"And the Lord said to Joshua, 'Today I will begin to exalt you in the eyes of all Israel, so they may know that I am with you as I was with Moses.'" -Joshua 3:7
E. V. Hill once said, "The leader who has no followers is just out taking a walk." Choice Theory teaches that educators can only begin to impact the life of the student when the student learns to love the teacher or the subject the teacher teaches. Until then, the teacher keeps loving the student and the subject. What causes the disconnect between leaders and followers?
*Mixed Goals- Sometimes the leader is trying to go one way and the followers another. Mutual frustration results. We lost a person once in our church because we were pursuing missions and a country club atmosphere was preferred.
*Different Priorities- Sometimes the goals can be the same, but conflict comes when one person wants to reach the world for Christ and another wants to reach their children first.
*Different Methods- Our church culture is notorious for adopting a method- purpose-driven, seeker-sensitive, homogeneous unit, small group ministry - when all we really want to do is develop relationships in which we can present Christ and grow together in Him.
Yet according to the passage above, God can raise leaders and put them down. He can give them influence and subject their leadership to frustration. Joshua needed the people to follow. The people had promised to fully follow. Now God promises to bless Joshua's efforts with the respect of the people. God would sovereignly exalt Joshua so that the people would learn by the faithfulness of their leader to follow God.
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