All Scripture quotations are taken from the New American Standard Bible 1995 Ed. (NASB95), published by The Lockman Foundation

The predominant concept of the leaders of Bible-believing Christian churches in the West is modeled after the world’s ideas of what it means to be a leader. The body of Christ in the western world has inherited a conception and structure of church fellowships that is overwhelmingly patterned after the institutionalized and hierarchical structure of the Roman Catholic Church, business models, and government institutions. This is evident from the basic organization of most western churches in a hierarchical organization consisting of a paid staff, a so-called board of directors, and at least one paid church leader who is considered a full-time professional.

This unbiblical model flowered after the Protestant denominations broke off from the Catholic Church, but retained the basic hierarchical structure of a clergy and laity distinction. Then, as democratic governments were increasingly adopted into church function, and capitalist business structures were then incorporated into evangelical churches starting in the 1800s, the New Testament structure and functions were further corrupted by unbiblical practices.

Before the Reformation, and then only increasingly after it, church leadership was mostly considered to be a separate class of “professional” teachers and leaders who should ideally devote most of their lives to the “business” of teaching, preaching, counseling, and administrating. In the meantime, all other believers not of this clergy class were usually expected to simply come to church, listen, obey, and confine themselves to their respective “non-church” professions. As a result, up to the present day, there’s a prevailing notion that it’s the full-time “Pastor,” “Elder,” or “Bishop” that ought to have the monopoly on teaching, preaching, counseling, and administrating “church affairs”. Meanwhile, most of the laity are expected to do far less than these full-time professionals in the work of teaching, encouraging, counseling, leading, and preaching.

The question to be asked about this sorry state of affairs is this – does the New Testament characterize church leaders as a special class of full-time professionals who are to devote most of their lives to the study, teaching, and preaching of God’s Word, in distinction to all the rest of the local congregation? Even a cursory reading of Acts and the New Testament letters reveals that there is no such professionalized distinction made between church leaders and non-leaders. Nowhere in Acts is it said that the elders or overseers spend their whole lives studying, teaching, and preaching, while all other believers live “normal” lives with “normal” occupations. Further, in the epistles, almost universally, congregations are addressed without distinctions between the leaders and non-leaders. Most instructions, teachings, and encouragements are delivered to the congregations as whole groups, rather than distinguishing between sections specifically for leaders, and others for non-leaders. In addition, nowhere does the New Testament teach that church leaders should ideally devote all their time to study, teaching, and preaching, and be fully supported by their congregation.

In spite of the glaring absence of instructions for the popular western model for pastoral leadership, and for non-leader idleness and inferiority, it’s still expected that most Bible-teaching churches have at least one paid leader who devotes most of his life to teaching and preaching, and is ideally fully paid by the congregation. This has served to preserve the unbiblical view of a sharp and critical distinction between the full-time “clergy” and the nearly actionless “laity”. The results are unbelievably crippling and damaging to New Testament and apostolic discipleship, learning, growth, and evangelism.

Sadly, this unbiblical distinction has led to additional unbiblical characteristics and practices of “pastors”. Because most of them are expected to be formally educated and professionally recommended, the New Testament qualifications for church leaders are often overlooked and violated. Again, this is because pastors are usually considered to be professional know-it-all’s who possess often worldly leadership skills. In today’s western context, this might include being an excellent motivational and public speaker, being a charismatic and dynamic organizer, and being very business-savvy. By focusing on such traits, many congregations ignore the biblical qualifications for church leaders, which include such things as personal piety, good household management, intellectual and spiritual maturity, and even being skilled at teaching (which isn’t the same as public speaking). The result in the majority of western evangelical congregations is a class of leaders that doesn’t live up to the apostolic standards set by the New Testament for Christian elders.

In contrast, many pastors are esteemed for their great learning, business or organizational skills, or eloquent speaking ability. I suggest to you that there are four character traits that ought to be sought instead in church leaders. Although this isn’t a comprehensive list, I believe that these are among those most lacking in too many evangelical “pastors” and church leaders:

  1. Humility
  2. Self-enslavement
  3. Adept teachers
  4. Exemplary Christians

In this series of lessons, I want to examine each of these characteristics in turn. Obviously, there’s some overlap, but there are still some nuances among these different virtues. Thus, let us start with humility.

Elders are Humble

To start off, let me explain why I’m using the term “elder” for church leaders. The reason is that this is the most frequently used word in reference to them in the New Testament. It stems from the Old Testament model of Jewish villages and cities being overseen by the most “elder,” or mature, men of the community. This was extended to the synagogue model of the Jews, which used elders as its leaders. When the first Christian assemblies were established, it was therefore the biblical and natural thing to designate the most mature believers in the local Christian community as the overseers and teachers of the congregation. The term “elder” was simply transferred to the Christian context, and is seen in Acts 20, 1 Peter 5, 1 Timothy 5, and Titus 1, to refer to the men leading congregations.

