The Apostle Paul’s “double dog” dare …

What’s the biggest dare you’ve ever had the nerve to do?

What’s the biggest dare you’ve ever made?

Dare’s are common sport among children, but they aren’t something we’ve outgrown as adults. You’ll still hear siblings, or friends, or even co-workers dare each other to do something.

What do you do when someone doesn’t have the nerve to take up your dare?

You up the ante by issuing a “double-dog dare,” which is a challenge of epic proportions!

The Apostle Paul twice issued something like a dare to the Christians in Corinth. Really, it was a dare of spiritually epic proportions. Here’s the first time Paul makes the challenge:

“So I urge you to imitate me,” 1 Corinthians 4:16.

That challenge is very concise — perhaps too concise — so Paul reissues it again with a clarifier:

“And you should imitate me, just as I imitate Christ,” 1 Corinthians 11:1.

Imagine as a church leader to be so courageous as to challenge your congregation to follow you as you imitate Christ. Now there’s something you’ll never hear recommended in the plethora of church leadership conferences!

But just imagine what kind of shepherding, and pastoring, and modeling it would take to be able, in essence, to say to the flock of God you lead something like this:

“I commit to be so devoted to Christ and in imitating Him, to depend on the Holy Spirit to live a life that is holy, faithful, and obedient to God, that if you imitate me you will imitate Christ.”

I think most church leaders would be terrified of making such a “double-dog” level of a dare or challenge to the congregation they shepherd because they are sure they would fail in living out a life their church members should imitate.

Why?

The same Holy Spirit who was transforming the Apostle Paul and enabling him to live in a way that pleases God is the same Holy Spirit who lives in you and me, and He wants to transform us into the likeness of Jesus Christ as much as He wanted to do that in the life of Paul.

What kind of life would it take to stand before your congregation and challenge them to follow your example of discipleship and followership in imitating Christ?

If we can’t make a similar kind of encouragement to the people we lead, are we lacking in actually being “church leaders”? For the flock of God you’re responsible for, shouldn’t the people there be looking to you as an example of what it means to imitate Christ?

Scotty