A leader must earn the respect of others

Learning Point No 292 

It is generally true that a leader must earn the respect of others. But the problem is who are these others. 

This is more pertinent in a spiritual organisation which cannot just be bottoms up but must be more top down. The reason is that a leader who is worth his salt must know how to guide others in spirituality and not be influenced by, dependent on and guided by the spiritually far less knowledgeable in the temple or church. 

But what if they think the leader knows nuts? Well, you can imagine the outcome.

But generally, it may be said that the others in a temple must learn from the leader who has proven track record and who knows better. But a collective spiritual leadership may be even a better option though still not perfect. 

Incidentally, with regards to the Mission of Heaven  with Lord Bo Tien as messenger, He has for good reason appointed Elder Ling early on in mission as mission head in addition to the spiritual pioneer Philip. The mission is to save souls through their respective religions.

Philip sitting in trance and
Elder Ling in white beside him

Any leader in any temple (not to mention that of the lord saint) may not be acceptable to those who are not primarily doctrinal mission orientated and want the choice to re-craft the purpose of the premises and cheese off those who have different agenda from them from coming to the premises. This is only natural and unavoidable.

This is perhaps not an uncommon development with many temples and churches. Many in congregation are just onlookers but only a few want to manage  and they are likely to include those whose primary agenda is not spiritual or doctrine but who all the same will use the spiritual front to make the entrance and be entrenched. 

They may then take matters into their own hands and be complacent due to lack of checks and balance, having silence away potential dissenting voices. Thus they may end up running foul of the regulations of the land and be caught up by retribution

They get the habit of always having a free hand. They prefer dissenting voices and the one or more historically proven and pioneer leaders to be out of the way. 

To them, it matters not if that leader or leaders were appointed by the spiritual authority. It does not matter if they are dissenting voices who need to be accommodated for a more representative temple or church. They would rather overrule such voices and the historical leaders. 

God will bless them irrespective of whether they do  not know or even do know what they do. God is magnanimous and will allow them to learn and even go round one full circle. God is love and is not only magnanimous, tolerant but forgiving. 

Perhaps, they are right and better than the spiritual authority. Indeed there is nothing to prevent men from thinking they are better than the pioneers or even divinity. They desire to strike out on their own and win over the hearts of the many. 

Divinity and even the pioneers being magnanimous will let them have their way or at least part of the way. Thus we have  budding and blooming of new sects and non denominational temples or churches

Many of the perceived success stories of later day temples and churches depend on such men. Is there the flip side or downside? God knows.

Incidentally, the same destiny that besets temples and churches at the helicopter level does happen to religions. With passing of time, religions are very differently poised and orientated compared to the days of the founders and apostles. 

This however should not be viewed as not good but unavoidable. That underlies why God wants Lord Bo Tien to invigorate the spirit of the pioneers of religions in religions of today. This is His Mission.

Lord Bo Tien