| LIFE IN THREE DIMENSIONS Dr. Stephen Crosby I AM REVEALED B. Childress Aug 12 2012 Obedience: God’s Gift One of the ancient heresies the early church fathers dealt with was Greek dualism. Oversimplified, dualism is a worldview that believes the universe operates under simple spiritual polarities, or dualities: good/evil, light/darkness, right/wrong, etc. A great deal of theological debate exists over how much of this kind of thought influenced the New Testament writers and how much it still influences us today. It is beyond the scope of this work to delve into the matter in detail, but it affects the discussion of authority, submission, and church government. Unfortunately for our natural mind, God’s kingdom cannot be shrink-wrapped and packaged like so much sandwich meat. It does not operate on simple dualities. One of the major changes from the Old to the New Covenant is the shift away from quid pro quo (Latin: “this for that”) simple dualities. The Old Covenant is characterized by: do this (behave) and live (receive life as a result); fail to behave (obey) properly and you shall die (be punished, but cut off from life). If you do well, you will be blessed and if not you will be cursed. The blessings and curses in Deuteronomy 28 are a classic example of the Old Covenant order of things. Television preachers and evangelists are steeped in this utterly legal and Old Covenant mind set. They have to be. Their entire system of support depends on it. Their thinking and teaching follows Deuteronomic equations like these:
God’s Word + your disobedience = “cursing” (failure to receive the above) still-born and blind like maggots to a corpse. It is the age-old appeal to the carnal, fallen, Adamic nature to reward itself for spiritual energy expended and spiritual pursuits attained. The obedience and reward message that saturates the airwaves effectively keeps the “seed-offerings” and “first-fruits offerings” flowing into headquarters by using God’s own Word to shamelessly appeal to the believer’s self-interest and keep the organization’s coffers full. The New Covenant messages of forgoing our right to our own lives, His death and resurrection in us, serving Another’s purposes and plan with no regard for self-interest, will empty the TV studio or the “victory living conference” faster than yelling fire in a theater. The New Covenant reverses the Old Covenant order. It is live (receive life/blessing) and do this (behave/obey). The New Covenant equations read like this:
You are blessed + experience His living Word = walking in obedience inherently empowered from within to do so. Our obedience is not conditioned on the prospect of “reward.” If it were so, what happens to our obedience when “blessing and reward “is slow incoming or does not arrive at all? The World is full of obedient believers who do not experience health, wealth, and ease. Our obedience could cost us our life, family, finances, and reputation: hardly the “guaranteed prosperity” promised on TV. If the Old Covenant is still in effect and the television evangelists are correct, what hope do you and I have of any goodness from God when our obedience is in short supply at any moment? (For myself, a frequent state of affairs!) How much obedience do we have to muster to qualify for the blessing? Is 80% obedience enough? Is 95% obedience enough? I have actually heard it said that to access the “promises in His Word,” only immediate, complete, 100% obedience satisfies God. Allegedly, partial or late obedience is disobedience and therefore does not qualify to receive His blessing. Since only the Son of God is perfect in His obedience, the inherently blasphemous and idolatrous thinking behind this teaching is self-evident: we become as God, and reward ourselves for it at the same time! Thank God, that the blessing of abundant grace in the New Covenant is not dependent on my obedience to His principles, but rather my faith in Him, in me, and His death and resurrection power in me. The needed blessing of the moment is always accessible through Calvary faith, not my behavioral perfections. In the New Covenant, God is not dependent on humanity living correctly to receive His life and blessing. He secures His own interests in humanity by putting His Spirit in us as a free gift of His sovereign and unmerited goodwill. The indwelling Spirit is both the life gift and power source. Out of the life given, behavior flows. Therefore, in the New Covenant our obedience is not our gift to God, which merits His blessing. Our obedience is His gift to us, the fruit of the life we have freely received manifested in our actions. Now, I do not want to turn this into a theology session on the New Covenant (though God knows the church needs it), but see if this series of simple statements helps:
