The last class of spiritual leadership was such a great closer. We dealt with leader as the alchemist. Most of what I have heard about alchemy relates to its origins as a pseudo-science and precursor to the natural science of chemistry. I hadn’t thought about this image before in any other way than that. But its use as an image for leadership really is quite appropriate and revealing. Just the definition can already provide a glimpse for how it corresponds to a leader over God’s people. Alchemy is the transmutation of common metals into precious and sacred metals such as gold. People, like metals, are chemical and reactive agents waiting to have their very nature transformed. Whereas in alchemy, this process of transformation is mysterious and ultimately impossible, the transformative process that changes human lives is not only known but working before our very eyes. It is because the power to do so is yielded by the Creator himself. He is mysterious, true, but He is also the maker of the impossible. He turns the ordinary, the common and the unvalued, into gold. And it’s amazing. The example of Jesus and his twelve disciples is very telling. They were uneducated, they were unholy, they were by all accounts, ordinary men. But what Christ did in their lives, now that is everything. He is our Great Alchemist, altering the core of who we used to be by the power of the Holy Spirit. He makes us clean and new, righteous and dear to the Father’s heart. And He calls each of us who are leaders (in whatever capacity) to be alchemists ourselves, following the direction of Jesus to see people’s lives forever changed.
I have to ask myself, where am I doing that? Or maybe, am I doing that? Whose lives am I influencing in such a way that they are being drawn closer to Jesus and his internally reconstructive work? The story of Barnabas and Saul really does provide a beautiful example of spiritual alchemy. Barnabas chose to befriend the unholy Saul and give him a chance when most people in the church would not. He had faith in the impossible to happen – true redemption of this former enemy of God. Barnabas persisted in loving this man Saul and seeing him experience change at the fundamental level, becoming a new man in Christ and receiving the new identity of Paul. Like an alchemist, Barnabas genuinely rejoices when he witnesses this human copper become divinely-touched gold. I want to be that same kind of shepherd and mentor to the people who God places in my life, viewing them with the eyes of the God who made them and searching for ways that His grace is already preparing them for incredible transformation.
The principle of working through gradual, yet radical change is something that motivates me to continue reaching out to youth in Ybor as well as to family, friends and coworkers. The story of Paul and Barnabas demonstrates how a person (no matter how far they are from God) can truly change. We can actually, in faith, hope to see the people we lead become who we want them (and know God has made them) to be. This last lesson of leadership has more recently applied to my relationship with my sister than to the youth in the Walk, since the microchurch has taken a break for summer and my sister has decided to move here to Tampa to get a fresh start. I feel as though God is bringing her back into my life possibly for the very purpose of this kind of spiritual alchemy to take place. The profile outline of the alchemist at work is helpful as a guide and encouragement in this journey. I especially like how it produces something precious, yet unrefined. I think there is such a temptation to want to see a person’s life instantly change the moment they choose to follow Christ. But that is usually not the case. People slowly become new creations as they grow in their relationship with God and learn what it means to surrender to Him daily.
The alchemist must also set his work down intermittently to see if transformation is actually happening. I hadn’t realized that Jesus did this in his own ministry, focusing on just 12 cities, instructing them and giving them space to put his teaching into practice. He maintained a kind of dance with them, just like Barnabas would later do with Paul. I want to be that same kind of missionary, investing significant time into people, following up with their progress and rejoicing with them in their spiritual growth. This mode of leadership has relational depth and a strong sense of community. Perhaps that is why it appeals to me so much.
My prayer right now is for God to touch my heart in such a way that I truly believe my sister is gold. She has not yet become that, but she is on her way. God is drawing her. I hope to maintain this high expectation for her even in the wake of daily struggles of doubt and pessimism. I know He is faithful and has chosen me to be useful for his kingdom. I know that sometimes family members can be the hardest to reach, especially when they have become your newest roommate. But that is what is so amazing about the alchemistic leader; they don’t just work with one kind of metal – one mission field – say, inner city youth or the artist community. No, when they see this unbelievable process work with one, they try it with every other they come across. It is exhilarating to see God’s transforming alchemy occur in a person. You just want to see it happen again and again with everyone else you know and meet. You want each person to experience the love of God that purifies and makes them gold. You want Sauls to become Pauls and dejected John Marks to be restored disciples. There is something in the spiritual leader that yearns for this and seeks out opportunities to join with Christ in His work of alchemy.
