The Gift of Leadership?

Turn to Hebrews chapter 13. We're skipping ahead a little bit. I'm going to do some things out of order that will become very apparent why later in the service. We're going to read aloud together—verses 7 and 8, then 17 through 20. Let's lift up our voices together as we read God's word.

Remember your leaders who have spoken God's word to you. As you carefully observe the outcome of their lives, imitate their faith. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

And then down to verse 17:

Obey your leaders and submit to them since they keep watch over your souls as those who will give an account so that they can do this with joy and not with grief for that would be unprofitable for you. Pray for us for we are convinced that we have a clear conscience, wanting to conduct ourselves honorably in everything. And I urge you all the more to pray that I may be restored to you very soon. Now may the God of peace who brought from the dead our Lord Jesus Christ, the great shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good to do his will, working in us what is pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.

The Gift of Church Leadership

The title of this sermon is "The Gift of Church Leadership." And I know that's a humorous title. Some of you are like, "I have the receipt. I'm heading back to the store just like the day after Christmas. I want to return that gift." Honestly, if you feel that way, you're not alone.

There are at least three reasons why we have problems with church leadership. One is we have a cultural problem with leadership in general. We are in a cultural crisis in America with regard to leadership. We distrust leaders—political leaders, corporation leaders, civic leaders, church leaders. We've seen abuses of power, hypocrisy, manipulation, control, failure. Our instinct is to keep leaders at arm's length, and we're reluctant to become leaders ourselves.

It's funny. I can get anybody to be on a committee—happy to be on a committee. You want to lead the committee? No way. Why? Because leadership feels lonely. You're setting yourself up to be criticized, scrutinized. It can be thankless. Who wants a role where you're inevitably going to fail? So we oscillate between these two extremes. We don't like leaders, and we don't want to be leaders.

Which makes this passage sound almost offensive in our current cultural moment, doesn't it? "Obey your leaders, submit to your authority?" No thanks. Absolutely not. We live in a time and place where autonomy is king, where the unencumbered self is the highest ideal. Anything that restricts my freedom—are you kidding me?

But here's what the Bible says to us this morning, and I want you to hear it: The Bible is not holding up for us that we need no more leadership, but we need the right kind. The right kind of leadership.

Biblical Concerns About Leadership

Some of us have a biblical problem with leadership. They ask, "Is church leadership even biblical? Is this biblical?" Maybe we should go back to the early church. Anybody wanted to go back to the early church? No buildings, no budgets, no church staff. Is this really biblical? Maybe it would help me out. Has anybody ever felt this? Is this what Jesus had in mind?

In America, words like "church membership" and "church leadership" can sound like something of the past—like landline, like MapQuest, like writing letters and using stamps. You know, maybe we should just get rid of these things.

It's true. There is no verse in the book of Acts that says, "On this Sunday in Ephesus they received 13 members who stood up and took vows." And yet, there may be in all of the Bible no clearer passage about the essential nature of local church engagement and church leadership than this one.

Christianity has never held up for us a belief system that you merely nod to. It's always about joining in with a covenant community of people. It's always embodied. We experienced some of this during COVID where we could not be together, and it was really disquieting for Christians. Because church is meant to be the lived body of God's people with him in the center.

But really, if we're honest, our problem is not out there. It's not leaders in society. It's not the biblical categories. It's experiences—either directly with us of bad leadership we've suffered under, or people that we love and care for who've been deeply wounded by a controlling, hypocritical, manipulative leader.

I know that in our congregation, there are some of you for whom I'm thinking, it's a miracle you're here. And I know that. I'm very aware that it's a big deal that you're here. For you to trust again, for you to try to come back into a church, it's a big deal that you're here, and I want to honor that. So, again, we hear obey your leaders and submit to their authority. Some of us are like, wait. After everything we've seen? After everything we've heard, all the stories, all the scandals, all the podcasts, how can anybody trust anyone in leadership? That's the question for this morning. How can anybody trust anyone?

And the writer of Hebrews, it's interesting, this is going to be the starting point for my sermon and the ending point because he starts not with leaders, but with Jesus.

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. — Hebrews 13:8

And then again at the end of the passage:

Now may the God of peace who brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus Christ, the great shepherd of the sheep. — Hebrews 13:20

In other words, here's the main thing. The passage is saying something surprising and the big idea: Christian leadership only makes sense in the church where Jesus is the leader. Where Jesus is central. And that didn't answer all the questions, so we're going to have a sermon. How do you trust leaders in a broken world?