Folks, in a few sentences this is the essence of the New Covenant, and it is rarely understood. The New Testament quid pro quo, if there is one, is based on life and fruit, not a businesslike transaction of “behavior and reward.” A good planting, in good soil produces good fruit – it cannot help it. A tree is not “rewarded” for yielding to the life that produces from within. It produces fruit because it is in its nature to do so. In the Old Covenant (and in TV preaching) human obedience was/is the condition to receive blessing. In the New Covenant obedience is the fruit of being blessed. In the Old Covenant obedience was the root of anticipated hope. In the New Covenant, it is the fruit of realized hope. In the New Covenant, God rewards the faith filled seeker – someone who maintains relationship to Himself (in strength and weakness, success and failure), not the person who most perfectly obeys His principles. Enough Already! The advice Job’s friends gave him typifies quid pro quo thinking: if you do well, you prosper; if you do evil, you suffer. If you are faithful to God and follow His precepts, only blessing follows; if you don’t follow His precepts, you are cursed – bad things happen to you. It is important to note that God rebuked Job’s counselors for thinking that way. We need to remember context. Who was speaking to whom and in what context? I once heard a TV preacher use a quotation from the book of Job to “prove” his extremely improper prosperity teaching along the line of: “If you live an obedient lifestyle (implying “seed offerings”), you can live in pleasure – any pleasure you want.” Indeed, the verse is in the Scripture. But the point the prosperity teacher failed to mention was that the source of the quote was one of Job’s comforters who were all out to lunch spiritually! God rebuked Job’s friends for thinking the way they did! It is almost as if after thirty chapters or so of simplistic and incorrect dualistic thinking God couldn’t take it anymore and personally appears in the whirlwind to shut them up! Just because you can find a verse in the Bible to support your view does not necessarily mean your view is correct! Jesus in resurrection and life in the Spirit are a third alternative beyond either quid or quo! I call it third-dimension living. Let me explain. Third-Dimension Living Let’s assume you are facing a decision. One option is choice A. That is the first dimension. The other option, perhaps the exact opposite, is option B. Typically, they are presented in an either/or fashion: this is right or wrong, good or bad. A simple diagram would look like this:
First Dimension Second Dimension The two decisions appear mutually exclusive. This is the realm most Christians live in – struggling with issues of right or wrong behaviors. Right and wrong issues do not characterize the Spirit-led life. Death and resurrection life does. The realm of the Spirit, or the kingdom, is a third alternative, a third dimension, like this: Choice/Option (C) THE KINGDOM Third Dimension Neither and both Choice/Option (A) Choice/Option (B)
First Dimension Second Dimension The Scriptures are full of third-dimension kingdom responses. Here are just a few examples. In the Book of Joshua, the angel of the Lord appears, and Joshua poses a two-dimensional question: “Are you for us or against us?” The answer is “Neither, but I am come as the captain of the hosts of the Lord” (Joshua 5:14), a third- dimension response. In John 9:2, Jesus is questioned in regard to the condition of a blind man: “Who sinned, this man or his parents?” Neither. Jesus provides a third-dimension response. In John 8, the religious leaders try to capture Jesus in a two-dimensional dilemma: If He condemns the woman caught in adultery, He has no compassion; if He releases her in mercy, He is not faithful to the Law of Moses. Jesus responds with a third-dimension kingdom reality, ignoring the polarities. In the synoptic Gospels, the Pharisees ask Jesus if it is lawful to pay taxes to Caesar: an either/or, two-dimensional polarity. Jesus responds, as always, from the heavenlies, from the Spirit, with a third- dimensional answer. One of the telltale signs of a religious spirit is forced two-dimensional polarities and an inability to touch the realm of the Spirit. Why does third-dimensional reality relate to the matter of authority and submission and church government? Because of the tendency to define the subject and limit discussion to inadequate either/or polarities. Those from a strong “episcopal” (ruling by the bishops/elders, etc.) governmental background will say, “Are you telling me that you don’t believe in leadership and that the people should govern?” God forbid, that is the cursed rule of the Nicolaitans – the rule of the laity. God’s kingdom is not a democracy. God has given the set man the vision of the house! Anything with two heads is a monster! You can only have one executive head! “Crosby, you are espousing error! (or at least naiveté)” Those from a strong congregational, egalitarian background will say, “Do you mean to tell me that we do not have a voice? That is a formula for control and abuse of authority. Cults operate that way. We are in the New Covenant now; we are all equal. Crosby, you are espousing the dreaded rule of the Nicolaitans – the ruling over the laity. You are espousing error!” As humorous as it may be, I have friends who quote the Nicolaitan verse from Revelation, each using it to condemn the other’s form of government as illegitimate! The answer is neither and both. God’s governmental order is a third- dimension spiritual reality. The matter cannot be reduced down to simple systemic dualities such as “are we or are we not congregationally led?” If we do not touch the Lord in third-dimensional realities, it doesn’t matter a lick what form of government we practice. We are outside the realm of life and are therefore perpetrators of spiritual death, regardless of how convinced we are of the scriptural correctness our governmental order may be. Governmental Specialists In the Old Covenant dispensation, God’s government rested on individuals specially chosen and separated for the task. The Levites