Developing a Healthy Leadership Culture
Today, I want to talk about something that we rarely speak about in church. It is an issue that people approach from a variety of ways with their personal history playing a large part in what they think. We are going to look at developing a healthy leadership culture. We’re going to wrestle with how we should respond to and interact with our pastoral leaders. Since I am a Pastor at this church this is a difficult subject to preach on. In fact I didn’t want to preach on it. But the book of Hebrews has brought us here. Hebrews 13:17-19 dives into this issue and it seemed good to the Holy Spirit that we pay attention to these verses this morning.
It’s been said that the church on its best day is the gathering of imperfect people. If you’ve been in the church long enough you’ve probably been hurt by Pastor or a leader in the church. Maybe they didn’t mean to hurt you, but they did and the hurt is real. Maybe you’ve seen a church blow up. Maybe you have bitterness towards a past Pastor. Maybe you got asked to leave your church. Many of us have been let down by someone. So the question is how could we ever trust a Pastoral leader again?
I want to be honest with you. I’ve struggled with this very thing. In Redding, CA I had a great pastor and mentor. His name is Bill. Bill took time to invest in me and Bill believed in me. After a couple years of being around Bill he started to let me down. I felt in some ways that he wasn’t being the greatest mentor, he seemed to busy. It was hard to just get an appointment with him. I began questioning some of his leadership decisions and bitterness began to build up in my heart. I didn’t realize it at the time but the source was pride. It was rebellious pride. A guest speaker came and spoke at our church one Sunday night. He spoke on honoring your spiritual leaders, your spiritual mothers and fathers as well at your biological mothers and fathers. Something broke in me that night. God hit me with conviction and showed me how wrong and sinful my attitude toward Bill had become. That night I did something hard. I went up to Bill and apologized. Bill didn’t really know what I had been feeling, but I had to apologize anyway. I had to let him know that I believed in him and I was willing to follow his leadership. It was tough, but afterwards it felt like a weight was lifted off my shoulders.
But I’m not alone am I? This is the story of the scriptures; this is the story of your life. Throughout the biblical narrative and throughout church history we see followers of God questioning their leaders, rebelling against them and not submitting to their leadership. In the desert the people of God were constantly rebelling against Moses and in the New Testament we see churches rebelling against and not submitting to Paul’s leadership. The thing about the bible is those stories didn’t just happen. They are still happening. They are our stories, they happen today in our lives and we need to be honest about that.
Let’s stand up and read Hebrews 13:17-19 together. “Have confidence in your leaders and submit to their authority, because they watch over you as those who must give an account. Do this so that their work will be a joy, not a burden, for that would be of no benefit to you. Pray for us. We are sure we have a clear conscience and a desire to live honorably in every way. I particularly urge you to pray so that I may be restored to you soon.”
First let me point out what this scripture doesn’t say. It doesn’t say submit to leaders who our living lives of sin, it doesn’t say to submit to leaders that aren’t following God’s word, it doesn’t say to submit to leaders who are doing something unmoral or unethical. These leaders portray themselves as men and women who give an account before God and have a clear conscience.
Scripture is clear that leaders will have to give account to God for the way they lead and how they live their lives. James 3:1 says that teacher will be judged more strictly than others. However, I think followers will also be held to account with how they responded to and treated their leaders. In fact Saul in 1 Samuel didn’t respond to Samuel’s spiritual leadership and God had some harsh words for him. It says in 1 Samuel 15:3 “For rebellion is like the sin of divination.” So it is obvious that we don’t want to be rebellious towards our pastoral leaders.
I think it is harder to be a Pastoral leader today. Because of radio and television everyone is one click away from listening to the sermons of the greatest preachers in the world. Sermons that are produced professionally with intro music and editing. We’re one mouse click away from looking at the websites of the largest churches and seeing their leadership structure and how effective their pastoral leaders look. We have a high standard today to compare our pastors to that is why I believe it is very important to heed the instruction to be confident on your leaders.
There is something that often happens to Pastors as a result of all this comparison. Many Pastors live in fear, fear that they won’t please people, fear that people won’t like their sermon, fear that people will leave their church. As a result in unhealthy leadership situations these Pastors end up trying to control the people of the church. They are motivated by the false thinking that what makes me powerful is fear and the threat of violence. If people are just afraid of me then they will obey me. This amounts to spiritual abuse, but is the story of many churches. When the Spirit of God shows up things are not like this. 2 Cor. 3:17 says “Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is Freedom.” When God’s Spirit is there, when a church is immersed in God’s presence then there is freedom. Today we need Spirit filled pastoral leaders. Spirit filled leaders create environments in which people feel both safe and free. People are designed to need a safe place. When God shows up people are free. When we feel free and sage, then I believe it is natural to have confidence in and obey our pastoral leaders.
This word confidence, may be translated obey in your bible as well. The word doesn’t mean blind obedience. It implies obedience after thoughtful consideration. We need to believe in our leaders today. We need to listen to their instruction and have confidence in their vision. When we undermine them, when we constantly second guess them and when we criticize them behind their back we make their leadership a burden and not a joy. It is of absolutely no benefit to us if our leaders our leading under burden and not joy.
