Various Scriptures

Message #10 ~ Modeling Leadership – Part 1

Introduction & Overview

• Last week if you were with us you recall that we deviated a bit from our study of Galatians to examine the biblical definition and role of the elder
• As I shared with you last week I felt that it was essential that we take the time to understand what the Bible says about elders if we are to truly understand what is taking place in Galatians 2 as the church at Galatia sends delegates to Jerusalem to speak with the apostles and elders there to solve a doctrinal issue
• As I shared last week my original plan was to follow the text in Galatians and continue with Paul’s narrative but as I prepared the Holy Spirit directed me to share with you some selected scriptures related to biblical eldership
• This week we continue this topic and we dig a little more deeply into the issue of eldership and as I indicated at the close of last week’s message I wanted to God-willing examine 7 aspects of biblical eldership in the coming weeks.
• If you recall those 7 aspects were:
• Servant Leadership
• Shared Leadership
• Male Leadership
• Qualified Leadership
• Non-Clerical Leadership
• Pastoral Leadership
• Proper Response to Leadership
• Today we plan to look at the first two; servant leadership and shared leadership
• Last week we examined the problem that has developed in churches in some ways over the last 100 years in other ways problems that begin to show up in the church within 100 years after Christ, just shortly after the apostolic age ended
• So began our deep dive into what the Bible says on this topic and the full understanding that whenever we confront tradition it is always a painful process
• I saw an article this week published in the Journal of the Founders Conference, which is a Southern Baptist organization committed to the principle of the reformation of always reforming
• In this article the writer used an analogy that I believe is especially fitting for what we are discussing here
• The author wrote that the task we are engaged in as biblical Christians is a little like swimming against the tide; any time we stop to congratulate ourselves we immediately begin to drift backwards
• I think we need to have as our focus the reality that staying committed to biblical truth sometimes does feel like swimming against the tide and any time we stop swimming we don’t stand still but begin to rapidly drift from truth into error
• Today and also in coming weeks as you and I take this journey together through what the Bible says on this topic I think we will encounter things that we have adopted as our belief because we “quit swimming” and accepted that which was easy

• I recalled to your attention last week Jesus’ words from Mark directed to the Jewish leadership with regards to the role of tradition; He said:
• “…Teaching as doctrines the precepts of men.”
• “Neglecting the command of God, you hold to the tradition of men.”
• “…you nicely set aside the commandment of God in order to keep your traditions.”
• “…thus invalidating the word of God by your tradition which you have handed down; and you do many things such as that”
• The Holy Spirit has really impressed on me that to some degree we have embraced tradition over biblical truth with regards to role of elders within the church
• And as I shared with you last week this is largely do to a fault on the part of pastors to teach and disciple the flock about what the Bible teaches on this topic

