Many congregations in Southern Baptist life are confused about the overall leadership of the church. In this text, Paul reveals how God assigns the overall leadership responsibility of the church to the office of pastor. The foundational church in the New Testament is the church in Jerusalem, and it has a leadership model that includes a plurality of pastors.
It is placed upon those who occupy the office of pastor in the New Testament.
Assessment of Knowledge
A third area of exploration involved in assessing participants' views of church leadership concerned whether participants who believe in a plurality of pastors could support their views by identifying specific scriptures that describe a plural model. The potential answers I gave to this question are some of the most familiar passages that describe a single congregation led by multiple pastors, and it was my assumption that those who have built their belief in majority leadership on Scripture would be able to identify one of these passages. Although there are many passages that argue for plural leadership, the assumption was that those who believe the Bible speaks for plural leadership would be able to identify one of the passages included in the optional answer, as a place in Scripture that describes a plural leadership model.
A fourth area of interest that was important to understand as I aimed to assess participants' understanding of church leadership lay in the area of Baptist history. To properly assess their knowledge of leadership in Baptist history, I included the following Likert statement on BCLS: “Historically speaking, a plurality of pastors has never been used. A fifth area that I saw as important for assessing church leadership knowledge was in the area of participants' ability to distinguish between the role of pastors and deacons.
This had been a particular weakness in recent church history, and I was curious to know how much—if any—of this weakness there was. Because FBCHP pastoral leadership felt it was important that an increased understanding of church leadership impact a broad range of members, the class consisted of people ranging in age from sixth graders to older adults. Therefore, to analyze only member surveys, I instructed church members to mark their survey with the letter "m" and visitors to mark their survey with the letter "v". After participants completed the survey, I instructed them to pass their surveys down the hall where I collected them and placed them in a file folder.
Developing a Curriculum
Secondly, I wanted to ensure that the students had a proper view of the office of a deacon. The last session of the Bible study was written with two points of emphasis in mind. Second, I wanted the students to meditate on some of the benefits of a plural model as opposed to a single pastor model.
Men like Strauch, Merkle, Hammett, Newton, and Johnson are just a few of the many authors who have written extensively on the benefits of pluralistic leadership. These interviews took place during the development of the curriculum, and some of the information from these interviews was included in the final session of the class. I wanted the interview subjects to be men who were actively serving in one of two categories: (1) men who were not in a plural leadership model but wanted to be, and (2) men who were moved from a single-priest leadership model to a plural model.
I believed that these personal testimonies would help the class understand the intense challenges of ministry and see how a team of pastors is of great benefit to the overall leadership of the church. To drill these passages into the minds of the participants, I conducted two exercises at the beginning of classes 1 through 5. I repeated the same pattern with the aforementioned scriptures for the rest of the class sessions.
Assessment of Knowledge Increase
The purpose of the project was to strengthen the membership of FBCHP in Holly Pond, Alabama in a biblical understanding of a plurality of pastors. The third goal of the project was to assess the level of increase (if any) in knowledge of biblical principles for a plurality of pastors among members of the FBCHP. The first way came in the form of the following question: What kind of church leadership do you think is the most biblical.
Of those five, 80 percent fell somewhere in the range of agreeing that a plurality of pastors is not a leadership model historically used or promoted among Southern Baptist churches. Another benefit of the project was found in the fact that participants now understand that Baptist history reflects the promotion and use of plural leadership. A third noteworthy benefit of the project was its ability to increase participants' understanding of the leadership differences between pastors and deacons.
A final strength of the project was found in the fact that the Bible study curriculum developed could be taught again. The strengths of the surveys and the Bible study curriculum contributed to the overall success of the project. Another weakness of the Bible study curriculum was that it only presented arguments in favor of a plurality of pastors.
Would Do Differently
The Caution to Avoid a One-Man Leadership Model
At this point the teacher should prompt the class to literally look in their Bible at verse 13.] Notice with me how the verse says that “Moses sat to judge the
- The source of the counsel Moses receives
- The substance of the counsel
More specifically, we want to ask the question, "Which office of the church is responsible for general leadership in the church?" Note that I underlined the word generally. Well, as we walk through this text, you will see how God assigns the overall responsibility of leading the church to the ministry of the pastor. Although the pastoral office is responsible for the overall leadership of the church, it is not the only office of the church from which leadership originates.
