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Effective Christian Leadership for Today: Key Aspects, Stages & More

It’s hard to think of a more important topic for the church today than leadership. Doctrine matters. Cultural exegesis matters. Scriptural fidelity matters. But without Scripture-soaked, servant-minded leaders at every level of the church, God’s people struggle. Ed Stetzer writes,

Yet the need for godly leadership isn’t an invention of the modern world. A lack of leadership—whether because of ineptitude or absence—is often coupled with Israel’s straying from her God-given mission. The clearest example of this is in Judges when the Bible says, “In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did whatever seemed right to him” (21:25 CSB). Without godly leadership, God’s people tend to ignore God’s ways.

On this page, we’ll work through several different aspects of Christian leadership. Feel free to navigate ahead to the topics that interest you most:

What Christian leadership is—and what it isn’t

4 aspects of christian leadership.

• The stages of Christian leadership

Keys to developing leaders

• A call to leadership

Bible study & sermon/lesson prep resources

What is Christian leadership?

A. D. Clarke writes in his article on leadership in the  New Dictionary of Biblical Theology  that all leadership is “framed within the overarching context of divine sovereignty.” Christian leadership—whether within the church, business, government, or the home—gets its foundation from the authority God himself has. Whether Christian or secular, all leaders are stewards of the authority given to them by God. Peter Drucker aptly says about leadership, “The only definition of a leader is someone who has followers.” But Christian leadership has a higher purpose in mind. Christian leaders aren’t simply moving people toward morally and spiritually ambiguous goals. Christian leaders seek to serve others and marshal them toward a goal ordained by God. Pastors, authors, and academics have been defining Christian leadership for decades. Understanding its importance in the life of the church and toward the completion of the mission of God in the world, church leaders have tried to describe it in helpful ways. Robert Clinton , longtime professor of leadership at Fuller Theological Seminary, offers a noteworthy definition of leadership: “Leadership is a dynamic process in which a man or woman with God-given capacity influences a specific group of God’s people toward his purposes for the group.” Ed Stetzer offers one of the best recent definitions of Christian leadership : “Christian leadership is a process of influencing a community to use their God-given gifts toward a goal and purpose as led by the Holy Spirit.”

At the heart of any differentiation of Christian leadership and secular leadership is the idea of purpose. Christian leaders move people toward a Christ-honoring goal. That’s why Ken Blanchard, the best-selling author of  Lead Like Jesus , explains that Christian leadership aims at the heart of the leader first: “Every tactical problem, whether at home or in the workplace, can be traced to heart issues within the leader: weak character, fear, pride, not being able to distinguish right from wrong, or misplaced priorities.” He adds, “The heart of a leader must be transformed before any other lasting personal and organizational change can take place.” 2 The heart of Christian leadership is the heart of the Christian leader.

What Christian leadership isn’t

The concept of Christian leadership alludes to something deeper than simply a leader who happens to be a Christian. It encompasses the timeless Christian ideals of service, stewardship, shepherding, and humility. The 12 apostles—people who were called to lead God’s people after Jesus’ resurrection—exemplified both healthy and unhealthy leadership. Mark 9:33–37 recounts a time when these same apostles were arguing over who was the greatest. Jesus reminded these growing leaders that “if anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all” (v. 35). Jesus modeled this for his disciples throughout his earthly ministry by feeding people, washing feet, and teaching all who would listen to see their lives in the light of God’s kingdom. Leadership, then, isn’t about hierarchy, power, or status. It’s ultimately about serving God and his people by using God-given gifts of leadership to bring the kind of focus and mission-mindedness needed to work together toward a Christ-honoring goal.

Because Christian leadership is intrinsically connected to the heart of the leader, the leader’s heart is the single most important part of Christian leadership. Christian leaders mobilize others not out of what they know but who they are in Christ.There’s good news and bad news when it comes to developing a leader’s character. We can grow character. In fact, the Bible describes character development as a key ingredient to Christian discipleship.But the bad news is that affliction is a core ingredient to God’s training room for character. You can’t learn character from a textbook. You have to learn it from hardship. Paul writes, “And not only that, but we also boast in our afflictions, because we know that affliction produces endurance, endurance produces proven character, and proven character produces hope” (Romans 5:3–4 CSB). In fact, writing in the  International Standard Bible Encyclopedia , G. E. Montgomery describes character as the “successful endurance of testing.”What does Christian character look like? Paul gives us possibly the best description in Galatians 5:22–23 with these characteristics, typically referred to as the fruit of the Spirit: “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.” When these characteristics permeate a Christian leader’s life, as they are tested, the leader has the moral force necessary to mobilize others to engage in God’s mission.

A leader’s convictions are the truths they believe about God, themselves, and the surrounding world that lay a foundation for leadership. In his book  The Conviction to Lead , Albert Mohler writes: “The leadership that really matters is all about conviction. The leader is rightly concerned with everything from strategy and vision to team-building, motivation, and delegation, but at the center of the true leader’s heart and mind, you will find convictions that drive and determine everything else.”Those convictions begin with the  classic Christian creeds of the church  and their descriptions about God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, the Bible, sin, salvation, etc. What a leader believes about these biblical truths becomes foundational for how they act—and how they mobilize others to act. These convictions are vital because a leader will pass them on to others through discipleship. A leader who hasn’t properly done the work on their own convictions can’t faithfully teach them to others.A leader must have convictions about the major doctrines of the Bible, but they must also develop deep, actionable beliefs about ministry philosophies, ministry direction, and social action. A church’s actions ought to be directed by a leader who is humble and confident about the direction God is moving them toward. This isn’t only a theological necessity but a pragmatic requirement. Without deeply held convictions, leaders will always struggle to build teams and alignment. People respond to authentic leaders who lead out of deeply held beliefs.None of this means that a leader’s convictions won’t change. In fact, healthy leaders routinely revisit convictions to ensure they correspond to the teachings of the Bible and the leadership of the Holy Spirit. The ability to continue learning and growing is a hallmark of healthy, God-honoring leadership throughout Scripture and Church history.

Of all the characteristics of godly leadership, calling is often the most difficult to clearly articulate. The concept has its root in both the Old and New Testaments. In  Eerdmans Bible Dictionary , A. C. Myers describes calling as: “A term designating God’s summons to a specific task or role and his special relationship to his people.” Although every believer has a general call to salvation, God calls each Christian to specific tasks in his kingdom work.God’s call is a holy summons to participate in his mission in the world. Just as every part of the human body is necessary, the Church needs every Christian to know and live out their calling (1 Cor 12:12–31). For some, that might be a call to pastoral ministry, but for others, it might be to serve as a Christian witness in the marketplace or in the classroom as a teacher. All are equally important to the mission of God.Understanding God’s call—and when God is calling them in a new direction—is an important part of any leader’s journey. Wrestling with the mystery of that call helps to prepare a leader for a lifetime of service. It’s the first step of faith in a lifetime of equally difficult and often equally unclear steps.

Leaders also have certain skills to develop. Every leadership role—whether it’s in formal ministry or the marketplace—has various competencies attached to it. For example, pastors in most ministry contexts preach, counsel, shepherd, teach, lead teams, etc. Pastors will become more effective in discipling and leading others as they grow in each of these competencies.All Christian leaders have a different set of competencies that are important in their context. While counseling may be a significant part of some pastoral roles, it may be less important in other contexts. Leaders in a church’s children’s ministry may need to become effective in classroom management or volunteer development. A church’s senior adult ministry leader may need to be strong in grief counseling.There is no set list of competencies for ministry. Most theological schools and training organizations have lists of competencies they hope to develop in leaders they serve. For example, Beeson Divinity School divides ministry competencies into five broad categories:

• Pastoral care
• Personal and spiritual issues
• Proclamation
• Relational skills

Acts 29 has 11 such categories for its church planters:

• Spiritual vitality
• Theological clarity
• Convictions and commendations
• Relationships
• Missional lifestyle
• Disciple-making
• Ability to teach
• Entrepreneurial aptitude

While it’s important that leaders develop a variety of skills, the Bible ultimately declares that the Holy Spirit provides competency for Christian ministry. Competency can become a crutch that can separate a leader from the necessity of God’s power.Paul writes, “Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, like some, letters of recommendation to you or from you? You yourselves are our letter of recommendation, written on our hearts, to be known and read by all. And you show that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts” (2 Cor 3:1–3).

Stages of Christian leadership

Below we’ll work our way through the four stages of Christian leadership: discernment, growth, maturity, and multiplication. Don’t think of the stages of leadership development as linear. While these stages tend to intersect with certain life stages, leaders experience aspects of these stages throughout their lives.

Discernment

The discernment period is most prominent in the early years of ministry and during transitional periods. It’s the time when leaders wrestle with God about their calling. Sometimes they try different roles as they sense a specific ministry fit. It’s usually a time of great excitement and energy—of both highs and lows. But leaders never reach a stage where they don’t need to discern God’s will in ministry. They will wrestle with God’s direction their entire lives. Even if they’ve settled into a specific lay or professional ministry role, leaders will continue to search out new ministry contexts and new visions of future work. The process of ministry discernment is an ongoing part of life. It’s important during the discernment period for leaders to find godly counsel that will help them seek God’s will and learn from others who have served in a similar role.

Again, church leaders should never have a period in their ministry where they are not developing their character and skills. In the development period, leaders take stock of the training and experiences they need to fully embrace God’s call on their lives. In a sense,  leadership development  is simply another step in the discipleship process. For some leadership roles, this development occurs most effectively informally—through mentoring and lay training experiences. This informal process is often done within a church community, particularly when a leader is preparing for a lay ministry role. A seminary or a Bible college can also be a part of the development pathway for Christian leaders. Most seminaries are designed to prepare leaders for professional ministry roles (such as pastors, missionaries, and church administrators) who need a more specialized training regiment. Some seminaries also offer training in Christian leadership or marketplace theology that’s designed to equip men and women who don’t work full-time in ministry. With the advent of the internet age, leaders have access to Christian higher education without leaving their current ministry contexts. Highly informative, actionable theological education, such as  Logos Mobile Education , is available anywhere on the planet and on nearly any topic. This specific development stage, characterized by learning and growth, extends long after any period of formal or informal training. Leaders must often serve selflessly for years before reaching the next stage of development (maturity). These years are typically full of frequent rotating periods of failure, learning, and growth as leaders learn from their mistakes and build upon struggles to set the foundation for future ministry fruitfulness.

As leaders mature, their ministry grows in effectiveness. This tends to happen as ministry discernment, development, experience, and humility come together in specific contexts that fit leaders’ unique backgrounds. While leaders in this stage continue to discern God’s call on their lives and develop their doctrinal convictions and ministry competencies, the maturity stage is marked by leaders’ focus on the work of ministry. While fruitfulness will look different in every context, it’s this period when you usually see it most clearly in the life of a leader. One common characteristic of this period is that leaders increasingly have the opportunity to focus on areas of giftedness. Leaders who are particularly gifted in shepherding spend more of their time in this area. Leaders who are strong teachers spend more time teaching. While the fruitfulness of this period relates to skill growth, it’s the leader’s increasing clarity of their calling that has the biggest impact upon ministry growth.

Multiplication

Discipling other leaders is always a critical part of a leader’s job—particularly a Christian leader’s job. Even young and inexperienced leaders can step out of their comfort zone to disciple less experienced leaders. Yet a leader who has experienced ministry maturation by discovering their unique fit and context has a special opportunity to pour into the lives of other leaders. As this happens, leaders multiply. Mature leaders don’t  multiply themselves  accidentally. It happens because they intentionally make mentoring a priority.

