The Importance of Strong Biblical Leadership
In the headlines, we occasionally see stories of abuse of power and failure of leadership. Some of these stories are of failures at a church or other religious organization. Many voices rise up when these events occur, clamoring for a renovation of church polity, denigrating the status quo, calling for change to forms of church government that served the church well for many, many years.
Christians don’t always agree on the form of church government, as is evident in the various denominations. Baptists tend to have followed a pastor led congregational model of church government with some modifications. We aren’t special or super spiritual because of our form of church government, but we think we are Biblical. That is, we are following the Bible as closely as possible as we see the Biblical models and teaching.
Through history, men serving in the positions of leadership in our churches have sometimes failed in one way or another, but more often they succeeded, in spite of humble surroundings and limited resources. Could we improve our implementation of the form? Certainly. In most cases, mistakes are made. We wish we were smarter, wiser, more skilled, and so on. Sometimes we could improve by better thinking about structure, ensuring more accountability, and/or involving more people in bearing the load and implementing the decisions. All of that pretty well goes without saying.
The model the Bible provides is one that involves personal leadership. The very terms used synonymously in Scripture to denote the office indicate this. Acts 20 finds all three terms describing the pastor in use. The term “elders” occurs in v. 17, where Paul called the elders connected with the Ephesian church to meet him at Miletus. He calls them “bishops” in v. 28 (overseers), where he instructs them to “feed” (“act as a shepherd”) the flock, a term Peter uses in 1 Pt 5.2, instructing men about leading their congregations. The noun form of this word is used in Eph 4.11 in the list of church officers, “apostles; … prophets; … evangelists; … pastors and teachers.” All three words are used interchangeably, all three refer to men fulfilling the same function, and all three involve leadership. One refers to seasoned and wise leadership (“elders”), one refers to the function of oversight and supervision (“bishops”), and the third refers to the ministry of guiding, feeding, and nurturing of a faithful shepherd (“pastors”). While wisdom requires leaders to borrow brains, seek input, be transparent and accountable, leadership does mean leading. It does mean authority (in its proper sphere). It does mean decision-making.
President Eisenhower got into a little hot water during Richard Nixon’s campaign for president against John Kennedy. Nixon was campaigning partly on his experience at the top, on his leadership. Someone asked Eisenhower how much Nixon was involved in leadership decisions. Eisenhower gave an answer that seemed to imply Nixon wasn’t involved at all (to the consternation of the Nixon campaign). However, President Eisenhower’s view of leadership was that it was the President’s responsibility to gather input from his advisors (including the Vice President), but that ultimately only the President was involved in leadership decisions. In his mind, he made all the decisions himself; no one else was involved in leadership decisions.
Pastoral authority isn’t quite the same as presidential authority, but leadership is the same no matter how high or low the office might be. If a man has a leadership position, he needs to lead. That means making decisions after sufficient input. A wise leader will involve others in the consulting process and be accountable throughout, but ultimately the leader will have to exercise his leadership responsibilities. He will have to lead (or abdicate).
Wise leadership is vital for the health of any organization. Weak leadership causes organizations to flounder aimlessly and can cause complete failure. For churches, spiritual lives are at stake. We vitally need wise, careful, honorable leadership.
Recent reading provides an illustration of the necessity of wise leadership. The book, Island of the Lost – Shipwrecked at the Edge of the World, by Joan Druett, chronicles the stories of two shipwrecks on the same inhospitable island (Auckland Island) in the far southern reaches of the Pacific Ocean. The wrecks occurred within four months of one another. The crew of one ship, the Grafton (five men), all survived the ordeal, while suffering hardship, with creditable success. The crew of the other ship, the Invercauld (nineteen men), dwindled to just three by the time of their rescue, mostly enduring great privation and suffering. The crews were twenty miles apart and were unaware of each other. The resources available to both crews, while not plentiful, were virtually the same. One crew survived well, the other crew barely survived. What was the difference?1
The difference, according to the way Joan Druett presents the story, was leadership. Captain Thomas Musgrave, assisted by his Mate Francois Raynal, provided wise and energetic leadership. They made mistakes along the way, but they worked hard to foster a spirit of cooperation and direction among their crew, ultimately leading to all five surviving and being rescued. Captain George Dalgano of the Invercauld failed to lead, cared more about his own survival, and took no initiative towards survival. Consequently, the crew of the Invercauld were placed in the aimless position of “every man for himself.” Everyone did “that which was right in his own eyes.” Most of the crew perished — they were like sheep without a shepherd.
Church leadership isn’t a matter of physical life and death, but it is a matter of spiritual life and death. Wise church leaders, that is, wise pastors, can make an incredible difference in the eternal lives of their church people. That is why Paul numbers pastors and teachers among God’s gifts to the church. We can’t discount the need for all the lessons of leadership we’ve learned over the centuries — we need accountability, we need transparency, we need wisdom, compassion, thoughtfulness and on and on. More than anything, however, in this age, we need leadership. Our “do it myself” culture despises leadership these days, but leadership is God’s plan for the New Testament church. Until you can improve on the Bible, you need to learn its lesson of church leadership and submit to it in your church.
Don Johnson is the pastor of Grace Baptist Church of Victoria, Victoria, BC, Canada.
Photo by Biegun Wschodni on Unsplash
- You can read the basic details of the Grafton’s story on Wikipedia here and the story of the Invercauld here. [↩]
Excellent, Don. Thanks for the blog post.
Very good points, Pastor Johnson!