Church Leadership

Church Leadership

Now I am entering a delicate area of the church.  I do not want to be condescending or even seem arrogant.  I do not want to dishonor any of the well intended ministers and the hard committed work they do.  I just want to take a fresh look at the role of church leadership.  It has through history been proven that church leadership has set the tone of all church movements and direction.  We all know that Jesus is supposed to be the head  of his church, but how that is done has over the years been left up to the interpretations of men we call our church leaders.  For this reason I do not want to debate who is right and who is wrong.  I will look at some scriptures and then some history and let you be the judge.  I feel how we look at church leadership forms our views of what a church should look like.  For most people all the information they get about God and what the bible teaches comes from their church leadership of whatever form that is, or what kind of church you are a part of.   Before I enter this subject let’s understand that our system of church in today’s modern world is greatly influenced by our society and life styles.  Today’s modern church produces many social influences, raises millions of dollars, sets mind sets, creates a social step stool to what is conceived to be success and blessed.  What I mean by this, is many people will look at a preacher or person and say they must be right because of the prosperity, and following they have.  This is not how the word of God addresses such things.  We should always judge things by the fruit of the spirit of God, (Gal. 5.22-23) not by the standard of this world.

As I have mentioned in the past article that the early church was first made up of Jews and they may have fashioned their meetings and organization after the synagogue system.  It stands to reason and even looking at the development of the church body we find structure and leadership much like a Jewish synagogue.  The synagogue did not have a singular leader.  They may have been able to hire a leader for the sole purpose of making sure that the business of the building and group was taken care of.  Then this was overseen by the members of the group.  They had many leaders all having similar yet different responsibly, yet they were subject to the membership.  There was a since of family and cohesiveness in each group and this prevented scripture abuse.   If one was to begin teaching something contrary to the scriptures, they were quickly dealt with or even excommunicated.  This does not mean that if this person had the personality and good use of speech that were not able to draw a following and start their own group, which history all the way up to our day proves to be so.     

Let’s start with scripture and see how the church looked at leadership.  First let me say that in Revelations the letters in chapters two and three were not to the churches per say but to the leaders.  With this perspective you will read these chapters with fresh understanding.  Each letter starts out with “to the angel of the church”.  In the Greek the word here is aggelos, meaning messenger.  This is what the lead reader of the scrolls was called in each Jewish synagogue.  Because of this there are many scholars that believe the seven churches were in fact synagogues.  I will deal more with this later.  In Acts 2 we find the beginning of the church as we know it today.  Peter was the one to deliver its first message, not because he was a better leader, he was just a little more bold.  Thousands were being added to the church and they were meeting in the temple court, synagogues, and homes daily.  People were following the teachings of the apostles, which were primarily, Jesus the Christ, the son of God who lived, died and rose again, ascended on high with the promise to return and set up an earthly kingdom. Note: (they all believed the kingdom message would happen in their lifetime.)   Then there arose the churches first problem, which needed leadership.

 Like the synagogue the church became the center of their social life and all matters were dealt with through the body of believers.  There were needs of the poor and the generosity of the rich.  Now the church was taking on a social responsibility.  The Jew was well versed in God’s commands on taking care of the poor, widows, and orphaned.  James even states it in (James 1:27 NIV)  Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.   The church was now overseeing the distribution of funds for those who had needs.  At that time in Jerusalem there were many coming from other nations due to a great persecution of Jews through out the Roman Empire, then the heavy oppression by Roman against the land of Judah.  Needless to say there were many in Jerusalem without home, food, and jobs.  The new group of believers found themselves filling this gap and meeting the needs of those that came to them.  Now these were still all believers that were receiving this help. (Rom 15:26 NIV)  For Macedonia and Achaia were pleased to make a contribution for the poor among the saints in Jerusalem.  There is no indication that the church was feeding all the hungry in Jerusalem.   They were taking care of their fellow believers.  Because of this problem according to Acts 6 we find a selection of seven men by the people from among themselves to oversee the business of taking care of the needs of the poor.

These men were not called deacons or elders anywhere in the Bible.  Yet as we see they were able to teach and preach.  In later history by early church fathers they receive the titles of deacons and elders.   So how do we come up with biblical church leaders?  By looking in the pattern we see as the church developed.   We find a man by the name of Paul who was sent to spread the word of God through out the world.  What we now call missionary Trips.  He was sent with Barnabas from a group in Antioch not Jerusalem, after they prayed and laid hands on them for the commission.  Every town Paul went to, he would start out in to in a synagogue, then to homes.  If opportunity was present he would just start preaching in the market place. ( Acts 13.5, 14.1, 17.1&2,10,17, 18.4,19, 19.8) Once a group of believers was established he would set up leadership from within the group to help in the growth of that group.  You will find in Paul’s writings he address many of these.  We must understand in all this, that at this time not one believer had a bible of any sort.  Any scripture they might have known about would have only been found in the local synagogue.  They had to rely on the good teachings of men.  It was this group mind set and cohesiveness that help foster the ability to stay true to the teachings of the apostles. 

