For us Christians, this is an area which is misunderstood much and hence misused or abused both by leaders and followers. There are leaders who lord it over others and there are followers who blindly submit to their leaders. There are leaders who assume that God has given them such absolute authority that their word should be treated practically as God's own and there are followers who are scared to do anything without their leader's approval or even to disagree with him. There are leaders who are there as those who are in a profession for earning their livelihood and have no spiritual food to give to the others, and there are also others whose whole aim is to deceive their followers and maximise their own gain.
God has not left the church of His Son without any leadership because He knows that recognised levels of authority should be in place in order to assist proper functioning of the church which is the body of Christ.
In the body of Christ there are members who are positioned to exercise different levels of authority over others for the welfare of the whole body. "And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ" (Eph.4:11,12). Christ is the Chief Shepherd and He has set up some people as shepherds over the others (1Pet.5:1-4).
The two parts of the truth that we see from the above passage from Ephesians should be kept in their proper balance in order for us to see things in the right perspective. The first thing we see is that there are certain people who are given the responsibility of teaching, training, guiding and directing the general crowd of people so that everyone grows up and fulfils their part in the body of Christ. So there is leadership, and these leaders have authority and responsibility over the people in their care.
The second truth we see here is that the final goal is for the people to grow up and fulfil their roles in the body. Leaders are not the ones who have to have prominence in the scheme of things but the people. People need help and they are to submit respectfully to the leaders and the leaders have to remember that it is for the people that their roles exist.
It is very important for the leaders to keep in mind that their function in the body of Christ exists not to make them feel important or as a provision to make a good living for them, but to serve the people. They must not forget the fact that they too are accountable to Christ the Head.
Paul recognised very clearly that the great authority that the Lord gave him as an apostle was for building others up (2Cor.10:8). He understood this task so clearly that in his heart he was even willing to be lost for eternity if that somehow would serve to save the people of Israel (Rom.9:3). The heart of a true shepherd yearns to serve the flock. The Chief Shepherd gave the ultimate example of physically laying down His life for the sheep.
Another point to remember is that, in a real sense, the 'leaders' are also a part of the 'people'. They themselves need spiritual growth, and they too are dependent on others for that. They are not self-sufficient even if they have come from Bible colleges and the congregation cannot win any prize in Bible quizzes! There will be always things that they can learn from 'lowly' people in the church if they are willing to learn.
Leaders have to recognise that they too are 'brothers' and not some superior persons even though they have more prominent roles in the church than the people. Jesus said to the crowds and to His disciples (Matt.23:1), "But do not be called Rabbi; for One is your Teacher, and you are all brothers. Do not call anyone on earth your father; for One is your Father, He who is in heaven. Do not be called leaders; for One is your Leader, that is, Christ. But the greatest among you shall be your servant. Whoever exalts himself shall be humbled; and whoever humbles himself shall be exalted" (vv.8-12).
The responsibility of a leader is to serve the people with the attitude of a servant. Leaders who crave for a prominent place on the platform, dress up in special costumes to show off, desire to be addressed with special titles and 'served' by people and are unwilling to be 'one among the people' have no idea of 'servant-leadership'.
Peter warns the leaders of churches to 'shepherd' the flock of God according to the will of God, and not 'under compulsion', not for 'sordid gain', and not to 'lord it over' those allotted to their charge (1Pet.5:1-3). When Paul describes the qualifications for 'overseers' and 'deacons' (1Tim.3), we should note that the emphasis was not on Bible knowledge, impressive oratorical skills or knowledge of management techniques, but on character.
Of course, Paul recognised that Bible knowledge is required to be in spiritual authority (Tit.1:9), because leaders are not to deal with the people according to their own understanding but according to the will of God which is revealed in His word. Shepherds should also know the word of God clearly in order to be able to recognise and deal with false teachers who might try to destroy the sheep. But Bible knowledge alone will not be effective without character. Skills will be useful but what is more important is a personal walk with God that produces godly character.
On another side what we find are people who have taken over leadership of churches without a proper relationship with the Lord or sufficient knowledge of His ways. Such 'leaders' are prone to bring out all kinds of wrong teaching and then cover up their lack with excessive authority.
Knowledge and skills can impress people, but it is character that earns respect and trust. When leaders are merely doing their duty out of compulsion, if they are working to get wealthy or famous or if they are manipulative or acting like dictators over the people, people lose their respect for them even if they submit to them out of a foolish fear of offending God.
When God calls someone for a 'ministry' in His church, He 'anoints' him with His Holy Spirit and also gives him special supernatural gifts for use in the ministry. 1 Corinthians chapters 12 to 14 talk about many such gifts and guidelines for operating them. The guidelines given in chapter 13 show us how all these gifts are to be used in love for the people for their good (1Cor.12:7;31).
When someone has this anointing over him, the others can see that what comes through his ministry is much larger and powerful than which can be attributed to human abilities. For example, when an anointed evangelist preaches, the hearts of the listeners are 'pricked' by the Holy Spirit and they turn to God (Acts.2:37). When someone preaches from the word of God with a prophetic anointing, his listeners connect it in their hearts to details in their personal lives which the preacher was not even aware of, and they realise that God is speaking to them (1Cor.14:24,25).
