When I was writing my dissertation last year and earlier this year I had to read over 100 different books and articles about leadership. One of the authors I encountered again and again was Dr. Warren Bennis, who teaches at leadership USC. One of the more interesting books by Dr. Bennis is called Why Leaders Can’t Lead. In that book, Dr. Bennis claims that there’s an unconscious conspiracy against genuine leadership in our culture today that inadvertently undermines genuine leadership. This conspiracy is one reason why, according to Bennis, American society is producing so few genuine, authentic leaders.
I’m not much for conspiracy theories, but certainly there’s a leadership crisis today. This crisis in leadership is also evident in the Christian church.
Many futurists are predicting a major clergy crisis in the next several years which will force most smaller churches with less than 100 people to either close their doors or share a pastor with one or more other small churches. Many pastors and church leaders complain about frustration in the area of leadership.
Churches can be very resistant to leadership, especially when leadership means changing. In fact, I’d say this is probably the biggest frustration I hear about when I’m around other pastors.
Yet it’s vitally important for the future of the Christian faith in our generation that church leadership be strong and healthy. When you think about it, it’s even more important for Church leadership to function properly than leadership in our public schools, our city governments, our military, even our federal government. That’s because, according to the Bible, the Christian Church is God’s primary tool for working out his purposes in the world. If God’s primary tool for accomplishing his purpose isn’t working properly, then God’s purpose is being frustrated. If God’s purpose in the world is being frustrated, that effects all levels of society, not just the Church.
Today we’re going to talk about honoring our spiritual leaders in the Christian community. Now let me give you a disclaimer today: I feel very uncomfortable addressing this topic with you. A pastor who speaks to his congregation about honoring church leaders seems about as tacky as congress voting themselves a raise. Talking about this subject feels a bit like how I feel when I watch the academy awards, with the entire entertainment industry congratulating themselves. This is a topic I’d be much more comfortable avoiding or perhaps invite a guest speaker to address.
But when God called me to communicate the Bible, he didn’t just ask me to speak to topics I’m comfortable with, but he called me to speak to every topic the Bible addresses. And whether I’m comfortable with it or not, the Bible addresses the issue of honoring our spiritual leaders. But please check up on everything I say today against the biblical text, just in case my ego gets in the way and distorts my words in some way.
Now we’ve been in a series through the New Testament books of 1 and 2 Timothy we’ve called Deepening Your Life With God. In this series we’ve seen that a deepened life with God is a direct result of accurate beliefs, spiritual practices, and authentic community with other Christians. Authentic community takes place in the context of the Christian Church, and leadership is essential for authentic community in the Church to occur. Without effective leadership we won’t experience the kind of authentic Christian community we need to deepen our lives with God. Today we’re going to see four ways to honor our spiritual leaders from 1 Timothy 5:17-25.
1. FINANCIAL SUPPORT (1 Timothy 5:17-18)
Let’s look at vv. 17 and 18 together. What connects this section to the previous 16 verses in chapter 5 is the idea of "honor." We saw last week that the key to closing the generation gap was mutual respect or honor between older people and younger people. Here Paul continues talking about honor as it relates to our spiritual leaders.
Paul focuses his attention here on church elders. Elders were the primary church leaders in the first century Christian church. Each local church had a group of elders who guided that congregation forward in spiritual growth and ministry. These elders taught people the Bible, empowered church members to serve, helped the congregation stay focused on God’s plan, and protected the congregation against doctrinal error and false teaching.
To become an elder, a person had to meet certain standards. We looked at some of those standards back in 1 Timothy chapter 3, and we saw that most of the biblical standards focus on character rather than abilities. Leadership skills are important to eldership, but not nearly as important as integrity. And no amount of leadership ability can compensate for a lack of integrity.
Here we learn that there were different kinds of elders in the New Testament church. There were some elders who were volunteer, or what we call "lay elders" here at LBF Church. The majority were "lay elders," working full-time jobs to support their families and then overseeing the church as volunteers. Currently we have two lay elders as well as three apprentice lay elders in training.
But there were some elders who were specially gifted to lead the church full-time. These are called "those who direct the affairs of the church well." These are elders who were especially effective at leadership. Perhaps they had the spiritual gift of leadership described in 1 Corinthians 12:28. These were elders who were called to full-time leadership in the church because of their outstanding effectiveness as leaders.
There were also some elders who were specially gifted to preaching and teaching the Bible full-time. These are elders who aren’t just "able to teach" (which is required of all elders) but these are elders who’ve been given a special spiritual gift of communicating the Christian faith to people. For these elders, their primary calling is to study the Bible and then communicate the Bible to people. Paul views this as labor, as the word "work" in v. 17 implies.
