Mark McCrindle is social researcher from the University of NSW who is interested in the changing face of our country. Recently he sampled 5,000 people for their views on leadership (report 16 September 2010). Who is the leader you most admire in history? Winston Churchill was on top with 8.2% of the vote which is a lot considering any person in history could be chosen. Churchill was closely followed by Gandhi and Martin Luther King (both on 6%), next is Jesus with 5.1% of the vote, and not too far behind was Nelson Mandela with 4.8%.
More than two-thirds of the respondents preferred to a leader who is relational rather than authoritarian. In order of preference, research shows that we want leaders who are (1) honest, reliable and confidential, (2) who are inspiring and energetic, and (3) who are consultative and approachable. A quarter of Australians say they would prefer a male leader (24.9%), compared to 10.7% who prefer a female leader. Almost half those surveyed didn’t care if their leader was younger or older than themselves (46.2%). What is clear, though, is that Australians don’t like the traditional models of authoritative leadership. As Groucho Marx once said, ‘Only one man in a thousand is a leader of men—the other 999 follow women’.
So what model of leadership does God like? What are the important qualities for a Christian leader? What is the character of the leader that God admires?
God has a history of appointing leaders. Consider Moses. The Israelites are oppressed in Egypt and the promises made to Abraham seem in tatters. So God organises Moses to meet him at Mt Sinai. ‘And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.” But Moses said to God, “Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” And God said, “I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain”’ (Exod 3:9–12).
A leader is a person who takes people from one place to another place. Moses is called by God to take the Israelites out of Egypt, across the desert to Mt Sinai, then across more desert to the Promised Land. At first Moses resists his calling, yet God delivers Israel through the faithfulness of his reluctant leader. But when Moses publicly dishonours God, God is swift to act (Num 20:1–12). Although the winging and wining Israelites were constantly dishonouring God, yet it was incumbent upon God’s leader to model a righteous life. His failure to do so meant that Moses did not enter the Promised Land.
Yet such is character of Moses that he utters these words in Numbers 27:15, ‘”May the LORD, the God of the spirits of all mankind, appoint a man over this community to go out and come in before them, one who will lead them out and bring them in, so the Lord’s people will not be like sheep without a shepherd”’ (Num 27:15–17). With his leadership coming to an end, Moses prays that the Lord’s people will not be like a sheep without a shepherd. There is no immediate answer to this prayer. The history of Israel is one of rebellious people and failed leadership.
What is God’s response to failed leadership? Ezekiel 34. “This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Woe to the shepherds of Israel who only take care of themselves! Should not shepherds take care of the flock? You eat the curds, clothe yourselves with the wool and slaughter the choice animals, but you do not take care of the flock. You have not strengthened the weak or healed the sick or bound up the injured. You have not brought back the strays or searched for the lost. You have ruled them harshly and brutally’ (Ezek 34:2–4).
God’s response is the promise of a new shepherd. Ezek 34:24, ‘I will place over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he will tend them; he will tend them and be their shepherd’. It is only when we get to Jesus do we find a King who shepherds the people of God with integrity and justice, with honesty and truth. ‘I am the good shepherd’, Jesus says, ‘I know my sheep and my sheep know me’ (John 10:14). ‘I am the good shepherd’, Jesus says, ‘The good shepherd lays down his life for his sheep’ (John 10:11). Here is the shepherd who will lead his people out of captivity into a new land. Here is a shepherd who is willing to lay down his life for his sheep. Here is the shepherd who will model righteousness to his people. Here is a shepherd who will not fail!
We’re used to those in authority harshly exercising their rule. It was no different in the time of Jesus. In the first century, the Roman Empire harshly imposed its rule upon others. It was a topic of conversation between Jesus and the disciples: ‘“You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many”’ (Mark 10:42–45).
What model of leadership does God like? He wants leaders willing to lay down their life for the sheep. He wants leaders who serve and love their people. He wants leaders who are godly, leaders who stand before the people and boldly speak his Word. God wants leaders who are brave. When the Lord spoke to Joshua, he said, ‘Be strong and courageous, because you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their forefathers to give them. Be strong and very courageous’ (Josh 1:6–7a).
When Paul left Crete, he assigned Titus the job of appointing elders. We don’t know how many churches were on Crete, but Homer (not to be confused with Homer Simpson)—this Homer lived in the ninth century B.C. and he refers to the island as ‘Crete of the hundred cities’. It was heavily populated and the church needed to be organised. It’s priorities needed to be set so, as Paul puts it in 3:8, ‘so that those who have trusted in God maybe careful to devote themselves to doing what is good’. Ministry is about people. It’s about organising people around the gospel of grace. It’s about teaching sound doctrine (Titus 2:1). It’s about us all learning to devote ourselves to doing what is good.
