We are now concluding our series on Toy Box Leadership. I am very glad that so many of you have commented that you enjoyed this series because I wasn’t really sure about it going into it. I can say that I have never specifically preached on leadership before, although as I said when I read this book a long time ago, I thought it had possibilities. But I’ll be honest that I have sort of thought about leadership as this separate thing from spiritual disciplines. We talk about the second of those things a lot, but we don’t really talk about leadership, not because leadership isn’t important, but because we just don’t think about it in the role of worship, I guess is the best way to say it. That somehow these two things are separate and never the twain shall meet. But a few weeks ago, in one of the daily emails I receive on church things, it had a story from John Ortberg saying how incorrect that position was. That leadership is a spiritual discipline, and spiritual disciplines include leadership. And as I thought about it, I was definitely one who kept them separate, but now see that I was mistaken. And that has lots of implications to it, including that we have to work on it for the good of ourselves, the church and living the faith. It also means that like all spiritual disciplines it comes in different forms and also has seasons to it. But that’s going to take some more thought from me on what that means, how to communicate that as well as how it fits into what we do in worship and our expectations. It definitely connects, though, to the theme of today which is understanding and knowing our gifts, graces and roles as we look at the last of our toys little green army men. And again, credit is due to Ron Hunter, Jr. and Michael Waddell for their idea.
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When we looked at the yo-yo I said that those who study these things have said that the doll is probably the oldest toy in the world, and it’s followed by the yo-yo. Well toy soldiers are nearly as old as well. Tiny military figures have been found in Egyptian tombs. Whether those were technically toys or not is up for debate as they could have been for military strategy, but we can be sure that others were using such things as toys. Over the millennia, toy soldiers have been made out of clay, wood, flour, paper and different types of metals, including, and maybe most popularly tin. They grew in such popularity in the 17th century that they began to be mass produced for not just war games but also for massive displays to be put together of famous battles. But it was in the late 1930s with the rise of the use of plastics that toy soldiers took the shape and name by which so many of us know them – Little Green Army Men, although you can now purchase them in lots of different colors including blue, pink, purple and grey. The poses and weapons have also changed some over time. And these little figures were adopted into the National Toy Hall of Fame in 2014.
And not only can you purchase them in different colors, but
you can also now purchase them including women, which is the first point they
can teach us, sort of unrelated to the passages we heard, but about the power
of making a request to have people see and do something different. In 2019,
six-year-old Vivian Lord from Arkansas wrote to BMC toys, one of the
manufacturers of the little green men and asked a simple question, “why don’t
you make girl army men?” She said that her friend’s mom was in the army and
that they wanted to be able to play with toys that represented the women in the
military. She said that if they were to make them, she would play with them
every day and her friends would too. The CEO said that Vivian’s was not the
first request they had received, as they had heard from female veterans, but
cost was always an issue, but Vivian’s “heartfelt letter”, in his words, that
inspired them to finally do something and in Christmas 2020 they introduced for
the first time little green army women. The CEO said that everyone wants to be
the hero in their own story and to see themselves represented in the toys with
which they play. Since they were released he says he has also been contacted by
lots of women who said they wished they would have been available when they
were kids to be able to play out their story as well. And so, a great lesson is
not to think that we can’t make a difference. That the efforts of one person,
or a small group of people, can’t make a difference. Because one little girl
was the difference in making this happen. As Margaret Mead once said, “Never
believe that a few caring, thoughtful people can't change the world. For,
indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”
Now each green army person set, comes with some pretty
standard characters, the radio operator, bazooka, gunner, prone gunner and the
dreaded minesweeper who isn’t really good for a lot of things when you’re
playing. But in reality, are really important, because there are an estimated
110 million landmines in the ground right now, with an estimated 5,500 people
killed or wounded every year from landmines, about ½ of them children. The UN
estimates that at our current eradication rates it will take 1,100 years to get
rid of what’s currently deployed, not counting on more being added. That should
be of ultimate concern to the church, although I hear crickets around it,
perhaps because it’s not a threat to us. But, keep the minesweeper character in
mind as we go back on target. One of the figures is a person with binoculars
who is the officer. And this is a great leadership lesson, not so much from the
figures themselves, as from the actual military, and that is about power and
information. There are several different types of power. There is power given,
power assumed and power presumed. An officer has power given to them in the
structure. Even the lowest ranking officer can command anyone who is enlisted.
And officers have to know how to assume power. But what do they say about
power? It corrupts. And there are certainly officers, especially at the lower
ranks, who come in wanting to assert their power and authority and prove how
much they know and how good they are, and certainly aren’t going to listen to
anyone below them, even if they are non-commissioned. Those are the officers
the troops dread because they are the ones who will get people killed. Instead
a good officer will listen to what others have to tell them, especially to
their master sergeant, or master chief, or equivalents who have experience and
wisdom acquired over years and can tell them the right, and wrong things to do.
And so, if we are going to learn something from our army people about
leadership, the first is that we have to know that we don’t know it, and rely
on others who know more and have more experience.
