Biblical Eldership Church Leadership

Shared Leadership

understand well why people in positions of power are easily cor rupted. In fact, the better we understand the biblical doctrine of sin, the stronger our commitment to accountability will be. The collective leadership of a biblical eldership provides a formal struc ture for genuine accountability. Only when there is genuine account ability between equals in leadership is there any hope for breaking down the horrible abuse of pastoral authority that plagues many churches. Shared, brotherly leadership provides needed restraint on pride, greed, and “playing God,” to quote Earl D. Radmacher, chancellor of a Baptist seminary in America: “Human leaders, even Christian ones, are sinners and they only accomplish God’s will imperfectly. Multiple leaders, therefore, will serve as a ‘check and balance’ on each other and serve as a safeguard against the very human tendency to play God over other people.”7 It was never our Lord’s will for the local church to be controlled by one individual. The concept of the pastor as the lonely, trained profes sional—the sacred person over the church who can never really be come a part of the congregation—is utterly unscriptural. Not only is this concept unscriptural, it is psychologically and spiritually unhealthy. Radmacher goes on to contrast the deficiencies of a church leadership that is placed primarily in the hands of one pastor to the wholesome ness of leadership shared by multiple pastors: Laymen. . .are indifferent because they are so busy. They have no time to bother with church affairs. Church administration is left, therefore, largely in the hands of the pastor. This is bad for him, and it is bad also for the church. It makes it easier for the minister to build up in himself a dictatorial disposition and to nourish in his heart the love of autocratic power. It is my conviction that God has provided a hedge against these powerful temptations by the concept of multiple elders. The check and balance that is provided by men of equal authority is most wholesome and helps to bring about the desired attitude expressed by Peter to the plurality of elders: . .shepherd the flock of God among you, 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” (1 Peter 522,3).8

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