were a special class. The priests were a special class. Moses, Samuel, and others were individuals separated with a unique prophetic call not available to the nation of Israel as a whole. However, Moses’ dream (God’s dream) was that all of God’s people would be prophets (Numbers 11:29). God’s Spirit in-filling of humanity on the Day of Pentecost realized this dream for Moses and God for the first time, in fulfillment of the Joel 2 prophecy. The New Covenant/Spirit age is characterized by all people, including all socially, spiritually, and culturally disenfranchised classes (women, slaves, Gentiles) being immersed in the prophetic spirit of the future age. The New Covenant era is one of universality. God’s order no longer depends on a special class of anointed ministers and rulers but of a nation of king-priests. What was external and unique in the Old Covenant is internal and universal in the New. This is a profound difference and distinction, and the distinction must be maintained when applying Old Covenant principles of authority and government in the New Covenant era. A few specially chosen and qualified “ministers” and a lesser group of “others” do not characterize the New Covenant. Rather, the anointed individual of the Old Covenant becomes the anointed body of the New. What was on individuals in the Old Covenant (Moses, Samuel) in partiality and externality, was upon Jesus individually in fullness and indwelling, and since Pentecost, has been transferred to the body corporately in fullness and indwelling. No single believer possesses what Christ had in fullness. However, Christ was the fullness of God in bodily form, and the believing church collectively in the fullness of Christ. The anointing of Christ rests on His body in a distributive sense. Unfortunately, the King James Version inconsistently translates the Greek word diákonos as minister and sometimes servant. Because the King James Version translators were in an autocratic, hierarchal, class-conscious, monarchial society, their prejudices influenced their renderings. In addition, King James VI personally pressured the translators to do the translation according to “acceptable meanings.” This is code-speak for: ‘Translate it the way I want it or you end up in the Tower with your head in your hands!” Biblically, there is no distinction between ministers and servants. It is universal servanthood – period. Just as there is universal servanthood in the New Covenant, there is universal priesthood. This is fairly well established, thanks in part to five-hundred years of Reformation teaching on the subject – for better or worse! I believe this universality has implications on our systems and orders of government. Governmental authority is simply the right to empower and the right to limit. God’s government equips and releases within the boundaries of divine calling and grace endowment – empowering where charis (giftedness) exists and limiting where it does not. All would agree that Christ is the Executive Head of the universe and the Head of the body. As believers, we submit to His headship. The question is “Where is Christ? How is His government yielded to in a practical way?” Because of inadequate understanding of the realities of the New Covenant, the Christ event, and the Spirit’s indwelling, the typical response to that question is: “Christ is in heaven.” If that is our perspective, the issue of authority becomes subjective and a semi-mystical submission to a remote invisible God. New Covenant reality is that Christ is no longer just in heaven but also in the believer. The temple of God is with/in humanity! Christ is in you! Christ is in me, the hope of glory! This being indisputable, what is the implication on matters of church order and church government? It is imperative to recognize the unique deposit of Christ in each of us! Because, wherever Christ manifests, I must submit, regardless of my office, position, gender, or status in the church. I may be a water-walking apostle, but when Christ is manifest in another believer, I must submit to the incarnate Head. My position or function in the body never absolves me from submitting to Christ manifest. Being an apostle or prophet does not mean the eternal submission of others to me because of my alleged office. The governmental order of God’s kingdom is defined by mutuality: “submit ye one to another in the fear of the Lord” (Ephesians 5:21). Christ administers His government by agape (love) and releases it through charisma (giftedness). His kingdom rule is expressed through an individual’s gift and calling, not positions of title and authority. How does this work practically in a local church? Some may think my premise is hopefully naïve; that it is impossible to run a local church without a single executive head. That is likely true – within the confines of American cultural value systems of what a church is: an organization to be managed by visionary leadership that is supposed to grow to phenomenal levels of financial and numeric success. The strong tendency in the emergent apostolic movement to define being “apostolic” by numeric size and financial success is heartbreaking. Size and money – now there are two kingdom qualities for you. The notion that size and finance are evidence of God’s approving sanction is as numbingly blind as it is spiritually offensive. It is an abominable stench. The Scripture calls it mammon. It is more than the love of money. It has to do with methods and value