LOVE OR FEAR

    This piece, although focused on the leadership of corporate churches, is totally applicable to almost any business, large or small.

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        Fear; embraced, paralyzes love, but
        Love; flourishing, eradicates fear 
        Perfected fear forces out love, but
        "Perfect love casts out all fear."

Fearful leaders will surround themselves with people less qualified than they are and will strive to make themselves irreplaceable, regardless of the cost to the church.
    Loving leaders will surround themselves with people who are smarter, brighter and more qualified than they are despite the possibility of being replaced. They assume they are replaceable and are not afraid of the personal cost.

    Fearful leaders need to be in charge and usually are not.
    Fear makes them weak.
    Loving leaders need to love and are unquestionably in charge.
    Love makes them strong.

    Fearful leaders gain their identity from their position and will sacrifice anyone or anything that threatens their position. They regularly spend time protecting their position.
    Loving leaders will never feel the need to protect their position because their identity is in their faith and they are comfortable in the fact that all positions and assignments are temporary. They regularly spend time protecting the people.

    Fear focuses on people’s abilities and appearances.
    Love focuses on people’s hearts and souls.
    Fear wants to use people and put them down.
    Love wants to heal people and lift them up.

    When fear dominates a church environment, the people are hesitant, unsure and less fruitful. They become unmotivated and uninvolved.
    When love fills a church environment, the people become more bold, confident and fruitful. They become involved and their faith and ministry becomes a daily lifestyle.

    Fear will always justify its existence with excuses and will do almost anything to protect itself.
    Love does not need to protect itself, will never justify fear and will fearlessly examine everything to identify and eliminate fear.
    Fear will always loudly promise results but will produce very little.
    Love will always quietly produce results.

    The focus of a fearful leader will regularly be on the church body and rarely on an individual because individuals can always be sacrificed. Fearful leaders regularly sacrifice individuals for the “greater good”.
    The focus of a loving leader will regularly be on individuals because they know and believe that individuals should never be sacrificed.

    Fear will just forget the “one”, and move on.
    Love will always go after the “one”.
    Fear will ignore or exterminate the individual to protect the church body.
    Love will pursue the individual to bless the church body.
    Fear makes the body weak.
    Love makes the body strong.

    When fearful leaders allow individuals to be sacrificed, confidence and love will decrease in the church body that remains.
    As reconciliation with disenfranchised individuals is pursued by loving leaders, confidence and love in the church body will grow.
    The easiest way to kill confidence in a congregation is to ignore the ones who suddenly disappear. A great way to restore confidence is to remember and reconcile with the ones who disappear.

    Fear hates and avoids reconciliation.
    Love longs for and relentlessly pursues reconciliation.
    Fear ruins everything.
    Love heals everything.
    Fear and insecurity will always bring chaos and disorganization.
    Love will always bring order and productivity.
    Fearful people are chronically busy but usually accomplish very little.
    Loving people have cleaner priorities and usually accomplish a lot.

    When the leadership is driven by fear, the church will be fearful and weak and will need constant micromanagement.
    When the leadership is motivated by love, the church will be strong and will only need a small amount of management.

    Leaders motivated by fear will often start many new programs that usually fail after a short time. Fearful people are people who don’t do very much. Fearful people sign up for new programs out of guilt but don’t finish them.
    Leaders, motivated by love, don’t need to create lots of programs; the people are empowered and discover their own opportunities. Loving people are people who serve regularly without being asked and have no need to be acknowledged for their service.

    Fear breaks everything.
    Love fixes everything.

    When fear is your motivation your priorities are in the process of going bad.
    When love is your motivation your priorities are being daily refined.
    If your priorities are stained with fear it is very hard to make good decisions.
    If your priorities are based in love your decisions are also based in love.

        Insecurity is fear.
        Indecision is fear.
        Irresponsibility and laziness are fear.
        Mediocrity is fear.
        Procrastination is fear.
        Anger, bitterness, hatred, sarcasm, prejudice and defiance are all fear.

    The antithesis of love is indifference.
    Indifference is the fruit of fear.
    Fear is evil incarnate.
    Perfect love casts out all fear.

“Love never gives up. Love cares more for others than for self. Love doesn't want what it doesn't have. Love doesn't strut, doesn't have a swelled head, doesn't force itself on others, isn't always ‘me first’, doesn't fly off the handle, doesn't keep score of the sins of others, doesn't revel when others grovel, takes pleasure in the flowering of truth, puts up with anything, trusts God always, always looks for the best, never looks back but keeps going to the end.”
I Corinthians 13: 4-7