We find in Acts 15 another problem arises.  There are Jewish believers that tried to make all the gentile believers keep the Jewish rituals, such as circumcision, holy days, and foods.  Notice there is not direct leadership or central headquarters; they just met at Jerusalem to deal with this.  There was no one trying to make anyone have a church service in any such way.  Each group was left up to them how they met and did things.  It was Jews that felt they needed to make everyone be like them.  This was resolved in Acts 15 in part, but we find in the writings of Paul He had to deal with it in Rome, Galatia, and the Colossian church.  Paul defended the rights and freedoms that came through Jesus.  All believers were saved by grace and not of works, and that all were free from mosaic laws.  Even today many churches still try to mix Mosaic Law with grace, this doe not work.

 For the sake of time and space lets look and see what these early church leaders looked like and what was their role.     (Eph 4:11-12 NIV)  It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, {12} to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up

We find here that God gave us leadership.  Yet today there are many who have perverted these verses.  There is no place in the Bible that elevates any one of the above leadership roles above the other.  The focus here should be their given purpose, to disciple people for growth in ministry and spreading the good news message.  Ministry should be the extension of an overall group not just a personality or individual.  Looking at the above areas we should look simply at what each one means.  The ideal of being called a five fold ministry was developed from what I can find only in the last hundred years.  Then when it is being taught, it is from a corrupt ideal of a dictator type leadership where one is in all authority and they only can hear from God.   The Word apostle simply means sent one. This is where we may get the ideal of a missionary.  Then prophet is one who foretells or just speaks for God, a preacher so to speak. Evangelist is one who preaches the gospel of the good news.  The church already has the good news so we should know where the evangelist should be found, in the market place.   The pastor, teacher are similar and too many are the same, I also feel they are one and the same.   The Bible has much to say about them, and I feel we can once again look at the synagogue for similarities of defining their role.  They can be called bishops, elders, and teachers.  The point is they are responsible for the word of God in a group.  There is no other leader that can shape a group more than a pastor or teacher, good or bad.  I also want to note that a pastor is not a profession but a position among a group.  It does not have anything to do with how many is in a group (a synagogue only needed ten), but everything to do with a heart to disciple others wither it be ten or thousands, full time or part.

In Acts 20. 17- 38 we find Paul meeting with church leaders and giving them instructions for leadership.  Then we find in His writings to Timothy and Titus in giving the qualifications and principles for leadership.  When Paul met with the elders in Ephesus, he shared his story of ministry and encouraged them in theirs.  He gave them instructions in leadership, and to take their role in the church seriously without greed. We even find that Paul was bi-vocational, and in doing much research early church leaders did not get paid for services in their groups.  Like in the synagogue, elders, and leaders were lay-members and were not paid.  Now this does not mean they did not receive blessings, honor, and gifts from those who received teaching from them. We do find Paul statement concerning his working. (Acts 20:33-35 NIV)  I have not coveted anyone's silver or gold or clothing. {34} You yourselves know that these hands of mine have supplied my own needs and the needs of my companions. {35} In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: 'It is more blessed to give than to receive.'"   It sounds to me that Paul not only worked for His needs but for the needs of those who traveled with him and that he worked hard for others.  Wow! I wonder how many preachers today would do that.   He warned them that after he would leave that many false teachers would arise, drawing people to themselves.  Just a note about preachers today, that no matter what they say, if they are building themselves up drawing many to their teachings, red flags should be going up especially if they refuse to hear from anyone else for correction when they are wrong.  Boy history has proved out Paul’s warning.  (Unfortunately we have many such cases we can use as examples in our recent history)

Look at 1 Tim 3, and see what Paul has to say about church leaders.  Once again I know there has been hot debate over certain parts of this chapter, but I want to point out a few things.   First Paul opens with the ideal that someone could lead out of desire, not just a calling.  Of course, I am not sure why anyone with a pure conscience would want to lead people today and live under the scrutiny they would receive.  Actually all of Paul’s writings to Timothy are basically instructions in faith and good leadership.  We can learn a lot from what Paul teaches Timothy & Titus.  Paul also warns Timothy of false leaders and how to look for the warning signs.  There are many ministries today that would fail a limpness test comparing what they do to the letters to Timothy.  Satan has set out to destroy the church, when he could not do it from without through persecution, he has been more successful from within the church.   We have churches today that are full of people who have gathered to themselves teachers having inching ears, and our book stores are filled with their books, telling us we need to be like them.

I could go on and on and fail to fully share what I have been discovering in research and study.  Now let me say that there are many great men and women of God that are leading churches from a pure heart.  Then there are many today that are corrupt in heart and are teaching for wealth and gain.  I feel it is time that God’s people get back into the word and stop following personalities that sound good to our ears.  I am amazed at what you can hear on Christian radio, television, and in many churches.  Makes me wonder if anyone is paying attention to what is said or do they really know the word of God.  When something tragic happens in our world, look at what our church leaders say.  From hostile use of words to lets all get along mind set.       To be continued next week