A
new type of church leadership is needed
Kim: Jesus, you have talked about unbalanced
church leaders. How can leaders of spiritual organizations become
balanced? What type of leaders would you like to see emerge in modern
Christian churches and in other spiritual organizations?
Jesus: When I appeared 2,000
years ago, I came not only to bring forth teachings for the Age of Pisces;
I came to set the foundation for the Age
of Aquarius. I gave many teachings that, if implemented, would have
built this foundation. In terms of leadership, the central paradigm
for leadership in the Aquarian age is my statement, “He, who would
be greatest among you, let him be the servant of all.”
The problem is that so few people have understood the importance of
this statement, and the reason is that they have not understood the
true purpose of the Ascended Host. It is sad to see people who have
been followers of Christ for decades and yet have not fully understood
the real purpose behind the creation of the Christian religion.
The purpose for the creation of any spiritual organization is always
centered around the individual disciple and not the outer organization.
The outer organization is designed for the purpose of helping people
manifest Christhood. Therefore, to the Ascended Host an organization
is never seen as a goal in itself but simply as a means to an end.
[For detailed teachings on the true purpose of religion, see the book
Save Yourself]
Unfortunately, people find it extremely difficult to make this distinction.
They so often become attached to the outer organization and begin to
see it as a goal in itself. This is what destroyed the early Christian
movement and created the orthodox Church. This same mechanism has influenced
virtually every true spiritual organization on this planet.
A true leader of a spiritual organization will be fully committed to
the Christhood of the individual members. The goal of such a leader
is to help each person manifest Christhood by walking the individual
path, the inner path to God. Such a leader will first of all strive
to follow that path and attain some measure of personal Christhood.
A true leader realizes that you lead by example, you teach by example,
and if you have not embodied the teachings and manifested Christhood,
you really have no legitimate claim to leadership.
The problem with all spiritual organizations is that they tend to attract
a number of anti-disciples. An anti-disciple is a person who follows
the way that seems right unto a man. The nature of the anti-disciple
is the focus on the outer path and a failure to see the true, inner
path behind the outer teaching and organization. Therefore, the anti-disciple
inevitably becomes focused on the outer teaching and the outer organization.
Such a person does not understand that even the outer teaching is not
a goal in itself.
It is very important for true spiritual seekers to recognize that even
a true teaching can become a trap. The real purpose of a spiritual teaching
is not to present a complete and infallible doctrine. It is to stimulate
the students to look beyond the outer doctrine, to read between the
lines and thereby attain an inner experience, a gnosis, of the true
mystical teaching that cannot be expressed in words.
Likewise, the goal of the organization is simply to provide a platform
for people's individual path to Christhood. God created every soul with
a unique individuality, and as you attain Christhood, you will naturally
begin to express your God-given individuality, as opposed to the false
individuality of the human consciousness, or carnal mind.
The bottom line for leadership of any spiritual organization should
be a clear recognition that the role of the leader is to be the servant
of all. The other side of this recognition is the true meaning of my
statement about the Sabbath. Did I not say, “The Sabbath was made
for man, not man for the Sabbath?” This then applies also to a
church. The church was made for man, for spiritual growth. Man was not
made for the church, and therefore the true path of individual Christhood
must never be restricted by the outer organization.
Relate this to what I said elsewhere
about the unbalanced people who develop a sense of extreme importance
and mission. It is so easy for a disciple to feel that the goal of preserving
and expanding the outer organization is more important than the Christhood
of individual members. It is so easy to feel that it is justified to
restrict the expression of Christhood in order to achieve what seems
to be a worthy and necessary, perhaps even an all-important, goal for
the organization. Or rather, this is so easy for the anti-disciple who
has not understood the inner path and is therefore denying his or her
personal Christhood.
The true path of the Ascended Host is the inner path that leads to individual
Christhood. The false path of the false teachers is the outer path,
which leads souls to become cogs in the wheels of the machines of the
anti-teachers who attempt to create a mechanical path to salvation.
There is a way that seems right unto the anti-disciple, but the end
thereof is truly the death of the Christ flame in your heart. Choose
you this day whom ye will serve. Follow the true disciples of the Ascended
Host and leave behind the anti-teachers and their anti-disciples.
Kim: Some church leaders seem to imply that members should
not be critical of church leadership. It almost sounds like some leaders
believe that anyone who speaks out against leadership is being critical
and therefore out of alignment with Christ. Such people seem to say
that in order to maintain harmony, people should support leadership
unconditionally. What are your comments?
Jesus: Once
again, any teaching we give is a two-edged sword and can be misused
by people who are trapped by the carnal mind.
The reality is that as long as people are in an unbalanced state of
mind, as long as they are trapped in the black-and-white approach to
the path, then they can speak out only with a vibration of criticism
or anger. What I said about leaders applies equally to members. If one
of your four lower bodies is filled with a spiritual poison LINK, then
it will spill over to your speech and actions.
This then leads a group of unbalanced members to speak out against a
group of unbalanced leaders, and the inevitable result is a power struggle.
Such a power struggle between various factions of unbalanced people
can go on for a long time, and in the past it has destroyed or split
several spiritual organizations.
