Churches need leadership. The challenge is to provide leadership without becoming authoritarian or descending into aimlessness.
That is one reason we believe God established a plurality of elders for leadership in the church. The New Testament repeatedly pictures local churches with more than one leader: “elders in every church” (Acts 14:23), “bishops and deacons” at Philippi (Philippians 1:1), and “the elders of the church” in James 5:14. Pastoral oversight was shared.
For those who like sports metaphors, I have sometimes thought of my role as more like the quarterback than the head coach. A quarterback communicates and makes decisions as he tries to move the team forward. But he is not the head-coach. He's on the field with everybody else.
The church is not a corporation built around a CEO or command-and-control structures. Scripture gives us more relational pictures: a flock, a body, a household, a family, or even a garden. You shepherd, care, raise, and cultivate.
Elders really do lead, but Peter warns them not to be “domineering over those in your charge” (1 Peter 5:3). Good leadership gives direction while respecting the mind and conscience of the believer.
I want to challenge, teach, and lead alongside the other elders here at Liberty. (I thank God for the team of leaders we have had!) But I do not want to cross the line into controlling another Christian’s conscience or insulting their intelligence.
Church life can be like carrying a lumpy feather mattress up the stairs. You eventually get where you are going, but sometimes the team has to stop, rest, and change tactics.
So be it.
We are not trying to build a machine.
We are trying to cultivate a church where people genuinely love one another and follow Christ together.
And Christ, not the pastor, is the Head of the church.