#1 Servant Leadership

• The first point and by no means is it accidentally the first point we want to look at is the servant nature of biblical eldership
• Now before all of you tune me out and assume I am preaching to half a dozen people in this room and this by no means applies to you let me remind you that the character qualities and many of the traits that are required of elders to hold that office is required of each and everyone of us Christians
• So let us all prayerfully consider how the Lord can instruct us as we look at the topic of servant hood
• As you can see from your outline in your bulletin I didn’t identify a single verse or passage but instead referred to various scriptures; this is because there is no singular verse on the topic but rather the whole of scripture confirms this truth and I want to call your attention to several such verses today
• Additionally we want to pay particular attention how this applies to the biblical office of elder
• So a quick survey of Christ’s teaching on this topic I think is in order at this point
• Jesus said in Matthew 5:3 that only those who are poor in Spirit will enter the kingdom of heaven; literally those who have a correct understanding of their position before God and how utterly destitute they are
• We also see Jesus in Matthew 11:29 confronting the oppressive religious leaders of his day by contrasting his style of leadership when he states: “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for am gentle and humble in heart.”
• We have Jesus’ response to the 12 when they began to clamor and fight for position in Mark 9 and Jesus completely abases their notion of what equals greatness and importance in God’s kingdom. In Matthew’s account of this same encounter we read in Matthew 18:4 “Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.”
• And of course if there were a single passage to point to on the topic of servant leadership it would be what Matthew records in chapter 20. We see the mother of James and John make a bold and selfish move to have her boys exalted in Christ’s kingdom; Jesus again uses this opportunity of bickering to point to what equals greatness; we read in verse 25 “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. ²⁶It shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, ²⁷and whoever would be first among you must be your slave…”
• And I will point this out again, I touched on this last week as well; Jesus was well aware that both the Gentiles and the Jewish rulers were seeking out titles for themselves; Jesus said to his disciples not to do this not to wear special clothes, or require special seats not to covet after special titles or special greetings; in fact what did Christ say would be the end of all of that? Matthew 23:12 records “Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.”
• My mind is also reminded of the final hours of Jesus life and ministry on earth, he sits down to eat a meal with the disciples, something we now call the Last Supper and again these foolish guys are arguing and Jesus says: “But not so with you. Rather, let the greatest among you become as the youngest, and the leader as one who serves.” Then he proceeds to wash their feet to illustrate his point; this time I think they got it because this is the last time we see this group of guys arguing over who is the greatest again
• Servant leadership but also just servant attitudes and actions from every Christian is the standard to which we have been called
• Examine your heart; do you dislike the notion of elder rule within a congregation? Could it be because your prior experiences with it involved prideful men that had abused their position?
• As Andrew Murray has commented humility is the distinguishing mark of Christianity yet it is not sought after at home, at school, in social and work settings or even in the church, this should be esteemed as the cardinal virtue
• Unfortunately Murray is right, it should be the cardinal value in all of our lives but instead it is barely esteemed at all
• Have we understood the teaching of Philippians 2:3-8: “Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. ⁴Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. ⁵Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, ⁶who… ⁷taking the form of a servant…⁸humbled himself”
• This teaching isn’t directed only at overseers but it absolutely must apply to them as well; count other more significant than ourselves
• The human heart in its natural state very quickly moves from humble to proud, selfish, driven to dominate, jealous, suspicious and it tears relationship inside and outside the church apart
• Since elders lead the church according to 1 Timothy chapter 5 it is imperative that have Christ’s humble attitude, a willingness to do the dirty work of washing feet (or whatever the humbled work is at a moments notice)
• No where in the Word of God do we find a justification for an elder ruling a church with an iron fist or in a heavy handed way
• What we do find repeatedly is a call from the apostles that the elders would exercise their authority in a loving, humble, servant-like manner
• In fact John had to deal with a person like that in 3 John 1:9, whether Diotrephes was an elder or not we aren’t told but John promises a rebuke for him when he arrives in person
• Remember I said that the apostles got it when Jesus washed their feet; look at what they wrote to elders later as they encouraged them
• Peter writing in 1 Peter 5:2-3 writes: “shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you; not for shameful gain, but eagerly; 3not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock.”
• Peter continues and draws on the picture of Christ wrapping himself in a towel to wash feet Peter further instructs in verse 5 of the same chapter: “Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble."”
• Paul reminds the Ephesian elders in Acts 20:19 how he served the Lord with all humility and of course by extension they should as well
• Paul writing to Timothy in 1 Timothy 3:6 about qualifications for elders mentions that it cannot be a recent convert, why? Because “he may become puffed up with conceit and fall into the condemnation of the devil.”
• Let me conclude this point by saying quoting Alexander Strauch: “What is of supreme importance to God, then, is the way in which elders shepherd God’s people. God measure success by the spirit in which elders handle people, solve problems, and perform their duties – not s much by the outward results. Thus, humility and servanthood are at the very heart of Christian eldership