There is no question that unbalanced members often speak out against
leadership with a vibration of criticism. Obviously, such students are
out of alignment with the middle way of the Christ consciousness. So
I strongly encourage such people to let go of their attachments, which
cause them to be critical, and instead work on attaining the balance
of the Christ mind.
Nevertheless, there are a couple of things that must be said in this
regard. One is that in the past unbalanced leaders in many organizations
have demonstrated that they do not tolerate criticism, constructive
or otherwise. Therefore, it becomes easy for leaders to use elements
of the organization’s spiritual teachings to reject any attempt
by members to question or challenge leadership.
For example, Christian leaders can use my teaching about turning the
other cheek to argue that members should not challenge leadership. Or
they might argue that they derive their authority from some spiritual
lineage that they trace back to me. In reality, a spiritual teaching
was never meant to give church leaders a blank check for doing whatever
they want and then rejecting protests from members. History has clearly
shown that when an organization allows leaders to assume a position
with no accountability, then there WILL be misuse of power. Although
some people naively think that this could not happen in their church,
I must state clearly that this is a dangerous illusion.
Church leaders should be the first to live the spiritual teaching and
practice what I preach. I often chastised the Jewish authorities for
not living up to this demand and for imposing burdens on their followers
that they were not willing to bear. The simple truth is that if church
leaders truly have the balanced perspective of the Christ mind, they
will be able to listen to what a member has to say without in any way
reacting to the person’s vibration of criticism or anger. The
anger simply will not affect them, and therefore they will be able to
listen and evaluate whether the person really has a message that they
need to hear.
In contrast, an unbalanced leader is in a very fragile position. Because
his leadership is not based on the rock of Christhood, but on the shifting
sands of the lower consciousness, the leader constantly feels threatened
by anything that seems to challenge his position, his beliefs or his
methods. Therefore, such a leader will be unable to look for the truth
behind a person’s criticism.
The basic problem in a spiritual organization is that when unbalanced
leaders start misusing power, the more balanced people will be reluctant
to speak out against this. Therefore, people will often tolerate misuses
of power until it gets so bad that they can no longer remain silent.
As the tension continues to grow, some members will eventually speak
out. Unfortunately, if people are not completely balanced, this will
cause them to speak out with anger. I am not saying this anger is excusable.
I am only saying that due to the dynamics of the situation, it is inevitable
that some people will speak out with a feeling of anger against leadership
and the abuse of power by that leadership.
The unfortunate result of this process is that we end up with a clash
between leaders and members, and this leads to an impasse which none
of the unbalanced people can resolve. The members will feel that leaders
are misusing power and ignoring their attempts to stop this. Leaders
will feel that members are being unfairly critical, and therefore they
feel justified in ignoring what the members are saying. In other words,
both sides are absolutely convinced that they are right and that their
cause is just. Yet in reality both are unbalanced, and therefore both
sides are out of alignment with the middle way. I am not saying that
both sides do not have some correct viewpoints. They often do, but they
are still missing the mark of Christhood.
What can break this impasse? Only the balanced people have any chance
of breaking it, but in some cases even they cannot do so. The key realization
here is that there is a fundamental difference between the criticism
that springs from the lower mind and the exposure, the dividing of the
way between truth and error, that springs from the Christ mind.
Consider what is the essence of spiritual growth and the relationship
between a spiritual teacher and a student. The student has fallen into
a lower state of consciousness and cannot raise himself above that state
of consciousness because of spiritual blindness. It is necessary that
the teacher steps in and exposes those psychological mechanisms that
cause the student to be trapped in the lower state of consciousness.
In other words, the teacher must sometimes be very direct in exposing
to a student that he or she is trapped by, for example, pride. You will
see this done by all true student, and you saw me doing this to both
my disciples and others.
If a student is completely absorbed in the lower state of consciousness,
that student’s ego will be mortally offended by the teacher’s
directness. In fact, the student’s ego will see this as criticism,
condemnation or judgment, and many people did indeed leveled such accusations
against me when I challenged them. So the question becomes whether the
teacher should leave the student alone or fulfill his role as a teacher
by attempting to point out the student’s shortcomings. This then
applies equally to the interaction between church members and church
leaders.
If church leaders have become trapped on the outer path and begin to
misuse power, then would it be right for church members to simply ignore
this? From the perspective of the Ascended Host, this would not be correct.
We expect our true students to step into the role of teacher and be
very direct in exposing the shortcomings and wrongdoings of leadership.
This is simply the responsibility you have as a Christed being. However,
if you speak out from a position of the middle way of the Christ consciousness,
you will not speak out with anger or a vibration of criticism. You will
simply state the highest truth you see and let the chips fall where
they may.
There is no guarantee that bringing the Christ perspective into a debate
will cause a change in church culture. So if you do speak out from the
balanced perspective of the Christ mind and see no change in the church,
your next step might be to simply leave the organization behind and
find other ways to express your Christhood. Even we of the Ascended
Host have often had to leave organizations behind when the members of
those organizations were no longer open to our directions. However,
this must be an individual decision, and I am not hereby making a general
recommendation.
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Copyright
© 2003 by Kim Michaels |
