Biblical Eldership Church Leadership

Shared Leadership

pastor’s strengths make important contributions to the church and his weaknesses are covered by the strengths of others.

Lightening the work load Shared pastoral leadership also helps to lighten a very heavy work load. If the long hours, weighty responsibilities, and problems of shepherding a congregation of people are not enough to overwhelm a person, then dealing with people’s sins and listening to seemingly end less complaints and bitter conflicts can crush a person. Even the mighty Moses wilted to near death under the pressures of leading the people of Israel (Num. 11). Certainly every shepherd who has sought to do his duty according to Scripture has felt, at one time or another, like Moses. To make matters worse, the single-pastor system of leadership is often ruthlessly cruel and unfair to pastors. Many overworked pastors are alone and isolated, with the church board and congregation serv ing as a multitude of ringside critics. This is one reason why there are so many “short-term” pastors in churches. Many other pastors stay in the same church but are ineffective because they suffer from severe battle fatigue. In a multiple-elder system of leadership, however, the heavy burdens of pastoral life are shared by a number of qualified, functioning, shepherd elders. As Bruce Stabbert masterfully states, “a team ministry provides pastors for each pastor, men from whom one can expect full encouragement and help.”6 Expressing the same idea in more poetic terms, King Solomon wrote, “Two are better than one because they have a good return for their labor. For if either of them falls, the one will lift up his companion. But woe to the one who falls when there is not another to lift him up. Furthermore, if two lie down together they keep warm, but how can one be warm alone? And if one can overpower him who is alone, two can resist him. A cord of three strands is not quickly torn apart” (Eccl. 429-12). Finally, plurality of leadership allows each shepherd elder to func tion primarily according to personal giftedness rather than being forced to do everything and then being criticized for not being multigifted. Providing accountability English historian Lord Acton (1834-1902) said, “power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” Because of our Chris tian beliefs in the reality of sin, Satan, and human depravity, we should

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