Leaders need mentors, and they need to be mentors. Both aspects of mentoring play a key part in leadership development. Leaders need to be led by people who are a bit further in their journey who can help them prioritize spiritual disciplines, serve their families, shepherd their churches, and engage their communities with the good news about Jesus. They also need to regularly practice the habit of discipling and training others. While academic training for some kinds of ministry can be critical, it can’t replace life-on-life relationships.

Mentoring is a type of leadership development with no cap on its potential. A leader doesn’t need access to higher education or to be literate to connect with a mentor and, in turn, mentor someone else.

Ministry fit

To develop Christian leaders, churches need a system for helping people discover the right ministry fit. Churches and Christian leaders do this in several ways.

Trial-and-error:  Aspiring leaders can serve in capacities that seem to line up with their gifts, but they can do so without a long-term commitment. If the ministry doesn’t fit, they can simply move on to one that does. This process can be effective for most roles. Even aspiring pastors can serve in short-term roles to get a firsthand idea whether that ministry role is a strong fit.

Assessments:  Many churches use gift assessments—either self-assessments or ones administered by the church—to help in this process. Typically, these assessments include a series of multiple-choice questions around personality and interests. The tabulated scores provide aspiring leaders with a list of the top spiritual gifts the person demonstrates a proclivity toward.

Interviews:  Some churches enlist interviewers to talk through a person’s experiences, skills, and gifting and serve as a guide in discovering a ministry fit. These interviewers can be staff members or even the pastor in smaller ministry contexts. They can also be lay people. They simply need to understand how to ask a series of open-ended questions and have a broad understanding of how to connect people to ministry opportunities within the church.

Lifelong learning

Leaders never reach a point where they don’t need to learn. Because leaders often serve in the church for decades, it’s critical they have an opportunity to sharpen their skills and apply those skills in ever-changing ministry contexts. For example, a volunteer who began leading youth in a local church in the early 1990s is now serving in a context that is vastly different three decades later.

Whether a person serves as a lead pastor, a children’s ministry worker, or some other role in the church, constant access to learning will help to ensure a leader not only faithfully fulfills their calling today but can also effectively disciple others.

Churches can enlist everything from regular, on-the job-training to  on-demand classes  and even in-person observation in other churches to help with this.

Biblical community

Ministry is never a solo effort. It’s always most effectively done in a community of leaders who are seeking after God’s best together. Leaders need community to provide support through the inevitable ups and downs of leadership. They need prayer support, mentoring, and the opportunities to serve that come within biblical community.

The time for leadership is (always) now

From the time of Jesus’ first followers to the days following Pentecost to the Reformation and beyond, God has worked through people to fulfill his mission in the world. Leaders have been at the heart of that movement. As committed Christian leaders have mobilized the Church toward the Great Commission, God has worked through his people. But today, as the Church faces a growing number of challenges, leaders are more important than ever. The Church’s ability to develop and deploy leaders who create new leaders will be one of its great tests in the twenty-first century. The world has leaders. Every segment of society has people that will fill a leadership vacuum if necessary. But there’s leadership—and there’s Christian leadership. The Church’s current moment desperately needs leaders committed to doing God’s work in God’s way with God’s people. “A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way.” —John Maxwell

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• https://outreachmagazine.com/features/16970-my-lovehate-relationship-with-leadership.html
• https://leadlikejesus.com/blog/
• https://www.christianitytoday.com/pastors/2014/october-online-only/why-your-church-needs-group-mentoring.html

Tobin Perry

Tobin Perry has spent over 20 years as a writer and editor for faith-based audiences. He has written for Christianity Today, Baptist Press, Saddleback Church, the North American Mission Board, and more. He has also served as a lead pastor of a small church in Southern Indiana and a church planting intern in Seattle, Washington. Tobin has a Bachelor of Journalism degree from the University of Missouri and a Master of Divinity degree from Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary (now Gateway Seminary). He lives in Evansville, Indiana with his wife and three children.

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What Is Church Leadership? Key Principles & Policies

Jesus said that we are the light of the world in Matthew 5:14, and our light shines most effectively through leadership within the church. Whether you are looking for the best church software or answers about how to disciple small group facilitators, church leadership is central to your decisions.   Church leadership is the responsibility of […]

Jesus said that we are the light of the world in Matthew 5:14, and our light shines most effectively through leadership within the church. Whether you are looking for the best church software or answers about how to disciple small group facilitators, church leadership is central to your decisions.  

Church leadership is the responsibility of every Christian, and a church’s organizational structure, policies, and practices help Christians to understand their leadership roles to successfully fulfill the Great Commission. Whether you are a senior pastor, an elder, or a local church member—all believers receive God’s call to be a part of Christian leadership.

In this article, I’ll cover:

What Is Church Leadership?

• Different Types Of Church Government

Church Leadership Styles

• Key Principles Of Church Leadership

Forging Church Leaders

The Great Commission in Matthew 28:16–20 commands Christians to disciple the world, and that discipleship requires leadership from us, the church. So, what is church leadership? 

Church leadership is two things: the people who lead the church, and the actions that the church takes in the community. Typically, when talking about the people, we call them the church leadership team. The actions can be any kind of event that the church takes out in the community, from highway clean-up to holiday plays to food pantries.

Primarily, in this article, we will be talking about the leadership team. I will be careful to make it known when each is being talked about.

No matter how the church leadership team is structured, the church is most visible to the world through leadership actions on the local level. People within the congregation often look to the pastor or priest as the lead, and they observe other ministry leaders as models of what good Christian leadership is.

However, church leadership does not stop with the local church government, elder board, or pastor. A healthy church has leadership at all levels. As 1 Peter 2:9 says, every Christian is part of the priesthood, so Christian leadership needs to be undertaken by all believers.

At its core, church leadership means overseeing and shepherding the church, but the shape of leadership changes according to roles within the church.

Related Read: Complete Guide To Church Event Management & Planning

Roles And Responsibilities Of Church Leadership

Here are some of the key roles in the church, along with their core responsibilities. 

• Pastor: leads the congregation, and represents the church to the public.
• Deacons: act as ushers and prayer leaders, as well as take offers
• Lay Leader: in charge of coordinating between the congregation and spiritual leaders.
• Worship Leader : directs the choir and band, picks the songs, and coordinates with the pastor for consistent messaging.
• Administration: can act as everything from the receptionist to the maintenance crew and IT department.
• Church Board: the group that provides accountability for the church to the government and possibly higher authorities in the denomination.

Attributes Of Church Leadership

No matter what position a person fills within your church leadership team, some attributes should be shared amongst everyone. Communication is key , and people who think alike can help avoid miscommunication. Plus, you want people who are as committed to the cause and call of your ministry as you, the head pastor, are.

Here are some key attributes to look for in potential and current church leaders:

• Motivated: Your team needs to want your mission to be successful.
• Cooperative: Your church should have leaders willing to work with anyone who volunteers their time and energy.
• Independent: When you put someone in charge of a project , they should be able to complete it without having their hand held, after having had the proper training.
• Devoted: This attribute is purely spiritual. Your team must possess a devotion to Christ.
• Teachable: Every Christian is a disciple, and leaders should study and increase their theological knowledge as well .

Related Read: Church Volunteer Management Guide: Strategy, Tips, & Software

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Leadership In A Healthy Church

While church leadership is clearly part of maintaining a healthy church, being leadership savvy is secondary to strong pastoring. If leadership establishes effective policies, procedures, and other leaders within the church, this allows pastors to focus on pastoring and being there for the congregation. This makes leading the church much more manageable.

Different Types Of Church Government 

Church government is often responsible for shaping church leadership within a denomination or local church body. One branch of ecclesiology (the study of churches) deals with the government, or polity, of church leadership. Church polity consists of three main types: episcopal, presbyterian, and congregational.

Episcopal Polity

In an episcopal structure, bishops hold authority in the church, providing guidance, support, orthodox theology, and even discipline when necessary. The bishop oversees (Greek episkopoi means “overseer”) a local diocese—a region of churches. In this way, local churches hold accountability to the diocese, and the diocese is accountable to the bishop who represents the diocese worldwide.

Presbyterian Polity

The Greek word for “elder,” presbuteros, is the source of the English word “priest,” but the priest or pastor is not the only authority in the church. Rather, in a presbyterian church government, the pastor is sometimes called a teaching elder. The local church, then, elects elders from the congregation to lead the local church in session, the local governing council, which is moderated by the teaching elder.

Session appoints and oversees deacons, who have local tasks in the church, such as serving communion and shepherding people within the congregation. Deacons are model servant leaders within the church.

Like the diocese in an episcopal structure, presbyterian government organizes elders within a region called a presbytery. Then, multiple presbyteries compose a synod as a larger governing council.

The fourth layer of presbyterian polity is the general assembly, a government gathering of elders from many synods that makes determinations for the church overall.

Congregational Polity

While episcopal polity places authority in an individual overseer, presbyterian government focuses on the “priesthood of all believers” by having teaching and lay elders act in a representative government. Congregational governance is still farther from a central authority within the church. In congregationalism, each church independently determines doctrine, theology, practice, and all matters of function.

Variations In Church Polity

Although these three structures are the main types of church organizational leadership, many churches practice variations. A congregational church, for instance, may elect elders, like a presbyterian model, to a board that provides governance to the local church; unlike presbyterian polity, however, the board of elders may be the final human authority over the local church.

Church leadership at the local level can take many forms. 

• Autocratic leadership is where the pastor makes every decision and sets the vision for the church. 
• Laissez-faire leadership provides minimal direction and disconnects from other leaders in the church to allow the local church to move in its own way. 
• Democratic leaders , however, fall somewhere between autocratic and laissez-faire, where they guide and counsel the church in a democratic manner. 

No matter the leadership approach, the main objective of a pastor and other church leadership should be to facilitate spiritual growth in their community.

Key Principles Of Church Leadership 

Brian Dodd outlines many key principles of effective church administration, including the following:

• Be organized with policies and procedures. Keeping everything in order will prevent chaos from overtaking your church.
• Be sensible. Always be willing to shift your policies if they are making life difficult for your leaders or members.
• Be consistent. A consistent message will draw people in and give them a guide to follow when miscommunications happen.
• Guide others. As the head pastor, your responsibility is to be the teacher of both the leadership team and the general members. Don’t forget to give special workshops for your top leaders.
• Appoint church leaders who provide solutions. If you follow the Attributes Of Church Leadership section above, you should have this covered.
• Lead with others. No one person can do it all. The church is called the Body of Christ. The brain can’t work without the heart. The heart can’t pump without the lungs. Raise up people who can help.
• Delegate to others. Similar to the previous point, give your responsibilities to those who can handle them. Sometimes, the only way to find out if someone is ready to move to the next level is by giving them a chance at something they’ve never done before.
• Have advisors. Everyone has blindspots and biases. Let your leadership team offer advice and counsel when you don’t know what to do.
• Study. The Bible is our greatest resource as pastors, but websites such as this one also help as we teach each other and share our experience. Never stop learning.
• Focus on people, not process. Good people are more important than the specific processes that they follow. A good leader can fix problems as they arise, while a bad leader will fail when problems come. Build your leaders up, and the policies and procedures will become easier to fix when you find flaws.

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As J. D. Greear claims, the church is a place where leaders are made. Current leadership within the church needs to challenge its people to be leaders, empower and equip them to be leaders, and have the courage to send those leaders beyond the local church. An effective church leader inspires church growth in depth and breadth. He strengthens the children’s ministry by challenging and encouraging its leadership team. She teaches leadership principles to her church staff.