systems. It is a spirit. Mammon (riches) reflects the power to beautify according to the world’s standards. This is not to imply that the proper use of such things [money, material, technology] is wrong. However, attractiveness in the sight of God has got nothing to do with them. There is nothing inherently evil with size or success unless it is used qualitatively to define size and success! By that standard, neither Jesus nor any of the first-century apostles would be included because they had neither. Perhaps if we substituted “community of faith” for “local church” and asked the same questions, the proposition might not sound so naïve. It does not take much executive authority to oversee: “Love God and your neighbor as yourself.” Suppose I am a pastor and my Christ endowment lies in encouragement, care, compassion, and counseling. The sphere of my authority, the expression of Christ, should be in areas appropriate to my endowment. Simply because I am pastor does not give me divine mandate to micromanage, dictate, and control the music department, for example. I am not gifted to do it. My leadership role as equipper is to train, activate, and release others in the realm of their charis, particularly in areas where I, the pastor, am not endowed, even if those areas are doctrine, preaching, teaching, correction, and administration. The ungodly, unbiblical, and impossible cultural expectations put on a pastor to be and do everything are elements of the Universal Church’s dysfunction. Just because we want to run the church like a New England Yankee businessman, does not mean God is obliged to bless our ethos. He won’t, He doesn’t, and this is why the church is broken. One’s role as pastor is not to sit as executive and chief visionary but chief servant and equipper! Equipping others is the vision. There is no other. The role of the Ephesian 4 minister is as equipper and releaser of others into their visions, not getting his/her own vision and making others submit to it. Much of the visionary language used in leadership schools draws upon American cultural models, the lure of success, and Old Covenant theologies, rather than New Covenant revelation. Being the “visionary” sounds good, seems legitimate, but in practical application, always ends up abusing and hurting people because it is not based in God, His Word, or His Spirit in accuracy (see chapter 7). God’s government rests within the sphere of grace endowment and no further. It is not positionally defined; it is functionally limited. A Little Leaven Leaven in Scripture represents both positive and negative spiritual qualities. Positively, leaven represents kingdom influence; negatively, sin. I have often wondered why for a Semitic mind leaven would be used metaphorically for these qualities. A little cultural background is helpful. A Semite’s worldview of commerce, the universe, and resources was finite. The concept of wealth generation through capital investment as increasing total available resources simply was not in their worldview. To them, the world was finite. If you get a bigger piece of the pie, it means someone else gets a smaller part, and the cosmic balance is upset. Therefore, knowing one’s “place” in the greater scheme of things, and staying there, was very important. Boundaries of all sorts – social, spiritual, cultural – were very important. Gender, class, and religious boundaries characterized not only Old Covenant theology and practice but deeply influenced the Semitic mind. For example, if you were the son of a fisherman, it was your God-ordained destiny to be one also. It was your boundary, your limitation. Attempting to improve your lot, to move up the ladder from fisherman to architect (self-initiative that we in the West would greatly admire), would not have been admired but rather considered “uppity” and inappropriate because it is an attempt to exceed divinely-ordained boundaries. What has this got to do with leaven? Leaven is a substance, which, by its nature refused to stay contained. It always exceeds its boundaries. This is why it came to be viewed metaphorically for sin. For a Semite, it was sinful to go beyond one’s boundaries. On the positive side, the irrepressible expansion of the kingdom of God is likened to leaven because it is in its nature to expand. It can not be stopped. Now, we do not import first-century culture into our era, but we can make an application. Tragedy in the church results when believers and leaders fail to recognize and attempt to operate outside the limitations of their Christ endowment. Exercising executive leadership authority outside of one’s Christ endowment, from a “position or office” rather than function and endowment, invariably results in disorder, relational disintegration, and personal pain on both sides of the pulpit rather than the hoped-for order that releases blessing. The Holy Spirit is obliged to anoint only that which He endows. He is not obliged to anoint our Western, organizational, success-and- growth-oriented methodologies that are so easily energized by the Adamic nature as a counterfeit church. The Myth of the Servant Leader If ink were water, commentary on the servant leader would fill the Sea of Galilee. It is the near-universal standard ascribed to the ideal church leader. It is one of the church’s biggest myths. The ancient Greek and Roman gods of mythology were not deities, as we understand the term. They were magnified humans: comprehensible in similarity to reality