Balancing Pastoral Leadership with Pastoral Accountability

A Biblical Study on the Question of Multiple Pastors in a Church (Part Two of Four)

While the NT does not require every church to appoint multiple pastors, it does reveal that multiple churches benefited from this arrangement. That said, how did multiple pastors within a congregation relate to one another?

On one hand, any grouping of multiple pastors should function in harmony with one another. This goes without saying. No one pastor should demand unquestioned authority over the rest, nor should a group of pastors (or elders) demand unquestioned authority over the congregation. Peter states this plainly, “Yes, all of you be submissive to one another” (1 Pet 5:5). He says this when describing the way that pastors and other members of a church should relate to one another (1 Pet 5:1-4).

Group Leader Dynamics

Against this backdrop, it is helpful to recognize that within a group of pastors, one man will normally assume a more vocal, influential leadership role. This does not happen because a man exalts himself to such a role. It happens instead because the church recognizes him as such, as God allows (1 Pet 5:6).

To illustrate how this occurs, consider how Peter served as the recognized leader of the twelve disciples. The NT names him first in every list of disciples (Matt 10:2-4; Mark 3:16-19; Luke 6:14-16; Acts 1:13). Furthermore, the disciples seemed to follow his lead (John 21:1-3) and Christ appears to have singled him out as a leader among them (Matt 16:18; John 21:15-17). What’s more, Peter seems to have served as the de facto spokesmen for the group in the years following the Lord’s ascension (Acts 1:15; 2:14; 3:4, 12; 4:8; 5:3, 29; 8:14, 20; 9:32; 10:17-48; 11:4, 18).

Despite this heightened influence, Peter preferred to describe himself as a “fellow elder,” not a superior one (1 Pet 5:1). This description demonstrates the kind of humility that any pastor should possess, whether he is prominent leader or not (1 Pet 5:5-6).

Another example of this group leader dynamic within a pastoral team occurred in the church at Jerusalem. We know that multiple pastors served this church together (Acts 11:30; 15:2, 4; 21:18; Jam 5:14). At the same time, it also appears that one man – James, the half-brother of Jesus – served as the de facto leader and spokesman for the group (Acts 12:17; 15:13; 21:18; Gal 2:9).

Once again, this was not a self-appointed role. It was the way that the congregation and other pastors viewed his role in the church. What’s more, he also exhibited the kind of humility that Peter likewise commended (1 Pet 5:5-6). Like Peter, he underscored the importance of divine exaltation as taught by Solomon in the Old Testament (OT) (Prov. 3:34) and Christ in the NT (Matt. 23:12), namely that, “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” Both these men adhered to this principle in their hearts.

The Problem of Domineering Leaders

Those who insist that every church must always install multiple elders are sensitive to the need for pastoral accountability. They tend to distrust any form of leadership by one man and believe that multiple pastors are God’s mandated universal solution to this problem.

To underscore this sentiment, some may highlight Diotrephes. This man employed a domineering, manipulative leadership style in the church of which he was a part (3 John 9-11). The apostle John, who was also a pastor, exposed this behavior as being entirely inappropriate.

To be sure, this disgraceful scenario provides a bad example of leadership in a church. Even so, it does not confirm that Diotrephes was a pastor. Even if he was a pastor, it does not tell us whether he was a single pastor serving alone or one man serving in tandem with other apathetic men who acquiesced to his arrogance.

Consequently, this scenario neither teaches nor suggests that a single pastor scenario is wrong. Instead, it teaches that any pastor should reject personal tendencies and temptations to lead a church in a domineering and manipulative way. Therefore, despite what we don’t know about Diotrephes, we do know that no one in a church – especially a pastor – should love to have preeminence (Mark 10:42-45; 1 Pet 5:3; 3 John 9).

As Peter and James illustrate, one man may naturally assume a more prominent leadership role in a church, even among a group of co-equal leaders. Diotrephes does not dispel this dynamic. What’s more, Scripture nowhere teaches that multiple pastors are God’s way to prevent men like Diotrephes from happening.

Pastoral Accountability

As any pastor leads a church (whether serving as one pastor or among a group of pastors), he experiences accountability in two ways: (1) vertically to Christ and the Word of God and (2) horizontally to the congregation he leads.

That a pastor (or group of pastors) is accountable to Christ goes without saying. Jesus refers to all believers as his own sheep, not the sheep of any given pastor (John 10:26-28; 21:15-17). He also described himself as “the good shepherd” (John 10:11).

Peter affirms this relationship to Christ when he describes churches as “God’s flock” (1 Pet 5:2) and Christ as both the “Chief Shepherd” (1 Pet 5:4) and “the Shepherd and Overseer of our souls” (1 Pet 2:25). Paul uses similar language when he describes a church as “the flock” and “the church of God” (Acts 20:28), and the writer of Hebrews does likewise, describing God as “that great Shepherd of the sheep” (Heb 13:24).

This fact alone provides a serious degree of accountability for every pastor, “as those who must give account” to God (Heb 13:17). For this outstanding reason, a church ought to pray for its pastor(s) (Heb 13:18).

• That a pastor (or group of pastors) is accountable to the Word of God also goes without saying.
• He must “rightly divide the word of truth” (2 Tim 2:15); he must explain the words of Scripture carefully and accurately.
• He must “preach the word” (2 Tim 4:2); he must take the words of God from the Word of God and present them in such a way that the church knows exactly what God says.
• He must also “hold fast the faithful word as he has been taught” (Tit 1:9); he must cling to the Word of God exactly as God gave it through the prophets and the apostles. He cannot change it in any way or let it go, no matter how unpopular the truth may be.

For these reasons and more, a pastor must diligently “labor in the word and doctrine” (1 Tim. 5:17). On this basis, the NT demonstrates how a congregation may provide accountability to a pastor – whether he is a single pastor or one man on a pastoral team. For in addition to Christ and the Scripture, every pastor is accountable to the congregation he serves.

Click here for Part One of this Study.

Thomas Overmiller serves as pastor for Faith Baptist Church in Corona, NY and blogs at Shepherd Thoughts.