Such leaders receive recognition for the anointing that is over them, and recognise that it is not from them but from the Lord (1Cor.3:6). People happily submit to such leaders, but the leaders ought to be aware that the entire glory goes to God and they should not start imagining great things about themselves.
Think, on the other hand, about leaders who are only known for their natural gifts, whether it is for speaking, holding the attention, singing, moving the listeners emotionally, etc. At the end of listening to them, we are left with thinking how great they are! But if their ministry does not touch our life in such a way that we draw closer to God and it changes us a little more to be like Jesus, we might as well have been listening to political speeches!
"Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they keep watch over your souls as those who will give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with grief, for this would be unprofitable for you" (Heb.13:17).
Submitting to authority is the other side of the coin. As we have seen earlier, without submission coming up from those under authority, proper exercise of authority cannot happen and those in authority will not be able to fulfil their responsibilities properly. Yet, spiritual submission is highly misunderstood by many people, affected by mismanagement of authority by the leaders. Submission varies in practice between unquestioning obedience to revolting and backbiting against the leaders.
Submission is not the same as obedience. Hupotasso is the Greek word used for submit. It means "to be under the appointed authority of another person." The biblical command to submit is a command to put oneself under the delegated authority of another person who in some way represents Jesus to a particular group of people.
This attitude of submission comes from recognising that the leader is working with the responsibility and authority given by God for the care of the people. The more care the people experience and observe coming from the leaders the more they will respect them. This leads to their obedience to the instructions of the leaders regarding what needs to be done in their area of responsibility.
If a leader steps outside his area of responsibility and starts interfering in other matters in the lives of the people, he does not have to be obeyed. People should be able to discuss with the leaders if they have different points of view concerning the working of the church, with the understanding that if finally they still cannot agree with the leader, they need to keep the order in the church by doing what the leaders want. In case they are convinced that they cannot do that with a good conscience, they may have to perhaps choose to leave that particular church, without rebellion or spreading confusion by spreading the matter to others about what they think.
On the other side is the matter of dealing with people in the church who go wrong in their personal lives and others who create problems for the leadership. In the former case, there is the need for those with a shepherd's heart to reach out to the persons and counsel them. The shepherd in Jesus' parable left the ninety-nine sheep which were in his flock and went searching for one sheep which was lost. That is the heart of a true shepherd. He does not wait for the sheep to seek him out but goes seeking after them.
Sometimes counselling may be required to help a person who is confused or who has gone wrong. Counselling is not about teaching and correcting them, but first of all understanding their points of view and offering to help them to find the right way. In the latter case also, where a person is a troublemaker, the real goal is to understand him and win him back. Jesus said, "If your brother sins, go and show him his fault in private; if he listens to you, you have won your brother" (Matt.18:15). Jesus went on to say what to do if this person did not listen to the leadership (vv.16,17).
The whole idea is to make every possible attempt to set things right. Leaders who do not have any proper concern for the 'sheep' in their care but who are afraid of losing numbers tend to overlook people's problems and show only an 'accepting' approach. They may manage to keep the strength of the church and perhaps also attract those who are only looking for such a welcoming acceptance and no real transformation in their lives. But shepherds who watch their sheep getting hurt but will not 'interfere' (actually intervene) are shirking their responsibilities. In the language of the Old Testament, they could be getting the blood of the sheep on their hands!
It may be unavoidable sometimes, as Jesus Himself said, that the leaders are unable to win everyone who has problems. Especially those who create problems in the church may not listen to any advice or instruction. In such cases, the leader may be finally forced to even send them out of the church in order to give the person himself a serious warning and sometimes also to avoid this person from affecting the others in the church.
As Jesus said in the same chapter, after the leader tries personally to win this person, he may then try to help that person with the support of other mature people in the church. If that also does not succeed, he is forced to bring the matter to the attention of the whole church. What must be clear to everyone is that the ultimate aim in such cases is not to throw out troublesome people from the church but first of all to try and win their hearts and to set things right.
In such situations, it is very important for the leaders to try and understand what is really going on in this 'trouble-maker's' heart and mind. It may even happen that they get to see that they themselves were mistaken in their thoughts about the so-called trouble-maker and that they (the leaders) had to learn something new from the situation.
A serious issue that has come up in some churches is that some leaders exercise authority to such an extent that it becomes abuse. They extend their authority beyond their scope and try to direct their people even in personal matters. They preach against rebellion quoting the examples of Lucifer, Miriam and Korah, and warnings such as "Do not touch the Lord's anointed," and "Judge not." They demand virtually unquestioning subservience from the people and warn about the calamities that would follow if anyone disobeyed them.
Many self-appointed 'prophets' give specific directions to people saying that they were passing on what the Lord wanted them to say. Due to a lack of personal knowledge of the Bible and the assumption that these 'men of God' were sent by God, many people put aside their common sense and obey them, only to discover later that it was a huge mistake!
There should not be any place for rebellion against authority. But that does not mean that no one can ask questions or discuss differences of opinion. After all, as Jesus said, we are all brothers and sisters.
So, there are two types of warnings from God, one to leaders telling them to serve the people for their good and not to lord it over them (1Pet.5:1-3), and the second to the people to submit to their leaders (Heb.13:7) but not to be gullible and submit without thinking (see 1Cor.14:29;1Thes.5:20,21).
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