If your church models and facilitates effective leadership to grow leaders, then get ahead of the curve and look at our guidance on church planting .

If your church teams need inspiration or reference, find our picks for this year's best worship conferences , most stimulating media conferences , and most grounded, innovative leadership conferences.

Most importantly, take a clue from the Apostle Paul’s letters. He almost always opens and closes his letters to the churches with callouts to the people who have been helpful to him in his ministry. Positive reinforcement is as old as the New Testament. Use it early and often to help create strong leaders.

Final Thoughts

I hope this article has opened your eyes to the many types and ways that churches can be led. Leaders come in all shapes and sizes, so always be ready for the next church member to step up. In the meantime, stay faithful in prayer and let the Lord Jesus help you create the environment where your leaders can thrive.

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Leadership and Authority in the Church

Dennis McCallum and Gary DeLashmutt

This statement of policy emerged from the leaders of Dwell's College Ministry on September 20, 1997. It was updated in February 2021.

During recent discussions with members and each other, we have discovered confusion and possible misinterpretation of our position on leadership and authority boundaries. To avoid further confusion and to bring glory to God, we have consulted the elders and come together to compose our thoughts on this key subject. The elders have affirmed this paper as accurately reflecting our policy. It can be freely disseminated as members see fit.

What is Leadership Authority?

Although the heart of leadership according to scripture is servanthood (Mark 10:42-45), the Bible also teaches that legitimate leaders have authority, in the sense of a right to direct others. This authority comes from God and is delegated to leaders for the good of the church. The following verses reflect the clear teaching that leaders should be respected and obeyed when operating within their legitimate sphere of authority:

You know that the household of Stephanas were the first converts in Achaia, and they have devoted themselves to the service of the saints. I urge you, brothers, to submit to such as these and to everyone who joins in the work, and labors at it. (1 Corinthians 16:15)

Now we ask you, brothers, to respect those who work hard among you, who are over you in the Lord and who admonish you. Hold them in the highest regard in love because of their work. Live in peace with each other.  (1 Thessalonians 5:12-13)

[Speaking to a leader] These, then, are the things you should teach. Encourage and rebuke with all authority. Do not let anyone despise you.  (Titus 2:15)

Remember your leaders, who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith.  (Hebrews 13:7)

Obey your leaders and submit to their authority. They keep watch over you as those who must give an account. Obey them so that their work will be a joy, not a burden, for that would be of no advantage to you.  (Hebrews 13:17)

Of course the Bible's teaching on obedience does not mean the church can outlaw dissent when expressed legitimately. When members conscientiously disagree with a direction advanced by leaders, they have the right to express disagreement and dissent. This should be expressed in a way that safeguards the unity of the church, is respectful, not bitter, and in love. Dwell elders have declared that we will respect a right to dissent in our church as long as it is expressed maturely. The paper, titled  "A Vision for Christian Servanthood" details steps members can take to assure their objections are effective and constructive.

Any effort taken by leaders to harm the reputation or exclude legitimate dissenters from the life of the church would clearly be wrong. Leaders must be mature enough to accept the fact that others may disagree on judgment calls, even within their own church, without reacting in hurt or becoming insecure.

Dissent is different than rebellion. Rebellion involves attempting to set people in the church against leaders. This includes division and schism, which are sinful and subject to admonition and even formal discipline. The elders have written out our  rules for church discipline .

Qualifications Regarding Church Authority

In addition to these points, we would remind people of key qualifications from an earlier elders' paper on authority in the church :

1. Leadership accountability

"There is no such thing as autonomous delegated authority. All delegated authorities are under God's authority. This is why, when scripture addresses those under delegated authority, it also addresses those in delegated authority in the same passage and reminds them of their responsibilities before God."

We take this qualification to mean that, just as members are accountable to leaders when it comes to home church ministry, leaders are accountable to the elders or "overseers" of the church (1 Timothy 3; Titus 1) and to each other. This accountability includes demonstrating to their colleagues that they conduct their ministry in accordance with standards established by the eldership and the Dwell Servant Team. When Dwell leaders are out of line, members can contact the office to complain to a grievance board, to the relevant sphere leader, or to the elders. They will launch an investigation of errors or misbehavior and give members full opportunity to be heard.  

2. Leadership limitations

"The scope of the authority is limited to the area of the authority given to them by God. God does not require us to obey leaders outside the legitimate sphere of their authority. This is why wives are urged to "be submissive to your own husbands" - not to all men (1 Peter 3:1; Ephesians 5:22). For the same reason, it is inappropriate for parents to tell their adult children whom they must marry, or for civil authorities to tell their citizens what religious beliefs they must hold, or for church authorities to tell Christians what jobs they may take."

In connection with point No. #2, we remember that Dwell has been troubled at times in its past by leaders and members assuming that church leaders have authority in areas where they do not. As a result of such misunderstanding, members or leaders have at times tended to make leaders into surrogate parents who regulate areas of life completely unrelated to church ministry. In the Bible, the church is sometimes called the family of God, but we should remember that the parent is God the father. Leaders are brothers and sisters like the rest.

We notice two exceptions: First, Paul compares himself to a mother nursing and a father to the Thessalonians (1 Thessalonians 2:7-11). However, the similarity with mothers was the affection they have for their children, and the similarity to fathers was in the way they were "exhorting and encouraging and imploring" the Thessalonians. These actions suggest pleas, not commands. Second, he calls himself the Corinthians' father (1 Corinthians 4:15) and implies that this gives him a measure of authority, but this applies only to those who were actually converted through his ministry.

As an example, we know of cases where members have asked leaders to "hold them accountable" for their spending. Home church leaders agreed, and began going over the member's checkbook each month assessing whether he was living up to a budget. Later, when the member came to resent the leader's oversight of this area, they left the church and reported to a cult watch group that Dwell leaders went over his checkbook each month, including assigning how much to give to the church!

Of course, the member failed to mention that he had requested this assistance, resulting in an embarrassing and misleading picture of our leaders. However, we also believe the incident never should have happened. When the watch group later leveled the charge that Dwell leaders oversee budgets, including giving commitments, the elders looked into it and found that they were unable to deny the charge, much to our embarrassment. In this case, leaders had allowed themselves to be drawn into inappropriate authority.

Similar problems have arisen in the past, often from well-intentioned efforts to help members in areas such as dating and marriage, sex counseling, career counseling, relationship counseling, and social practices, such as whether to go to certain bars, attend certain concerts, or watch certain movies. Leaders should have declined to accept such parent-like roles, even if asked, and instead insisted that members learn to think through these issues for themselves.

The elders have addressed the problem repeatedly at workers' meetings and Servant Team meetings in the past. Recently, elders sent numerous resources on leadership and authority to leaders to read with their home churches, so all members were properly equipped. The elders' message has been that leaders need to exercise care to avoid implying that their authority extends further than it really does, and to avoid letting members press them into using authority in illegitimate areas.

Members may be accountable to each other in a more general sense. For instance, I may ask my friend, "How is it coming with your eating problem." But I would refuse to monitor his daily menu. Another example would be cases where a brother has asked a friend to install software on his computer that blocks internet pornography, and to keep the password secret. This seems legitimate, because the helper is not actually monitoring or supervising the other's browsing. The key is to consider what sort of accounting would be parent-like, or more appropriate for children than adults.

We are zealous to avoid illegitimate expansion of leadership authority, not only because of our reputation as a church, but also because of the negative effect such expansion has on our members. Members who wrongly depend on leaders to "hold them accountable" or make decisions for them never learn the self-discipline and mature decision making that should characterize good disciples of Jesus Christ. Leaders should be eager to foster independence and internal moral control in their members, avoiding dependency.

Legitimate and Illegitimate Uses of Authority

To understand the appropriate scope of authority for any given office we can examine the question of responsibility. If an authority figure is responsible for some area, then it is reasonable to assume that he or she should have the authority to carry out that responsibility. If, however, someone else is primarily responsible for the outcome of a given decision, church leaders would be out of line for suggesting that they should make the decision.

For instance, who is responsible for the way you raise your children? Clearly, parents alone bear this responsibility. Therefore, while church leaders can teach parenting principles, and offer advice to parents, they would never accept decision-making authority, even if parents asked them to.

This principle would also apply in many other areas, such as dating, finance, diet, media, etc. We believe church leaders are assigned authority almost exclusively in the relatively narrow sphere of running the ministry of the church. While leaders have a pastoral role in members' lives, this is accomplished by persuasion, not by command authority. A number of examples can help us understand this principle.

Legitimate Authority

• Deciding how a home church will use or not use music in its meetings.
• Deciding on membership of cell groups or other study groups focusing on discipleship. But not regulating who attends public meetings like home churches. (Note that student home churches are technically "ministry teams" in Dwell, which means they do have the right to restrict attendance at their meetings.)
• Deciding who is admitted to ministry houses. (However, terms for admission and removal should be disclosed to prospective members before they move in.)
• Deciding who will teach at meetings, and what will be taught.
• Deciding what ministries will be prioritized at meetings (with announcements, for instance), but not preventing people from ministries they feel led to practice.
• Deciding when and how to apply formal church discipline. (The elders require an opportunity to review and possibly veto any proposed formal discipline involving removal from the church.)
• Deciding what standards will apply in judgment areas of ministry, such as how strict or lenient to be on gray matters, or how certain problems should be counseled. For instance, how soon after a serious moral failure should a personal be allowed to teach?
• Recognizing ministry house leaders, cell leaders, high school leaders, or sit-in leaders. (Sphere approval is needed for change in high school senior leaders.)

Even from this partial list we see that church leaders have substantial authority to carry out their ministry. The prerogatives mentioned in this list would easily enable leaders to establish the church will emphasize, which ultimately determines its tone and feel. They are truly authoritative leaders of the church's ministry.

Also remember that in Dwell, the elders have reserved certain decisions exclusively to themselves. These are not delegated to home church or ministry team leaders. They include:

• Set doctrinal and spiritual standards for the church, as well as its strategic vision
• Lead implementation of key policies and programs
• Set certain budget parameters for the church and authorizing new spending
• Remove deacons or elders from office
• Remove staff workers at or above the level of department heads
• Ordain new deacons and commissioning new ministries
• Approve brochures and literature that speak for Dwell

Illegitimate Authority

The following list includes areas not to be regulated by elders or home church leaders.

Bible studies or other public ministries started by members outside the established schedule

Leaders should be very reluctant to oppose new ministries that are within biblical norms (such as Bible studies, evangelistic outreaches, or fellowship groups). Our history is full of examples where individuals began ministries on the side, and developed them into important features of the church today.  There may be exceptions to this rule of thumb. For instance, the one starting the group has been discredited by recent, objective immoral behavior or false teaching to the degree he or she may not teach. Another case would be ministries that may cause damage to our reputation. But in general, we want Dwell to be a place where individual ministry initiative is allowed and encouraged, not restricted.

Note that Dwell accredits ministries, which is completely different than giving permission for workers to pursue ministries. Accreditation is merely a decision to prioritize a ministry, not to permit it. Usually ministries are accredited after existing for a period of time.