Those called to lead full time and teach full time are worthy of what Paul calls "double honor." Now some people take this to be double the salary of other staff elders who also paid but who aren’t outstanding in leadership and teaching. It’s more likely that "double honor" here refers to two different kinds of honor. You see, all the elders--both lay elders and staff elders--are worthy of an attitude of honor because of the role they play in leading the church. But those who lead particularly well and those whose calling is communicating the Bible are also worthy of the church’s financial support, which is a second kind of honor. This is where we get our English
word honorarium, which means financial support as an act of honor. So the double honor is two distinct kinds of honor: an attitude of honor and honorarium.
Now to support this claim that some church leaders should be paid, Paul appeals to the Bible itself. From the Old Testament in the Bible, Paul quotes Deuteronomy 25:4. Now back in the ancient world farmers would bring an ox into their threshing floor, where they harvested their wheat. The ox would then trample the wheat with its hooves, thereby separating the wheat from the chaff so it could be harvested (Marshall 615). This Old Testament law from Deuteronomy forbids a farmer from muzzling the ox as it tramples the wheat. Instead, they should allow the ox to eat some of the wheat as it works. Paul is saying that pastors are like oxen, not a very flattering picture. Just as the ox has a right to benefit from its labor, so also the church leader called to full-time leading or teaching has a right to financial support from the church.
From the New Testament Paul quotes Luke 10:7, where Jesus says, "The worker deserves his wages." Jesus said this in connection with church workers deserving to be financially supported by those they serve in ministry. The Greek word "worker" here refers a day laborer hired by a farmer to work in the fields. These are the people hanging out on the street, waiting for someone to pick them up and give them a job for the day. So in addition to being like oxen, church leaders are like day laborers.
So here we find the first way to honor our spiritual leaders. WE HONOR OUR SPIRITUAL LEADERS BY SUPPORTING THEM FINANCIALLY.
This applies to those church leaders who lead particularly well and those who are called to communicate the Bible as their full-time job. Some people claim that the idea of a paid pastor is not a biblical concept. However, here we find that God intends for most churches to have at least one paid pastor or elder who leads well and who labors hard at communicating the Christian faith.
Now since I as a staff pastor at this church, I approach this issue with a sense of caution. Very few people in the world get to be paid for doing what they love to do. Very few people have the great honor of investing their work hours directly into God’s kingdom work. I couldn’t think of anything else I’d rather be doing than leading and teaching the Bible. I know I speak for the rest of our staff in saying we’re grateful for this and we don’t take it for granted. We have six pastors on staff--three full-time and three part-time--and none of us view this as a job. All of us have a sense of calling to be here.
Many churches are not as generous to their paid staff as our congregation is. In more and more congregations, pastors have to work a second job just to support their family, and in many cases the church could afford to meet the pastor’s needs. The attitude of church members seems to be, "Lord, you keep him humble and we’ll keep him poor."
But it also bothers me when pastors and church leaders develop a sense of entitlement from church members. Some pastors assume that church members owe them free stuff and discounted rates. These pastors never expect to pay full price for services rendered from church members. Often they use their position as a pastor to try to get discounted deals and special breaks. At times people give me a special break because I’m a pastor, but I try to never expect it, never assume it, and never ask for it. But I have to constantly guard my expectations, because its easy to develop that attitude of entitlement
But church leaders called to full time leadership and teaching are to be supported financially by the church. This is the first tangible way we honor our church leaders.
2. FAIR TREATMENT (1 Timothy 5:19-21)
Paul transitions from financial support of leaders to handling accusations against spiritual leaders in vv. 19-21. To "entertain" an accusation against someone is to accept that accusation as true and accurate. No accusation against an elder is to be considered as true unless that accusation comes from at least two witnesses. The requirement for two or three witnesses was an Old Testament principle for how the nation of Israel handled criminal accusations, that no person was convicted of a crime on the basis of a single person’s testimony. Independent confirmation was needed for an accusation to be considered true and valid.
Why demand two or three witnesses? Because church leaders live open, public lives, they are particularly vulnerable to false accusations. It seems like every year Leadership Journal, a quarterly journal for pastors, has at least one article about a pastor who’s ministry was destroyed by false accusation.
I’ve never been falsely accused of something, but I do know that being a public leader opens you and your family up to a lot of criticism. I often get notes and emails that criticize me or decisions I’ve made as a leader, and I know our other staff experience this as well sometimes. Many of these criticisms are anonymous notes or emails, and though I try to listen to each one carefully, I have to guard my heart against getting too discouraged, because this is simply part of being a public leader. Trying to lead means some people won’t like you and will always assume the worst about you.