Since humility is one of the most unique and outstanding qualities of believers in Jesus, it should be obvious that elders are to be humble as well. And yet much of the western Christian culture encourages and promotes behaviors and traditions that are opposed to humility. Most especially, when we prop a single man up above a whole congregation, and treat him as if he’s the best Christian who knows the most from the Bible, and should be listened to as if he’s the authoritative interpreter of Scripture, we are doing almost all we can to take his humility away from him. Although most Bible-believing congregations wouldn’t admit it, the result of this excessive honor of, and dependence on, one or a few elders, often results in an inflated sense of importance and authority in such leaders.

How does this usually manifest itself? As I just mentioned, often times the lead pastor, or sole pastor, is considered the expert on all matters relating to Scripture. Most of the congregation usually assumes that most of his interpretations and applications are correct, without taking the time to critically examine his teaching in light of Scripture. After all, if he has a theology degree from a professional accredited Bible school, shouldn’t he know his Bible?! Sadly, although many pastors think of themselves as more knowledgeable than they are because of their abundance of learning, most know very little about the Scriptures themselves, and much about what scholars have written and said about Scripture. Most of them are more learned about the traditions of men than the traditions of the Lord and His apostles.

The second way a prideful disposition can display itself is through the refusal to allow godly men in the congregation to teach Scripture. For example, how often have you heard of a sole pastor asking another pastor to teach the Sunday message when he’s absent, even though there are several competent men of God in the congregation who could teach? This is still another manifestation of the excessive importance placed on paid “professional” Bible teachers, to the neglect of valuable men in congregations who sometimes know the Bible better than the pastors from outside who are chosen to fill in. One of the worst things about this is that fill-in teachers usually hardly know the people in the congregation! So how can they easily apply their teaching specifically to the congregation in intensely personable and relevant ways, when they don’t know who they’re speaking to?

Still another way in which pride can be manifested in lead pastors is through their insistence that they be the ones to choose exactly what’s done during “services”. Instead delegating the structure of the singing and praying to brothers who are skilled in music and intercessory prayer, most lead pastors take it upon themselves to choose exactly what is to be sung, when it’s to be sung, and when prayers are to be offered. And yet the New Testament Scriptures lay out a far more democratic and diverse model for the way that Sunday meetings are structured. Just take a look at the pattern given to us from the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 14, where Paul describes a typical 1st century assembly as including “each one” having “a psalm, “a teaching,” “a revelation,” “a tongue,” or “an interpretation” (14:26b). In other words, every man of the congregation had the opportunity to use his singing or speaking gift to encourage the brethren. Also, Paul insists to Timothy in 1 Timothy that he wants “the men in every place to pray, lifting up holy hands, without wrath or dissension” (1 Tim. 2:8). Notice he doesn’t say he wants the elders in every place to pray, but the men. When is this ever practiced in the common Jesus-worshiping Sunday gathering? And yet there it is for us to follow.

Finally, and most blatantly, is the use of titles for church leaders. Most believers don’t realize that the use of titles to designate pastors is a non-Christian tradition that is specifically prohibited by Jesus in the Gospels. Just read this:

“But do not be called Rabbi; for One is your Teacher, and you are all brothers. Do not call anyone on earth your father; for One is your Father, He who is in heaven. Do not be called leaders; for One is your Leader, that is, Christ. But the greatest among you shall be your servant.” – Matt. 23:8-11

In these verses, our Lord expressly forbids the use of titles to address Christian leaders! Notice the repeated use of the word “called” – “do not be called,” “do not be called,” “do not call”. And then look at the terms: “Rabbi,” or “Teacher;” Father, or “patriarch;” and even Leader! How much clearer could Jesus be? We should not be calling our leaders by titles! Enough with “Pastor John,” or “Bishop Jim,” or “Elder Tom”!

This use of titles mostly reinforces this unbiblical notion that the “Pastor” is part of a special class of Christians whose entire life devoted to God’s service more than other believers. It’s mostly an insipid perpetuation of the Catholic priesthood, or clergy, dividing the body of Christ between those who are closer to God, and those who still need to be brought near to God!

So, having looked at some of the most prevalent insistences of pride among the professional pastors of western Christianity, what does Christlike humility look like in elders? I can hardly do any better but to quote some of the clearest Scriptures describing the humble attitude and disposition of Christian leaders in the New Testament. Let’s start with some of the Lord’s words to the apostles:

“Calling them to Himself, Jesus said to them, ‘You know that those who are recognized as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them; and their great men exercise authority over them. But it is not this way among you, but whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant; and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be slave of all.” – Mark 10:42-44

Here, we see that true Christian greatness is acting as if your least important among the brethren. Paul himself describes this type of humility for leaders in his first letter to the Corinthians:

“What then is Apollos? And what is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, even as the Lord gave opportunity to each one. I planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth. So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but God who causes the growth.” – 1 Cor. 3:5-7

Again, Paul is giving the attitude that all elders should possess – that they are nothing apart from God’s power and work through them. All they are are servants, who can do nothing apart from the Lord’s power. And so all believers should view themselves. After all, how did the Lord begin the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5:3?

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

May we all cultivate and grow in our accurate esteem of ourselves, so we see that we are no more important than any other believer, but simply slaves and servants through whom the Lord works for the good of our brethren, and the glory of His name.