Saul was something of a disaster as a commander, but most men are. There are very few real leaders. Doesn't every generation of men have to face this? There is something in human nature – spiritual things aside – by which we always imagine we should have leaders, leaders of our nation, capable politicians. If we go to war we think we should have able field marshals and generals. And when the war is over and a decent interval has passed, and the servile, heroic style of war book goes off the market, and the debunking books come in, we begin to see that at least half the generals were total nincompoops, and did the most crazy things. We are surprised, but there are very few leaders. The churches of Christ will be affected by this, just as the world. If we choose men according to their stature and whether that they look like leaders, we will be disappointed. But here is the message of the book of Samuel. Leaders may not be very common, but it doesn't really matter, because grace can make people who are not leaders into leaders. Grace can produce leaders everywhere. Just let God do it his way and you get a multiplicity of judges. Do it your way; you find yourself a king, and he will turn out to be a dud. The same is true in the churches of Christ. If only we would get down to praying, and soul-winning and doing things according to the Scriptural pattern, God will produce the necessary leaders. He will fund the church, as it were, with the people who it needs. But when we start – as is happening among evangelicals at the moment – saying, ‘Oh that we had a prophetic figure; oh that we had a leader, oh that we had some personality!’ As soon as you look for that, you will find your personality, but he will be a disappointment. It is grace that makes real leaders as far as churches are concerned, and they come supplied automatically by God to groups of his people who are praying and earnestly reaching forward to accomplish something. When the people of God are on the move, the leaders will be supplied by the Lord.
We can see that today. Things are at a low pass, and evangelicalism does not know what to do to wake up this country. Do you know why we don't know what to do? Because there is no banner of faith. Oh, that God will raise up spiritual Jonathans, who just get up and get on with the battle; and raise up churches everywhere that will visit the community and preach the gospel for all they are worth. We can forget about the magic methods, and anything special; many, many Jonathans and armour bearers; that is what we need.