Dating and romance

Christians are often harmed by wrongful dating practices, and leaders are painfully aware of the dangers in this area. Sexual predators pose a danger to any group of single Christians. However, leaders may be tempted to block this damage through illegitimate use of church authority. Scripture draws a clear line at sexual misbehavior (1 Corinthians 5:11) and at marrying non Christians (2 Corinthians 6:14). In the event that either of these happen or are likely to happen, leaders have a clear basis to intervene with strong admonition and even some types of church discipline.  Other cases may be more borderline, such as older Christians deciding to seriously date brand new Christians, perhaps only days old in the Lord. These often reflect foolishness, and may call for advice and appeals for wisdom. However, any two walking Christians ultimately have the freedom to date if they want.  Even more subjective would be cases where leaders sense that one or both involved are not mature or relationally advanced enough to succeed in long-term dating and marriage. While leaders may believe they can tell, especially in extreme cases, that certain couples face major problems and possibly failure in marriage, no one can know for certain. We know of examples where even our most experienced leaders have erred in their predictions -- claiming marriages would fail when they succeeded, and claiming they would succeed when they failed.

Besides the subjectivity involved, it should also be clear that members bear the responsibility for their own marriages, not leaders. For these reasons, leaders have to restrain themselves to offering personal opinion, and carefully delineating between their opinion and their authority as leaders.  Three distinct elements should be shared along with any personal advice to dating couples: 1) The view is only a matter of personal opinion, and could be wrong 2) The decision belongs to the dating members, not to the leaders, 3) They will be supported regardless of how they chose to proceed.  Other cases are so subjective they don't merit even advice from leaders. These would include cases where leaders think the personality mixes might be bad, or where personal tastes regarding looks or occupations differ. For leaders to offer opinions in such cases constitutes a wrongful intrusion and tends to discredit their advice by bringing it down to a level where they couldn't possibly know what they are talking about. Raising questions in these areas to stimulate members to think carefully may be legitimate, but again, these should be carefully delineated from any sense of urging or appeal.

Neither we nor Dwell elders want anything to do with telling or pressuring members not to date except in cases involving objective recent sexual misbehavior or unequal yoking with non Christians. Opposing marriage plans between walking Christians is also usually out of line. An exception is the right to decline to officiate a marriage that bothers the conscience of a given leader. While leaders should not lightly refuse to marry members, we cannot ask them to actively facilitate a union they are uncomfortable with.

Discipleship

Discipleship means teaching or training. In the 1980's a movement grew up in the United States known as the "Shepherding Movement." It argued that people need an older mentor called a shepherd to give them orders even in non-moral areas (like what car to buy), so they could learn to obey. The argument was that by learning to obey an earthly shepherd they would learn to obey God. Meanwhile, proponents reasoned, the shepherd could improve his students with good imperatives. This movement has become a catastrophe in the eyes of virtually all churches today. It was completely discredited because shepherds damaged others' lives but took no responsibility for their actions, or they ended up giving bizarre and unwarranted imperatives. The damage done to the reputation of legit discipleship was pointless, because this is not how people learn to follow God.  At Dwell we want nothing to do with this understanding of discipleship. Biblical discipleship is a role to facilitate another's growth through sharing knowledge and experience, and living as models. It is not a role involving controlling others in any way. Actions taken under pressure from a discipler are of doubtful value in any case. We believe in sharing our point of view and the reasons for our opinions, and letting others do as they decide in non-moral areas.  Another area where leaders should observe restraint is respecting the Holy Spirit's ordering of discipleship ministry and personal friendships. When a member brings a friend to Christ and begins discipling that person, we believe leaders should not interfere unless the one discipling is morally disqualified because of recent, serious, and objective sin. As leaders, our mission is to raise up those who can disciple others. Therefore, it makes no sense to interfere with natural discipleship relationships that could lead to future ministry spheres. An obvious exception to this rule of thumb would be cases of male-female or female-male discipleship. Such relationships are inadvisable except when involving seniors, as shown over and again historically. Another case calling for intervention would be when a member's efforts to initiate discipleship are interfering with discipleship already established by another member.  On the other side, leaders (or anyone else) are free to come alongside and invest in a new person. No one "owns" a disciple in an exclusive sense. But this should be done to assist or help the younger discipler, not to replace him or her. Likewise, we recognize that leaders should respect relationships people build with one another, such as those in cell groups. It would be arbitrary and harmful to call on people to constantly change groups and lose the continuity of their friendships. While leaving friends is inevitable if we are to plant new groups, this should only be done when necessary to plant or for some other compelling and unusual reason.

Hobbies, sports, and time management

How Christians order their time is a matter of some importance in determining how rapidly they grow. We would love to see all Christians give high priority to body life, evangelism, equipping, and relational investment. However, the amount of time to devote to these things is a judgment call that must be made by members, not by leaders.

Leaders find themselves in a very sensitive position when they try to explain that failure to prioritize relational investment or time in fellowship could impact a member's growth. We have to explain the relationship between commitment and growth without appearing to issue a demand. As leaders we have to learn to respect different freedoms used by Christians, realizing that not all grow at the same rate or intensity. Scripture does not tell us whether we should spend nights playing softball missing certain meetings, so we should not invent new absolutes in these areas. We believe leaders should not be intrusive by calling on members to order their schedule a certain way.  We note two important exceptions to this principle. 1) Ministry houses often require attendance at certain meetings as house rules. This is not wrong, as long as house leaders make standards clear to members before they move in. 2) Leaders are required to maintain their own high level of attendance at meetings and other activities as part of their freely accepted burden as leaders. They are more accountable than others, as seen in biblical requirements for deacons and elders. Many requirements are specific to leadership offices and should never be imposed on members in general. 

Choosing friends

The friends a Christian spends time with can affect his or her spiritual growth. Scripture warns, "Bad company corrupts good character." (1 Corinthians 15:33) However, this general maxim is not an absolute, and must vary greatly in application. We believe it is up to individuals to decide whether spending time with certain friends is harmful. Leaders can point out obvious problems arising in certain relationships, but it is up to the individual to pick his or her own friends.

Personal spending

Some Christians get into trouble through bad spending decisions, and leaders may be tempted to help by guiding their spending. This would be a mistake. While we must feel free to teach biblical principles of financial stewardship, or to raise questions about extremely questionable spending, these decisions belong to the individual member. One exception might be where members are in such debt or default that they are bringing disgrace on the name of Christ, or are defrauding fellow Christians. At this point, stealing or defrauding becomes a moral issue.

Dwell's college ministry is an exciting, outreaching, growing group of students and leaders. We thank God that we have such a motivated and energized group. We are not calling in this paper for a shift that would make us soft. We want full involvement. We want zeal. We want commitment. These are the least we should offer the Lord. By ensuring proper understanding of church leadership and authority, we believe we will sustain our zeal and commitment without stain of wrong-doing or over-doing. In the long run, we will see deep, lasting results if we accept only the authority delegated by God to our position, and refuse any more.

In Mark 10:41-45, Jesus warns about "the spirit of the Gentiles" who love to lord it over one another. John also rebuked "Diotrephes, who loves to be first among them." (3 John 9) We are thankful we have the kind of leadership that will take positive measures to prevent these problems in our church. Our leaders are our most important assets, and we are glad we have good ones.

We hope the whole church can come together around these principles, and that we will have a clearer understanding than before.

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April 1979 · Vol. 8 No. 2 · pp. 30–33  

Bibliographic Essay on Church Leadership

Herb Kopp and Gordon Zerbe

This essay intends to discuss some of the recent literature on church leadership. Actually, there are few books which deal specifically with church leadership, although there is a plethora of studies on the individual pastor’s role in the church and ministry. This essay includes a discussion of New Testament exegetical studies on leadership.

This survey is divided into two sections. The first reviews books which speak to the church in a more general way but which also include discussion of church leadership. The nature of the church is foundational to a discussion about leadership. The second section reviews books which speak more specifically about leadership.

BOOKS ON THE CHURCH WHICH ALSO ADDRESS LEADERSHIP

A book of general interest which calls the church to a careful review of its mandate is Gene A. Getz, Sharpening the Focus of the Church (Chicago: Moody Press, 1974, 280). Getz urges us to look at the church through three lenses—Scripture, history, and culture—to arrive at an understanding of its nature and function, to develop a contemporary church strategy, and to orient its leadership. This is a useful, highly readable book which calls attention to the church in its North American setting.

In 1947 Alexander R. Hay published The New Testament Order for Church and Missionary (Audubon, NJ: NT Missionary Union, 4th ed., n.d.). This book has been widely used as a missionary training manual. The usefulness of this book is its thorough attention to the biblical data, which is then cast into a programmatic scheme for church planting. Its weakness is that it assumes all churches to be organized in the same manner without regard to cultural milieu. There is value in {31} such a book only if it is counter-balanced by authors who approach the same questions from other viewpoints.

We are indebted to Lawrence O. Richards, a prolific evangelical writer, for a very stimulating book, A New Face for the Church (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1970, 288 pp.). The character and tone of this book is best summarized by the terse comment on the fly-leaf of the cover: “If your mind is closed to change, if you feel the church must go on as it is, then Mr. Richard’s look into the future is not for you.” The problem of change in the church is always a difficult one because it means that comfortable, time-honored assumptions and patterns will be left behind. Richards will probably jolt you; he may anger you, but he will also stretch your thinking. We recommend this book for good, provocative reading; even though we may not choose to follow it, it is sure to enlarge our minds.

Two particularly valuable books which qualify as “must” reading for every perceptive church member are Howard A. Snyder’s The Problem of Wineskins (Downers Grove: Inter Varsity Press, 1975, 214 pp.) and The Community of the King (Downers Grove: Inter Varsity Press, 1977, 216 pp.). In his earlier work Snyder analyzes the current evangelical church from the point of view of the church in Biblical perspective and relates this to the challenge of the current cultural milieu. His analysis is penetrating and his suggestions mind-stretching. The later work develops the earlier theme within the context of the Kingdom of God but he insists that the church continue to become the visible demonstration of it in society. Included is an excellent discussion of the nature of charismatic leadership in the messianic community and a contrast of the New Testament pattern of leadership and ours. If you read only two books in the new year, we would recommend these two by Snyder.

Small Churches are Beautiful (ed. Jackson W. Carroll, San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1977, 174 pp.) is a collection of ten essays centering on the unique opportunities of the small church (membership of 200 or less). The underlying assumption of the book is that quality is not measured by quantity and that small churches are not second class because of their size. Concerning the issue of leadership two essays are insightful, “Shared Ministry: Lay Leadership Development,” and “Organizational Structure for the Small Congregation.” In the former, ministry and leadership is defined as an experience which can be shared by all. In the latter essay, the author asks questions regarding the relationship between the need for sensitivity concerning the unique dimensions of leadership in the local church and over-all denominational polity.

Hans Kueng is a free spirit among Roman Catholic authors. His {32} The Church (trans. Ray and Rosaleen Ockenden, New York: Sheed and Ward, 1967, 525 pp.) came as a breath of fresh air in the wake of Vatican II. His section on “Ecclesiastical Office and Ministry” (pp. 388-480) contains a good study of ministry in the Bible. In particular, he finds that the words then used for office in the church lack a hierarchical sense. Instead, the New Testament defines church office as service. His book is a call for new thinking in relation to the church and its leadership structure. Perhaps Protestants also need a similar reevaluation.

BOOKS ADDRESSING LEADERSHIP SPECIFICALLY

Ted W. Engstrom ( The Making of a Christian Leader , Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1976, 250 pp.) is concerned with the issue of leadership both within the church and in para-church organizations. He discusses frankly such issues as the personality of a leader, the problem of motivation in leadership, and the price leadership must pay for leading. The two final chapters, “Guidelines for Excellent Leadership” and “The Marks of a Christian Leader,” are particularly helpful. The strength of this book is that it confronts the leadership issue in a forthright manner. Though it contains good ideas, it should not be viewed as a manual to cure all leadership ills.

