Shepherds, Not Celebrities

Leadership According to the New Testament

If we are to continue, and God willing expand, Christian influence, it is vital for us to understand leadership, both for the sake of the church and for our broader understanding of cultural stewardship. Fortunately, the New Testament has much to offer, especially when it comes to leadership in the church.

The three basic character requirements for becoming an elder are craving, character, and competence. If a man gifted by the Holy Spirit reflects these traits, he is entrusted with the high calling of feeding sheep and guarding souls.

By contrast, today’s iconic pastors often seem driven by sales, style, and sentiment. This measure is calibrated to stage presence, which in turn creates broader opportunities for men of low integrity and fails to cultivate the kind of example necessary to inspire the disciplines required for other positions of responsibility.

A faulty understanding of leadership in the church translates into a faulty understanding of leadership in general.

Let us then go back to the templet and examine what a New Testament pastor should look like.

Craving

The heart of an elder is summed up in 1 Peter 5:2-3: “Shepherd the flock of God among you, exercising oversight not under compulsion, but voluntarily, according to the will of God; and not for sordid gain, but with eagerness; nor yet as lording it over those allotted to your charge, but proving to be examples to the flock.”

This means a church leader should desire to do what shepherds do. I know too many examples of men who occupy the pastoral office but only wish to preach. Steve Lawson famously harbored a desire for the stage without embracing the broader role. In general, the larger the audience, whether in person or online, the greater the temptation to outsource responsibilities such as converting, correcting, and counseling, as if those duties were less important.

Alexander Strauch writes in his book Biblical Eldership:

The biblical image of a shepherd caring for his flock-standing long hours ensuring its safety, leading it to fresh pasture and clear water, carrying the weak, seeking the lost, healing the wounded and sick is precious. The whole image of the Palestinian shepherd is characterized by intimacy, tenderness, concern, skill, hard work, suffering, and love. (Kindle Locations 142-145)

The shepherd analogy serves as a vivid reminder of the task church leaders should desire. Paul tells Timothy, “Whoever aspires to be an overseer desires a noble task” (1 Timothy 3:1). The Greek word for desire found here, epithumia, can be translated as lust, desire, or passion. What this means for an aspiring elder is that he must first consider his calling and ask himself whether he has a genuine longing, desire, and passion to shepherd God’s flock.

This calling springs from the relationship between the shepherd and the sheep that Christ, the Chief Shepherd, exemplified during his earthly ministry. When a paycheck motivates a church leader, destruction is inevitable. Jesus called such men hirelings because they flee when wolves approach (John 10:12). When selfish ambition to build a personal kingdom motivates a church leader, he is portrayed as a wolf who seeks to exploit the sheep rather than feed them (Romans 16:18; 2 Peter 2). This is why Paul specifically prevents men who are self-willed, fond of sordid gain, or lord it over others to become elders in the church (Titus 1:7, 1 Tim 5:2-3).

Character

Our broader social leadership models are generally characterized by an ability to manage, but they neglect internal virtue, from which good management should spring. By contrast, the Bible gives us a template for church leadership that focusses mostly on character. Paul describes this quality as being “above reproach,” which is further defined by qualities like sexual fidelity, temperance, self-control, gentleness, peaceability, respectability, hospitability, righteousness, holiness, and loving what is good. The quick-tempered fighter, roving eyed ladies man, and substance abuser are specifically gatekept from Shepherding responsibilities.

Oswald Sanders summarizes that “His character is to be such as will not leave him open to attack or censure.” Today, most pastoral failures usually happen when someone’s sexual sins are revealed and generally there is a much deeper pattern they took into the office with them. It does not seem like a coincidence that in both 1 Timothy and Titus, Paul starts his virtue list by saying an elder must be “the husband of one wife.”

Benjamin Merkle states, “A potential elder must be a ‘one-woman man,’ meaning he must honor, love, and be devoted to his wife and her alone” (40 Questions about Elders and Deacons, 128) This leaves no room for polygamy, adultery, pornography, or any form or sexual deviance in the life of a Shepherd.

Unfortunately, when a pastor falls, there are often people waiting in the wings who say they saw the signs but did not speak up for fear of reprisal or out of a desire to avoid inconvenience. This is one reason Paul emphasizes the need to filter out those who put on an act at church by requiring pastors to “be well thought of by outsiders.” This does not mean signaling agreement with popular ideas. It means consistently maintaining good character both inside and outside the church.

Competence

Generally character and competence flow together, but there are also examples of men who are personally virtuous while lacking the competence to meet leadership responsibilities. A good lawyer should have a good character and know the law. A good doctor should care about others and know how to heal them. A good pastor should model upstanding character and knows how to apply the Word of God. If a pastor is not “able to teach” (1 Tim 3:2) or “exhort in sound doctrine and to refute those who contradict” (Titus 1:9), they are not able to do the job. They may make a good deacon, but the Holy Spirit has not equipped them for the work of being a pastor.

If the crowning quality of good character involves marital fidelity, the crowing quality of competence is household management, most revealed in the behavior of children (Titus 1:6). This cannot mean harshness, as Paul also instructs fathers to not provoke their children to anger in Eph 6:4. Instead, the term for management (epimeleomai) in 1 Timothy 3:5 is used in one other biblical text to describe the way the Good Samaritan cared for the wounded stranger (Luke 10:34-35). Thus, in the same way that the Good Samaritan cared for the wounded stranger, so should the elder evidence his care for his family as an example of the way he cares for the family of God.

This translates into the cultivation of a healthy team atmosphere where pastors are approachable and not “self-willed” or “quick-tempered” (Titus 1:7). This was the chief charge leveled at Mark Driscoll and it still haunts many elder’s meetings. It is a character failure, but it is also a competence failure. Pastors must be able to inspire others for the work of ministry which includes listening and delegating well.

Conclusion

There are many books and courses on leadership style that tend to mimic business practices and specialized manipulation techniques. We do not see this in Scripture, yet many of our churches operate in ways similar to secular institutions.

The Word of God offers a powerful and necessary counterexample that, if embraced, will help Christians not only identify better quality pastors but also recognize better quality leaders in general.