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'... that we might present everyone complete in Christ' Colossians 1:28 |
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So You Think by Kel Willis Why is it that many of our churches are characterised not by health and vitality that draw people to the reality of the risen Christ, but by division and decline that seem to repel them? There may be several answers to that question, but in light of the fact that churches always reflect their leadership, the degree to which leaders understand and embrace their role will contribute largely to the health and vitality of any church. In Leaders on Leadership, George Barna echoes this concern as he calls the church to recognise its state of crisis, in particular, the crisis of spiritual depth. Most Christians do not know what they believe and are unable to effectively live the Christian life and adequately share their faith with others. Barna declares: The Church seems afraid to invest in new modes of being the Church, breaking free from antiquated models and irrelevant traditions toward living the gospel in the twenty-first century context. Most of all, we have a crisis of Christian leadership. I contend that all these other crises would not be crises but simply opportunities for radical transformation—if we had true leaders leading the Church’. 1 Along with Barna we can say that in many of our churches there is a crisis in leadership which allows them to simply drift aimlessly into decline and irrelevance. What is a leader? Few leaders are sure of what it means to be a Christian leader in God’s church. Many appear to hold their positions only because they were nominated and voted in at a church business meeting. Sometimes they have been the only ones willing to take on the role and some may have been conscripted against their will and better judgment. The presumption in such situations is that holding a position makes you a leader. This ignores the issue of whether such ‘leaders’ are those that others want to follow. Indeed a leader without followers is a contradiction in terms. It’s easy to see why J Oswald Sanders said that true leaders have influence. In this context, it is helpful for those of us who are leaders in our churches to ask ourselves how we came to be such, who are we influencing and what are we influencing them to be and do. I wonder what would happen to many of the leaders in our churches if such criteria were to be applied. This lack of understanding of what true leadership is has distorted the views of many church members. To clarify the issue it may be helpful to look at what a Christian leader is not:
Now that we have established what it isn’t, we are in a better position to determine what leadership is. It isn’t difficult to find definitions. J Oswald Sanders says that leadership is the ability to influence people, but that is probably more a commentary on leaders than an adequate definition. Monske defines a leader as ‘a visionary that energises others’. The two key dimensions in this statement are having the ability to both create a vision of the future and inspire others to embrace it to the point of making it their own. Peter Drucker believes that leadership is ‘the capacity to motivate people to the accomplishment of common goals’, which of course implies the formulation and communication of those goals so they are embraced by those being led. In his book The Making of a Christian Leader, Ted Engstrom says, ‘A leader … is one who guides and develops the activities of others and seeks to provide continual training and direction.’ He goes on to say that although leadership is difficult to define, the one characteristic common to all leaders is the ability to make things happen.2 The great danger, of course, is that we will emphasise the activities of leadership and neglect the biblical emphasis on character and lifestyle. The fact is that Christian leaders must be those who reflect godly attitudes and they must be active participants within the life of the church where they are recognised as leaders. When we speak of the church we recognise that the term ‘leader’ may apply to those in primary positions, in that they are elders or deacons (or their equivalent). However it will also apply to those who lead in a variety of other ways: in small groups, youth or children’s ministry, men’s or women’s ministries and so on. Because we designate them as leaders, they are in positions of influence and therefore must be held to the highest standards, for leaders will in measure impact the tone and depth of the whole church as well as the effectiveness of its activities. Are leaders born or made? Well it’s a bit of both. In all key leaders there is that indefinable something we call the x factor. It may be personality or charisma, but it is there! However, I believe that people can also learn to be good leaders. All of us can grow both in our understanding of what it is to be an effective leader and in our ability and experience of being effective. The key to this will be our spiritual growth into godly mature people. What do leaders do? It isn’t really possible to define the concept of leadership without including some thoughts on what leaders do. The reality is that if they did nothing they would not be leaders at all! The annual elections were due in a church where a friend of mine is the pastor. He overheard a member trying to encourage someone else to nominate for the role of deacon. ‘It doesn’t take much of your time. You only need to turn up at a deacon’s meeting once a month,’ said the would-be nominator. This sounds a bit incongruous, but the reality is that in many churches, ‘leaders’ do very little apart from periodically attending meetings. It reminds me of a time when Dr Sidlow Baxter, who was doing a weekend of teaching in a church where I was the pastor, came to a leaders’ prayer meeting. He leaned over to me and asked in a fairly audible voice, ‘Pastor, do all of these deacons "deac"?’ This certainly created a lot of discussion, especially when he asked every leader to name their ministry role and what it specifically entailed. The fact is that there should be no place on a leadership team for those who play only nominal roles! God has given the church a structure that has always involved significant leadership, not an autocratic and dictatorial one, but one whose members work together in seeking the mind of God for his people by using the following strategies: Leaders provide direction We often grind to a halt in our churches because we have moved our focus from purpose to maintenance. It is so easy to be caught up in the throes of a busy program that really leads nowhere. Time, energy and money are expended on what is primarily a maintenance operation; the program is set and simply runs from week to week without any real sense of direction. One can’t read the story of Paul without being impressed by his commitment to purpose (Acts 20:27; Gal 1:15, 16). Fundamental to effective leadership is having a clear grasp of what God has in mind for his church and being committed to lead his people into that purpose. There are two key words that help our understanding of what God is doing in his church: edification and evangelism (Gal. 1:15, 16). Fundamental to all effective leadership is a passion to see the church committed to these processes so that people can be encouraged to grow in the knowledge of Jesus and reach out to the lost world around them. We need to ask our leaders what they aspire to for themselves and what their desire is for those who follow them. One would hope that their ready answer would be to increasingly grow into the likeness of Jesus and see the lost brought into the kingdom of God, rather than simply to balance the books by the end of the year or to keep the correspondence up to date and maintain the smooth running of the church program, for church activities are not an end in themselves. Leaders invest in others They may do this in a variety of ways: discipling, mentoring, preaching, teaching, organising the church to make sure that the edification process does happen and, of course, modelling godliness themselves. Leadership is not only about giving direction; it is also about adequately training people to effectively participate in the ministry of the church (Eph.4:12-16). Not all leaders preach or teach from the platform, but all are to be people who are intentionally committed to influence the spiritual development of those they lead, and equip them to do the ‘works of service’ spoken of in the passage. P aul’s commitment to invest in the lives of others is a great model for us to aspire to; one could not read his letters without seeing the pattern of his commitment to invest in those he saw as potential leaders. A function of leadership is to produce more leaders. Who are the potential leaders in your church? Which members of your leadership team are investing in their spiritual growth and ministry development?Leaders affirm values Most of us give very little thought to them, but we all have values that underpin our actions and activities. Values are the primary influence in the development of church culture, vision and the way we function, especially the way we relate to one another. Our values are not necessarily the things we say we believe; rather they are the things we truly do believe. They are seen in the way we live and behave. Where there are no declared corporate values, a congregation will function on the basis of personal preference, rather than mutually held values. When issues arise that contradict the church’s stated values, such as conflict or questions of ethics, that is the time for Christian leaders to affirm what they and the church stand for, for values help people embrace positive change and commit to biblical behaviour. We encourage leaders to consistently affirm biblical values, not only in their own lives but also in the way they lead. We believe it is a positive thing for individual churches to spend time working through their values. (See Interact 13.3 Defining our Values) This affirms what they are truly committed to, and how they want to be seen by their community. It also helps them focus on their future and commit to vision, and strategies to see that vision become a reality. Leaders always need to work in the context of their church’s history. It is important to affirm and build on the positives, but it is also important to deal with the things that inhibit growth and godliness. In our consultancy work we often find that when churches work through their values they are better able to identify the things that need to be changed.I n a church I worked with there was a person who angrily dismissed any discussion on change. His behaviour was aggressive and intimidating and few dared challenge his attitude lest they become his target. After spending time articulating values that affirmed the biblical principles that touch our relationships as God’s people, the church realised that this man was behaving in an ungodly and unbiblical manner and committed to addressing the matter. The man resigned, but the church suddenly found itself released from his inhibiting behaviour and able to move forward in unity. This is an outcome that could not have been achieved without the leaders’ commitment to act on their stated values about relationships.Leaders address issues It is a constant source of amazement to me to see the behaviour of some church members, and even more surprising to see leaders abdicating their responsibility in dealing with such behaviour. I was doing a leadership seminar in a church recently when I discovered that two members were consistently undermining the pastor. To my surprise, when I raised this with the leaders they said that it wasn’t their responsibility to deal with it. In that church, leaders had a history of avoiding confrontation and difficult issues and consequently, it was wracked with unhelpful behaviour by some of its long-standing members and was spiritually stagnating. Sadly, the situation remains the same due to the attitude of these leaders. Their pastor, who is a fine godly man, is now contemplating a move and the future of this church seems clear. A major function of leaders is to ‘shepherd the flock’ (Acts 2:28), meaning they are to feed, lead and protect ‘the sheep’. Paul knew that our nature is such that some will put self first, undermining the work of the gospel. He instructed the leaders