Yet sometimes accusations against church leaders are true and can be verified by more than one witness. In this case, church leaders who are guilty of such sin are to be rebuked publicly. Now surely this doesn’t refer to all sin, because if it did, my commission as an elder would’ve only lasted about ten minutes. Surely the kinds of sins Paul has in mind in v. 20 are the kinds of sins that disqualify a person from being an elder or church leader. So the context suggests that we should limit the sin demanding public rebuke as sins that disqualify the elder from the qualifications listed in chapter 3 of 1 Timothy. If an elder must be faithful to his wife to qualify as an elder as 1 Tim 3:2 requires, then unfaithfulness to his wife would qualify for public rebuke. If an elder is to be "not given to drunkenness" as 1 Tim 3:3 requires, then drunkenness would qualify for public rebuke. Other sins qualifying for public rebuke would be violence, out of control anger, greed, and false teaching.
Paul then gives Timothy a solemn charge to deal with all accusations against church leaders without partiality or favoritism.
So here we find the second way to honor our spiritual leaders. WE HONOR OUR SPIRITUAL LEADERS BY TREATING THEM FAIRLY.
Leadership is difficult work. Not just in the church, but leadership in general is difficult, risky work. When you lead in a public way, people don’t like you, people say bad things about you, and people even sometimes verbally attack you. According to a study conducted by Christianity Today, one fourth of pastors can expect to be fired or forced to resign at least once during their ministries. The primary reason for forced termination of pastors is conflicting vision over the church, which is a leadership issue. Most often it’s not an issue of sin, but an issue of leadership. A lot of churches treat their pastors and church leaders the way professional sports franchise treat their manager when the team doesn’t perform well. If the team doesn’t produce, the manager is fired. Often the manager is no more than a scapegoat for the organization, and I’ve seen quite a few pastors treated as scapegoats. So this injunction is designed to help protect church leaders from false accusation.
But it’s also designed to give the church a process when an elder does disqualify himself from serving in leadership. Sometimes church leaders do disqualify themselves. It’s happened in our past here at LBF Church, and it could happen again at some point in our future. I hope to God it never happens to me, but I’m not so arrogant to say it never could. This gives us a fair process to go through. So a second way we honor our leaders is treating them fairly.
3 . EXPECTING INTEGRITY (1 Timothy 5:22, 24-25)
Now look at vv. 22-25. We’ll talk about v. 23 in a minute, so let’s pass over that verse for now. In the Bible, people laid hands on someone to commission them or acknowledge God’s calling in their lives. So when a person was commissioned to a special ministry, the church leaders would place their hands on the person in prayer as a way of visibly acknowledging God’s calling in that person’s life. When I was ordained to pastoral ministry, the church placed their hands on me in prayer.
Now what does the laying on of hands refer to here? Now up until this week I had always assumed this section was referring to the appointment of new elders. The logic went something like this: "Be fair to elders when they’re accused, and if they are found guilty of disqualifying themselves from ministry, be sure to rebuke them publicly. By the way, when you appoint new elders don’t be too hasty but give the process time." Thus the point would be to make sure you know someone’s character before appointing them to church leadership. Some people’s character flaws are obvious for all to see, but other people’s flaws take time to see.
But this week I discovered that there’s another way to understand this text that makes some sense. If the context is removing church leaders who’ve disqualified themselves from ministry by sinning, it’s possible to take v. 22 as referring to the restoration of these sinning elders back into leadership. So the laying on of hands here isn’t so much commissioning new elders, as much as it’s recommissioning failed elders who are being restored. So the idea would be something like this: "Be fair with your leaders. Don’t accept false accusations. But if an accusation that disqualifies the person from leadership is true, remove that person from leadership, publicly rebuking him. Don’t be hasty in reappointing that person to leadership because if you do, you’ll share in his sins." I think this makes better sense in the context.
Whichever interpretation we favor, the point here is similar. Don’t appoint or reappoint people to church leadership too hastily, but make sure you know their character first. Some people appear charming and spiritual at first, but as time goes by you begin to see deep seated character flaws. It takes time to get to know a person’s character.
So this is the third way we honor our leaders. WE HONOR OUR LEADERS BY EXPECTING THEM TO ACT WITH INTEGRITY.
It might sound odd that expecting our leaders to act with integrity honors them, but it makes sense when you think about it. There’s an honor that goes with being a church leader because it’s a noble, honorable calling to serve in Jesus’ Church as a leader. To expect our leaders to live consistently with the honor of that calling really does honor our leaders.
Now don’t confuse integrity with perfection. If leaders had to be perfect, the only church leader would be Jesus, because he’s the only sinless person. Integrity doesn’t even mean close to perfect. Integrity means that a person’s private life and public life are consistent, that the leader is seeking to live a lifestyle that reflects the values of Jesus.
