I love shared leadership. It is biblical and it makes sense. Having a plurality of elders was one of the primary findings in my dissertation The Authority of Church Elders in the New Testament.

I encountered in my Scripture reading this morning another affirmation of this principle. It is in Numbers 11, which is interesting in light of the fact that some point to Moses as the paradigm for a one-man leadership model.

Moses prayed, “I alone am not able to carry all this people, because it is too burdensome for me” (v. 14). God answered, “Gather for me seventy men from the elders of Israel. . . . I will take of the Spirit who is upon you, and will put Him upon them; and they shall bear the burden of the people with you, so that you will not bear it all alone” (v. 17).

Sometimes it is difficult for men to share leadership. They become jealous and prideful. But “Moses was very humble, more than any man who was on the face of the earth” (Num. 12:3). When some men in the camp began to prophesy, manifesting that they also had received some of the Spirit, this bothered Joshua, Moses’ assistant. These men in the camp were not at the tent of meeting, where it seemed to Joshua that the official authorization of this shared leadership was imparted. Joshua said, “Moses, my lord, restrain them.”

How common it is to try to control such things. But Moses responded to Joshua, “Are you jealous for my sake? Would that all the Lord’s people were prophets, that the Lord would put His Spirit upon them!” This demonstrates one of the most important qualities of a leader. His objective is not to have control, do things his way, and have all the leadership, gifting, and honor. His goal is the good of the people. And when more of the people are gifted and active in ministry and leadership, the more blessed and healthy the people are.

The Authority of Church Elders in the New Testament

Sean Begins Bivocational Ministry at Springhill

For about three years now, I have been on an exciting journey in my faith. Specifically, I sense that God has been changing my convictions about what makes for a healthy church. Back in October, I met with the elders and shared what God has been doing in my life. I requested a pay reduction and an extra day off during the week to pursue real estate investing. Beginning in January, I will be bivocational at Springhill, devoting part of each week to ministry at Springhill and part to ministry “in the world” through real estate.  My responsibilities at this point will not change.  I will just have fewer hours in the office each week.

I sense that God is directing my heart to simplify church ministry. One observation I’ve made is that staff-generated, program-driven ministry is less “effective” than ministry initiated by the people. Families across our nation are failing to disciple their own children. A major contributor, in my opinion, is the program-driven church. I don’t believe that programs are inherently wrong, but many have traded an ongoing, lifestyle of surrender to Christ’s Lordship for a cheaper version of Christianity, where the chief end is involvement in church activities.  I think this can have harmful effects, as people ease their consciences with church busyness, thinking that they’re doing their duty for God. It is a checking off the “spiritual box” in one’s mind, if you will.

What does this have to do with my decision to leave a career in ministry? If programs are not the focus in the church (and there are less of them), there is no need for full-time staff members because there isn’t enough work in the week for them to do. Is this good? Yes, I think so, because the church becomes less dependent on one or two people. The responsibility and health of the church is spread out. This is the reason that I believe that God has charged a co-equal group of elders to share the responsibility of leading the church – because it is not healthy for one man to do it.

One of the questions I’ve wrestled with is, “Is a career in pastoring wrong? What does scripture say about this?” Though I don’t have a definitive answer to this, it has been important for me to answer, personally, to be sure that I’m not running from something that God “called” me to earlier in life.  While space prohibits a more detailed response, one thing that has been suggested to me is that during New Testament times there was no concept of a career in pastoring. In scripture Paul mentions compensation in ministry, but compensation is different than a career or livelihood earned entirely from the church. There are several implications of this that affect a church’s health.  Most noticeable is the scriptural teaching of sharing the burden of leadership among all church leaders.  Lining my life up with scripture regarding biblical church leadership is a major motivation for me in this entire process.

Another benefit of bivocational ministry will be financial relief for our church. I heard recently that the average United States church keeps 98 cents of every dollar, while only sending 2 cents abroad for missions. Springhill isn’t much different from that statistic. It is my hope that our church will be free to give away more of our resources in the future. I can have a direct impact on that by providing for my own family.

Along this journey, Anna has been my dearest friend and most trusted confidant. I have treasured this journey with her. Also, there have been many godly men who have counseled me in this decision. Their wisdom and input has greatly impacted my thinking. I’m grateful for God’s wise plan for making good decisions in the safety of the community of believers (Prov. 15:22). That said, I’m on a journey with God and don’t have all of the answers. I welcome your questions and discussion and even correction, if I am wrong. My only desire is to line my life up with the Word of God, for the glory of God!

Sean

I like some of the things I hear about what he is doing. Here are some snippets of the article:

“In church, rather than rehab people, we just put them in a wheelchair and say, ‘We will do everything for you,’” says Chan. “‘You don’t have to witness to your neighbors. We will send out fliers and do TV shows and evangelize for you. You don’t have to counsel your neighbors; just give them the church’s phone number. Now we are saying, ‘You be the discipler. You have the Holy Spirit in you, and we want to equip you to reach your neighbors.’

“Chan’s long-term plan involves building the church without having a building. . . . The experiment is a way to find out how the church can grow without the limits of a building. . . . The structure is intended to encourage authentic discipleship, where small churches birth more small churches as believers grow and mature, attracting new members. Vanderstelt says the main challenge with this approach is that it requires a shift in leadership perspective.”

The vision of our church, Highland Christian Fellowship, is also to establish new, reproducing church fellowships. And I agree that the approach described above “requires a shift in leadership perspective.” They were talking about pastors moving away from functioning as “managers or directors of programs.” While this must be done, I believe a more drastic paradigm shift must occur. The above model will work better (if at all) if we are willing to have local, native, non-ministry-as-career teams of pastors who shepherd small, reproducing churches.