of the Ephesian church to be on guard against those who would do damage to its spiritual health, protecting the church by addressing the issues. It is a fact that issues that are not dealt with do not go away, but fester and multiply until they are addressed. There are numerous illustrations of this in the New Testament. In Galatians 2:11-16 we read of Peter’s fear of what the legalists would think of him and his subsequent behaviour in withdrawing from the Gentile believers that brought confusion to the young church. But Paul confronted Peter about his behaviour and there was a positive result. The conflict over the distribution of food in the early church wasn’t allowed to simmer into conflict but was also quickly and effectively addressed (Acts 6). When Timothy was sent to Ephesus, Paul gave him strict instructions to deal with those in error by teaching the biblical position. I know of no unbiblical behaviour in the early church that was not addressed. Do we as leaders abdicate our responsibility and put our head in the proverbial sand because we hate confrontation, or do we demonstrate courage and leadership by confronting issues which need to be addressed? Mature leaders are ever alert for anything that will cause disharmony and inhibit the growth and effectiveness of the church. They are committed to ‘shepherd the flock’. Leaders manage change One of the constant issues confronting many churches is the problem of change, whether it relates to music, buildings, programs, feelings of redundancy and not being heard or simply the fear of change itself. The resulting conflict can cripple a church, taking from it the life and vitality that characterises growing churches. The issue for most churches is not whether they will have to come to grips with change, but how they will respond to its inevitability. If we simply try to ignore change our irrelevance is virtually assured. If we unthinkingly fight it, the consequence will be soul-destroying polarisation that creates frustration and conflict. When that happens we lose our cutting edge as Christians. An exciting alternative is to try to understand what drives the changes that are happening all around us, in order to maintain both our contact with the changing world and our ministry relevance as the people of God who are seeking to be salt and light. Change is fundamental to life and growth; without it our churches will slowly but surely decline. Godly mature leaders know that change will always challenge the status quo and therefore when we begin to recognise our potential and strive to reach it, change becomes a vital and strategic part of the growth that occurs. Leaders model the reality of Jesus A leader should be what others will become. Imagine what would happen in our churches if all our leaders modelled the reality of a godly life! When Paul and his team went to Thessalonica to share the gospel, there was a wonderful response to the message and Paul’s comment was, ‘Our gospel came to you not simply with words, but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and with deep conviction. You know how we lived among you for your sake. You became imitators of us and of the Lord’ (1 Thess.1:5, 6). When good clear Bible teaching is supported and affirmed by lives that model what is being taught, there is a ready response to the message. Leaders motivate for mission I cannot imagine a leader in touch with God being anything other than committed to mission, for surely the Scriptures affirm to us that this is the heart of God. This certainly was the experience of Paul, whose whole life was focused on knowing Jesus and making him known: ‘I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the gospel of God’s grace’ (Acts 20:24). In the context of this verse we see the outworking of Paul’s heart for mission. Whilst churches that have good evangelism programs make some impact on their community, significantly greater impact is made when a heart to evangelise is modelled by the leaders. It is hard for leaders and pastors to motivate their congregation to share their faith with those outside the church if they themselves do not model this. A friend of mine became aware that very few in his church demonstrated any real concern for people in their community. Evangelistic events were ineffective because few outsiders came. In the process of preparing a series of sermons on evangelism, my friend realised that one of the reasons people had no passion for the lost was because neither he nor any other church leaders modelled evangelism. After much heart searching, the leaders committed themselves to be active in the mission of the church. As they began to model evangelism and committed themselves to a specific evangelism strategy, members of the congregation began to follow their example, and today there is significant growth in the church as people are won to Christ. Vital leadership is an essential element in vital growing churches. Imagine what could happen in your church if all its leaders were committed to developing the qualities mentioned in this article. What a difference it would make to the church’s life and witness! If your church rethinks its approach to leadership and then commits to more clearly reflecting the biblical model, this will begin a quiet revolution that will eventually permeate every aspect of your church life. REFERENCES 1. G Barna, Leaders on Leadership (Regal Books, California) 1997, 29. [return to document]2. T Engstrom, The Making of a Christian Leader (Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Michigan) 1977, 15. [return to document]
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Christian
Growth Ministries Inc is a non-profit ministry under the Associations
Incorporation Acts 1984 (Australia). As an interdenominational
organisation, CGM aims to contribute to the life and growth of God's
people and to the church at large, wherever possible and with whatever
means available. © Kel Willis (20 April 2006) |
Our
Director, Rev Kel Willis, is an ordained Baptist
minister with over 35 years experience in Christian work that
has included youth and student work, evangelism, pastoral
ministry and itinerant Bible teaching. He is the author of a
number of books including
