1962 - 2006
Founder of the Online Bible College
Author, Teacher and Mentor
Leadership and You
"To aspire to leadership is an honorable ambition."
That's the way the New English Bible renders 1 Timothy 3:1. We are going to explore exactly why becoming a leader within the Church is such an "honorable ambition." For God is looking for leaders – leaders who will lead his people toward the magnificent goal that he has set for his Church.
Importance of Leadership
Why has God purposed that there be leaders in his Church? After all, according to 1 John 2:27,
"...the anointing you received from him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you."
Doesn't this mean that we can all just follow the Lord in our own way, without the need of input and guidance from others? Some Christians, having witnessed the abuse of leadership within the Church, retreat to a position of individualism and, sometimes, isolationism. They don't want to expose themselves to another abusive leader, and so they view all leadership
as unnecessary and counter-productive. Yet the Bible has a very different viewpoint on leadership. In fact, Hebrews 13:17 insists that leadership plays a vital role within the life of the Church, and gives the following instruction :
"Obey your leaders and submit to their authority. They keep watch over you as men 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."
And later, in Hebrews 13:24, the author, in his final farewell, assumes the plurality of leadership within the Jewish Church, when he writes :
"Greet all your leaders and all God's people."
Romans 12:8, too, assumes that there is the gift of leadership operating within church life, and instructs a leader to "govern diligently." So what is this "advantage" that Hebrews 13:7 implies comes from obeying and submitting to leadership within the church?
Advantage of Leadership
Let's look at a pivotal passage from the writing of Paul to understand the “advantage” brought to the Church by the leadership God has set in place. Read Ephesians 4:11-13. The New Living Translation (NLT) renders these three verses with particular clarity :
"[Christ] is the one who gave these [leadership] gifts to the church...Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ, until we come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature and full grown in the Lord, measuring up to the full stature of Christ."
In this remarkable passage, Paul sets out the three basic principles of leadership:
* The source of leadership is Christ himself.
* The function of leadership is to equip all believers for effective and fruitful ministry.
* The goal of leadership is that the Church might reach full maturity in Christ.
We will be looking at each of these aspects in more detail as we go through this series "Leadership and You".