Carnegie Calian, a Presbyterian seminary professor with many years of pastoral experience, has just published a challenging, fascinating book, Today’s Pastor in Tomorrow’s World (New York: Hawthorne Books, Inc., 1977, 153 pp.). Calian analyzes the various roles in which a pastor finds himself, pointing out both strengths and weaknesses. He meets head-on the difficult issues of declining church membership in his denomination, the problem of the American home, the issue of women in the ministry, the role of laity in the church, and the practical issues of pastoring a church. We may not agree with all his positions but he will surely challenge us to ask some very pertinent questions for a self-evaluation of our own ministry.

Kenneth K. Kilinski and Jerry Woffard’s Organization and Leadership in the Local Church (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1973, 253 pp.) is basically a “how to” book on various facets of church leadership and structure. With the help of applied psychology and business management theory, it gives a “blueprint” of how a local church should be run. Very practical in orientation, it contains many illustrations, diagrams, and sample forms. It outlines how church boards are to be structured, detailing the number of committees a church board should have. The practical orientation of the book is its strength and, at the same time, its greatest weakness. There is little {33} creativity, and the authors do not provide much of a theological base from which they arrive at their blueprint.

The attempt of Marvin T. Judy, in The Multiple Staff Ministry (Nashville: Abingdon, 1969, 287 pp.), is to provide a major book on the question of church staff. It is comprehensive, theological, theoretical, analytical, and practical, but not as biblical as it could be. It includes a concise review of the historical development of the relationship of ministry, laity, and the church. Social science methodology is basic in its review of principles of leadership, personnel management, and a discussion of various staff persons in a church. The appendix also includes sample forms for personnel policies and various job descriptions. One of the assets of the book is a comprehensive bibliography on the subject of church leadership.

James D. Smart played a vital part in what Brevard Childs has termed the “Biblical Theology Movement” from the late forties to the early sixties. In his The Rebirth of Ministry: A Study of the Biblical Character of the Church’s Ministry (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1960, 192 pp.) he claims that biblical faith has been confused with cultural allegiances and that the church which is faithful to its origins has capacity for self-criticism. Although he does not address the issue of church leadership directly, what he discusses is presuppositional to a discussion of church leadership. Nowhere does the Bible present a clear distinction between the ministry of an ordained clergy and the ministry of the whole church. One cannot be a Christian without empowerment for ministry. For Smart, the ultimate criterion for ministry is the ministry of Christ. Accordingly, he provides an excellent discussion of it and how it speaks to our time as well.

John Howard Yoder’s “The Fulness of Christ: Perspectives on Ministries in Renewal” ( Concern , No. 17, (Feb., 1969) 33-93) is indispensable reading for those thinking about the question of ministry and church leadership. Yoder analyzes in outline recent thought concerning ministry in the church and asks incisive questions relating to contemporary issues of church leadership. Basic to Yoder’s approach is a presentation of Biblical material (the ministry in the New Testament is seen in terms of its multiplicity, diversity, plurality, and universality) compared with present day assumptions and practices. He finds a hiatus between the two at various points. Yoder maintains that the New Testament witness concerning ministry and leadership (constants within flexibility) does and must relate to today’s church.

Herb Kopp and Gordon Zerbe are both students in the M.A. program in biblical studies at Mennonite Brethren Biblical Seminary, Fresno, California. Mr. Kopp is pastor-elect of the Fort Garry M.B. Church, Winnipeg, Manitoba.

April 1979 Vol. 8 No. 2

« pp. 30–33 »

Article subject

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© 1979 Direction (Winnipeg, MB).

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Free Educational Resources for the Public from Grace Communion Seminary

Women in church leadership - a series of study papers.

The following study papers were commissioned by Grace Communion International as part of its consideration of whether women may be ordained.

11. Women in Church Leadership - Conclusion

Many people can probably agree with Thomas Schreiner when he writes, “The role of women in the church is probably the most emotionally charged issue in American evangelicalism today.”[1] It is being debated among Roman Catholics and the Eastern Orthodox as well as among Evangelical Protestants. It is a difficult subject, sometimes filled with bitter accusations, sometimes with claims about the Bible that are not biblically substantiated or justified, and sometimes with fears about what might happen if a change is made, or fears about what might happen if one isn’t.

We have been studying this issue cautiously, with prayer, with a desire to understand what the Bible teaches us to do. At each stage of our work, we shared the preliminary results with pastoral supervisors and then pastors, seeking comments and feedback. After revising the study papers based on their input, we published them in print or on our website. We did not want to ignore any evidence, nor any important question. Sometimes we had to acknowledge that there is not sufficient information available to be completely certain about a few issues, but this does not prevent a conclusion about the overall question.

Biblical Teaching and Modern Application

In the previous ten studies, we have surveyed the teaching of Scripture as it pertains to women in leadership. Here is a summary of each paper:

Paper 1: “Women in Church Leadership: An Introduction.” The question is complex, and scholars with equal allegiance to the Scriptures come to different conclusions on the matter. It is not a question over which Christians should condemn one another, nor a question about which we need to break fellowship with people who come to different conclusions.

Paper 2: “The Nature of Leadership in the Church.” Leadership in the church entails service—it is not a right, nor a personal privilege. People should not be seeking positions of leadership (or defending them) in order to get respect or any other personal benefit. People do not have to become leaders in order to be fully human, fully Christian, or equal to others. People can have leadership gifts without necessarily being leaders  in the church.

A leader in the church must set a good example, have a good reputation, and be able to teach. The effectiveness of a person’s leadership in the church is largely dependent on whether members actually look to that person for spiritual leadership. With authority comes responsibility, and authority must be used to serve others.

Paper 3: “Men and Women in Genesis 1–3.” In the beginning, God created male and female in the image of God, as persons who could be equal heirs of eternal life as his children. God gave both male and female authority over Earth and its creatures ( Gen. 1:26-27 ). Genesis 2 tells us that God created the man before the woman, but it does not draw any conclusion about authority from this. The point being emphasized in Genesis 2 is that it is not good for a man to be alone.

The apostle Paul uses Genesis in a selective way. He notes that men are made in the image of God without mentioning that women also are ( 1 Cor. 11:7 ); he notes that men were created first when he argues that women should wear head coverings when they prophesy in church (vv. 8-10). Paul is not commenting on the meaning of Genesis itself, and the fact that he uses Scripture in his argument does not automatically mean that his conclusions about head coverings apply in all cultures.

The first biblical mention of the rule of men over women comes in  Gen. 3:16 , in which God describes the consequences of sin. The verse indicates a  change  in the relationship between men and women—that man’s rule over woman is a result of sin. This suggests (but does not prove) that when men and women are in the Lord, authority is not based on gender.

Paper 4: “Men and Women in the Books of Moses.” Old Testament laws sometimes mentioned women specifically, but they were normally written as if only men were involved. Both in custom and in law, men had advantages over women. As Jesus noted, the laws of Moses did not prescribe an ideal society, but those laws were often concessions to an imperfect society ( Matt. 19:8 ). The fact that only men were priests (only from one tribe, we should note), therefore, carries no weight in the question we have regarding leadership in the church. It was a rule for a different culture and a different covenant.

Paper 5: “Women in Ancient Israel, From the Conquest to the Exile.” Although Israelite culture gave advantages to men, there are examples of women who had important roles. God chose Deborah to be a prophetess and a judge; the people “came to her to have their disputes decided” ( Judges 4:5 ). She was a civil leader, and as a prophetess, she gave orders from God to the male leader of Israel’s army. God gave this woman authority over men—an authority that was both religious and civil.

God used Huldah the prophetess to give authoritative words to Hilkiah the priest and other men ( 2 Kings 22:14-20 ). She had spiritual authority. Later, God gave Esther civil authority over Jews in the Persian Empire. These examples show that, even in a patriarchal society, God permitted certain women to have significant civil and/or spiritual authority.

Paper 6: “Women in the Ministry and Teachings of Jesus.” Jesus treated women with more respect than was common in that culture, and women had important roles in his ministry, traveling with him and providing for him. Jesus did not try to correct every social wrong. It would have been nearly impossible for women to function as apostles in that society, and the fact that all twelve apostles were men may also be due to the fact that they corresponded to the twelve sons of Jacob. Further, the twelve did not set a pattern for future church leaders—not in ethnicity, not in number, and therefore possibly not in gender.

Paper 7: “Women in the Early Church.” Women had important roles in the early church—influential enough that when Saul persecuted the church, he imprisoned women as well as men. After Saul’s conversion, women were some of his most-praised co-workers. Paul mentioned women who worked “at my side in the cause of the gospel” ( Phil. 4:3 ). This indicates that women had a significant role in evangelism.  Gal. 3:28  mentions three prominent social divisions in the first-century world, and proclaims that these disparate social groups become one in Christ. This equality should affect relationships among believers, although it may not require identical roles.

Paper 8: “Women Who Pray or Prophesy:  1 Cor. 11:3-16 .” In  1 Cor. 11 , Paul argues that women who pray or prophesy in the church should wear a head covering. Although we cannot be sure what this covering was, or its role in Greco-Roman society, we conclude that Paul was telling the believers to conform to certain cultural customs. He uses several supporting arguments, some of which do not apply in our culture, and others that are not clear today because he was arguing for a custom of his own culture.

Although the custom was based in culture, Paul uses Genesis as one of his supporting arguments (vv. 7-12), showing that an argument from Scripture does not necessarily indicate a normative or permanent conclusion. Paul’s instructions were appropriate for his society, but the specific details are not necessary today. However, this passage clearly shows that women may prophesy in church, and Paul later describes this type of speaking as something that strengthens, encourages, comforts and edifies the church ( 1 Cor. 14:3-4 ).

Paper 9: “‘Women Should Remain Silent’:  1 Cor. 14:34-35 .” In  1 Cor. 14 , Paul calls for orderliness in the worship service. He says that people should speak in turn, and then be quiet. He says that women were not allowed to talk, but should be quiet and ask their questions later. In 1 Corinthians 11, Paul has already acknowledged that women were speaking in church; he does not mean here that they cannot speak at all. Since we assume that chapter 14 does not contradict chapter 11, we conclude that Paul prohibits some other form of talking. He calls for women to be quiet not as a universal rule, but apparently because they were causing problems with disruptive questions in Corinth.

Paper 10: “Questions About  1 Timothy 2:11-15 .” When Paul wrote  1 Tim. 2:12 , he again wrote that women should be quiet; he did not permit them to teach or to have authority over men. The reasons he gave for this policy are less than clear, since it is not self-evident that males should have exclusive authority in church simply because the man was created before the woman.[2] The obscurity of vv. 14-15 suggests that Paul was addressing erroneous ideas that were being taught in Ephesus at the time.

Paul permitted women to speak edifying messages in the Corinthian church; his prohibition here should be seen not as revoking that permission, but as a policy needed for the situation that Timothy faced.[3] We believe it is not a universal rule that must govern all churches for all time. It was, just as Paul stated, a  policy,  not a permanent restriction based on gender.

Just as Paul counseled slaves to be obedient without endorsing slavery itself, he counseled women to be submissive in Ephesus without intending to make that social situation permanent. Just as we accept his policies about widows ( 1 Tim. 5:3-16 ) as temporary, so we accept his policies about women in church leadership as temporary.

An elder must be a husband?

We will add here a further comment on  1 Tim. 3:2 —”The overseer must be…the husband of but one wife.” There are a number of questions about this verse, but we will focus on one: Does this mean that elders must be husbands, and therefore male? No. There are five responses.

