In this article, we continue our serialisation of Monica Hill’s booklet drawing lessons from the early Church, with a look at the controversial and ever-current issue of church leadership. Below, Monica contrasts the consequences of a singular authority with the notion of group ‘servanthood’.
Leadership
If the Body of Christ is to function effectively according to the teaching of the New Testament, then it is essential that there should be the right quality of leadership in accordance with this teaching.
It is significant that the New Testament pattern of leadership gives no place to priests. It does not envisage a professional priesthood functioning within an institution like the priests of the Old Covenant, who stood between the people and God as professional mediators.
In fact, apart from the likening of Jesus to our ‘High Priest’ in the order of Melchizedek in Hebrews 7, the only mention of priests in the whole of the New Testament in relation to the Body of Christ is the ‘priesthood of all believers’ (1 Pet 2:9). The priest as mediator between God and the people is no longer necessary, since Christ’s death opened up the Holy of Holies to all believers who can now, through his atoning blood, enter the presence of the living God (Heb 10:20).
The work of Christ, according to New Testament teaching, is continued by the coming of the Holy Spirit upon all believers, which enables each one to be in communication with God. It is for this reason that Paul tells all the believers that they should be eager to prophesy. Without the presence of the Holy Spirit in their lives, this would be impossible. Through the Holy Spirit, each one could not only receive a word from God, but also have the power to deliver it and the discernment to know when and how to express it.
The priest as mediator between God and the people is no longer necessary, since Christ’s death opened up the Holy of Holies to all believers.
One·Man-Bands Banned!
Leadership in the New Testament ekklesia was according to spiritual gifting, under the direction of the Holy Spirit. The ‘one-man-band’ type of leadership – the single leader with all the gifts – is unknown in the New Testament and is a concept totally alien to the ministry of the whole Body of Christ. Leaders in the New Covenant community were conscious of being part of the Body, not only needing the support of others but being subject to one another, under the headship of Christ.
This principle of shared leadership is clearly demonstrated in Acts 15 by the Council of Jerusalem, where strong leaders such as Paul and Barnabas, Peter and James, came together not simply to defend their different views on conversion and circumcision, but to seek the mind of Christ and to know what “seemed good to the Holy Spirit”.
The concept of the Church under synodical government, ruling by the decisions of men and women taken by majority votes – although giving the semblance of shared leadership – rarely follows the pattern of Acts 15, where the decision reached was discerned, through prayer and fervent intercession, to be that of the Holy Spirit.
Enabling Servanthood
Leadership in the New Testament is firmly linked with servanthood. Jesus uncompromisingly said, “whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant” (Matt 20:26) and Paul makes it clear that the ministries are “to prepare God’s people for works of service” (Eph 4:12). The whole Body of Christ is seen through the lens of servanthood, thus continuing the ministry of Jesus himself.
The New Testament concept of leadership turns upside-down the worldly hierarchical pyramid of social status, whereby leaders are regarded as the social elite, with the majority of people at the base of the pyramid.
The only kind of leadership that functions effectively and builds up the Body of Christ, within the Church envisioned in the New Testament, is enabling leadership. When leaders see themselves as enablers of spiritual growth in others, this also has the effect of engendering a servant attitude in their ministries. Their objective is to build others up and help them to go deeper in their personal relationship with Christ. A further objective is to help others to discover their spiritual gifts and exercise them effectively, thus experiencing the joy and satisfaction of spiritual fulfilment in their lives.
Enabling leadership also requires spiritual discernment to be able to see beyond where people are, to their potential. The anointing of the Holy Spirit upon the leader should enable them to perceive others’ spiritual gifts, even if in embryonic form. True leadership that encourages and enables growth in others finds great joy in seeing spiritual growth to maturity, especially in the most unlikely members of the Body, through the release of their spiritual gifts.
The New Testament concept of leadership turns upside-down the worldly hierarchical pyramid of social status.
Barriers
Often, the major barriers to leaders exercising a ‘Barnabas’ type of encouraging, enabling leadership are fear that the work will not be done effectively, and fear of losing their own role within the Body. In each case, the root of this fear lies in a form of spiritual pride and lack of trust in the Lord. Spiritual pride is often engendered by professional training and makes the leader feel that he or she is the only one who can do the thing correctly.
Professional training also makes a leader reluctant to relinquish roles that are regarded as exclusive to his professional calling. The only essential roles that leaders need to retain are those of vision, strategy and unity. Even these can be exercised within the concept of ‘enabling’ rather than ‘imposing’.
The enabling leader helps the whole Body to embrace the vision for the fulfilment of the mission of Christ and to receive the appropriate strategy, under the direction of the Holy Spirit. Rightly exercised, this enabling leadership not only helps to guard against division, but also helps to create unity in the Body, since all the believers have a shared vision and know themselves to have an essential part to play in carrying this out.
The Way Forward
If the whole Body is to be actively involved in the mission of Christ, with a shared vision under enabling leadership, this will often require changes in organisation and structure within the Church. Structures themselves can actually inhibit the growth of the Body and the personal maturity of its members. They can limit the relationship of each individual to the Lord Jesus and to each other. Structures need flexibility in order to adjust to changing external circumstances and to the gifting and level of maturity of the members of the Body.
Leaders need to change from an institutional mindset, which sees the need for jobs to be done, to the mind of the Spirit which thinks in terms of spiritual gifts. This may necessitate a change from ‘Here is a job, who can do it?’ to ‘Here are gifts, how can they be used?’ Although ‘task-oriented’ leaders have their place in the Body, the great need is for ‘people-oriented’ leaders to enable the Body to reach maturity.
In order to do this, the leader needs to discern the spiritual resources within a fellowship and relate these to the opportunities and demands of mission, in the specific circumstances facing the fellowship. In this context, and under the direction of the Holy Spirit, structural changes can then be made as needed, the ultimate objective being that the structures should be supportive of the mission of Christ, rather than dictating the mission. The ekklesia is then released from the dominance of dead tradition and institutional forms into the freedom of life in the Spirit.
Such a spiritually renewed fellowship will no longer try to carry out the mission of today with the methods of yesterday, or to direct the work of Christ through the wisdom of men. The objective will be to apply the teaching and principles of the New Testament to the mission of Christ in today’s world, so that the spiritual resources given by Christ to his Church may be fully used.
In this way, each believer may come to spiritual maturity and enjoy a full relationship with the Lord Jesus, as well as right relationships with other believers. The whole Body of Christ may then be mobilised to fulfil his mission in the world. This is the kind of community of believers needed today.
Questions for further reflection:
- Discuss the statement, ‘The New Testament pattern of leadership gives no place to priests except the priesthood of all believers in 1 Peter 2:9.’
- Are the Great Commission given by Jesus in Matthew 28:19-20 and the strategy in Acts 1:8 still relevant for the believing community today and, if so, how should they be implemented?
This article is part of a larger series. Please click here for previous instalments.
