“Woe to the rebellious children,” declares the Lord, “Who execute a plan, but not Mine, And make an alliance, but not of My Spirit, In order to add sin to sin; Who proceed down to Egypt Without consulting Me, To take refuge in the safety of Pharaoh And to seek shelter in the shadow of Egypt! “Therefore the safety of Pharaoh will be your shame And the shelter in the shadow of Egypt, your humiliation.” (Isaiah 30:1–3, NASB 95)

We have ideas of how things should go, but are those ideas in keeping with what God wants?

It’s too easy to point in hindsight to some of the church growth strategies over the last 30 years to show how they had more to do with Pharaoh than with God. 

“Let’s not say anything from the stage that could offend anyone” is a form of going to Egypt. Another manifestation of this is the idea of offering life advice as the sermon rather than expounding Scripture. I don’t need advice in the sermon, I need to hear from God through his word.

Jesus told Peter and the disciples that he (Jesus) assumes all the responsibility for building his church. We are helpers, not initiators in that process.

So, we should be seeking direction from Jesus as to how to proceed. Scripture is our most important guide in this endeavor, but we need the Holy Spirit to guide us as we seek to apply scripture to our context.

Here is a question for church leaders. Do Bible study and prayer have a prominent place in your leadership meetings? Is the first question always, “what does Scripture say about this issue?” Do you spend time in prayer asking the Holy Spirit for guidance after the related Bible passages are studied? 

I once was an elder at a church where the lead pastor designated himself “chief vision caster.” With hindsight, I should have pointed out that such a declaration is blasphemous since Jesus declared himself as the chief vision castor and it is our role to seek him to reveal his vision to us.