1. Paul wrote to the situation that Timothy was in, and that situation did not then allow female elders, so Paul did not cover possibilities that were not viable options at the time, just as he did not discuss what pastors should do with widows after social situations had changed.

2. We do not believe that elders must be married only once. Single men, and widowers who remarry, may also be elders. The focus of the passage is that  if  the elder is a husband, he should be faithful to his wife. The verse covers the most common situation, and Paul assumed that Timothy could figure out the other situations.

3. Paul did not intend his list to be interpreted in a legalistic way—his recommendation that new Christians not be appointed as elders ( 1 Tim. 3:6 ) would not apply in new churches (and consequently this requirement is not included in  Titus 1:6-9 ).

4. Biblical laws are often phrased in the masculine even when they apply to women as well. (Paul’s frequent use of “brothers” includes female believers, too.) Throughout  1 Tim. 3 , Paul stresses that an elder should be a good example; v. 2 simply gives details about what this means for a husband:  If  the elder is a husband, he should be a good one. It does not address all other possible situations.

5. Even though Paul told Timothy that “a deacon must be the husband of but one wife” (v. 12), it is still possible to have a female deacon (v. 11;  Rom. 16:1 )—this rule was written in the masculine even though it also applied to women. In the same way, verse 2 may apply to women even though it is written in the masculine.

Difficulties in application

In our detailed examination of the Bible, we did not find any scripture that forbids women from being recognized as spiritual leaders in the church; there is no verse that makes a permanent restriction on women. Our understanding is that the question of whether women may serve as elders and pastors is a cultural question on which the Bible doesn’t set forth a permanent restriction. The scriptures concerning this question are cultural and social in character, concerning the leadership of the church in the first century. In most parts of the world, today’s cultural context is not the same as it was in the first century. For example, in the first century the church allowed slavery, something we would not allow today. And the role of women in the public sphere was different in the first century than it is today.

Elders and pastors should be selected based on seeking out the best person to fill the responsibility, according to the principles in the Scriptures, the needs of the congregation, how the congregation sees these issues, the cultural environment, and whom God can be seen using, without regard to whether the candidate is male or female.

Just as we consider the holy kiss, footwashing, the widows’ roster, and headcoverings to be rooted in culture and not required today, we conclude that Paul’s restrictions on women in leadership were rooted in culture or based on specific circumstances in his churches, and it is not necessary for the church to consider that restriction permanent. Since we do not want to forbid something that the Bible does not forbid, we will no longer forbid women from being ordained as elders and appointed as pastors. We want churches to be led by the best personnel available, without making unnecessary restrictions on who that might be.

However, we recognize that there are a number of practical considerations involved in applying this change in policy.

First, not all members will agree with our conclusion. Reasonable, well-trained scholars sometimes come to a different conclusion—perhaps by concluding that  1 Tim. 2:12  is the “clear” scripture and  1 Cor. 11  is the unclear one.[4] We respect honest differences of opinion, and do not want to impose leaders on congregations in which most of the members will resist their leadership.[5]

Second, not all women are suited for leadership, just as not all men are. Only people who have the spiritual gifts needed for leadership should be appointed as leaders. We expect that if spiritual gifts are present and the need exists within the congregation, they will be recognized by the congregation. Ordination of elders emerges out of the local congregational situation where a person’s recognized spiritual gifts and heart for ministry, regardless of gender, determine aptness for ordination.

Third, there are local situations (just as there were in Ephesus) in which it would be counterproductive to have female leaders. Some cultures and subcultures around the world view female leadership as offensive. Although cultures sometimes surprise us in allowing exceptions to tradition, it is still necessary to assess which leaders will have “a good reputation with outsiders” ( 1 Tim. 3:7 ).

In short, our denominational position is that women may be ordained as elders and appointed as pastors.[6] This is a permission, not a requirement. We do not plan to seek female candidates for the office of elder or pastor merely on the basis of their being female, but elders and pastors may from henceforth be chosen from among males and females alike. Elders and pastors, whether male or female, should be ordained and/or appointed based on 1) whether the person has the appropriate leadership gifts, 2) whether members of the congregation affirm these gifts by looking to that person for spiritual leadership, and whether the congregation needs another elder or a pastor.

Questions and concerns

What happens when a woman ordained as an elder in a given congregation moves to a different congregation? When an elder, male or female, moves to a different congregation, the ordination continues to be valid, but the person is not automatically licensed as an elder in the new congregation.[7] Leadership in our congregations depends on congregational need and the approval of denominational supervisors. A candidate for ordination, male or female, is thus affirmed through recognition of that person’s ministry and leadership capabilities. If the person has leadership gifts, those gifts will presumably be apparent as they are used in other roles, although it may take some time.[8]

Some members, even if they have a male pastor in their own congregation, may be troubled that one of our congregations in some other part of the world happens to have a female pastor. If they are troubled by this, we believe that they are looking for conformity in the wrong place. Just as we can have differing opinions about what the Bible says about soul-sleep, the millennium, or the rapture, we can also have different opinions about what the Bible says about women in leadership.

Often the matter boils down to how a person prefers to resolve Paul’s statements: in one place Paul permits women to speak, and in another he prohibits it. Which policy is more likely to be the permanent one? Is the prohibition temporary in the same way as his policy on widows is?[9] We believe that there is room in our denomination for people of either viewpoint regarding female ordination, and that this is not a matter on which people should accuse, condemn, or break fellowship.

Some people are worried that if churches allow women as well as men to be leaders in church, then they are unwittingly contributing to the gender confusion found in Western society. This is a “fear of the consequences” argument that touches deep emotional concerns, but is not logically or biblically valid.[10] The fact that God called women to leadership roles in ancient Israel is evidence against the validity of this argument. People could just as easily claim that female civil leaders create gender confusion, but we have to acknowledge that God raised up a female civil leader for ancient Israel.[11]

We believe that Scripture allows society to have females as schoolteachers, doctors, and political leaders without causing gender confusion; the church can also have female leaders without causing confusion.[12] The church teaches that we are all made in God’s image and are equal heirs of salvation. The gender confusion found in society today is regrettable, but it cannot be solved by the church making restrictions that are not supported by Scripture.

We have dedicated several years to an in-depth study of the role of women in church leadership—specifically focusing on the question of the ordination of women as elders and the related topic of women serving as church pastors. All along the way, input has been sought, received and carefully considered from our members, our pastors, our pastoral supervisors, our doctrinal review team and other church staff. We based our study on the Bible, not contemporary culture or experience.

While we have read and weighed the writings of many authors on this topic, we have done so with the purpose of gaining a clearer understanding of the Scriptures, surrendered to the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Not wanting to forbid what the Bible does not forbid, and desiring to allow all our members to use their God-given gifts to their fullest potential for the benefit of the church, our denominational position is that, based on local circumstances and an individual’s characteristics, women may be ordained as elders and appointed as pastors.

We conclude with a statement from a complementarian scholar:

God did not assemble that body [the church] and give gifts to its members so that we may quarrel or pass our time contemplating who shall be greatest in the kingdom. He has done these things so that both men and women, joint heirs of the gracious gift of life, may use all their talents and gifts in his service to spread his kingdom and to call humans of all sorts from death to new life in Jesus Christ.[13]

[1] Thomas Schreiner, “An Interpretation of  1 Timothy 2:9-15 ,” in  Women in the Church  (2nd ed.; edited by Andreas Köstenberger and Thomas Schreiner; Baker, 2005), 85.

[2] Scripture allows women to have authority over men in civil government, and it is not self-evident why this would be allowed in civil matters but not in religious matters. It is not self-evident that temporal priority should be connected to authority in one sphere but not the other.

[3] In the Old Testament, the office of prophet was open to women as well as men. It had more spiritual authority than the office of priest, which was restricted to men. Priests had authority only to carry out rituals and teach previous laws, but prophets could give new information and new directives with divine authority. In the New Testament, too, prophecy can involve information newly revealed by God; teaching requires that old material be repeated accurately. This again suggests that prophecy requires a greater authority than teaching does, and since women can have the authority to prophesy, they can also have the lesser authority, to teach; the prohibition in  1 Tim. 2  is best seen as a temporary prohibition.

[4] They may be influenced by their culture, or their fears of cultural change, in ways they do not realize, just as we may be influenced by our culture in ways  we  do not realize. Despite the inability of anyone to achieve complete objectivity, we all have to make conclusions as best we can, without condemning those who come to different conclusions. Evangelical churches began ordaining women in the 19th century, long before the modern push for women’s rights.

[5] Conservative Thomas Schreiner writes, “Some women unquestionably have the spiritual gift of teaching. Men should be open to receiving biblical and doctrinal instruction from women…. Moreover, women should be encouraged to share what they have learned from the Scriptures when the church gathers. The mutual teaching recommended in  Colossians 3:16  and  1 Corinthians 14:26  is not limited to men” (“Women in Ministry,” in Beck and Blomberg,  Two Views on Women in Ministry  [Zondervan, 2001], 191).

[6] Some people might call this an “egalitarian” position, but we do not accept that label as an adequate description of our position; we have seen numerous exegetical excesses as egalitarian scholars have attempted to push their agenda into the Scriptures, and we do not approve of such excesses. Similarly, we do not accept the label “feminist,” for that label is often associated with agendas we do not endorse.

[7] Church Administration Manual, section 5.2.6. In the same way, someone who leads worship in one congregation should not assume that the same ministry position should be available in another congregation.

[8] Since the style of leadership can differ considerably from one culture to another, subtle in one and blunt in another, it is possible that the spiritual gifts that helped a person lead in one congregation are simply not useful in the other.

[9] As another example of a temporary policy, Paul tolerated slavery, even though it was less than ideal, due to its prevalence in the first century.

[10] A few people have expressed concern that the principles used in reaching our conclusions about the ordination of women might also lead us to revise our teaching about the ordination of practicing homosexuals. In our view, arguments in favor of the ordination of homosexuals, while perhaps overlapping in certain ways with arguments about ordaining women, are nonetheless in the final analysis substantially different from the arguments about ordaining women, and it is our position that the former cannot be argued to from the latter.

[11] Some say that God raised up Deborah only because of exceptional circumstances. We could also note that there are often exceptional circumstances (and exceptional women) in our churches today.

[12] The presence of female leaders does not—and cannot—do away with the obvious biological and reproductive differences between males and females. Our study has not addressed the question of the role of men and women in families.

[13] James Hurley,  Man and Woman in Biblical Perspective  (Zondervan, 1981), 253.

Leadership Challenges in the Church Essay

Delegation is the key to success in any type of organization, yet it can be a serious problem in church management. Many ministry leaders, used to working independently, find it hard to imagine that others can handle tasks more effectively. However, as the church grows, it is impossible to do without the help of additional church staff or volunteers. When leaders perform all tasks alone, their energies are spent on tasks that are not part of their duties (Kouzes & Posner, 2017). This decreases the effectiveness of church leadership, which is not acceptable. This problem is all the more urgent when the church leaders are not experienced and young. They may think they have the energy to manage all areas, but the reality is that multitasking can quickly stress them out. To solve the problem outlined, it will be optimal to use a systematic approach characterized by a full analysis of the situation and making rational decisions based on it.

Key stakeholders are senior pastoral leadership, specific church leadership (elders, deacons), and volunteer leaders appointed to participate in the delegation process. When delegating responsibilities to others, it is necessary to explain to them what is expected of them and, in addition, to define their responsibilities in detail. The optimal solution is to provide a culture of empowerment in which leaders quickly encourage and empower employees and volunteers to participate in various initiatives.

