The Parable of the Great Banquet is both haunting and instructional. It appears that “VIP Seating” has been around for a LONG time! Our current culture is not the only culture that has wrestled with issues like Influence, Honor, Competition, Achievement and Clout.

"What Has Been the Most Helpful Advice You Were Given When You Started In Ministry?”

Luke 14:7-11 When he (Jesus) noticed how the guests picked the places of honor at the table, he told them this parable:8 “When someone invites you to a wedding feast, do not take the place of honor, for a person more distinguished than you may have been invited. 9 If so, the host who invited both of you will come and say to you, ‘Give this person your seat.’ Then, humiliated, you will have to take the least important place. 10 But when you are invited, take the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he will say to you, ‘Friend, move up to a better place.’ Then you will be honored in the presence of all the other guests. 11 For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”

The Parable of the Great Banquet is both haunting and instructional. It appears that “VIP Seating” has been around for a LONG time! Our current culture is not the only culture that has wrestled with issues like Influence, Honor, Competition, Achievement and Clout.

As a young pastor I was a “big fish in a small pond.” I was the worship pastor in a smaller church plant, so, everyone knew me in the church, and it was easy for me to begin to feel like I was a big deal. When God called me to join the pastoral team at a much larger church, instantly, my insecurity began to unsettle me. I was now a small fish in an ocean. If I was honest, I made a lot of mistakes in my early years at my new church. Most of my mistakes can be summed up in Jesus’ parable in Luke 14.

I was so insecure in my new role at the larger church that I tried to find ways to move my seat up the table. I tried to get noticed and promoted to a better seat at the table. I would be embarrassed to share all the examples of how I made these attempts to change my seat. God taught me a LOT in those early years, and I am so grateful that I learned those lessons while I was in a season of obscurity.

Here is the simple summary of what God taught me: Practice Leadership Humility. In the parable Jesus told, we see two different approaches to being noticed and rising in leadership and influence.

The first is to exalt yourself.  

The second is to humble yourself.

As we all know, the Kingdom of God does not work the way that the world does. We as believers are in an “Upside-down Kingdom”, where the way to RISE is to lower yourself, and the way to FALL is to exalt yourself.

When I attempt to exalt myself, I require other people to “put me back in my place.” (Like the host of the dinner party in Jesus’ parable).  

When I set out to humble myself, I leave room for people to invite me to rise and be seated in places of influence. And in the Kingdom of God, the way a leader rises is by seating themselves low. 

No matter where you are in your leadership journey there are always new “tables” to seat. You might be the “big fish” at the table you lead, but when you get invited to a new table led by someone else, choose the HUMBLE seat, and allow THEM to invite you higher.  

When you sit at tables where YOU are the host, (a big fish in the room), watch for the people that will willingly humble themselves and take a seat that is beneath what they probably deserve. Those are the people that you want to sit closer to you.  

In Kingdom leadership, we all must remember that self-promotion isn’t necessary in the Kingdom of God. Because no one can give you what God will not, and no one can keep you from what God has in store. Because it is God who picks your seat, and if you get it wrong, He will reseat you…either by humbling you or exalting you!