There is nothing sadder than a rudderless leader<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I know I may make a few enemies by this post, but I am going to say it anyway: There are many pastors who should not be leading God's people because they\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/2014\/09\/there-is-nothing-sadder-than-a-rudderless-leader\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"There is nothing sadder than a rudderless leader\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I know I may make a few enemies by this post, but I am going to say it anyway: There are many pastors who should not be leading God's people because they\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/2014\/09\/there-is-nothing-sadder-than-a-rudderless-leader\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Adrian Warnock\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/adrianwarnockpage\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-09-23T16:15:58+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-01-28T16:36:37+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Adrian Warnock\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@adrianwarnock\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Adrian Warnock\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/2014\/09\/there-is-nothing-sadder-than-a-rudderless-leader\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/2014\/09\/there-is-nothing-sadder-than-a-rudderless-leader\/\",\"name\":\"There is nothing sadder than a rudderless leader\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2014-09-23T16:15:58+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-01-28T16:36:37+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/#\/schema\/person\/4dc7481b9baa3553d9a7698715084eaa\"},\"description\":\"I know I may make a few enemies by this post, but I am going to say it anyway: There are many pastors who should not be leading God's people because they\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/2014\/09\/there-is-nothing-sadder-than-a-rudderless-leader\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/2014\/09\/there-is-nothing-sadder-than-a-rudderless-leader\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/2014\/09\/there-is-nothing-sadder-than-a-rudderless-leader\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"There is nothing sadder than a rudderless leader\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/\",\"name\":\"Adrian Warnock\",\"description\":\"Patheos Evangelical\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/#\/schema\/person\/4dc7481b9baa3553d9a7698715084eaa\",\"name\":\"Adrian Warnock\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e5ff2076e287d1578e3b13fc015d78be?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e5ff2076e287d1578e3b13fc015d78be?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Adrian Warnock\"},\"description\":\"The resurrection of Jesus changes everything. 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{"id":24707,"date":"2014-09-23T17:15:58","date_gmt":"2014-09-23T16:15:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/?p=24707"},"modified":"2018-01-28T16:36:37","modified_gmt":"2018-01-28T16:36:37","slug":"there-is-nothing-sadder-than-a-rudderless-leader","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/2014\/09\/there-is-nothing-sadder-than-a-rudderless-leader\/","title":{"rendered":"There is nothing sadder than a rudderless leader"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

I know I may make a few enemies by this post, but I am going to say it anyway:<\/p>\n

There are many pastors who should not be leading God\u2019s people because they are not conscious of being led by God themselves<\/strong><\/p>\n

1 Samuel 28<\/strong> reveals a desperate King who no longer receives God\u2019s guidance. Whatever makes us think we will fare any better than Saul if we are not led by God? The message of the Bible is that if we do things our own way we will fail dismally. If we listen to God and follow him we will succeed. \u00a0What that success looks like may be different than we expect of course, but that is kind of the point. \u00a0A leader has no business leading if he himself is not being lead.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Everything seems to be going wrong for Saul and he faces a terrible foe. God having withdrawn himself, Saul could have of course gone back to the sure word of Scripture where God\u2019s voice can also be heard. But he didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

In his desperation he turns from the worship of the one true God and seeks demonic power to help and guide him. And, perhaps for the first and only time in history, God allows him what he seeks. Even the medium seemed surpassed at the success of her attempts to summon the dead. Instead of the usual lying demon, she had somehow succeeded in calling out a prophet of God.<\/p>\n

Saul\u2019s attempts to take guidance from elsewhere are pitiful. And his terror at being told his worst fears are accurate is almost enough to make us feel sorry for him. How far has he come from the\u00a0once humble origins<\/a>. Having turned away from God, God finally turned away from him.<\/p>\n

Oh leader, don\u2019t allow yourself to become so impressed with yourself that you think your own wisdom is all you need. You need to hear from God. You need to be guided by God. You need him to show you the way.<\/p>\n

And if you know that you are not hearing the voice of God, perhaps you should consider resigning and finding some other way to serve God.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"