Young leaders often provoke the situation when they perform too many tasks. They are happy to help employees because such demand creates the illusion of their indispensability, value, authority, and trust on the part of the team. Inexperienced leaders do not leave time to tackle higher-level and higher-priority tasks by getting involved in every problem. The leader may take it upon himself to solve the employee’s problems, justifying his actions with his incompetence. However, such motives also lead to the trap of reverse delegation. In such a situation, it is better to assign responsibility for the task to an employee who can solve it under the guidance of a more experienced team member.

The essence of a proper delegation is to plan the task and organize the work process to achieve the goals as quickly and efficiently as possible. The problem of excessive workload can lead to quick burnout of the manager, frustration with the subordinates, or simply a dulling of attention. This leads to a decrease in the motivation of subordinates and a decline in the efficiency of their work. Inexperienced leaders risk falling into the trap of reverse delegation: when they will be forced to do the work for a subordinate himself in the end. At the same time, the volume of tasks, the solution of which is left to the leader, is constantly growing. The diagram below illustrates the key reasons why delegation problems arise (Figure 1).

Bad leadership is costly to companies that profit from their operations. For example, employee turnover costs $5,500 per employee (Bartram, 2019). It costs a quarter of a million dollars per year in a company of 250 people (Bartman, 2019). Certainly, in the case of a church, these financial numbers have little applicability, but the purpose of its existence is to attract followers. If inexperienced leaders make fatal leadership mistakes, decreased attendance and less employee satisfaction with their time in the church are expected.

The 5 Whys method will be appropriate to solve the problem of delegation. The first question is, why does the delegation problem arise? The answer is that this issue emerges because of ineffective management. The second question is, why is ineffective management common in churches? Mistakes arise from the inexperience of employees and their lack of knowledge of key leadership principles. The third question is, why is it important to delegate in the church? This mechanism is necessary because it allows for more effective management of the organization and frees up the leader for more urgent tasks. The fourth question is, why might churches refuse to implement this method? Fear of changing the power structure within an organization as conservative as the church can cause distrust. The fifth question is, why is it still worth using delegation? This mechanism is proven to improve the quality of church functioning and help young leaders feel more confident.

Delegating authority and various tasks in the Christian church is an essential skill that every leader must possess. This tool increases group productivity and gives others the opportunity to learn and grow to share success. By delegating to others, church leaders are actually allowing them to serve. Knowledgeable leaders achieve better results by calling on people with diverse talents and abilities to help them. The ability to delegate to another creates space for joint discussion, for collegial work. And this is precisely the skill, the effort, because, without humility, it is impossible to participate in a dialogue. Without delegating, it is impossible to let the other participant in the collaborative process share his or her vision and knowledge. Delegation of authority can improve the functioning of the church and make it easier to serve young leaders who do not yet have all the skills needed for successful leadership.

Bartram, K. (2019). Pay up! The cost of poor leadership. The Healthcare People. Web.

Kouzes, J. M., & Posner, B. Z. (2017). The leadership challenge: How to make extraordinary things happen in organizations . Wiley Professional Development.

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1. IvyPanda . "Leadership Challenges in the Church." January 11, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/leadership-challenges-in-the-church/.

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IvyPanda . "Leadership Challenges in the Church." January 11, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/leadership-challenges-in-the-church/.

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Leadership Styles Used by the Church

Introduction, autocratic leadership, despotic leadership, democratic leadership, laissez-faire leadership.

Effective church leadership is important in the numerical growth of congregants. As such, the management strategy adopted by a church minister will have a bearing on the growth of membership. Poor administrative practices can lead to a drop in the followership of churches which even started with a large number of devotees. There are many different styles of stewardship that a leader can adopt in controlling church activities. The most common styles are autocratic, despotic, democratic, and Laissez-Faire rules. Indeed the aforementioned techniques used in the handling of church projects are advantageous and, at the same time, disadvantageous because of the evolving nature of religion within the societal context.

Autocratic leadership strategy in church management strictly relies on the doctrines which are entrenched in the biblical teachings as understood by the church. The beliefs are then used in governing all the processes and procedures within religious organizations. Autocratic leadership design is advantageous for the whole church as it enables quick decision-making by the followers and leaders (Mwenje, 2016). In addition, the autocratic leadership model enables effective management of crises because it always places the church leader in charge of every situation (Mwenje, 2016). The management style also reduces team incompetence among the followers by directly gaining from their leaders’ knowledge, skills, and church doctrines (Mwenje, 2016). Therefore, autocratic leadership produces a positive impact on church management.

Aside from the advantages that are associated with autocratic leadership, there are also weaknesses of the model. Firstly, the administrative paradigm that is represented by autocracy does not give any room for consultations between the followers and the leaders (Mwenje, 2016). In essence, this may allow for dictatorship to thrive within the church. Secondly, mistrust is easily fanned by the possible assumption by the church ministers that the devotees may underperform without his direct supervision (Mwenje, 2016). Drawbacks of the autocratic style of leadership clearly show that the method is efficient when the church requires quick and reliable decisions from a competent leader.

The despotic style of leadership focuses only on the leader whose personal control over the decision-making process is highly regarded. Though viewed as a negative leadership, this kind of strategy has its own merits. Most importantly, the despotic stratagem of leadership reduces the impact of mistakes if they occur (Mwenje, 2016). This is because the leader is always forced to create a framework for every church project he undertakes. Additionally, this leadership model dictates that the followers must emulate the actions of their leader; therefore, consistency in the management of religious affairs is maintained (Mwenje, 2016). Undoubtedly, this leadership model is beneficial in situations that call for the application of specific doctrines and guidelines.

Since decision-making is based on the personal moral code of a leader, the despotic leadership technique is bound to have its demerits. One such disadvantage is that, in most cases, negative feedback is given by the followers (Mwenje, 2016). Many followers may feel that they do not conform to the modus operandi prescribed by the church leader, and they can decide to leave their fellowship centers. Furthermore, the followers are not allowed to have any form of ownership of the work they do in the church of the dictatorial style (Mwenje, 2016). In the long term, the morale of the devotees is significantly reduced. Certainly, the despotic style makes the methodology more effective in providing short-term solutions to a problem.

Democratic leadership style is a shared or participative leadership because it encourages both the followers and the leaders to take personal responsibilities for decision-making. Democracy encourages creativity among members in the church setup because everyone is allowed to participate in any church project. Again, followers who work with democratic leaders tend to build strong relationships in other social spheres (Mwenje, 2016). Besides, the democratic leadership paradigm tends to inculcate the positive value of honesty and commitment in church devotees. As evident from its numerous advantages, a democratic leadership strategy can be adopted by church managers who need to see growth in church membership.

With almost everyone included in the decision-making process, a democratic leadership style can be disadvantageous at times. In cases where one member’s decision is consistently implemented, other individuals may tend to grow resentful of democracy as a form of administrative practice (Mwenje, 2016). Not only does democratic leadership strategy lead to procrastination by leaders in making important decisions, but it also requires a lot of time to reach a consensus on matters that require urgency in the church (Mwenje, 2016). The diversified ideas make it possible for the best solution to be ascertained, but that is not always guaranteed because the majority’s choice is upheld even if it may not be the best decision.

An important form of leadership strategy that encourages delegation of duties by leaders to their followers is the Laissez-Faire model. Although this leadership style promotes low levels of productivity in many organizations, it has some advantages worth noting. Most importantly, the leadership practice permits the followers to maximize their leadership prowess (Mwenje, 2016). As team members are delegated duties by their leaders, the methodology allows for the most experienced and skilled devotees to shine, thereby bringing out the best in them (Mwenje, 2016). With divergent perspectives offered, the differences among the views of the members can be discussed, which ultimately makes the church and the leadership stronger.

Whereas there are situations in which Laissez-Faire may be considered appropriate, some circumstances in the church render the strategy ineffective. The leadership practice tends to downplay the role of a leader in a church setting (Mwenje, 2016). Due to a lack of guidance by the leader, some individuals may step in to take leadership roles even if they are unqualified to do so. Laissez-Faire also reduces the cohesiveness of the church members because sometimes the leaders can be portrayed as either disinterested or withdrawn from their duties (Mwenje, 2016). This style is also prone to abuse by the members who have been assigned duties by the leaders as there is a lack of proper oversight from the managers (Mwenje, 2016). The freedom that is created by the delegation of duties to the followers can be used to the advantage of either the leader or the follower at the expense of the church.

In summary, the most common four types of leadership models of autocracy, despotism, democracy, and Laissez-Faire have their strengths and weaknesses because of the nature of religion in evolving society. The advantages and disadvantages of autocracy are grounded on the premise that the leadership depends on the doctrines of the church for their implementation. Effective despotic leadership also relies on the moral code of the individual leader because it is his decisions that are important. Impressively, democratic rule in the management of church affairs can be better managed when the time for decision-making is shortened. Lastly, the Laissez-Faire approach exhibits many demerits, and its application should only be limited to specific situations. None of the other three leadership models fails. Therefore, no single leadership style should be applied to every circumstance in the church, as every administrative rule has its own merits and weaknesses.

Mwenje, J. (2016). An investigation of the leadership styles of Pentecostal church leaders in Zimbabwe. African Journal of Business Management , 10 (3), 55-74. Web.

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James River Church threatens to cut ties with controversial pastor if he 'will not repent'

Editor's note: A previous version of this story referred to Alex Magala as a born-again Christian. Magala clarified in an Instagram video that he is an Orthodox Christian and was baptized as a baby . In the same video, Magala also clarified that while he is married, he does not have children, something Lindell had said in his service.

James River Church pastor John Lindell threatened to cut ties with preacher Mark Driscoll if he "will not repent" for his actions following the Stronger Men's Conference this past weekend.

He discussed it in Wednesday night's prayer service .

Here's what you need to know.

What happened at the James River Church Stronger Men's Conference?

Alex Magala, who has performed on various Got Talent shows including America's Got Talent, had opened the church's annual conference with a sword swallowing act while performing acrobatics on a vertical metal pole. In a later session, Driscoll likened the act to a stripper and called it a demonstration of the "Jezebel spirit to seduce men."

Lindell called Driscoll off the stage, but the two came together for a public discussion later on. Social media followers called the public discussion a reconciliation, something that Lindell refuted in his Wednesday evening prayer service, saying that Driscoll did not apologize for his actions.

More: 'Jesus cried': Pastor leaves stage after comments at James River Church men's conference

What happened after the conference?

During the Wednesday service, Lindell shared texts, voice mails and calls that he says Driscoll sent him and his son David Lindell over the course of the weekend. He alleges that Driscoll incited the media coverage of Magala's past as a performer at nightclubs in order to generate sales and engagement.

John Lindell also said that during phone calls with David Lindell, Driscoll accused his other son, Brandon Lindell, who also is a pastor at James River, "of a list of dark sins" and said "something evil was at work" at James River Church.

John Lindell said during the service that the church received so many violent threats and disturbing calls that they had to shut down their switchboard "for the first time ever." Ozark Police Chief Justin Arnold said that the police department had not received any reports regarding threatening calls.

"What Mark had done at this point was so egregious: Attempting to tear down the leader of the church, attempting to create friction between brothers, attempting to create discord between father and a son," John Lindell said. "It seems demonic to me and honestly makes me very very concerned about Mark."

Why is John Lindell threatening to cut ties with Mark Driscoll?

