Foundations for Healthy Church Relationships
Part 2 – Supporting the Leadership
Hebrews 13:17
August 29, 2010
Me: I’ve had good bosses and I’ve had bad bosses.
I’ve mentioned some of them, and I won’t get into all that, except to say that it’s easier to work for someone you not only get along with, but who also seems to know what they’re doing and is confident that they are taking the company in the right direction.
We: We all find it easier to follow a leader we not only get along with, but even more importantly, a leader who shares our goals for whatever that organization should stand for and work toward.
And in churches that’s especially true and especially important, because the Church is the chosen instrument of God for bringing about His plan on earth.
Many of you have been in churches where there has been good leadership – both in the pastor and in the elder board, or the local board of administration like we have in the Wesleyan Church.
Some of you have had situations in a church where you’ve had terrible leadership in one way or another.
And it not only makes the church ineffective, it brings heartache.
On the other hand, I can tell you the stories of pastors whose congregations are filled with strife and infighting, and no matter how hard he works, it’s never good enough, and they refuse to adopt Christ’s mission for the church.
Yet there are other pastors who can say that it’s a joy, because the leadership and congregation are serious about Jesus and about empowering the leadership to help them move on to greater effectiveness for Christ and His Kingdom.
And those churches are healthy and vibrant, filled with joy and seeing fruit in their efforts for Jesus.
God/You:
One of the keys to this is the attitude of the congregation toward its leadership – its pastor and other congregational leaders.
And there is a particular verse from Scripture that gives some insight into what that attitude should be.
Hebrews 13:17 –
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.
I’ve actually avoided preaching about this verse during my time here because I was afraid that it might be seen by some as looking for a way to force my personal agenda on the church, and that is not the case at all.
But as I was working and praying about what God would have me talk about in this area of healthy church relationships, there was no getting around this passage.
So let me just say that what I’m going to share with you is stuff that you can apply to any church you’re a part of. Okay?
Let’s look at some things this passage is NOT saying:
> The pastor is the dictator.
There are some pastors who think the church revolves around them, and that what they say goes, no matter what, and if anyone gets in their way, they’re shown the door so quick it makes their heads spin.
By the way, what does that mean, “so quick it makes their head spin?”
Some pastors think that they’re the only ones who know what’s going on or what God wants for that church, and they rule with an iron fist.
They throw the first part of this verse in the face of their congregation and just expect everyone to walk lock-step behind them and keep quiet about it.
Well, problem number one is that pastors don’t rule anything. They don’t have a kingdom. The church is ruled by Jesus, not by a board, not by a committee, not by a generous giver or a bunch of generous giver, and it’s certainly not ruled by a pastor.
Now, the pastor isn’t a hireling who needs to bow to every whim of everyone in the church, including the church board, either.
The pastor is a leader who is supposed to lead the church in effectiveness for Christ and His kingdom.
I’m going to talk about that more in a bit.
In the case of the Wesleyan Church, I am accountable to my boss, the District Superintendent, and the District Board of Administration.
They can and do remove pastors who get out of line. Dictator pastors don’t last long in our district.
A second thing this verse is NOT saying is…
> We are to blindly obey the leadership.
The fact is that you should be able to question your leaders, as long as it’s done in a gracious and adult manner and not like a spoiled child who doesn’t get their way about something.
I’ll also talk about that more later, because there are ways to talk to your leaders that are effective, and other ways that are not only ineffective, but sinful.
So what is this verse saying?
Support your leadership as they lead the church to greater effectiveness for Christ and His Kingdom.
I believe that this verse is saying that when the church leadership, after prayer and study, comes to a conclusion about a particular decision or course of action that they honestly believe is what would honor God or accomplish the task before them, the rest of congregation should come along and follow them in that.
Again, not out of blind disobedience, but because these leaders are hopefully godly men and women who are truly working to glorify God and advance His kingdom.
And if they get it wrong (which they probably will from time to time), you can trust that God will take care of it and make everything right as your leadership continues to seek God’s direction in things.
