The Body of Christ has purpose.
It is not intended to function randomly, or under it's own authority. The Body of Christ is made up of believers, followers of, and disciples of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the Head of the Body. And scripture reveals the purpose of the Body of Christ.
So far we have looked at what happens when the physical body does not function as designed or intended. We have literally looked at real life examples of the different ways the body fails to function correctly, and the tragedy of what that looks like. How all around those individuals are affected.
In the same way, we have looked a little bit at how the analogy of the physical body can be applied to the spiritual body of Christ. Unfortunately, we do not view it the same, treat it the same, or are as concerned about the effects of the spiritual as we are the physical.
God has left us scripture to guide the Body of Christ. It is the Authority with which a Bible believing Christian church should be modeled after. That being said, there are many different beliefs within what is considered "christian" churches. In order to be "christian", there are some common beliefs that have to match up with scripture, otherwise they are not considered "christian". i.e.,.....God is the creator, Jesus is the son of God, Jesus was born of a Virgin, the Trinity, .......etc.
There are other beliefs within "christian" churches that many will disagree on. As believers, we should desire to know what scripture says, and what we believe it is saying, in context to those who is was written to, and how it applies to us now. This is way to big to get into right now.
We will be looking at Biblical Leadership. We will look at some examples of biblical leadership from scripture, Old Testament and New. This will be done mainly in the context of how the Body of Christ should be lead. Biblical leadership is crucial to the Body of Christ. Crucial to it functioning as intended, crucial to its effectiveness in its purpose, crucial to its health, crucial to its growth, and crucial to its direction.
As I have said in previous posts, pivot points are specific points that give us the opportunity for spiritual transformation, times when something happens, and we then choose a specific direction to proceed in.
I have been active in church for the majority of my life. Went to college to become a youth pastor. And, long story short, have had many, many pivot points that revolve around biblical leadership. So, over time, I have spent more and more energy diving into biblical leadership, and its role in leading the body of Christ.
In Biblical leadership, we will look at two of the aspects that the Bible focuses on, the function and the character of the leader. And how this relates to the spiritual health of the Body of Christ.
In this post I will focus on the function.
What is the function of the biblical leader? Why does the bible talk about leaders anyway?
Obviously, any look into the Old Testament, is not directly referring to the Body of Christ, but that of Israel. That being said, the function for the leaders of Israel was different, yet similar to that of the New Testament leaders. Their function is laid out from Exodus to Deuteronomy (and beyond). Summed up in Deut. 1:9-18. These leaders were to preside over worship, administer rebuke and discipline, settle disputes, exercise oversight over the spiritual and material affairs of the Jewish community. Lev. 19:1-2 Israel was called to be Holy (set apart) as the LORD was holy. All of the commandments, laws, statutes, offerings....etc, were directed to Israel, so that Israel would be set apart from every other nation. The function of leaders were to know all the commandments, laws, offerings, etc, so that Israel would indeed be Holy and set apart. God gave the standard. The leaders were to be held to that standard, and be responsible to hold the people to that same standard.
In the New Testament, there are many references to leadership, and it's function.
Paul writes to both Timothy and Titus regarding leadership. There are two words used to define leadership, "elder" and "overseer". The two Greek words are "presbuteros" and "episkopos" Their purpose was to provide oversight over life and function of local congregations. Luke writes of Paul's words to the "elders" of Ephesus, and of their function in Acts 20:28-30, charging them to "pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood."
1 Timothy 5:17 refers to the "elder" who preaches to and teaches the congregation.
2 Timothy 4:1-2 speaks of preaching the word, reproving, rebuking, and exhorting with complete patience and teaching.
Titus 2:1 speaks of teaching with what accords to sound doctrine.
1 Peter 5 :1-3 Peter exhorts the elders , to shepherd the flock of God, exercising oversight willingly, and to be examples to the flock.
So in a general summary, the biblical leader is to uphold the following functions withing the body:
1. to oversee the flock
2. to care for/shepherd the church
3. to preach
4. to teach sound doctrine
5. to be examples to the flock
This is just a very short list. Not intended to be exhaustive, but generally representative.
The purpose of this list is not only about the function of the biblical leader, it is about the importance of the role of biblical leader in the local congregation and in the Body of Christ.
As I have previously posted. A big pivot point for me was a study I did on the Body of Christ.
In that study, my biblical convictions grew drastically. I had a new found biblical understanding of what the Body of Christ should look like, what it's leadership should like, what leadership's responsibility was, and what happens when leadership fails to lead in biblical purpose, both in it's call to holiness and in it's tangible and intentional discipleship training through ministries for all ages.
In college, I had a class called Philosophy of Ministry. Our final project was to have a written out Philosophy of Ministry. It included a Mission statement, a Vision statement, written out Goals for the ministry, written out Steps to reach those goals, written out evaluation process of Philosophy, and last but not least, written out Biblical verses with context, that support each and every statement that was included in the project. I look back at that and laugh at most of what I wrote, at the same time I am sad that I wasn't held to a higher biblical accountability from the leadership.
This proved to be a frustration point for me in church. I would want to know what the purpose of any specific church was. Why did they exist? Why did they do what they do? How did they make decisions? Did they have a Philosophy of Ministry? Did they have a Mission? What was it? Why did each of their ministries exist? Was it really a step towards meeting any tangible goal? Was any ministry up for evaluation? Did leadership care if ministries were fruitful? Who were the leaders? How did they get to be in leadership? Are there elders or overseers? How many? Could you even ask these questions of leadership? ......etc.
Does that seem like a lot of questions? Well........it shouldn't seem like a lot!! The list should be 10 times that long! If a church is going to exist, it should be for a purpose. The majority of New Testament writings are to correct wrong belief, and wrong actions. It was the writers, writing to "churches" or "believers", correcting them, rebuking them, disciplining them, leading them, and prodding them to the standard of what the Body of Christ should not only look like, but actually be.
That being said, do "Christians" even care about any of that? It has been my experience that the answer is "NO". Instead of the Body of Christ being what the Bible calls it to be, it is much more of a social club, a family and friend hang out, something you check off the box as a "Christian", you are there when it is convenient, and as long as there is no real accountability to scripture and the holiness we are called to.
If we were to be honest, we would know that the Body of Christ to most outsiders, and to many believers, resemble a body suffering from MS, ALS, Lyme disease, Parkinson's, Tourette's, Cancer, Down's syndrome, Autism, CHD, Cerebral Palsy, and even Schizophrenia.
Said like that, I can hear a collective gasp, how can I say something like that? The reason most non-believers want nothing to do with "Christianity"?? The answer is, Christians! Why are there so many believers who no longer are interested in church or going to church?? The answer is their experience with other Christians. Any look into research supports this. So is this a tangent?? No, it's a segway into the crucial role of Biblical Leadership.
Part 2 will be more on Biblical Leadership, a little more on function and a whole lot on the character required of the Biblical leader. And how they correspond with each other.