#2 Shared Leadership

• Simply put according to the New Testament the job of shepherding the flock of God and exercising pastoral oversight of the flock is to be shared by the men who qualify and God has given them a desire to do that work
• What I am saying is leading a church is a team effort not the responsibility of a single “professional” leader who graduated seminary
• I imagine for many of you this concept is a foreign concept, something you have never seen practiced anywhere else so because it is foreign it is a bit scary
• For other of you, perhaps a few of you have seen shared leadership modeled at another church and are comfortable with it
• What I would like to do in the next few moments is look at the Scriptures and see what the Bible says about this topic of shared leadership within Christ’s church
• The first item I would call your attention to is the model of the 12 apostles, we see much bickering and fighting among them prior to the resurrection but afterwards we see a cohesive unit that is working together to lead, strengthen and grow the church at Jerusalem
• As we look at the 12 we see certain apostles had certain gifts that made them stand out for certain ministries but none of them held a higher office or could lord their authority over another for they were all equal and shared their authority and leadership
• Second, think about Acts chapter 6 and the 7 that are called to serve. We only know about Phillip and Stephen but again it isn’t one guy was called and brought along 6 helpers or staff members to help him complete his tasks; they were all equal as they worked and served along side each other
• We also see shared leadership practiced in the deaconship as is illustrated in Philippians 1:1 and 1 Timothy 3 verse 8 and following
• In fact we see shared leadership practiced throughout the New Testament; for example Acts 13 records that there were prophets and teachers in the church praying and fasting; not just one of each because the plural is used, we see a plurality of prophets and teachers
• In Acts 15 we find Paul and Barnabas preaching and teaching in Antioch but it also records that there were many other also with them doing the same thing, again we see duties shared and a plurality of preachers and teachers
• 1 Corinthians 16:15, 16 record the names of the first converts at Achaia and how they have served the people ever since; Paul says that the church is to be subject to (notice the language) “be subject to such as these, and to every fellow worker and laborer”
• Again we see this concept of plurality or shared leadership
• Paul is quite clear in 1 Thessalonians 5:12, 13 “We ask you, brothers, to respect those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you, ¹³and to esteem them very highly in love because of their work.”
• Again the language speak of those not a singular him or who
• Then we have Hebrews 13: where three times the writer refers to the reader as having leaders plural, we see it in verses 7, 17, and 24
• The biblical model is overwhelmingly in favor of a plurality of elders or in other words shared leadership
• Here is a interesting thought for you to ponder, do you know anyone who seriously questions the notion of having more than one deacon in a church?
• I can tell you historically this has not been a major battle for the church; I have never met anyone who teaches this yet we find many who teach that a church should be led by a single pastor
• The problem is I can’t justify that view based on Scripture
• There are scholars out there who have tried to justify the notion of a single pastor based on Scriptural texts citing Timothy, Epaphrus, James or even the angels of the seven churches in Revelation
• Without dragging you through the muck and mud of the debate let me say it simply cannot be done
• For brevity I will give you the synopsis of the debate:
• There are 18 references in the New Testament to the office of elder
• 15 of those references refer to a plurality of leaders
• 7 of those emphatically refer to a plurality of leaders within a local assembly
• 3 do not mention plurality but certainly are not written in such a way as to discredit it
• As Bruce Stabbert sums it up referring to the seven passages that clearly teach plurality within a local church he says “This is a case where the clear cases must be permitted to set the interpretation for the obscure.”
• He continues “Only three passages talk about church leadership in singular terms, and in each passage the singular may be seen as fully compatible with plurality.”
• Simply put brothers and sisters the Bible teaches that the biblical model is a plurality of godly men leading the church
• Keep in mind, the apostles didn’t dream this up because they thought it was a good idea, in fact their experience would have been with the concept of a “leader of the synagogue”
• This is what they had seen and observed all of their lives, they would never have seen a religious system run any other way yet because of the Spirit’s activity in their lives they were unanimous in their decision for having shared leadership
• This was truly a God-thing that these men would have commanded other men to appoint elders as Paul did or in the case of Peter commanding men to shepherd the flock
• Let me also point out, they didn’t choose shared leadership because it was easier; in fact is a lot harder
• Let me ask you, have you ever come up with what seems like a really good idea and then we you share it with someone else they tear the idea to shreds?
• It seemed like such a good idea to you but in the other person’s eyes the idea is seriously flawed
• This is in essence what shared leadership involves; it requires one visionary to get the buy-in of several other men, other elders in order to implement a good idea
• Let me be very frank and very honest with you – that isn’t easy most of the time
• Let me let you in on a little secret about one of the reasons so many churches have a single accountable person (usually the senior pastor) and that person has a staff
• It is because it is far easier to get things done when you have one person at the top making all the decisions; shared leadership is difficult, at times it is very difficult

