Lord of the Chair

There is this memorable scene in the “Lord of the Rings” movie where at one point Gollum, the little hideous looking fellow bites off the ring from Frodo and as he looks into it, he gets enamored with it, his facial expression changes and he completely turns into someone else, jumping around on the ledge with ecstasy and ultimately plummets to his death with the ring, it is a powerful scene where the director, Peter Jackson brings out the power of the ring, wielding tremendous influence on the person who wears it.

The simple, innocuous chair has similar effect on people, chairs come in all sizes and shapes- there are revolving chairs, push back chairs, ergonomically designed chairs, plush leather upholstered chairs etc. The higher the pedestal, power and prominence the chair carries; the greater the attraction for people to occupy it. Chairs have this magnetic propensity that, it is irresistible for mortal human beings to keep away from the temptation of sitting on it by hook or by crook and hold on to it with all their might for as long as they can; be it the politician, a government servant, a private sector guy or even a spiritual leader; no one can claim immunity from this. It can also transform humble, down to earth, unassuming people into dictators and despots overnight as they occupy that chair. Chair has come to be associated with power, position, status, prestige than leadership in the actual sense and when this distorted view of leadership gets intrinsically connected with the chair, no longer can we call that as leadership but it is just blatant abusive power play.

I remember the story of this guy who was the chairman of a large firm for many years, he was pampered with all the perks and privileges, there were people at his beck and call, willing to serve him at the drop of a hat. As the chairman he was always served tea in a gold rimmed exquisite china ware and he loved all the attention but one day he had to retire and it was his farewell party. After the event as the tea was being served he was served in an ordinary paper glass, he was furious, as he looked around he saw the new chairman sipping tea from that exquisite cup, he signaled to the orderly and shouted at him for the insult, the orderly slowly whispered to him, “Sir that cup is for the person who sits on the main chair it does not matter whoever that person is, it was not meant for you personally”. The faster one grasps this truth and lets it sink in deep, the better off the person is at the end. It is easy for the chair and person to become synonymous and become one; and when it is abruptly taken away, the effects of it can be devastating on the person, some people cannot live without a chair.

In Christian leadership the chair plays even greater havoc and there is a fatal attraction to it. The Lord of the chair seems to be the lord of it all. There are people who will ascribe divine origin and divine authority to the chair. There are the young turks in any organization who have just come off a training or development course, enamored by the power and attraction of the chair desperately looking for it, to sit and Lord. To this end there will be manipulations, backbiting, slander, character assassinations and power play in which many gets injured and destroyed before the victor gets to sit on it. The greater the power, perks, benefits and emoluments attached to the chair the greater and fiercer the race, to be the Lord of it.

There are leaders who have been on the “top chair” for what seems like an eternity and even at the grand old age they hold on it as if they are under the vow of “till death do us part”. There are the Louis XV of the Christian leadership who says “I am so indispensable that after me it is the deluge”. There are leaders who hold on to the chair for over two to three decades and then passionately preach and break the pulpit on succession planning, servant leadership and developing younger leaders, well, one guess is that it might be for the people under them to figure out and apply. I have seen grand-dads leading youth ministry unwilling to budge but trying their level best to catch up with the lingo, tech and gadgets of the youth; almost like the Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger) playing around with Transformers; forget the generation gap.

There are people who profoundly and authoritatively  teach that leadership is not a chair, it is all about “influence”, but when their turn comes to get off that chair, they whine, scream and kick and create a huge mess like little kids when they are taken out of their favorite toyshop. Then there are others who transform their chairs into thrones of pompous despotic tyranny and rule and reign with abandon over their hapless subjects and any dissent will be silenced, spiritually off course.  There are other kinds, who play the good old musical chair with their positions, one stepping aside and moving on to another chair of the same height or a bit lower and the next one does it in rotation with the mental satisfaction that whatever it is at least it is another chair. To move out or step aside “without a chair” has almost become an impossibility, the only option seems to be “I will be on the chair till I go out on a casket”. There is also this hilarious situation of multiple claimants, not one or two but it can go up to six people for the same top chair which is happening in some denominations right now and they will fight it out in the courts making sure no one gets to sit on that chair peacefully. There are also leaders who grab on to the chair till they can successfully install their progeny onto that chair and perpetrate a thriving dynasty and as if to rub more salt into it they will claim it to be a biblical model from the period of kings of course. And there are some hardcore ones, an aberration right now, probably because of the legal hassles I guess, who tend to take home the chair and along with it the entire ministry assets as if it is his ancestral heritage.        

The “Lord of the chair” attitude has seriously dented our image and the credibility of our message reducing us to mere caricature figures. The irony of it all is that, the master whom we profess to follow and emulate had no chair at all. He had no titles, nor positions, perks nor privileges; in fact in the letter to the Philippians chapter 2 verse 6&7 apostle Paul, says about Jesus that He voluntarily gave up everything, He emptied Himself and took the form of a servant. He had the greatest chair of all, the throne in heaven, the Lord of Lords and King of Kings; He had every right to Lord over us but he says, I have come not to be served but to serve and to give my life as a ransom for many. The impact of that leadership model reverberates ever so powerfully even after 2000 years across countries and nations that do not even acknowledge Him. The great leaders who modelled after Him too had no inclination to be the Lord of the chair, be it Apostle Paul or Peter. But somewhere along the line this aspect of servant leadership mutated into the loathsome “glorified servant” leadership along with the chair arriving on the scene. From there it has been a downward spiral for us and at occasional intervals we see glimpses of Christ-like leaders who appear like shining stars in the distant horizon and are like a breath of fresh air for us.

How wonderful it will be if we can steer away from the temptation to be the ‘Lord’ of the chair and look unto and worship the ONE who is on the chair in all glory and splendor as we have only one Lord and One throne of our great King Jesus and let us humbly lay our little crowns at His feet and walk as He walked and serve as He served.