And that’s not just those who have been elevated to
positions of leadership. Because, again, there are people who have power and
authority because of their position. But there are also people who have respect
and authority not because of any position, and they might not have any, but
because of who they are. In every church there are elected leaders, and then
there are unelected leaders. People others listen to, and this isn’t because
they talk the most, as they are often just ignored. They may have been leaders in
the past, or maybe never did, but whose opinion, when expressed, carries
significant weight. And so, they need to be listened to. I always have a group
of people that when they say something I pay attention, and some that I will
specifically go to to get input not just because I value it, but also because
their support can win or kill decisions. So as a leader, pay attention to those
around you. Your life and the lives of others sometimes can literally depend
upon it.
But one of the things that happens when you play with little
green army people, is that, typically, you don’t just dump them out and go at
it. Instead you take an inventory of what you have, know your strengths and
weaknesses, lots of radio operators and minesweepers is not a great place to
start to win a battle. So, see who you have, what their skills are, identify
what you’re lacking and if you can replace them, and then you have to position
them into the right places. Don’t put your bazooka operators or your medics at
the front, right. You want your infantry at the front, and support staff at the
back. James Collins, who’s written several best-selling business books,
including Good to Great, has said it’s about getting the right people on the
bus, and then getting them all into the right seats, because you can have a
great leader, or great volunteer, but if their doing the wrong thing, doing
something they aren’t gifted to do, then it doesn’t make any differences. So,
do an inventory of what you have in order to prepare and see what gifts people
have and get them aligned to do their part, and in this every single person is
important, even if others might think they are not necessary, or look down on
them because they think their role is better or more important.
That’s what Paul is getting at in his comments about the
parts of the body and the way they work together for the whole. And as was said
in the introduction, this section comes his famous passage on love, which we
like to talk about for Valentine’s Day, or for weddings, but it’s actually a
rebuke of the Corinthian church. That some people think they are superior
because they can talk in tongues, or have lots of knowledge, and so that’s why
he says if you can talk in tongues but have not love, you’re just a noisy gong,
if you have all wisdom and faith such as to move mountains, you are nothing.
This is pointed criticism, and so going back then to say that we all have gifts
and all are needed. Some are radio operators, and some are bazooka carriers,
and some are infantry, and some are grenade throwers, and they are all
important. You might want to look down on the minesweeper, but if you’re
surrounded by landmines, what do you really need? The guy with the rifle isn’t
going to do you much good. You need the person who is skilled at doing that. So,
you have to understand all the parts, and that means that the others have to
understand and appreciate what everyone brings to the game, and know that they
are all necessary. What I do here every worship service is important, but I
couldn’t do this without every other person who assists and I couldn’t do it
without all of you either. All the parts are necessary for the body of Christ
to be effective. And let me just also note that God has gifted us as a body
with what we need to do what we need to do. And so, we can say “oh, I wish we
had someone to do this” or “I wish so and so was still here to do that” and
while those things would be nice, it doesn’t stop us from being the body and
doing God’s work. And so that also requires us to know what are gifts are, and
we are going to have a spiritual gifts inventory to help you identify that, if
you need assistance, available on the website tomorrow. This will help us all
strive for the much greater gift.
So, you know who is on your side, you know their gifts and
graces, you put people in the right places, do you then just march forward? No,
then you have to have a plan about what you’re going to be and measure if you
will be successful or not. That’s what Jesus says about the cost of
discipleship. Know what it’s going to take and whether you can be successful,
thus the king will decide if his troops stand a chance against the other army,
and if not, then he, in modern parlance, sues for peace. And so, as a leader we
too have to plan, not as a secondary activity, but as the primary activity. As
they say a failure to plan is a plan to failure. But then we have to know that
even the best laid plans have to be ready to change. In the military they say
that “no battle plan survives the first contact with the enemy.” And so, you
have to be ready to change the current realities, to deal with things as they
actually are not as we would like them to be. And yet the ultimate goal can
remain the same, even if the path and steps to getting there have to be
rearranged or completely scrapped and new plans put into place.
And then the final thing we can learn is to evaluate
everything at the end. How did things go? What mistakes did we make? How can we
learn from that? What did we do right? What can we learn from that. If we knew
then what we know now, what we have done anything different? Is there a way we
can work to close that knowledge gap? And ultimately how can we make sure the
next time is even better? That is the essence of learning to be a great leader,
rather than just a good one.
The little green army people are pretty basic. No moving parts, no batteries required, no intricate story lines, and yet what they teach us is some of the very basics of what it means not just to be a leader, but to be a follower and to be a member of any organization. All of us have gifts and graces which we have been given by God. Some of us are good are some things and terrible at others. Some are radio operators, some minesweepers and some the person with the binoculars, but all of us are important. All of us are needed and necessary for the body of Christ to be the body of Christ. If we were all eyes, or ears or feet, we would look pretty weird and we wouldn’t be effective. But, instead, all of us are knowingly and wonderfully made, as the Psalmist says, so that we can work together to bring forth the Kingdom, and when we do that, when we plan and dream and vision with God, then great things can happen. That even though we might not win every battle, we can win the war, and let me just say I don’t really like military and violent imagery when it comes to faith, but these metaphors can help us to learn these basic lessons about planning and gifts so that we can strive together to be the body of Christ, to use our gifts, to be God’s love in action for that still more excellent way. I pray that it will be so my brothers and sisters. Amen.
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