As we walk through this passage, I want you to see three elements that reveal how the overall leadership duty of the church rests on those who hold the office of pastor. What does Greek culture's use of the word overseer tell us about God's expectation of the office of overseer or pastor in the church. What does the word deacon tell us about God's expectation of the office of deacon in the church.
Specifically we are asking, "Which church office is responsible for overall leadership in the church?" Note that I am emphasizing the word generally. Now, last week we began to look at the first of three elements from this passage that reveal how the overall responsibility of church leadership rests upon those who occupy the office of pastor. However, Paul's words are clear, the responsibility of teaching falls on the duty of the pastor.
Paul's words in 1 Timothy 3:1-13 strongly suggest that the overall leadership responsibilities of the church fall upon those who occupy the office of pastor. Then notice that Paul uses the singular form of the word "church." In other words, the crowd of "elders" is.
The Benefits of a Plurality of Pastors
But it is even more astounding to consider how these responsibilities can play out in the life of a pastor. He finally weighs in and wakes up on Monday morning only to be greeted with the news that one church member is in the hospital and wants an immediate visit, another member is upset about something he said in his sermon and would like a meeting, a third member is heartbroken because he lost his job, and a lady from the community is standing at the door of his home asking him if he can help her file a prescription. He looks at his to-do list and realizes that he has a high school Bible class to teach, a mid-week worship service that he needs to get everyone ready for before starting two more sermons to be preached on Sunday.
Certainly there are those who see the pastor's life as one of ease that requires only Sunday to be a day of work; however, those familiar with the expectations of the Bible clearly see pastoral ministry as a particularly busy mission with the capacity to tax the soul. Jared, the sole pastor of Faith Baptist Church in Cullman, Al, works a lot in the tasks of pastoral ministry. A workload of this magnitude explains the mindset behind Jared's statement of how he “can't be convinced that the church was supposed to be pastored by one guy.
Not a burden in the sense of unwillingness to carry out responsibilities—though most pastors have had to wrestle with that thought more than once—but rather a burden in the sense of genuine concern for the welfare of the sheep. Pastors who fear God and care about the health of His Church understand the need to address sin in the church. 47 Phil Newton and Matt Schmucker, Elders in the Life of the Church: Rediscovering the Biblical Model for Church Leadership (Grand Rapids: Kregel, 2014), 56.
The Baptist History of a Plurality of Pastors
- The Counsel to Adopt a Share Leadership Model Discussion Questions
- The word used to identify the office of a pastor clearly communicates the idea of leadership
- The pastor is required to be able to teach which is a gift linked to leadership
- The analogy which teaches that just as a father is to a household so also the office of pastor is to the church
- The language makes it clear that Paul appoints a plurality of pastors to lead each church
- God is sought through prayer and fasting before the plurality of pastors is appointed
- The model in Acts 14:23 is a common practice among other New Testament Churches
- Plural leadership provides balance for the pastors’ weaknesses
- Plural leadership makes the pastors’ workload lighter
52 William Williams, 'The Gospel Developed by the Government and Order of the Churches of Jesus Christ (1874)', in Dever, Polity, 531. Johnson, 'The Gospel Developed by the Government and Order of the Churches of Jesus Christ (1846 ),” in Dever, Polity, 190. Which office in the New Testament Church is responsible for the overall leadership of the church.
And an important part of the good structure of the church is that the office of pastor and deacon is involved. Partial leadership is a leadership model used from the earliest days of God's people, but where the office of the church is responsible for the overall leadership of the church. Reynolds who stated that “the apostolic churches in general appear to have had a number of elders as well as deacons.”14.
11 Phil Newton and Matt Schmucker, Elsewhere in the Life of the Church: Rediscovering the Biblical Model for Church Leadership (Grand Rapids: Kregel, 2014), 56. 15 William Williams, “The Gospel Developed by the Government and Order of the Churches of Jesus Christ (1874),” in Dever, Polity, 531. Wills, Greg, “The Church: Baptists and Their Churches in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries.” In Polity: Biblical Arguments on How to Live Church Life, Below edited by Mark Dever, 19-42.