I'm going to give you three headings. First, ways we're not called to trust. Second, three ways we can trust. And third, how to recover from abusive leadership. And I feel like I have to talk about that last one today.

Three Ways We're Not Called to Trust Leaders

First, not blindly.

Look at verse seven:

Remember your leaders, consider their outcome of the way of life. — Hebrews 13:7

God doesn't command blind loyalty. You could read the passage that way. Obey. Submit. Right? That's not what's described here. After you have considered the outcome of their way of life. After you've had time to discern, is this a person worthy? Are these leaders worthy of my followership? After observation. After evaluation.

And I'm not talking about job success, popularity, how smooth everything is, not charisma. Character. Look at their trajectory. Look at the fruit of their life. Christian leadership is not measured—no matter what the church looks like right now in America. Church in America looks like it's all about charisma and gloss and gifting and success. That is not how Jesus measures. That's not his measuring tape.

Years ago an older pastor, a friend of mine, told me this: time is the best lie detector in the church. And it's stayed with me for years. Time is the best lie detector. Anybody can preach well for a season or lead well for a season, but over time, character surfaces. And you really see who are you? What are you really about? Is there substance there? Is there Jesus visible in this person's life?

This is why, incidentally, when people are like, "Hey, I'm moving. What church should I go to? Should I go find another PCA church?" I'm like, maybe. I love our denomination, but that doesn't mean automatically everywhere you go is going to be good. Consider. Watch their life.

When God defines the qualifications for leadership, it's fascinating. First Timothy 3 has all these bullet points of what you're supposed to look like, and none of it mentions charisma or lots of gifts. It's not competency first, it's character first. That's what Jesus is looking for. And that same older pastor told me, he's like, "You know, give me a man or a woman of character. I can help with competency. I can help a person grow in proficiency. But there's nothing I can do to make a person of greater character."

Second, not absolutely.

So our trust is not placed in leaders themselves. Look at verse 18. It's a little more difficult to see, but I want you to see this in this passage. Here's what the writer of Hebrews says:

Pray for us. — Hebrews 13:18

Now why does he say that? Why is that written here? Because every leader is prone, is vulnerable, is a sinner, has issues in their life that could become something that shipwrecks their entire ministry. Pray for us.

It's fascinating also to read about Jesus. In John chapter 2, there's this weird little throwaway line:

Jesus however would not entrust himself to them because he knew them all and he did not need anyone to testify about man, he himself knew what was in man. — John 2:24-25

Fascinating. Jesus didn't entrust himself to any man because he knew what was in a man, the heart of a man. Not absolutely. We don't trust absolutely. This is what's unique to biblical church leadership versus any other organization.

We're looking for is not trusting a human leader, but trusting the Holy Spirit that's at work in the life of the church in that person, in those people. That's what we're putting our trust in.

You who have friends who are married, whose marriages in Christ you look up to. One of the things I've noticed over time is that the healthiest marriages aren't really just about trusting that other person. They're about trusting that we're accountable together before the Lord. The Lord is who we're trusting for our marriage. Not blindly just trusting this other person. And it's a fascinating way where that both lowers some of the pressure and raises some of the power. I'm trusting the spirit at work when we took vows before the Lord. That's the same logic here.

Church leaders are not trustworthy in and of themselves. They're trustworthy in as far as they're accountable to God, and the spirit of God is at work within the church. Now this is hard, and both leaders and congregations forget this all the time.

So true confession. At times, I've been really hurt, like personally hurt by the lack of trust of other people. During COVID, this was incredibly painful for me. During COVID, our congregation, more so than the national average, we lost about 50% of our congregation. And some of those people just ghosted. And I was like, man, I visited you in the hospital. I baptized your baby. I did your wedding. And I took it really personally for a while. And I realized I got confused. These people aren't called to trust Jeff Bradford. They're called to trust the Holy Spirit at work in the church. And it's easy for a pastor to forget that.

It's also easy for congregations to forget this. And they put their trust in a leader in such a way that they sort of open up their heart like this person is my person. I've got to hear the gospel only from them. And when that person fails, it is devastating. Some of you have very personal stories of this. This is going on in Raleigh these last couple of weeks. Sister church. And it's a warning to us. Our trust is always in God, in the spirit. We look to him and we look to him to keep a church faithful. And we look to him and we're always saying, consider the outcome of their way of life.

