretend it doesn’t exist!

Good leaders own failures and seek to make it right.

This sad story of Saul’s leadership fail was the beginning of the end for our man Saul, because at the end of this story, we find that God regretted making Saul king: “Then Samuel went to Ramah, and Saul went up to his house in Gibeah of Saul. And Samuel did not see Saul again until the day of his death, but Samuel grieved over Saul. And the LORD regretted that he had made Saul king over Israel.” (1 Samuel 15:34-35 ESV)

I know for sure that I struggle with this Leadership Fail…I fail to own up to my mess ups, I try to pin the tail on some other donkey but no donkey fits my tail quite like I do. I’ve been trying to work on it and I’ve been trying to be more authentic with both my wife and my ministry.

I want to be the type of leader that God loves and desires in leadership. I don’t desire to be the self-absorbed donkey that so many people turn into (and I myself have been!). It’s tough owning our failures and as leaders it’s tough when we have to swallow our followers mistakes and own those too…but it must be done!



Let’s take one from Saul’s book of tricks and BURN it! May we all learn from his failure and choose within our hearts not to do the same!