Ephesians 4:16 says “From him the whole body, joined together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in live, as each part does it’s work.” God has designed us as a body and some in the body have been given the role of a leader. They were chosen and gifted by God for this role. Now listen to what this scripture is saying. We are all joined together. If we tear down our leaders we assault the ligaments that our holding the body together. It would be like tearing a ligament in your knee. That ligament being injured will affect the rest of the body. If your pastoral leader is burdened because a follower has torn them down then that follower will be hurt as well, because it is only by every supporting ligament that we grow and build ourselves up. If you want healthy spiritual growth then you need a healthy relationship with a pastoral leader. It is an awesome thing to have a pastor who is watching out for you, who loves you, who you can call when you are going through a difficult time. God designed the Christian life to work this way. We need our pastoral leaders and we need them to be leading with joy and excitement.
Sometimes pastoral leaders have to come to some one they are leading and confront them about a sin or an attitude. This is their biblical responsibility. Heb. 13:17 says they keep watch over your souls and one who must give account. Confronting someone never brings joy to a godly leader. They aren’t doing it because they want to make you look bad or because they are trying to exert power over you. They confront you because they want you to become more like Christ. How you respond shows whether or not you will submit to their leadership. Submission in this context simply means to yield or surrender.
In the church I was at previously we had two people who were consistently disobeying the leadership of the church. They were living in sin and in rebellion to authority and were causing division and disunity in the church. We had several meetings with these two people, but they were so prideful that they were unwilling to submit to pastoral leadership. They were bitter, angry and defensive. In the end they were told that if they continued in rebellion they would have to leave the church.
Maybe you’ve been confronted by pastoral leaders about something in your life. How did you respond? How will you respond if it happens in the future? My hope personally is that I will always respond in humility and confession. As a pastor in this church I am under the authority of the Elder board and Senior Pastor. I am also under the authority of the District leadership of our denomination. It isn’t healthy for us to not have someone in authority over us. Because being able to submit to spiritual authority is a sign of godly character. My mentor Bill once said “If you have difficulty submitting to authority, you will certainly have trouble exercising authority in a godly way.” For me personally submitting to authority and having confidence in my leaders is part of my personal spiritual formation and reflects on my character. I believe this is true for all of us.
Let’s go back to that verse about Saul in 1 Samuel 15:23. It says that rebellion is like the sin of divination. What that means in rebellion towards God or spiritual leaders is like denying God altogether and worshipping the devil. This is a word to listen to. We cannot set our own will above the command of God. The Holy Spirit will refuse to share space in your soul with a rebellious spirit. He will get up and leave, just like the Spirit of God left King Saul when he chose rebellion over submission and obedience. It you wants God’s anointing and favor on your life then you must make sure there is no rebellious spirit in your soul. And if you find there is one, you need to get rid of it.
God’s greatest desire is for us to share in his holiness. For our soul to prosper and for us to be conformed to the image of Christ who submitted to the Father even to his death.
God has placed in the church pastors and elders to help us on this journey. To be shepherds, guides and teachers for us. Being a church leader cares a lot of weight with it. The pressure to be on call 24 hours a day 7 days a week is never ending. The emotional toll of feeling some how responsible for every moral failure of every member is not easily forgotten about. The expectations of the church membership to spend hours in the office studying, yet visit every sick person in the hospital, comfort everyone who loses a loved one, be available at the moments notice for counseling, spend hours developing a vision and plan for the church, while not neglecting your personal walk with God can lead to a large weight on one’s shoulders. So when the church has confidence in their leaders, encourages them and tells them how much they are appreciated it makes a big difference. Then the leader leads with joy.
Let’s take a look at verses 18-19. The writer asks the church to pray for them. If we want our pastoral leaders to be great leaders then we need to pray for them. As a pastor in this church I ask for your prayers. Pray for us, pray for the leadership of this church, because we need God’s wisdom and empowerment in order to lead this church in restoring a passion for God and compassion for others.
When we support our leaders we grow individually and we grow corporately. I want Northside to always be a church where that is true, where we are growing individually and corporately. I believe there is a blessing we miss out on if we don’t honor our leaders. If Elisha, wouldn’t have honored Elijah he would had missed out on a blessing. If Timothy wouldn’t have honored Paul he would had missed out on a blessing that was given when Paul prayed for Timothy and the Holy Spirit gave him certain Spiritual gifts. Today I will miss out on a blessing, you will be out on a blessing and our church will miss out on a blessing unless we continually cultivate a healthy leadership culture, whereby each supporting ligament does its work so that they whole body will be built up. I don’t know about you, but I want to be blessed by God. I don’t want to miss out on any blessing. I count it as a blessing to be able to serve in this community.
God has designed for us to function in community. He has also given us certain rituals that were are to do in community. This morning we get to celebrate communion. Throughout scripture you see God give his people festivals, rituals and traditions. Rituals are helpful because they are something tangible, something we can get our hands around. The reason God gave us these rituals is that theological concepts are often hard for us to get and to remember. As humans we need something simple, to remind us of deep spiritual truths. God has given us communion for this very reason. This bread and this cup are simple things. But behind them there is so much truth, so much to meditate on, so much love and grace.
