Contrarian Reflections on Leadership in the Church

NOTE: The following is an article published in the latest Insight (our church's monthly newsletter). If you're here b/c you've read it and want to comment, please do so!!

For some time now I’ve been confused by the emphasis on “Christian leadership” in the North American church. The idea seems to be that what we have to do is produce good and strong leaders, and enough of them, and we as the church will be effective, faithful, relevant, biblical, etc. This emphasis confuses me (1) because so many Christian leaders find themselves naturally drawn to this material, but I’m just not – I’m not sure why – and (2) because when I read the New Testament I get the sense that leadership is not something the authors thought about a lot. They certainly didn’t write about it; the NIV uses the word “leadership” only once, in Romans. That is not to say that lessons on leadership cannot be distilled from what they wrote, but rather that leadership is not usually the primary subject of their writing, save for an isolated passage here or there.

I’ve had occasion to look into the source of my confusion a little deeper of late because our conference has identified leadership as the primary area of focus for the next several years. Several proposals for how to foster leadership within our conference have been put forward and discussed, and a specific strategy will be adopted at the 2009 convention. I’m excited about this; I have personally benefited from other initiatives our Conference has made to support and encourage young and growing leaders like myself!

But what are we to make of the discrepancy between the church’s current fascination with all things leadership and the New Testament’s relative silence on that subject? And what does the NT say about leaders and leadership? To look into this I searched for occurrences of the words Leader(s), Leadership and Ruler(s) in several English translations of the NT: the New American Standard Bible, the New International Version, and the New Revised Standard Version. I found that these English words are used to translate 5 different Greek words. Here is a summary of what I found regarding the meaning of these words in their various contexts:

1. Katheigeitai: teacher, leader, master
There only occurrence of this noun in the NT is in Mt. 23:10, when Jesus says “And do not be called leaders; for One is your Leader, that is, Christ.” The NASB is the only one to translate this word as “leader.” The NIV translates it as “teacher” and the NRSV as “instructor.”

2. Archon: ruler; official, authority; judge
This noun occurs 36 times in the NT. Only the NRSV chooses to translate it as “leader.” Other translations use “ruler” or “prince.” This word is consistently used to denote a person who holds an officially recognized position/office, either political or religious. It is used most often of the ruler of a synagogue but is also used in the titles “ruler of the demons,” “ruler of this world,” and as a synonym of “governing authorities” in Rom. 13:3.
Almost without exception those who are rulers in the NT are opposed to the purposes of God in Christ. Paul writes of God’s hidden wisdom which “none of the rulers of this age have understood; for if they had understood it, they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory.” (1 Cor 2:8) This word is never used to denote a Christian leader except for Jesus himself in Rev 1:5, where he is given the title “the ruler of the kings of the earth.”

3. Eigoumenous: consider, regard, think; lead, rule
This verb is used 8 times to denote someone who leads. Sometimes it refers to a formal position/office, as in Matt 2:6 (“From you [Bethlehem] shall come a ruler who is to shepherd my people Israel.), but mostly it is used of someone who is a leader within a group of people but without reference to any official position (Acts 15:22, “They sent Judas called Barsabbas, and Silas, leaders among the brothers…”). It is used three times in Hebrews where they are exhorted to remember their leaders who had spoken the word of God to them (13:7), to obey their leaders and submit to them (13:17), and to greet all their leaders (13:24).

4. Episkopos: overseer, guardian, bishop
This word occurs 5 times, is usually translated “overseer,” and always refers to a specific role of leadership within the church. It is the function of overseers to “shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood (Acts 20:28),” they must be people of mature and godly character (1 Tim 3:2, Titus 1:7), and Jesus Himself is the shepherd and overseer of our souls (1 Pet. 2:25).

5. Proistamenos: be a leader, have authority over, manage; care for
This word occurs only 4 times in a form that refers to leadership and refers to someone who has been given responsibility over others in the church or in a household, sometimes having the sense of “manager.” It is this term that is translated “leadership” by the NIV in Rom 12:8 (if it is leadership, let him govern diligently). It is used of those who are “over you in the Lord and admonish you” (1 Thess. 5:12), of elders who direct the affairs of the church (1 Tim 5:17), and of a deacon’s responsibility to manage his children and household well (1 Tim 3:12).

What can we say in conclusion? Here are a few observations I’ve drawn from the above short study and from general observations of church life:
1. The health of any group of people is largely dependent on that group’s leaders.
2. This is self-evident; we know it, the Romans knew it, the early church knew it. Leadership, including church leadership, is important.
3. The NT writers hardly ever talk about it. That is not to say that lessons on leadership cannot be distilled from what they wrote, but rather that leadership is rarely the subject of their writing, save for a section here or there.
4. Nevertheless, there is awareness of the need for good leadership in the New Testament.
5. It is interesting that the words used of Christian leaders/leadership are different than the words used of leaders or rulers outside of the church. The titles that those of the world claim for themselves regarding leadership belong to Christ and Christ alone. One is our Leader, that is, Christ, and it is He who is the Ruler of the kings of the earth. (Matt 23:10, Rev 1:5) Christian and worldly leadership are fundamentally different.
6. In those times when instruction is given about leaders and leadership in the church, the emphasis is always on the leader’s character rather than on specialized leadership principles or practices.
7. As mentioned in #3, the first pastors and missionaries almost never talk about leadership when writing to their fledgling and often struggling churches. Instead of being concerned with producing good leaders, the first pastors and missionaries seem almost completely focused on producing good followers of Jesus. It seems they did not assume that producing more and better leaders was what their churches most needed.

In conclusion, it seems to me that the NT emphasis is not on leadership but on followership. The goal is not to produce good leaders, but to produce people who know what it means to follow Jesus. I am not saying that leadership in the Church is not important, nor that leadership is not an important part of what I do as a pastor. I am saying that to focus on leadership to the extent that the North American church often does is like having the accent on the wrong sylLABle. To use myself as an example: I’m useless as a pastor – useless as a Christian – unless I model what it means and looks like to follow Jesus and to be the servant of my brothers and sisters, as Jesus has been a servant to me. If that is leadership, then fine; but leadership has to be a subcategory of followership, not the other way around. Leadership is therefore important in the church insofar as it contributes to the growth of the church in followership.

Following the Leader with you,
Pastor David