Leadership?
Throughout the bible, there are many figures for us to uphold as examples of our faith. Examples such as the faith of Abraham, Rahab, or Daniel, the longsuffering of Job and the prophets, or the boldness of the apostles inspire us to put our nose to the grindstone and labor alongside the Lord as he brings about our sanctification. However, when we look at our examples in this qualitative way we tend to leave out a key element of the story of Christianity which is leadership. Certainly, there are inspirational leaders in the bible- Moses is who comes to mind first for me, though there are many such examples. When we consider these leaders what qualities do we naturally look for? Faith, obedience, courage, and leading by example seem to be the natural touchstones of leadership in the bible. It is easy then to leave out one key aspect of leadership- relationship, and subsumed in that is authority as well. Here in Acts, we’ll be looking at how the relational embodiment of authority is important to our spiritual walk. I and others like myself would prefer rogueish action over submission to people who are ultimately imperfect. But as I will try to demonstrate, authority is central to God’s plan for his people.
In our passage(Acts 20: 17-38)Paul is making a quick stop on his way to Jerusalem where he knows he will most likely meet his undoing. The passage is clear in showing that Paul understands the gravity of the situation and as such gives the directive of his last heart’s desire for the Ephesians as they move forward in life without him. He does not say to those leaders “only know Christ and him crucified” similar to the well know self-characterization in Paul’s letter to the Corinthians. Rather, we see that Paul warns them to “keep watch over yourselves and all the flock” and again warns them against spiritual treason within the Church, and again “be on your guard.” Along with these warnings, we get a confession of sorts that shows what was in Paul’s heart over the years as he had been ministering to the Ephesians. “Remember that for three years I never stopped warning each of you night and day with tears. Now I can commit you to God…” Here we see that one of Paul’s major goals was not just to go all over the (known) world proclaiming the gospel, but that he was very intent on keeping watch and standing in the gap for his brothers and sisters. Not the gap between God and Man, because that is where Christ stands, but the gap between the worldly, physical aspects of life and the godly, spiritual aspects of life. This sort of material, embodied leadership pointing us to Christ is crucial to our thriving as Christians.
The Gospel needs no ordinary man from which to derive its power, but it’s ordinary men who God raises up so that he can build his kingdom with their labor. It is necessary for God’s people to be shepherded so that those who are swayed by the worries of life and/or false theologies can be strengthened and given a reprieve from doubt. In the 2nd chapter of Colossians, we have another loving admonition from Paul that warns against false teaching. Col 2:4 “I say this in order that no one may delude you with plausible arguments.” Not only for the reason of strengthening individuals, but authority is also necessary so that the kingdom can stand as a kingdom and not just a loose collection of people who all believe in a vaguely similar theology. It is imperative then, for all groups of believers in all generations to have someone that builds trust, builds relationships, and stands in the gap. Paul himself underscores this in verse 28 when he says “Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God…” We can see here that authority (at the very least, within the Church) is designed to care for its followers and as an anchor during storms.
Outside of the obvious reinforcement of the necessity of teaching, why is this important to bring into focus now? Don’t we all see that Elders, pastors, ministers, and the like all have naturally and by appointment inherited the job of shepherding God’s people? A question to which my response is “Do we see that?” Having never been abroad I cannot speak for the Church in other parts of the world, but here in the United States, we place great weight on individualism. While it’s important to have a personal walk with Christ, in modern society, there are youtube videos of pastors, blogs to be read, enough bible versions to fill a small library, and gobs of supplementary materials on the shelves at bookstores. It is very easy to deceive ourselves that our faith only needs to be personal and that we are sufficient to guide it. The church has never historically operated this way, but the rise of “a la carte” faith in the age of social media is swift, and in some ways refreshing. Though it may feel refreshing to break away from what seems like a bureaucratic establishment of religion, we cannot and should not separate ourselves from the church body. As is evident in this passage of Acts, even leaders need to be led. I would be wary of thinking any of us can do without that in some way. There are pitfalls to our faith on every side, and false teachers abound. The world is ever diligent in trying to infiltrate our faith and make it something appeasing to their own subjective standards. There exists then an inherent need for our relationship with authority as caretakers for our souls.
This passage prescribes leadership for all within the Church. It may be easy to point out that the context of the letter is specific to the early Church and so would have been known to be dictated through its existing authority structures while the letter was still being written, but the natural push back to that line of thinking is to ask “If our context for church structure doesn’t match the context of the early Church then does the problem lie in a lack of modern context in the early church, or does the problem lie in the fact that our Church does not have the same structure as that of our biblical spiritual fathers?” The topic of modern Church structure is a topic best left for its own explorations. For the sake of brevity, we will say that the early Church fathers are always correct when they differ from us, and so, this structure of caretaking should be a model for us.
All of this is not to overlook the millions of Americans who do submit to a traditional church structure. Certainly, there are still many who walk out their faith inside of the Church. As it stands, this article is written around those who think they do not need the Church and those who (whether church members or not) do not think they need to submit to spiritual authority. It also stands as a reminder to our spiritual leaders to find mature brothers to be accountable to. The poet and priest John Donne said it well: “No man is an island entire of itself.” Likewise, this article is an admonition for those leaders to remember that their constituents are not asked to stand on their own, but like Paul, leaders are to invest in their lives and spiritual growth. The body of Christ is not legalistic, but instead, we are endowed with the spirit of Christ, which is love. Church authority should also put first love above theology, order of worship, rules for being a member, or any other of these types of concerns. Members of the body also should view their leaders with compassion, not asking too much of them, supporting them in their personal walks, and recognize that authoritative decisions do not come from a lack of consideration but hopefully from a place of love. God has ordained the service of leaders from among us.We are all members of one body. (1 Cor 12:14-18) Let us join them in the sanctification of the bride of Christ.
Image Credit: Mathias Jensen