Spiritual Abuse and the Misuse of Authority

Here's how leaders abuse power. So I was a couple years ago, I would get these texts from Susan, and I'd look at my phone, I'm like, "pee pee poo poo butt butt?" And I'm like, oh. Suddenly I know two things are going on. One, she is in the car using her Bluetooth. Two, there's a young boy with her. So she's driving around with a boy, and suddenly a boy interjects something from the back seat and it comes across the text as if my wife is telling me "pee pee poo poo butt butt."

We're used to this though. Sadly this is what abuse and manipulation looks like in the church. But right, when someone is speaking on God's behalf using their own words—did you get that one? The text? A spiritual abuse is when a pastor, an elder, a head of a Christian organization makes it sound like my words are God's words and inserts their words in a way that it sounds like this is what God is saying to you. The leader wields authority in such a way that it's manipulating and it's dominating and bullying and intimidating and lots of other words to accomplish that person's personal goals.

Friends, you're not called to follow a leader. Absolutely not. Individually.

The Importance of Plural Leadership

Notice something else in this passage. Leadership is always plural. Leaders, not leader. The New Testament continually shows us a plurality of leadership. A group of people. That's intentional because power is dangerous when it sits in one person's hands alone.

I know that the word Presbyterian that follows the name of our church, Christ the King Presbyterian, is a clunky word. I don't even know how to spell it. I've been at this church for ten years. It's a transliteration of the Greek and it simply just means rule by committee. So there is a committee that runs our church. It's called the elder board. But what's fascinating about that is that every elder, including a pastor who is a type of elder, has the same vote. And so if anything happens in the church, James loves to say this, if anything happens in our church, it's gonna happen by the Holy Spirit's work because it took so long to get there through a committee.

But in leadership, there is a plurality which means that no individual elder has the authority to go to a member and say this is what you have to do.

That's always resident in a group. And that is a safety mechanism for the church. Plurality of leadership is like when you go to Western North Carolina and you're driving on those windy roads on the Blue Ridge Parkway. And as you drive on those windy roads, they have something on those curves, these big metal things called guardrails. But most of the time you don't need those because you're just driving on the road. You don't notice the guardrail until you need the guardrail. And the guardrail is there to make sure that you stay on the road. Plurality of leadership in a church is a guardrail. Hopefully, it's like we don't really need that. But it's there when it's needed. And you may not see it, but it's shared leadership. It's mutuality. It's accountability.

So the Bible says don't trust leaders blindly. Don't trust leaders absolutely and don't trust leaders individually. That gets us a lot of the don'ts. But that doesn't clear up how do you trust. So let me go to that one more positively. How do you trust leadership at all? Three ways I want to suggest here that are hopeful about how to trust human leadership.

Three Ways to Trust Leadership

Number one is this: provisionally. That's verse 20. When Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep returns. That means leadership in the church is for right now. It's temporary. And there will be a day when we're like, time's up. And here's how we know, because the great shepherd of the sheep returns.

When Jesus returns — Hebrews 13:20

When Jesus returns, my job will be over and I am glad for that. The leaders are given for now. They are provisional. Jesus is the great shepherd of the sheep. That means that every pastor, every elder, every person in the leadership of the church is there as an under shepherd, which means temporary and subordinate.

I sometimes remind our elders of this. None of you died for our church. None of you will judge the church. Jesus did the first in the past. He will do the second in the future. None of us. Which means every human leader in the church is simply serving for a season under his authority. And that's incredibly freeing. It keeps leaders humble. It keeps churches from glorifying an individual. Jesus is the shepherd. It's provisional.

Second, it's prayerful.

Pray for us — Hebrews 13:18

I told you this before. The church isn't sustained by talent, it's sustained by prayer. Leaders are weak people. Let me say something very honestly. The longer I'm a pastor, the more I'm nervous. This is a hard role. I've sat under two pastors who I dearly love who were lifers in ministry. I pray for faithfulness.

I'm in a group with five of us and since 2018, we've had lunch every other week. We're all pastors locally. And we get away twice a year for study time together. And really the whole point of this group is just mutual encouragement and keeping one another in ministry. We call ourselves five guys lawn group because none of us have any skills except for mowing grass. So we figured, if something happens, five guys lawn service could be at your door trimming your hedges and mowing your grass.