Practical Benefits of Shared Leadership

I. Sharing the Burden

§ This one is actually quite obvious and that is that heavy burdens, conflicts, complaints, disagreements, quarrels, doctrinal disputes and other church matters are shared by a team of elders vs. one over-worked, over-tired, over-burdened pastor

§ Also while some pastors do seem to be gifted at all the leadership duties ranging from preaching, teaching, exhorting, counseling, rebuking, administering, visiting, encouraging, organizing and so on this is in reality quite rare

§ Far more common is the man who is a gifted communicator or is gifted and research and mining the Scriptures for all that is there so his preaching and teaching are well-prepared and well-delivered however is ability in other areas such as organization, administration or counseling is much weaker

§ The stark reality is many men, many fine gentleman that today bear the title of pastor are struggling under the burden of their oppressive workload all the while being criticized by the congregation because they aren’t better at some aspect of leading a congregation

§ When you have a team of elders and each man shares his abilities this helps to lighten the load

§ Indeed as Solomon wrote in Ecclesiastes 4:9-12: “Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. ¹⁰For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up! ¹¹Again, if two lie together, they keep warm, but how can one keep warm alone? ¹²And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him--a threefold cord is not quickly broken.”

II. Balance of Strength and Weakness

• Again this is self-evident but let’s look at the practical side of this
• As I have already stated shared leadership is much harder than a single monarch who can just be decisive and the troops must follow
• I am so glad that here at Grace Church the overseers have committed themselves to the principle of unanimity
• The overseers here at Grace Church don’t do anything until every one of us is in full agreement
• This prevents one of us from over-reacting or under-reacting to a given situation
• It prevents one us from giving undue attention to one person while unjustly overlooking another
• But ultimately the reason it must be done is because even though we are seeking God’s will in everything we do we are all still sinful, rebellious, stubborn, prideful men
• Everything God accomplishes through us he truly accomplishes in spite of us because we are still fallen creatures that very quickly tend to head towards our fallen state
• Remember what happened in the fall both of Satan and of man? In both cases Satan and man both thought they knew better than God, that is our natural state to try and do what seems best to us
• Man always thinks he knows better than God and every time he tries he causes trouble for himself
• That is why we are committed to unanimity; because without it one person who is out of step with the Spirit could steer us in the wrong direction
• History is replete with examples of men that once given power it corrupted them and they continue to seek more
• Whenever we seek more power than what God has given to the office of an elder or if an elder begins to function outside the realm of council of elders he has in fact, listen carefully, begin try and take glory that belongs rightfully to God
• Remember this is God’s church we are talking about and it does not belong to any one man or woman
• When we begin to seek after titles we begin to take for ourselves glory that rightfully belongs to God
• In the 2^nd century Ignatius made this statement: “Plainly we ought to regard the local bishop as the Lord Himself.”
• On another occasion he wrote: “respect the bishop as being a type of the Father and the presbyters as the council of God as the college of the apostles. Apart from these there is not even the name of a church.”
• Wow, this is around 100 years after Christ and we are already seeing the impact of the civilization around them as hierarchies are being created within the church
• Clearly those statements are taking from Christ glory he deserves but what about more subtle statements in our day
• How about the fact that we are so accustomed to speaking of “The Pastor” that we do not even take pause to realize that Sacred Scripture never once mentions that as a title
• This may seem like simple semantics but it is not, there is great significance here and we can’t allow our traditions to shield us from God’s truth for our lives
• Proper terminology would only ever ascribe the title of Head and/or Pastor to Christ Jesus himself and never to a man
• He is the true Pastor/Shepherd; elders are called to shepherd the flock but they are only under-shepherds or sheepdogs as Cliff used to like to be called
• We need to be careful how we use terms

