Good Questions for Church Leaders

The other day Tullian Tchividijian posted a letter at his blog which he had sent to all of the elders and deacons of his church.  In it he had asked them to consider the following questions, which he had already addressed to himself:

Do you rejoice in position, power, accomplishments, entitlement, control, degrees, knowledge, status, authority, numbers, and rank? Or do you rejoice in service, mercy, sacrifice, pastoral care, love, prayer, prudence, grace, relationships, and repentance? Are you proud or humble? Do you put others before yourself? Do you find your daily security and significance in your own accomplishments or in Christ’s accomplishment for you? Do you seek first place or last place? Do you boast on yourself or on Christ? Do you talk about yourself a lot? Are you prone to envy and do you get defensive easily? Do you weep with those who weep? Do you love people and look for opportunities to serve and shepherd them? Do you revel in self-confidence or self-sacrifice? Do you have people in your life that you confess specific instances of sin? Do the people in your life find it easy to correct you?

May all of us who are in church leadership be willing to examine our lives against such a list.  And as we do, may God give us the courage to be honest with ourselves, the humility to repent of our sins, and the grace to fully know that our righteousness is not found in anything we do, but only and always in the finished work of Christ.