Leadership in the American Church

This coming Sunday, Larry is preaching on Mark 10:35-45 – the passage about who is great, and who is to lead. The American church is obsessed with leadership. The charismatic pastor is featured on the website, the powerful preacher draws a crowd when he (usually a he) preaches, the charismatic worship leader, the authoritative bishop is celebrated on the billboard.

In the American church, Leadership has taken on the image of a dynamic, up front personality who waves a vision in front of the people.

This is simply cultural assimilation. The church is obsessed with leadership because our culture is (or was) obsessed with leadership. This obsession with leadership has created two equal and opposite reactions in the church;

1. People who pursue leadership in the church as a position of power and influence.

2. People who are uncomfortable with the idea of leadership and either resent it or defer to it, grateful that it is not up to them.

Churches are filled with people who have abdicated their roles and leaders who are taking up too many roles. The structure of the church is more like the structure of an Empire, with a single dominant leader and many passive supporters. We have a crisis of leadership – some monopolizing it, others abandoning it.

What Does the Bible Say About Leadership?

(Not as much as some church management books would have you believe!)

1. Jesus is Lord

In this regard, the issue is simple. Jesus Christ is Lord of the church and Lord of the world. This is not an issue under debate. All leadership within the church is to submit to the gracious and firm call of Christ. If Christ commands it, no matter how inadequate we feel we must obey. If Christ commands it, no matter how clever or competent we think we are, we are only soldiers under orders.

2. Solo Leaders are Not the Ideal

The Bible is not obsessed with leadership, because the Bible is not impressed with people. The Bible highlights human incompetence, inadequacy and weakness. The great fathers of the faith are almost comical in their obvious faults. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are more notable for their weaknesses and their life stories are more marked by the grace of God than their ability to lead morally or otherwise.

Kingship, the Biblical model of leadership, is always treated with ambivalence. A good king is a good thing. But a good king is never fully good. That’s why the king is always put into a contentious relationship with a prophet. But even the prophets themselves are shown to be fearful and anxious, and sometimes make mistakes. The hero of the Bible stories is always God, not human actors.

King David, the paradigmatic king, has highs and definite lows. And more to the point whenever he begins to see himself as the ‘savior’ or true leader of his people God is quick to put him in his place (2 Sam 7, 12, 24). He needs his prophet, Nathan, to pull him back from his worst excesses.

But such is our obsession with leadership that modern Christian authors look for it when it doesn’t exist. We paint Peter as a great leader – when the gospel writers go out of their way to show him as a deeply fearful, brash and misguided man. Paul is constantly defending himself from the charges that he is not charismatic enough to be a true apostle.

Who is the leader of the New Testament church? Paul is the most prolific writer and church planter, but his authority is often questioned and is required to defend his legitimacy at every stage. Moreover, he is too busy planting new churches to remain in a position of authority. Peter is the erstwhile ‘founder’ but he is challenged by Paul, and finds himself on a steep learning curve. James is labeled one of the leaders of the church in Jerusalem, but only one of. Even in the relative hierarchy laid out in the book of Titus, a plurality of elders is expected (Titus 1:5). Any command to submit to leadership in the church is plural (Hebrews 13:17). The New Testament is a conversation between leaders – sometimes a difficult conversation – rather than a top down set of orders.

This is not to say that there is no need for good organizational leadership, good administration and competence. But these things play less of a role in the movements of God than we might like. The three best human models of leadership in Scripture; Joseph, Nehemiah and Daniel, are so defined by their oppression, difficult circumstances, and the leaders over them, that we are hardly tempted to model our own lives on theirs!

3. We Are Responsible

If leadership is not something that we should be obsessed about, this does not absolve us of responsibility. Grace means that God does choose, anoint, appoint and charge people to lead his church – sinful and broken though we are. Abraham, David, Jacob, Peter and Paul were all chosen, not because of their competence but in spite of their incompetence. Leadership in the Bible is essentially charismatic – it is a gift from God. The church is led by people gifted by God, through the gracious call of God. As Paul says, God loves to use what is weak in the world to shame the strong. (1 Cor 1:26-30).

The point here is that, despite our inadequacy, God uses us to carry out the work of the gospel. A preacher must preach with all his or her might, but God does the work. People will not hear the gospel unless they are told by someone, but it is God who calls. People will only know the love of God when they see it in us, but it is God’s love, not ours which will save them. We acknowledge God as Lord, but take the responsibility that he gives us.

3. Authority in the Household (Smaller Settings)

Interestingly, the most direct discussion of leadership occurs in the household commands of Ephesians and Colossians. Leadership should exist in the home. We need the authority of father and mother, and the father should take responsibility as head of household. The household in Scripture is not simply the nuclear family, but a small household of extended family and various servants. In these settings, there is clear discussion about authority and leadership. 2 points can be made here about smaller leadership environments.

1. In these smaller settings, the goal is not permanent leadership structures, but places of developing and flourishing so that everyone can become leaders in other smaller settings. A governor of a state does not lead people to become governors themselves. But a mother and a father do raise children to become mothers and fathers themselves someday.

2. In these smaller settings the pattern of leadership is personal, and by example. It is not primarily organizational but organic. Leadership is most effective and resistant to corruption in smaller settings.

So, the biblical model is a diversity of gifts and a diversity of roles usually operating in a relatively small environment. The church is built around a group of people, each inadequate in themselves, but together, a united body working together to lead and grow God’s people. Sole leadership is not the biblical ideal. However, leaders are called to guide the people in community, and give shape to the church. In most cases, that leadership takes place in smaller contexts.

The One Church with Many Leaders

We need to resist the world’s dependence on solo leaders who lead from strength alone. Only then we will we discover the true power of the church in Christ. The great vision of God is a body fully dependent on Him, fully united in love. In this way the church is both weak and strong. It is weak because it is filled with weak people. All of who depend on God and on each other. But it is strong because people are faithfully and humbly taking responsibility. Or, as Jesus says in our passage this Sunday, “…whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all.”

- Josh