God’s real good at making lemonade out of the lemons we give Him at times.
A little later I’m going to talk about some ways you can support your leadership, but before I do that let me talk about this whole issue of what church leaders are supposed to do:
Church leaders are called to lead the church. Sounds simple and basic, right? But let’s explore it a bit.
Leaders in the church aren’t just supposed to be figureheads or powerbrokers in the church.
Leading implies that the congregation must actually be moving – hopefully forward.
To what destination? Fulfilling the Great Commission in the spirit of the Great Commandment.
Your leadership’s job is to help this church make disciples of all people groups, and doing it in the context of loving God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and our neighbors as ourselves.
The task Jesus gave the Church was to help as many people as possible come to faith in Christ and live for Him.
It’s the responsibility of the leadership to help the church understand that mission and work toward it.
The two hardest parts of that leadership task are:
* Convincing the people of the church that the real mission is the Commission.
I can tell you that this is probably the hardest part for leaders in churches that have become self-focused and ingrown.
They see themselves as the reason the church exists, and they expect the leadership to cater to them.
But since that’s not the biblical reason the church exists, it’s up to the leadership of that church to turn the focus outward to those who face an eternity in hell because they don’t know Jesus.
* Determining the best way to do that in their cultural setting.
The message of Jesus is the same in every possible cultural setting. Jesus came to die for sins and to make salvation possible for every person who will take the offer.
That message can never change.
However, the methods have to change depending on the people you’re trying to reach.
The way we do things here won’t necessarily work at the He Sapa Church in Rapid City or any of our other reservation churches being pastored by Native Americans.
You know, the most amazing thing happened when the leadership of the Wesleyan Church decided to get out of the way and let the Native pastors work within their culture to reach people with the good news of Jesus: Native Americans started coming to Christ!
They started seeing that Jesus isn’t a white man’s God, but that He is the Creator of heaven and earth and that He loves them and came for them every bit as much He came for white men and black men and yellow men and purple men – Vikings football players and fans.
How we do ministry in Aberdeen is different from how it would be done in Haiti, or in Africa, or even Minnesota, where our church pot-lucks would run heavily things like lefse and lutefisk…
Street preaching seems to have some degree of effectiveness in some big cities.
Here in Aberdeen, that would attract some lookers, but few, if anyone, would take that person seriously.
How we worship here in Aberdeen is different than worship in Ecuador or Australia or Liberia. Or an Ethiopian congregation in San Diego.
One of the most challenging aspects of leadership is trying to determine what God would have us do in this context – the Aberdeen area.
Lots of great stuff and methods out there – but what will be the most effective here – that’s the challenge.
Let’s look at some ways to support your leadership:
1. Pray for your pastor and leadership board.
This verse says something very profound: that your leaders are accountable to God for how they lead the church.
Hardly a day goes by, and not a single Sunday goes by that this doesn’t weigh heavily on my soul.
And this is why there have been things over these last ten years that I have hammered over and over, and some things that have simply been non-negotiable for me regarding the direction I’m trying to lead this church to be more effective in reaching people for Jesus and making disciples.
My unwillingness to bend on those has angered some, and some have even left because of some of these things.
And while I think I’ve learned a bit about how to be somewhat less offensive about these things, they are still the bedrocks of my ministry.
Why? Because I know that I will have to answer to God for my time here, and I don’t want to say that I abandoned the mission for the sake of having everyone like me.
You Local Board of Administration is under the same charge. They will also be held accountable for their time in leadership.
So we need your prayers. A lot. Mucho lots whole bunches.
We truly want what God wants for this church. And our board meetings aren’t just times of discussion, they are also times of prayer. If you want to come to a board meeting (usually 2nd Tuesday of the month at 6:30), you will be invited to join in prayer with us at the end of the meeting.
And hey – can I give you one more suggestion? Send a letter of encouragement to your board members when you think they’re doing a good job.
I can guarantee you that it will be blessing to them, because like most people in leadership, they only hear from people when they’re perceived as doing badly – never when they’re doing good.