Lindell said that he has followed Matthew 18:15, a section of the Bible that sets guidelines for handling situations where someone has wronged you: First, go to the person privately. If that fails, seek mediation. If that fails, too, tell it to the church, and if they refuse to listen to the church, "treat them as you would a pagan or a tax collector."

During the service, Lindell said that he sought the assistance of Jimmy Evans, a pastor and co-founder of Marriage Today, in mediating with Driscoll.

"If he doesn't listen to the rebuke of tonight, any believer should not have anything to do with Mark Driscoll," Lindell said. "I get absolutely no joy or delight in doing this to someone who I have called a friend. Mark, if you're listening to this message, we love you and it's with a heavy heart we are calling you to repent."

Lindell also said those who spread the "disinformation" that they reconciled should repent and share the correct information with their followers, as well.

Why does John Lindell want Mark Driscoll to repent?

There are five things Lindell wants Driscoll to repent for:

• Maligning Magala, who Lindell said was a born-again Christian though Magala has clarified that he is Orthodox Christian and was baptized as a baby;
• Attempting to sow disunity in James River Church;
• Making false and slanderous accusations against Brandon Lindell;
• Trying to create division in the Lindell family;
• Trying to destroy James River Church by attacking its leadership.

Who is Mark Driscoll?

Driscoll is an Evangelical pastor who co-founded Seattle's Mars Hill Church, which dissolved after "accusations that he bullied members, threatened opponents, lied and oversaw mismanagement of church funds," according to an article in  the Seattle Times .

In 2016, he founded  Real Faith  with his wife and daughter in Scottsdale, Arizona.

As of publication, request for comment from Driscoll has not been returned.

Susan Szuch reports on health and food for the Springfield News-Leader. Follow her on X, formerly known as Twitter, at @szuchsm. Story idea? Email her at [email protected].

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Sheriff Tim Thompson recently held a successful meeting with church leaders throughout the county to enhance safety and security at local places of worship. The gathering, attended by various church representatives, focused on collaborative security efforts and sharing best practices.

During the event, discussions centered on increasing the security presence during worship services, a measure that has been in place since January. Sheriff’s Deputies have stepped up patrols and will maintain visibility during church activities to bolster community safety.

Sheriff Thompson expressed gratitude towards Deputy Jacobsen and Lieutenant Steuer for their contributions and thanked the church leaders for their participation. He emphasized the importance of these discussions in preventing potential tragedies and assured continued efforts to safeguard the community.

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In Venice tomorrow, Pope will find a Church struggling against decline

Christian leaders call on uk government to recognize armenian genocide.

Ethnic Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh sit after arriving in Armenia’s Goris in Syunik region, Armenia, Thursday, Sept. 28, 2023. (Credit: Vasily Krestyaninov/AP.)

LEICESTER, United Kingdom – Christian leaders in Britain have asked the UK Government to formally recognize the deaths of Armenians during World War I as a “genocide.”

Armenia and Turkey are still bitterly divided over the memory of events that led to the death of somewhere between 1 million and 1.5 million people between 1915 and 1918.

In a letter to Prime Minster Rishi Sunak, Church heads said such an official recognition is not merely symbolic “but serves as a powerful statement against atrocities and a step toward preventing future acts of genocide.”

The massacre of Armenians in by what was then the Ottoman Empire at the end of World War I is formally recognized as a “genocide” by 22 countries around the world, including Uruguay, Cyprus, Russia, Germany, Argentina, France, Italy, and Venezuela. The U.S. Congress has recognized the genocide, but no U.S. president has formally recognize the congressional vote.

RELATED: Pope Francis once again walks a tightrope on the Armenian genocide

On April 24, Armenians worldwide commemorate the genocide, which Church leaders say profoundly impacted millions and continues to resonate in their collective memory.

“The United Kingdom has always been at the forefront of defending human rights and justice on the global stage. Historical figures such as former Prime Ministers David Lloyd George and Sir Winston Churchill have openly spoken about the massacres of Armenians from 1915 to 1923, referring to them as ‘the holocausts of 1915’ and the ‘clearance of the Armenian race from Asia-Minor,’ respectively,” the letter says.

“These acknowledgements from your predecessors underscore the significance of the events that transpired and the importance of formally recognising them. In recent years, the global community has made significant strides in acknowledging historical injustices, including key allies such as the United States and several European nations formally recognising the Armenian Genocide,” the Church leaders continue.

The head writer of the document was Armenian Bishop Hovakim Manukyan, but it included several Orthodox and Anglican bishops, as well as a Catholic member of the House of Lords.

The letter mentioned the ongoing conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan in Nagorno-Karabakh.

A full-scale war between two countries began in the early 1990s following the dissolution of the Soviet Union. The Armenians won the first part of the conflict, occupying a region inhabited by Armenians but formally ruled by Azerbaijan. However in 2020, a large-scale Second Nagorno-Karabakh War erupted and led to a resulted in a significant Azerbaijani victory, with over 7,000 people being killed in the last four years.

RELATED: Archbishop accuses Turkey of backing ‘third Armenian genocide’ in Nagorno-Karabakh

The letter from the British church leaders said the latest conflict has “repeated” the century-old conflict in the Ottoman Empire.

“Following the 44-day devastating war in Artsakh in the autumn of 2020, in September 2023, Azerbaijan launched a campaign which Raphael Lemkin, who coined the term ‘genocide,’ defined as ‘a coordinated plan of different actions aiming at the destruction of essential foundations of the life of national groups, with the aim of annihilating the groups themselves’,” the Church leaders wrote the prime minister.

“The nine-month blockade of Artsakh – known as Nagorno Karabakh – was the beginning of such a genocidal policy, culminating with a military atrocity that resulted in the ethnic cleansing of Armenians from their ancestral homeland,” the statement says.

“Prime Minister, the Armenian diaspora was formed not as a result of natural migration but because our people were forced to flee their historical homeland; our people were killed, raped, sent on death marches to the Syrian deserts, and our churches and homes were burnt and totally destroyed. The same is happening now,” the statement continues.

“Today, the Azerbaijani government, backed by Turkey, continues to threaten Armenia, and exerts pressure to gain control over more territories within the sovereign territory of Armenia,” the leaders told Sunak.

The statement went on to add that while ongoing conflicts and challenges to international law and human rights continue, the role of historical truth in fostering peace and justice has never been more critical.

“The United Kingdom’s formal recognition of the Armenian Genocide would send a strong message to the world about our commitment to historical truth and justice, transcending political and economic interests,” the Church leaders say.

“Such an act of recognition would not only honour the memory of those who suffered and affirm justice but would also reaffirm the UK’s commitment to upholding human rights. Recognition of the Armenian Genocide by the UK would also send a clear message to Turkey and Azerbaijan to cease their aggression against Armenia,” the statement continues.

The Church leaders also claim there is a “high risk” that the actions in the new conflict would result in a new war breaking out, adding a third conflict to a world already beset with global uncertainty and wars in Ukraine and the Middle East.

Armenia and Azerbaijan have pledged to work toward signing a peace treaty over the past many months, but no visible progress has been made, and tensions have continued to rise amid mutual distrust.

Follow Charles Collins on X:  @CharlesinRome

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Released last Friday, critics have voiced concern over lyrics that seem to suggest that Christians are both hateful and judgemental.

In the song "But Daddy I Love Him," Swift sings:

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"But daddy I love him / I just learned these people only raise you / To cage you / Sarahs and Hannahs in their Sunday best / Clutchin' their pearls, sighing, 'What a mess' / I just learned these people try and save you 'Cause they hate you."

In the same song, Swift sings:

"God save the most judgmental creeps / Who say they want what's best for me / Sanctimoniously performing soliloquies I'll never see / Thinkin' it can change the beat / Of my heart when he touches me / And counteract the chemistry / And undo the destiny / You ain't gotta pray for me / Me and my wild boy and all of this wild joy / If all you want is gray for me / Then it's just white noise, and it's just my choice."

In the song "Guilty As Sin," Swift sings: "What if I roll the stone away? / They're gonna crucify me anyway / What if the way you hold me is actually what's holy."

Eleven of the 31 songs contain an "E" under the album's description listing, which stands for "explicit." And several songs have the F-word included within the lyrics. 

Shane Pruitt , the National Next Gen director for the Southern Baptist Convention's North American Mission Board and co-author of Calling Out the Called , wrote in a Facebook post that there is a difference between being secular and being "Anti-Christian." He urged Christian parents to seriously consider if they should allow their children to listen to Swift's music. 

"I'm definitely not the minister or parent that has the 'no secular music' stance," Pruitt wrote. "Also, I fully realize unbelievers are going to act like unbelievers. HOWEVER, there is a difference between being secular and being ANTI-CHRISTIAN."

Pruitt added that he used to listen to Swift but said he thinks "now it's time to reconsider." 

"As Christians, who are filled with the Spirit, should we be entertained by, sing with, and expose our kids to lyrics that aren't just different than what you believe, but are actually mocking what you believe?" Pruitt asked. 

The Christian entertainment review company MovieGuide believes the album "mocks Christianity."

"While it's no secret that Taylor Swift is not a Christian, she made her hatred for religion known through her newly released album 'The Tortured Poets Department,'" MovieGuide stressed in its review . 

"The album is full of minor quips that elevate Swift above God while also featuring two songs devoted to tearing down the Christian sexual ethic."

MovieGuide contends the lyrics to the song "I Can Fix Him (No Really I Can)" contain rhetoric alluding to the idea that God doesn't want to "lift a finger." 

The lyrics read: "They shake their heads sayin', 'God help her,' / When I tell 'em he's my man/ but your good Lord doesn't lift a finger / I can fix him, no, really, I can. And only I can."

"The fact that one of the most popular and famous celebrities of her generation cannot find happiness reveals that living in the world leads to death while living for Christ and under his teachings leads to life," the review stated. 

"Unfortunately, Swift has chosen the path toward death and is reaping the fruits of her labor."

MovieGuide also objects to the lyrics of the song "Florida!!!," which the organization says is about "going off the deep end and all in on worldly fun and entertainment."

"While Swift has since clarified that this song was about a fantasy rather than an actual experience she has had, it still glorifies going off the deep and engaging in complete debauchery," the organization states. 

Sean Feucht, a conservative Christian singer and former worship leader at Bethel Church who founded the Let Us Worship movement, took to X , formerly known as Twitter, to share how he believes the new album is making fun of Christians. 

"Almost half the songs on Taylor Swift's new album contain explicit lyrics (E), make fun of Christians and straight up blaspheme God. Is this the music you want your kids listening to?" Feucht wrote. 

"You think I'm just being religious  & overreacting? Read the lyrics & decide for yourself." 

Alex Clark, host of the Turning Point USA podcast "The Spillover," who also launched the pop culture show "POPlitics!" didn't take kindly to Feucht's comments on Swift. 

"Sean Feucht, whatever his name is … let's not even get into his own controversies and who he aligns with and all the sketchy stuff that this guy, who he surrounds himself with in the Christian community. Cause that could be a whole other episode. So, it's like OK, we're going to take advice from these people who have their own situations and it's like, so are you never going to watch any Netflix movies? You're never going to listen to any artist. If this is the criteria that we're going with, … basically, you have to say: 'I'm never going to listen to music,'" Clark said on her show. 

While many faith and worship leaders have criticized Swift's album, Forbes reports that The Tortured Poets Department needed only a few hours before it became the bestselling album of 2024 in the U.S. The album sold roughly 1.4 million copies in just its first full day of availability. 

Nicole VanDyke is a reporter for The Christian Post. 

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