In Crete there were leaders who Paul describes in verse 10 as ‘mere talkers and deceivers’. These leaders ‘must be silenced because they are ruining whole households by teach things they ought not to teach’ (Titus 1:11). There’s an old saying that the way to become a leader is to find a parade and run to the front of it. And that’s exactly what these false teachers have done. They’ve jumped to the front of the queue and now they’re steering the procession the wrong way.
Against this backdrop, Titus is to appoint elders with a sense of urgency. How he is to do that is described in Titus 1:6–9. One of the key tasks for pastors and elders is to frame their lives so that they serve as a godly model for others. As you look down this list you will find that elders should have an MBA, you will see that skills in the corporate world are up there, an elder must have strong negotiation skills. You will see that an elder must technologically savvy. An elder must have a forceful personality and must not suffer under fools.
If you’re seeing these qualities in verses 6 to 9 you are not looking at the Bible. Sell whatever you’re reading and get yourself a copy of God’s word. And in it you’ll see that Titus is to appoint leaders who are Christ-like men. Men who exhibit Christ-like Christianity. He to appoint men who are dependent upon the Word of God and nothing else. These are the central qualities.
But this isn’t just a word for leaders. This a word for all of God’s people because we are all called to live this way. All of God’s people are to be Christ-like people. All of God’s people are to live according to God’s word by the power of God’s Spirit.
Leaders have the responsibility of publicly living out the Christian life. They have the responsibility of serving as an example for others—which is why in Titus 1 the requirements are character and lifestyle. And elders cannot model perfection—that would be impossible! As Paul says to Timothy, ‘Practice these things, immerse yourself in them, so that all may see your progress’ (1 Tim 4:15). Elders are to set an example as people who publicly strive for holiness. At the most profound level, leaders are to model the way of the cross. They must be people who know and tell the truth, encouraging others by their sound doctrine and refuting those who oppose the gospel.
In verses 5 to 9, Paul uses three words to describe the godly leader. He is an elder (verse 6), he is an overseer (verse 7), and what’s not immediately obvious from the NIV, in verse 7 the leader is also a steward. It’s much clearer in the ESV which translates verse 7 as, ‘For an overseer, as God’s steward, must be above reproach’. So the church leader is an elder, an overseer and a steward.
The word ‘elder’ comes from the Greek word πρεσβύτερος which translates ‘Presbyterian’ (that’s one Greek word we all should know). Therefore, our leadership is a group of πρεσβύτεροι, elders who meet together regularly. The elder as an ‘overseer’ simply stresses his role as one who watches and guards the people entrusted to him. In the early days, the steward was the man whom a wealthy master would put in charge of his household or business. It is a position of responsibility. And so ‘The elder/overseer is a person chosen by God to direct the affairs of the church (1 Tim 5:17) and who is entrusted with the church as God’s household (cf. 1 Tim. 3:5–6, 15). Therefore, his life must show that he truly is God’s steward by displaying God’s transforming grace’.
Occasionally it’s said that we should ignore the personal life of our politicians as long as they can do the public job. Well its not like that in the church. Character comes first. D.L. Moody says that, ‘Character is what you are in the dark’. And Ronald Reagan rather strangely said, ‘You can tell a lot about a fellow’s character by his way of eating jellybeans’. So what sought of men should we appoint as church elders? What does God expect from those men already holding this office?
Paul uses the word ‘blameless’ twice in verses 6 and 7. Above reproach—there can be no legitimate reason to accuse him of any wrongdoing. One of the hard things about describing character is that words often fall short. It’s easy to rattle off a list and say someone should be like this.
But character describes the condition of the heart. It is who we are at the deepest and most profound level. Paul is talking about what drives a person and mere words seem to skate across the surface. But words we have and this is who an elder must be. As Campbell says, ‘Morally and spiritually, the elder is to be exemplary. No one should be able to accuse him of either serious misconduct or a general pattern of inappropriate behaviour. He should have a good reputation among outsiders and within the church as well. And as far as doctrine is concerned, he should be sound’.
An elder must be blameless and this ought to begin at home. Now don’t you go asking my wife what I’m like at home, for I’m afraid that you’ll get a truthful answer! I’m so grateful to John Stott who says, ‘‘This does not of course mean that candidates must be flawless or faultless, or we would all be disqualified’. Nevertheless, home must reflect the direction of the elder’s heart. So the elder must be the husband of one wife. I’ve heard some interesting objections to this assertion. Objection 1: can’t a single man or a widower be an elder? Yes, of course he can. Paul is writing to lots of people and he’s addressing the common situation.