By the way, in case you didn’t know who they are, your board members are Lowell Harms, Pat Stoebner, Beth Schwab, and Bruce Harms.
Please pray for us. We really need it.
2. Get on board with the essential mission of the Church.
I talked about this at length last week when we talked about unity in the church, so I won’t spend a lot of time on this.
What I want to point out here is that if you are on the same page regarding the essential mission of the church to make disciples for Jesus, both in our area and around the world, then supporting your leadership becomes a whole lot easier.
On the other hand, if you’re not on board with that essential mission, then you’ll find yourself at odds with the leadership a lot, and you end up being what this verse calls a burden.
This verse says that this is not profitable for you – in other words, you are hurt by this as much as the church congregation is hurt.
If you really can’t buy into that essential mission, then that church isn’t the church you should be in.
You should be part of a church whose mission you can get on the same page with, so you can serve effectively there.
One of the best ways to be supportive of your church’s leadership is to get on board with the essential mission of the Church.
3. Bring your concerns to the leadership in a loving, gracious, adult manner.
There is no way that you’re going to agree with everything that goes on in a church, even if you’re on board with the essential mission of that church.
If you don’t agree with the mission of the church, you’ll find little to agree with in any case.
But even when you do agree with the mission of the church, you will still find some things you disagree with, or at least have questions about.
In either situation, there are right ways and wrong ways to handle those disagreements.
The wrong ways include things like grumbling about the leadership, gathering people together to get rid of the leadership, starting whisper campaigns against them, or bringing division and dissension.
All of these are things that the Bible calls sin, and are definitely not of God.
Other things that don’t work are things like anonymous letters and e-mails, and crashing board meetings.
By the way, board meetings are open to everyone, and if you show up early, you may get some food to boot!
If you have a concern you want the board to discuss, you need to visit with a board member or myself at least a few days ahead of the meeting, and we’ll see about getting it on the agenda of that meeting.
If we don’t think it’s something that should be handled through a board meeting, we’ll work with you to solve the situation another way.
If you are concerned for the church or its leadership, then you need to handle those concerns in a way that is Biblical and honors Jesus – who, of course, owns the church and is much more concerned about it than you are, and who has laid down guidelines for this kind of thing.
So bring your concerns privately, either to the pastor or to a board member, in our case.
Share your concerns calmly and preferably in person.
Or in a signed letter addressed to and sent to the leader you have concerns with.
If you do that, your leaders are much more likely to listen and take your concern seriously, and if the leaders are wrong about your concern, they are much more likely to see their mistake and make it right.
I can also tell you that every single one of your leaders, including myself will listen and carefully consider your concern.
We may part still disagreeing, but you’ll know that we have listened to you and carefully and prayerfully considered what you have to say.
4. Bring positive solutions for your concerns.
Anyone can complain and whine. Christians seem to be really good at it, for some reason.
But if you’ll take the time to think and pray about a solution for your concern, then you’re much more likely to gain a hearing and be taken seriously.
So if you come to us with a concern, and you have a way to meet that concern, that’s a blessing for us.
Even if we don’t agree with your concern or adopt your solution, we are blessed because we see that this isn’t just an excuse to complain, but something you really believe in and were willing to think through before coming to us.
That gives you credibility and makes it very likely that we’ll listen closely whenever you bring a concern.
We: Folks, in many churches there is an “us vs. them” mentality between the congregation and its leadership.
That’s sad, because it makes that church a battleground instead of family of believers committed to Christ and His Kingdom.
It also tells the world that they can’t handle their issues any better than the world can handle theirs, and they don’t have Christ and His Spirit.
You may not always agree with everything your leadership does, but one thing we can do is to show the world that we trust God to handle it, even if the leadership gets it wrong.
Show them that ultimately, our trust is in God Himself, and that we trust that our leadership is in His hands.
If we can do that, I believe that any church will be more effective in reaching people for Jesus, and will enjoy healthy relationships in the church.
Let’s pray.
