Spiritual Leadership

A proper understanding of spiritual leadership is an urgent necessity in the Church today. Ours is a culture in which there is both a lack of mature leadership and in which leadership principles and values have been so inverted that much of what is said and written about leadership is of no value to the leaders of the Church. However, in spite of these deficiencies, there has been a broad movement within the American Church to incorporate the values of Corporate or Political America into the Church. Thus, sadly, many Pastors have become no more than CEO’s of the Church and frequently lack the Biblical qualifications to lead and pastor a flock of Christians. As Paul makes starkly clear in 1 Cor 1-2, the wisdom of God will be foolishness to the world. The converse is true as well that what the world considers wise will be seen as foolish in the sight of God. What the Church needs is the robust and glorious vision of spiritual leadership that is given across the pages of the New Testament. This vision will be radically counter-cultural and subversive in as much as it takes the Cross as its foundation with the goal of bringing all of life under the gentle dominion of Christ. Therefore, I want to try to elucidate the marks and purpose of spiritual leadership and trace out how these aspects work themselves out in the context of the Church body. 

A helpful place in the New Testament to begin is in the book of Titus where Paul writes to a younger pastor with instructions on how the Church is to function and how the Elders are to fit into the body of believers. In Titus 1:6-9, Paul lays out the qualifications that must be in a man’s life in order for them to serve as an Elder in the Church. He writes,

“…if anyone is above reproach, the husband of one wife, and his children are believers and not open to the charge of debauchery or insubordination. For an overseer, as God’s steward, must be above reproach. He must not be arrogant or quick-tempered or a drunkard or violent or greedy for gain, but hospitable, a lover of good, self-controlled, upright, holy, and disciplined. He must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it.”

When compared with the similar list of Elder qualifications in 1 Tim 3:1-7, the picture that emerges is the Elder as the ideal mature Christian. All of the qualities that are prescribed by Paul for Elders are qualities that every Christian is exhorted towards at various places in the New Testament. Thus the Elder is one who evidences in his life the maturity towards which all Christians are called and exhorted. Obviously, this does not mean that an Elder must be a sinlessly perfect Christian. That is impossible on this side of the final resurrection. However, it does mean that the Elder is an exemplar of a mature Christian who, empowered by God’s grace and in constant dependence on the Spirit, perseveres in the process of sanctification.

The overarching characteristic that Paul seems to be concerned with, particularly in Titus, is that spiritual leaders be “above reproach”. The importance of this defining quality is not concerned as much with personal piety as it is with God’s reputation. Paul seems to be concerned with God’s reputation in the world in the course of his letter to Titus; a concern that makes a great deal of sense in light of the cultural context in which Titus ministered. Every part of the body of Christ is supposed to conduct themselves both in and out of the Church so that “they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior”.  God’s reputation or glory in the world is the primary reason for the existence of the Church and so they must naturally conduct themselves in such a way that reflects God’s ultimate beauty and worth to the world. This purpose aligns perfectly with Jesus’ words in Matt 5:14-16,

“You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven.”

If this is the purpose of Christ’s people here on Earth, then it is necessary that their leaders be models of such a life that is above reproach. Put another way, the life of the Spiritual leader is meant to be a model of treasuring God and being ultimately concerned with the cause of His glory on the Earth. John Piper sums this concept up well when he writes, “The ultimate goal of all spiritual leadership is that other people might come to glorify God, that is, might so feel and think and act as to magnify the true character of God.”

Therefore spiritual leaders must model this overriding concern for God’s glory. However, this is not the full extent of the need for spiritual leaders. There is much good that can be done from having a good model but there is still something lacking if there is not teaching that accompanies this model. I believe this is the thrust of Paul’s command to Titus in Titus 2:1, “But as for you, teach what accords with sound doctrine.” Following this injunction, Paul goes on to describe the proper fruit that should be in place in the lives of Christians in different segments of society so that they will not bring reproach to the name of Jesus. This leads to the conclusion, supported elsewhere in the New Testament as well, that right living flows from right teaching. If the Church has teachers who are carefully teaching people the Word of God, lifting high the glory of God and showing people God’s redemptive purpose to fill the Earth with His glory as the waters cover the seas, then people will be gripped by such visions and live lives in accordance with that teaching. Therefore, both the modeling and the teaching are essential functions of a spiritual leader.

To many, the idea of the glory of God may sound rather abstract and many teachers aid this unfortunate misunderstanding in their teaching. Paul was clearly not one who would have left God’s glory as a mere theological abstraction. As Luther so forcefully emphasized, good pastors and teachers must be theologians of the Cross. If pastors and teachers want their people to come to grasp the glory of God and its full implications they must learn to bring people before the Cross which is the brightest and fullest display of God’s glory possible in this created order. In 1 Cor 1-2, Paul makes it clear that it was his mission to preach Christ and Him crucified and not to tickle people’s ears with rhetorical niceties. Such preaching was not hip and fashionable but was a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to those in the Greco-Roman world. However, Paul’s was not simply a teacher of the message of the Cross, it was a daily reality of his life. He tells the Corinthians in 2 Cor 3:8-12,

“We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So death is at work in us, but life in you.”

So, we see that Paul’s very life was cruciform. He both modeled and taught the message of the Cross. Both his manner and his speech were mutually beneficial so that the glory of God through the Cross of Christ would be most fully and powerfully evident among those to whom he ministered.

The message of the Cross, which mediates God’s glory to us is what, people are in most desperate need of. Therefore, it should be the chief goal of all spiritual leaders to lead their lives and conform their speech to God’s redemptive purposes through the Cross. This is how true spiritual leadership is to be exercised; it models the example of Christ who “came not to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.”