but enlarged into fantasy. The servant leader is the Sasquatch of the kingdom: folks claim to have seen one, but a confirmed capture is elusive. In my personal local church experience, I know a lot of people who think themselves servant leaders and who talk about servant-leading, but I have never seen one – including myself. Believing in Peter Pan is relatively harmless. Believing I can fly, and acting out of my belief, will yield a high-speed appointment with the pavement. So it is with the archetype servant leader. It is legitimate in theory but fantasy in implementation. Building life around a fantasy does not produce God’s desired result. It produces pain. The words, servant and leader, are so loaded with cultural preconceptions, it is nearly impossible to extract a scriptural definition of either. Technically, it is not a biblical expression. Rather, it is a linguistic vise allowing us to rationally hold and process two antinomic qualities in Christ. We culturally define these words in terms of role, function, and character qualities: a servant is subservient, a leader assertive. A slave (doulos) serves; a ruler rules. How obviously self- evident! Not necessarily. Some ministers emphasize the leader side of this antinomy: I am the leader, I get the vision, I get the direction, I get the call, I get the dream, you all fall into line, you must submit, don’t dare get out of governmental alignment (code word for: I control everything, but I am really serving you). Some churches and saints emphasize the servant element of the antinomy: “Pastor, we don’t care about your vision. We want you to care for us. You are supposed to lay down your life for us, putting our needs before your own. Your calling is to be the chief servant. You need to back off all this “leadership talk” and take a towel and wipe our feet. My sick aunt needs you to visit her now, and you need to be at my cousin’s birthday party this weekend, and the church sidewalk needs to be shoveled, and since you are drawing a salary we think you need to do this before Thursday, because, after all, your call is as the servant of all.” The corrupt distortion of the servant expectation makes the pastor little more than an errand boy sent by God to meet the needs of the flock. Once, in a meeting with pastors in a community where I lived, I heard a pastor from a fundamental evangelical church say that he was exhausted, overworked, and abused. However, he also said this was fine because that is what the servant of all is supposed to experience; like lambs led to the slaughter, we are not to lift our voice. The pastor thought he was modeling the servant leader. He was, of course, doing nothing of the sort. This pastor’s paradigm of ministry was not biblical servanthood. It was abuse masquerading in a religious spirit. Mix the idyllic servant-leader myth with unsanctified character traits or personality quirks and deficiencies and either extreme – strong set-man leadership or high-shepherd’s touch servanthood – becomes abusive: authoritarianism on the one hand and enablement and code-dependency on the other. These terms must be stripped of first-century cultural biases and protected from twenty-first century cultural incursions. The Christ Event forever elevated these terms to a kingdom dimension. For the believer, the outpoured and indwelling Spirit makes both terms equalizing qualities of empowerment, not limiting roles or functions. In the kingdom servants lead and leaders serve. Slaves rule and rulers labor. From a biblical perspective, the phrase, “servant leader,” is a meaningless tautology. The Christian community expects the ideal Christian leader to model both qualities to the fullest degree possible, thus reflecting the image of Christ (as all good Christians should, especially those called to lead). I doubt if any scholar, teacher, or practical minister seriously thinks any one individual embodies the fullness of Christ’s gifts or character qualities. Why is it then assumed that the fullness of the idyllic servant leader should manifest in every leader? Could partiality or lack in either element be acceptable or even divine purpose? Garcon, Service Please! I have yet to meet a church leader who, when asked, didn’t think him or herself a decent servant leader, at least trying to emulate Christ in ministry. Frank self-assessment is undoubtedly a healthy practice. Submission to superiors is commendable. These alone, however, are insufficient. It is like a surgeon whose patients all die. A pat on the back from the boss for an artful suture on a dead patient does not testify well to a surgeon’s skill. An incompetent waiter does not get to tell the customer the tip amount. The recipient of the service determines its value. Those served, not the server, evaluate the quality of servant-leading! For many years, I worked in metallurgical and process engineering for Corning, Inc. in Corning, NY. Two of the most progressive features of Corning’s human-relations policies were:
In terms of candor and minimized office politics, it was the most enjoyable work atmosphere I have experienced. The climate was one of mutuality: critique and evaluation went upstream, not just downstream. Mutuality is a quality sorely lacking in many authority and submission structures in the church. Too often honor and deference flow upstream toward position, title, and giftedness rather than to the least comely member. The children of this age are wiser than the children of light. Among independent and nondenominational churches with an episcopal form of government, few leaders are open to objective, third-party assessment of skill and ability. Some are accountable in matters of doctrine and morals to peers or superiors (behavioral accountability). However, in my personal sphere of influence I know of only a handful open to systematic and regular skill evaluation and development – from anyone – peer or otherwise. Insecurity in ministers knows no bounds. The notion of submitting to the opinions of subordinates is viscerally repugnant to the set-man style of leadership: “What? Ask the people what they think? Let them measure us? Why, the next thing you know we will be laity-led (you guessed it), the curse of the Nicolaitans! Congregationalism! Democracy! Man’s system in the church! The rule of the people! We go to the mountain. We are the Moses’ of the New Covenant. We get God’s word, vision, and direction and present it to the people to follow. We have the call to lead! The people need to covenantally trust us and submit. Shepherds lead, sheep follow! That’s God’s order! Don’t come out from under God’s covering! God uses the sheep metaphor for a reason. Sheep are stupid! They will over graze if left to themselves. God calls you sheep; therefore, you need to submit and follow us.” Talk about overdoing a metaphor! I wish I were joking. I wish I were making up every one of the preceding clauses. Unfortunately, I have heard every one of these, their variants and more, preached with dogmatic fervor during my experience across a broad spectrum of Christianity. God forbid that we, as leaders, should actually consider the feelings of those we are leading! The strong set-man style of leadership, energized by Old Covenant leadership theology, is inherently not conducive to evaluation, especially from subordinates. Insecurities and personality issues just exacerbate the problem. I am not saying that evaluation from the congregation is necessarily determinative on any matter, it is contributive: valued, sought after, honored, highly weighted, given serious consideration. Remember, in the New Covenant, every believer has the Spirit of God, not just Moses and a few specially anointed individuals as in the Old Covenant. Most set-men type leaders don’t even believe in contribution from the rank and file. They are locked in an Old Covenant leadership model that elevates them as “constitutionally different” than those they lead. They would deny it in doctrine, but it is a reality in practice. Peers, elders, and friends allegedly hold them accountable. This accountability is only legitimate if the peers, elders, and friends have the right to tell the set man no; they must have the authority to deny him and fire him. If that dynamic is not present, it is just a common dress monarchy without scepter robe and crown. I do not deny the need for the more disciplinary or “strong” elements of leadership from time to time. Nor am I endorsing taking the eternal pulse of people in order to make leadership decisions. A general may have authority over his troops by reason of experience and rank. However, if he does not have the heart of his troops, he will lead an army of one – himself. One day, in the heat of battle, he just might find a bullet in the back of the head. If a set man’s vocabulary is predominantly saturated with the language of honor, government, authority, and submission rather than love, care, and service, there may be a laser scope pointed in his direction. A wise leader will make sure the troops are with him, not just his adjutant staff! Biblical Idealism It might be argued that realization of the ideal servant leader is possible with God: what is impossible with man is possible with God. If we just did things right enough, we would be in God’s order, the Holy Spirit accomplishing what we cannot if we would just carefully align with the precepts in God’s Word. I would respond that we are the church on earth, not in paradise. While we hold to, and progress toward, an ideal, we live in reality. Sticking our heads in the sand of biblical idealism while ignoring natural dynamics of interpersonal human relationships is a curse in the church. At times we cannot see past idyllic Biblicism to the level of everyday human interactions. Throw in reactionary fundamentalist tendencies against anything remotely psychological as “humanism from the devil,” and it is a wonder the church functions at all. Well, it often doesn’t. The instant two human beings are in the same room trying to get along, there will be some manifestation of leader and follower. If not, they will either separate or kill each other! It is a function of human dynamics, not church meeting structure and form. Those wounded from authority figures often retreat into reactionary meeting structures attempting to avoid leadership abuse: all are supposedly equal, no one possessing directive authority. There is a legitimate place for the authoritative teaching of the Word. Without it, we will be left with egalitarian subjectivism, and the church will become a mere focus group of shared opinions. This is a real danger in the nontraditional house churches that are emerging across the world. The response to abusive leadership is not “non- leadership.” It is recovery of a New Covenant, Calvary platform of leadership free of legalism, Old Covenant theology and methods, and self-serving personal agenda. We can dispense with name, position, and title, but