A person with integrity is brutally honest about his or her shortcomings and failures, but they’re not content to stay there. They want to grow, to move forward, even while being honest with where they fall short.
People can have some pretty odd expectations of pastors and their families. George Barna did a study of pastor and congregations about ten years ago, and he noted that many pastors and church leaders struggle with unrealistic expectations. Barna says, "Many pastors are doomed from the day they join a congregation because the congregation’s expectations are unachievable by any human being. No matter how skilled, how loving, how intelligent or how experienced the pastor might be, the people of the church expect too much too quickly from the pastor to have much chance of succeeding in their eyes" (Barna 154). But one thing we can expect from all our pastors and church leaders is integrity. We honor our leaders by expecting it.
4. ENCOURAGING A HEALTHY LIFESTYLE (1 Timothy 5:23)
Now at first v. 23 seems totally out of place. We read that and ask, "Where did that come from?" What does drinking wine for your health have to do with financially supporting our leaders, treating them fairly, and expecting them to act with integrity?
I think the key is in the last part of v. 22, when Paul tells Timothy to keep himself pure. In chapter 3 Paul warned against drunkenness among church leaders, that being addicted to alcohol disqualifies a person from spiritual leadership. Mostly likely, in his passion to be pure and avoid controversy, Timothy simply abstained from alcohol completely.
Now there’s nothing wrong with that in itself. I completely abstain from alcohol, not to be pure, but because as a recovering alcoholic , I know just one drink could lead me down a path of self-destruction. But Timothy was apparently abstaining from all alcohol in his zeal to be pure before God.
Now it was commonly believed in the ancient world that wine had important medicinal value. So Timothy’s total abstinence from wine was hurting his health, leading to stomach problems and frequent illnesses. So Paul tells Timothy that he can keep himself pure before God without hurting his health. In fact, Paul doesn’t want Timothy to engage in actions that will hurt his health, even if those actions are done in the name of being pure before God.
So the principle here is for Timothy to life a healthy lifestyle, with the application of the principle for Timothy to drink some wine in moderation.
So here we find a fourth way to honor our spiritual leaders. WE HONOR OUR SPIRITUAL LEADERS BY ENCOURATING THEM TO LIVE A HEALTHY LIFESTYLE.
For Timothy this meant taking small amounts of wine in moderation for his stomach problems and frequent illnesses. For us it means encouraging our leaders to do things that will keep them healthy for the long haul.
Leadership Journal did a survey of the typical work week of a pastor. They found that the typical pastor works about 55 hours a week, and spends four nights out of his home a week engaged in ministry related activities. That seems a bit too much to me.
But I can understand the drive to put in more hours. When you love what you do, you tend to focus all of your energy and attention on it. I take my work home with me all the time, and it’s not uncommon for me to be reading a commentary on a passage I’m preaching on that week, reading a book on church leadership, or working on my sermon at the kitchen table. I truly enjoy what I do, and I feel it’s a privilege to be paid to do what I love. But I’ve got to be careful, to make sure I’m not sacrificing my health or my family in the name of ministry. My wife sometimes jokes with me that ministry can become a mistress, and she’s right. This is why my Friday day off is sacred, only broken in cases of emergency. This is why I’m preaching a little less since we started the Saturday night service in October, because for me, serving as one of your pastors is a marathon for the long haul.
Conclusion
God wants us to honor the spiritual leaders in our lives. We do that by supporting them financially, by treating them fairly, by expecting them to act with integrity, and encouraging them to live a healthy lifestyle. Now again, this has been an uncomfortable topic for me to talk about, and I encourage you to study this text yourself, to check everything I’ve said against what the text itself says.
When I was in seminary I was introduced to a guy named Bobby Clinton, who teaches at Fuller Seminary in Pasadena. Dr. Clinton has devoted his life to studying Christian leaders: pastors, missionaries, lay leaders, conference speakers, teachers, all kinds of Christian leaders. As Dr. Clinton has studied Christian leaders for the last thirty years or so, he’s discovered a troubling trend. Most Christian leaders start strong but few leaders finish well. Most Christian leaders eventually quit, disqualify themselves from ministry, lose their vision, or simply give up. Few Christian leaders reach a point in their lives Paul reached, when he looked back on his life in ministry and said, "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith" (2 Tim 4:7).
How can we help Christian leaders finish well? Part of the answer is for congregations to honor their spiritual leaders. Honoring leaders is only part of the answer, but its something the congregation can do. May God help us as a church honor those who lead us, to honor them financially, to honor them with fair treatment, to honor them with our expectations, and to honor them with encouragement to healthy living.
Sources
Marshall, I. H. The Pastoral Epistles. International Critical Commentary. T. & T. Clark, 1999.
Barna, George. Today’s Pastor. Regal Books, 1992.
