Have you seen moral drift within your team? (172-2)

God holds leaders accountable as a watchman to warn their team when they drift from God’s standards. Read Ezekiel 33:1-9.

God had established a remnant of Jews from the nation of Judah in Babylon. Even though they were captives exiled in Babylon their lives had been spared and they had been allowed to establish community. Ezekiel was assigned by God as their prophet to bring His words directly to the people.

In today’s verses God spoke to Ezekiel concerning his responsibility to warn the people he was assigned to as a watchman. If Ezekiel was faithful to fulfill his leadership responsibilities and the people changed their actions they would be spared and Ezekiel would be innocent before God. If he warned them and they ignored the warning they would die for their sin but Ezekiel would be innocent. If he failed to warn them and the people died for their sin unwarned, Ezekiel would be held responsible for their death.

The words God spoke to Ezekiel indicate that the responsibility of Christian leaders to give moral leadership to their team is a major part of how God evaluates their faithfulness. When Christians accept the assignment to be a leader and God allows them influence over people, that leader accepts the obligation to be a watchman for God. If that leader sees moral drift or outright moral rebellion, sounds the trumpet clearly to warn their team, and takes every possible action to insure they are part of the solution not part of the problem, they will be innocent before God. If the watchman-leader fails to warn their team, God will hold the watchman-leader accountable for the lives lost. WOW – what a sobering truth concerning a leader’s responsibility!

The watchman role tends to be easier when you are leading in a Christian organization and the team has common core beliefs but quite another thing when your team is made up of individuals who don’t accept the Christian values as a standard. When I was leader of a Control Data Corp research and development project and when making films for the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association with a mostly non-Christian crew, this job of watchman took some major effort. Each situation was different, and yours will be too, but God will give wisdom when a leader truly seeks to do His will and fulfill their responsibility in this area. The one piece of advice I can give for all situations is to lead by example.

Have you seen moral drift within your team? Have you allowed it to grow without confrontation? Have you tended to ignore your responsibility of watchman-leader because of its difficulty based on the lack of common values? Wise leaders don’t ignore their responsibilities as God’s watchman and effective leaders understand that their team will pay close attention to their actions as a leader.