In recent weeks, many on the blogosphere have discussed leadership in the context of the Church. Alan Knox has an excellent blog that focuses on the Church, and he has written several posts focusing on leadership. This post collects some of his most recent posts on the subject. The comments and further discussion are excellent.
Another discussion of Christian leadership takes place at Emerging Grace. If you look at her sidebar she has links to four different posts on leadership. She talks about how Jesus led and taught others to lead by following, submitting, and pointing others to the Father. Both she and Alan seem to be moving the Church toward a model that isn’t hierarchical and doesn’t contain any CEO type of leadership.
In one of the most hotly discussed posts at Alan’s blog, The Church or the Organization? Alan asks about the appropriate focus: people or organization. In the context of that discussion, David Rogers of Love Each Stone weighs in with the following comment:
While I would agree there are certain authority structures that tend toward abuse in and of themselves, that should certainly be avoided in the way we “do church,” it seems to me the biblical injunctions toward “servant leadership” have more to do with style and attitude than they do with actual responsibilities and job description. In other words, there is no room in the church for spiritual dictatorship. But neither do I see any encouragement toward spiritual anarchy.
And, in a second comment David Rogers continued:
Maybe the church in its earthly incarnation is meant to be more utopic (or other-worldly, if you prefer), than what I am seeing. If such is the case, I need God to open my eyes to this, and receive it by faith. No sarcasm at all. I’m open to being convinced.
In the meantime, though, it seems to me that, here on earth, as a general principle, “when everyone is responsible, no one is responsible.” Normally someone needs to know that the rest are looking to them to sound the alarm or give instructions, or else everyone just stands around looking at each other.
David clearly is concerned that if there is no one leading in the sense that we think of leading, we will end up with anarchy and disorganization. And, I wouldn’t disagree that in our humanity that is the case. But, we are the Church and a part of the Kingdom of God, in which we should live by the Spirit according to the principles God has outlined.
In my study this morning I reacquainted myself with the story of Gideon. You can find it at Judges 6-8. One often thinks of the time of the Judges as a chaotic, anarchical, and disorganized time for the people of Israel. However, it is clear that God designed the people to live without any King but Himself:
6 But when they said, “Give us a king to lead us,” this displeased Samuel; so he prayed to the LORD. 7 And the LORD told him: “Listen to all that the people are saying to you; it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected me as their king. 8 As they have done from the day I brought them up out of Egypt until this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are doing to you. 9 Now listen to them; but warn them solemnly and let them know what the king who will reign over them will do.”
I Samuel 8:6-9
And, I noticed this in the passage about Gideon. After God delivered the Midianites into Gideon’s hand, the Israelites begged Gideon to rule over them. I am sure this what quite tempting for Gideon, particularly after reading through the preceding chapters in which Gideon clearly is shown to be very human. Nonetheless, Gideon responded by saying, “I will not rule over you, nor will my son rule over you. The LORD will rule over you.” Judges 8:22-23.
This is leadership. Gideon doesn’t have to set himself up as senior pastor, king, or any such thing. Rather, he leads by pointing the people to the One who is King. True leadership in the Body of Christ is nothing less than focusing the hearts of others on the worship of Jesus Christ. Anything more than that, anything distracting from that, anything less than that falls short of the glory of God. And, I think, all too often leadership in today’s church does little to point people to the Father and much to point people to the charisma of the leader, the leader’s skills at organization or communication, or some other strength of the human leader. We need to repent of this usurpation of God’s throne wherever it may exist. And, as we begin to live according to the principles God gives us–submitting to one another in love, living by the Spirit, accepting one another, praying for one another, rejoicing always, offering ourselves as living sacrifices, living in unity–we will not only lead one another to a great knowledge of the Father we will also demonstrate to the world that Jesus is its Savior and King.
Posted by: Bryan Riley
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