The basic idea is that of faithfulness. No married man is to be made an elder unless he has been faithful to his wife. If he has taken additional wives or has been guilty of adultery, he is disqualified. In Paul’s day, it was common for husbands to sleep with other women. In the community of Jesus Christ, however, a very different standard is to prevail. There is not even to be a hint of sexual immorality. Christian husbands are to be faithful to their wives. And in this matter, the elders are to take the lead. Elders are to be patterns of marital purity. This is very much a word for us today—for both men and women.
The elder must be the husband of one wife. Objection 2: does this mean that elders must be men? God does not directly answer this question in our passage. At the very least, as Paul describes the general situation, the description is that elders are men. But the general doesn’t necessarily describe the particular, but the general can’t be ignored, either. We need to draw upon other passages to address the validity, or otherwise, of women elders and this is a debate for another time.
Instead, Paul briskly moves from the wife to the children. An elder must be a ‘man whose children believe and are not open to the charge of being wild or disobedient’. (v.6). Not only must the elder be a faithful husband, he must be a good father. He must be a man whose children believe and are not open to the charge of being wild or disobedient. Again, Paul is speaking to the general situation. He is not saying that a single man, or a widower, or a man who has no children, or a man who has only one child—he is not saying that these people cannot be elders. But for the most part, the men in the Cretan church who were eligible for eldership were married men with children—as is often the case in our churches. It is this general situation that Paul has in mind.
Now we might infer from verse 6 it that an elder must have Christian children—children who believe. But the context suggests that Paul has in mind behaviour rather than belief. Instead of ‘children who believe’—children who are faithful to their father. The NIV has gone one way, but make it makes more sense to choose the other option. Rather than belief, Paul is insisting that an elder’s children must be under his control and therefore ‘not open to the charge of being wild or disobedient’ (v.6). The issue is one of behaviour rather than belief.
Paul makes the same point to Timothy, ‘The overseer […] must manage his own family well and see that his children obey him with proper respect’. Then follows the reason, ‘If anyone does not know how to manage his own family, how can he take care of God’s church’? (1 Tim 3:5). Failure in one area will lead to failure in the other. Someone has said, ‘If a man’s life cannot stand the scrutiny of his wife and children, we dare not put our souls under his care’.
So an elder must be able to stand free from accusation, and the apostle gives us five examples in verse 7. ‘Since an overseer is entrusted with God’s work, he must be blameless—not overbearing, not quick-tempered, not given to drunkenness, not violent, not pursuing dishonest gain’. A church must never appoint an overbearing, self-willed or arrogant man—a man who always wants his own way, a person who likes to control other people. An elder must be blameless in this area. Like the Lord Jesus, elders should be humble, gracious, kind, and ready to serve; men who are prepared to spend and be spent for the sake of God’s people.
He must not be ‘quick-tempered’. An elder must be able to handle difficult situations and awkward, irritating people without exploding. An elder must be above reproach. Eldership requires patience and the ability to give the ‘gentle answer’ that ‘turns away wrath’ (Prov. 15:1).
He must not be ‘given to drunkenness’. If a man doesn’t know when to stop drinking too much, if this is an area where he lacks self-control, he is not to be given oversight of a Christian assembly. An elder must not be accused of drunkenness. He must not be a ‘violent’ man. Lots of tensions arise in the church—in congregational meetings, in counselling sessions and elders’ meetings! A man who would be an elder must be able to handle these tensions without becoming violent. An elder must leave no room for accusation. He needs to have a peaceable and gentle disposition.
He must not be a man who pursues ‘dishonest gain’. There were false teachers in Crete and in verse 11 we learn that one of their characteristics was a pursuit of dishonest gain. They were greedy for money and they didn’t hesitate to stoop to dishonesty in order to get it. God says that no-one who behaves like that is fit for the eldership. An elder must be above reproach. An elder must be a man of the strictest integrity as far as money is concerned.
All of us need restraint in the Christian life. We need to know what lines not to cross and we need to have these boundaries set out clearly. We need to understand that God is holy and this carries certain responsibilities as we fellowship with him. As the writer to the Hebrews says—Heb 12:28, ‘Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our “God is a consuming fire”’. As Paul gives advice to Titus as he appoints elders, he gives advice to us all. We have the joy of knowing what not to do as we relate to a holy God. And elders are reminded of their obligation to pattern life as overseers and stewards, keeping watch over the people that God has entrusted to them.