III. Increased Participation

• Again this one is no real surprise if you think about it
• Last week I spoke of the caste system that seems to have developed in many churches, a caste system where there is a laity class made up of people that come on Sunday morning and a clerical caste that are professional ministers and are on staff at the church
• The New Testament knows no such dichotomy of split
• Again as I stated last week we are all brothers and sisters in the Lord; there is no caste system with Christ he is the head and we are the body
• God gave the body elders to lead it but as Peter said not to lord it over people but gentle, humble, servant-like leadership
• The New Testament ideal is for more men to share fully (not partially, fully) in the leadership of the church community where they belong, serve, love and worship
• This means greater participation in the oversight and teaching of the people of the family of God
• The single pastorate does not provide for God’s desire to allow others to teach and lead his people
• Remember at the beginning we saw how Paul and Barnabas were teaching and preaching but there were others with them?
• If Paul of all people allowed others to come along side and teach and preach then shouldn’t the church today be willing to embrace what God has offered us?
• By allowing greater number of men to share equally in the leadership, communication and sharing of truth you will naturally get different perspectives
• There is much talk today in the church growth movement about targeting an age group; I think God’s plan makes a whole lot more sense by allowing a wider range of men to teach you will naturally have certain ones that appeal to certain age groups

Misconceptions/What I am not saying

• The number one misconception about shared leadership is that it suppresses the sharpest and most talented men
• The reality is the opposite is actually true, shared leadership will actually protect as well as hone the gifted leader
• You must understand that while all elders act jointly and share equal responsibility in overseeing the flock all are not equal in their gifts, knowledge, leadership ability, maturity, or even dedication
• Thus it is quite natural to have one or more elders stand out as a motivator or a leader among the other elders
• The Romans had a phrase for this in Latin, in English it is simply translated as first among equals
• We see this very type of leadership present among the 12 apostles
• Among the 12 Jesus singled out 3 for greater attention; Peter James and John dominate our thinking when we think of the apostles
• But even among these three there was yet another leader, another first among equals, we see that Peter’s name always occurs first in the list of the disciples names in all four gospels
• Jesus charged Peter to “strengthen your brothers”
• Yet Peter jointly shared the responsibility for leading the early church with the other 12
• Peter was the leading spokesman on the day of Pentecost and on other occasions; without Peter as a motivator the other 11 would not have been as strong
• However Peter when surrounded by the other 11 was checked on his tendency to be impulsive, impetuous and fearful; there was balance
• We see a similar balance among the 7 chosen to serve in Acts 6
• Again we only really know about Phillip and Stephen but even here the greater attention goes to Stephen yet he held no special rank over the other 6
• This is common today to among a council of elders; Paul spoke of this when he wrote in 1 Timothy 5:17 “Let the elders who rule well be worth of double honor especially those who labor at preaching and teaching.”
• This honor can include financial assistance; as I pointed out earlier not all elders will have the same earnestness for the task
• If there is an elder who is willing to give himself full-time to preparing for and to preaching and teaching the word as well as the other tasks of overseeing there is nothing in the biblical model that prevents that person being compensated for their work so they can wholly dedicate themselves to that task
• However here is where care must be given, the elder that makes ministering and pasturing his full-time occupation holds no special rank, title, or position above any of the lay elders
• The danger again lies within the sinful heart of man; once such a setup is established it is very easy for a lay elder out of sinful laziness and neglect to relinquish his responsibility to the full-time elder
• This is especially true with regards to spiritual matters; how easy it is for all of us to allow the preacher in the pulpit to do all the Bible study and the rest of us to not prepare our hearts for worship but not maintaining the health of our 3-legged stool

Conclusion

• Servant leadership, we are all called to be servants and be Christlike in our attitudes and actions, not just the leaders but everyone
• Shared leadership, it is difficult but through this process the will of God is seen, balance and order can be accomplished, the body is strengthened and God is given the glory