This series on Elders has come at a price. It is the result of many tough years of learning to trust in Scripture above the demands of culture. Through time, I have come to believe that the future of church is found in our past. Slowly we are coming to embrace the biblical ideal that every follower of Jesus is called into leadership.
For this reason our fathers devoutly spoke of an office of all believers. In Christ’s Church there are not merely a few officials and a mass of idle, unworthy subjects, but every believer has a calling, a task, a vital charge. And inasmuch as we are convinced that we perform the task because the King has laid it upon us not for ourselves, nor even from the motive of philanthropy, but to serve the Church, to this extent has our work an official character, altho the world denies us the honor.– Abraham Kuyper, The Work of the Holy Spirit, pg 183
The world does not recognize God’s system of leadership, and for too long we have allowed the convictions of the world to determine the structure of our churches. The recent post-modern shift in culture has allowed some churches to change gears from a system of hierarchical leadership (focused on one man) to a team model (focused on Christ and mission). Yet experience demonstrates that the future of church leadership will not come easily. Let me illustrate with the story of one church.
Leadership Journal did an expose on The Next Level Church in Denver, Colorado. TNL began with a team/Elder approach but soon gave into the pressures of the status quo and elevated one man above the others to the role of Senior Pastor. After some amazing years of massive growth, TNL lost their Senior Pastor to sin. But instead of replacing him with another Senior Pastor, TNL’s leadership decided to embrace their original vision for shared (Elder) leadership.
I wasn’t at TNL during that crisis, but I also saw a senior pastor model entirely fall apart at my previous church. It got really bad. I began thinking there had to be a better way to do church. There is something systemically unhealthy about becoming dependent upon a single leader. — Brian Gray
As churches seek to modify their leadership structures, many hurdles will arise. Change will require a new mindset that seeks to protect our leaders instead of setting them up to fail.
In our case, we did put too many responsibilities and burdens on our senior pastor—a lot more than one guy should handle. We made him the public face of TNL. He was the go-to guy for everything. And the rest of us were okay with that because we liked being in the background and not having to bear the burden of making it all happen. But in the end, it was unfair to him and it was unfair to the church. — John Miller
As I have shared throughout this series, a return to Scripture will require that we look outside our culture and into the history of the early church.
If your bias is toward a model with a senior pastor who is also a speaker and you look for that in the New Testament, you may identify Peter as the leader of the early church. He is the public voice of the church in the beginning of Acts. But at the Council of Jerusalem in Acts 15, where one of the biggest decisions facing the church was made, you see a plurality of leaders. Besides, the marching orders come as much from James as Peter. So we need to take off our cultural lenses that force us to see the church structured with a senior pastor, associates, and a hierarchy, and recognize that Scripture leaves room for different models of leadership. –Brian Gray
The future leadership in the church will value passionate artistry over technical precision.
I think our generation is approaching ministry more as an art than a science. Since the Enlightenment, “doing church” has been seen as a science, and it was seen as linear, organized, with clearcut leadership principles. Our generation doesn’t see things that way anymore. We approach things more creatively, more organically.–Dave Terpstra
The future is not about a rejection of leadership or authority, but an increased respect for gifting from God’s Spirit.
But just because we believe in a flattened structure doesn’t mean we don’t believe in each of us exercising leadership. Jared leads at times because the issue relates to his area. Unless I strongly disagree, which I have unlimited permission to do, I’m going to follow his lead. When it comes to worship details, what do I know? I’m going to follow John’s lead on that stuff. That’s one of the best parts; I don’t have to have an opinion on everything that happens. I don’t have to carry the burdens of the whole church home every day. This system is very freeing. — Dave Terpstra
The successful leader of the future will be judged less on how effectively they administer programs or draw crowds and more on how powerfully they minister Christ through relationships.
Sometimes people refer to the time when thousands of people were showing up as the glory years of TNL. But we disagree. These are the glory years, because now we are a healthy community that knows and cares for each other. That started on the inside with this leadership team.–Jared Mackey
Over the past several years I have seen several churches make this transition from a Senior Pastor to a plurality of Elders. I am convinced that many more churches will follow. The challenge moving forward is to determine what these new leaders will look like.
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Great post – I have also been thinking a lot about the idea of teams of leaders instead of one leader and about the idea of the priesthood of all believers. Loved your thoughts here and the quotes you shared!
Joe,
This is a very good series. I agreed that shared leadership is better for the church and scriptural. Individually, we tend to desire control, which is not the same as leadership. As a group, we can help one another overcome that tendency.
-Alan
Boy, am I loving this cake.
Our fellowship is sharing leadership responsibilities and it seems to be working well. Our preaching pastor is noted as the “senior pastor” but he talks to the elders about everything and we also have a broader group that is called “The Advisory Board” that joins in when there are major decisions to be made.
It seems to be working.
Thanks for this teaching. It’s good stuff.
Blessings,
–Jerald
JR – Good post – I really believe that the typical church leadership structure doesn’t fit in with what Jesus had in mind for us. I think Alan hit it on the head…one of our biggest problems is that we want control. Even those who are not in leadership often want someone to be in leadership not so they can follow them but so they can depend on them to keep things “under control”. Sally at Eternal Echoes talked about leadership being a “channel of grace” – that is scary to a lot of people – we like God’s grace applied to ourselves but we are afraid that others will take advantage of it and the freedom that it entails. Grace is risky but beautiful.
it is nice to see more communities experiment with shared leadership. there’s no doubt it’s biblical, a more accurate reflection of the whole Body and true sharing in christian community. and i believe so much healthier than the model that has been perpetuated in many churches…thanks for your thoughts.
Hi Joe, thanks for a very relevant post. I have also posted on leadership but from a South African perspective, quoting our biggest daily newspaper that asks “Where is OUR Obama?”