the human dynamic will remain. Someone – by gift mix, age, temperament, skill, experience, resources, or personality – will emerge as the de facto leader. Retreat into a form of spiritual egalitarianism or recovering some allegedly divinely proscribed meeting structure from the book of Act does not negate the reality. The matter is divinely programmed into humanity. We can run from it, suppress it, bury it, chain it, deny it, rail against it, curse it, judge it, dodge it; someone will lead, somehow, some way. The issue for the believer is keeping leadership on a New Covenant footing: death and resurrection, Spirit indwelling, charismatic endowment and function. Nobody’s Got it All Some leaders are very good executives in a Western, hierarchal, administrative, corporate sort of way. Others excel in service in a Western, managerial, busyness, efficient, vocational, “ministerial” sort of way. There are often temperament, calling, and gift mixes with elements of both. However, a kingdom, death/resurrection-based, Christ-form of biblical leadership embodied in a single individual is as rare as ham salad at a bar mitzvah. I am not sure it is legitimate to expect otherwise. Visionary leaders are said to serve the body with their “visionariness.” (See chapter 7 for a biblical definition of what it actually means to be a visionary leader, for now, I will let it stand as it is normally understood.) While perhaps technically true at a ministerial level, it is not true at a practical and interpersonal level. The candid reality is most visionary leaders are not good practical servants and often weak at an interpersonal level. It is grossly unfair to project a high-servant quotient upon a visionary leader – believing he or she is deficient because of a perceived lack of servanthood or “a warm personal touch.” Unrealistic expectations fuel relational breakdown. Visionary leaders may experience psychological, relational, and religious pressure to be more servant-like, neutralizing their visionary grace. On the flip side, projecting visionary expectations on a practical, high-touch, highly empathic, caretaking, shepherd/leader is likewise unfair. Because of the high touch leader’s lack of visionary thrust (and often accompanying poor administrative and formal communication skills), subordinates often assume directive initiatives, inappropriately crossing lines of charismatic boundary endowment. Illegitimate expectations upon a high-servant quotient leader produce an abiding sense of failure, comparison, discouragement, lack of acceptance, and restless striving likewise neutralizing his or her grace. This all results from the mythology of the idyllic servant leader. Consider the statistics from Beyond all Limits by Bill Bright and James Davies:
There is no shortage of pain on both sides of the pew. What will it take for us to admit that our concepts, methods, and philosophies of church government and ministry are broken and need to be reconfigured from top to bottom? Why is it so common in the church that dysfunctionality is clung to so strongly in the name of defending truth? Make Sure the Shoe Fits Perpetuating the archetype servant-leader myth in the church causes untold sorrow in the lives of ministers and congregations. A congregation’s (traditional, house church, cell) expectations in their leadership must match that leader’ s grace. If a congregation expects a dominant visionary leader but receives a servant, or if it expects a dominant servant ministry and gets a visionary one, it will experience confusion, hurt, and relational disintegration that may never be recoverable. Ministers, unwanted and unloved, feel stuck in a hellish assignment. Congregations, misunderstood and hurt, change pastors like a pair of socks. The servant-leader siren song destroys good people on the rocks of psychological projections and religious expectations. Like someone caught in a dead-end alley and about to be mugged, frantic survival instincts kick in over reason and mutual understanding. Conclusion If there is any lesson to be had from the New Covenant, particularly the book of Acts and the Epistles regarding patterns and order, it is that in the post-Pentecost Spirit age there is no pattern! Christ in resurrection is the Pattern! Our pattern is a person not a plan. There is no pattern method of healing. There is no pattern method of ministry. There is no pattern method of church form. There is no pattern of government and authority structures. The New Testament pattern is to see the Man on the throne in resurrection, through the revelation of His Word by the Spirit, and do what He says! The Word is broad enough to encompass diversity and flexibility. It has been divinely left vague on these matters of government because the Holy Spirit knows man’s propensity to codify everything into systems of order. If God is calling you to build a mega church, build it! Full steam ahead, captain! May your seas be calm and your sails full! If He is calling you to operate a home church, do it! Just don’t worship at the shrine of the non- leader who leads! The era we live in is characterized by death, resurrection, love, service, and liberty; not government, order, authority, and structure.
submit to his initiatives as He implements his will among us.” Source: AUTHORITY, ACCOUNTABILITY, AND THE APOSTOLIC MOVEMENT, by Dr. Stephen Crosby, Copyright 2006, Pleasant Word (WINEPRESS Publishing). |
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