But seriously, the constant prayer request of that group is: Lord, keep us all to the end. We want to be lifers. We want to be pastors who retire without there being stuff that comes out and stories. We just want to be found faithful. And I just want to ask you to pray for your pastor, to pray for your pastors in your church, your leaders in your church. I'm not politely asking.

Third, productively.

Leaders watch over souls as those who will give an account — Hebrews 13:17

That's one of the most sobering lines in the whole Bible about leadership. One day church leaders will answer to Jesus personally for how they shepherded and led and cared for people. But the purpose, the goal isn't control and it's not just ever increasing growth. It's spiritual fruit. It's fruitfulness.

Christ is working in that which is pleasing in his sight — Hebrews 13:21

Church leadership exists to help people become more like Jesus. That's the entire goal. This whole thing of leaders keeping watch over souls is a shepherd-sheep analogy. The shepherd's job is not to control the sheep. It's to give them food. It's to lead them to safety. It's to help them to thrive. In the church world, it is spiritual soul care. It is developing people who are more and more becoming like Jesus. That's the whole point: discipleship.

Those are the ways you are called to trust, and I hope you can. It's provisionally, prayerfully, and productively.

Recovering from Bad Church Leadership

Last thing I want to say this morning is recovering from bad church leadership. And sadly, as I said, this is a timely sermon. I want to tell you, if you have sat under bad spiritual leadership, abusive spiritual leadership, you're not alone.

It's actually all over the Bible. Did you know that David, King David, was under abusive spiritual leadership of King Saul? And then Bathsheba and Uriah the Hittite were under the bad, abusive spiritual leadership of David. Stephen, the first deacon—maybe this is a warning not to be a deacon—was spiritually abused by the leaders of Israel. Acts chapter seven, put to death. Jesus was spiritually abused by the shepherds of Israel.

And so, if you're a person who has walked through bad church leadership, abusive church leadership, I just want to tell you this: your Savior knows what that's like. We have one who's able to sympathize with our sufferings, but one who's been tried in every way like we are. You can find in him a companion for where you are today.

How to Work Through Spiritual Abuse

How do you work through spiritual abuse? I'm going to give you five things real quick.

First, take it slow. It takes a long time to get over bad, abusive spiritual leadership. Take it slow. I'm always mindful sometimes when I meet with someone who's new and they react to me in a way that's startling. They're super reactive. I'm like, that's not about me. They're trying to figure out: Is this a safe church? Are you a safe person? And the journey can be really slow, really multilayered, and really emotional. Take it slow.

Second, acknowledge what happened. Why is that so important? It's important because you can't identify with a wound unless you name a wound. I know we live in a victimized culture where everybody seems like a victim, and some of you are like, "Yeah, that spiritual abuse stuff's not real." No. No. No. That is real. That is a real wound. It's real harm. It can involve manipulation of God's word, trying to make it say what it doesn't say, coercion, control. Let me give you a definition of spiritual abuse this way: If everything you do has the qualification of "this gets you accepted by God, this gets you rejected by God," that's spiritual abuse. If there's this thing of "if you're not down with our ministry because our ministry equals the kingdom of God," that's spiritual abuse. Naming abuse is absolutely crucial toward dealing with it.

Third, create safety. In First Kings 19, David got away from Saul. The only way to begin to recover from and deal with spiritual abuse is to remove yourself from that context. You can't heal in the environment where manipulation is taking place. What if somebody is telling you to reconcile? "You need to be the bigger person. You need to be the peacemaker." That is not true. You can't reconcile with someone who's abusing you if they're unrepentant. They're not going to be in a place where you can find healing in that.

Four, this one's a little controversial, but take a break. Take a break from spiritually triggering activities for a time. It may be too hard to even come to worship. I know a lot of pastors are like, "Jeff, you can't say that." I don't want you to beat yourself up for that. Surround yourself with people who are supportive and trustworthy. Safety isn't a lack of faith. It's wisdom and protection. And if nobody else is going to protect you, you protect you. Take a break for a little bit.

Last one: rebuild your internal world. Spiritual abuse affects your identity and your confidence, your ability to trust people, even your own judgment. When you're in an abusive environment and everybody's being abused, the functional dysfunction is what's normal. The functional dysfunction is what's functioning. It's normal. It allows that to be normalized in that kind of church setting. You know you're in an almost-cult if they snitch on you for disagreeing with them.

To rebuild your inner world, you may need trauma-informed counseling. Somebody who knows a little bit about the clinical world who's like, "Hey, yeah, this is really a big deal," and can help you get your feet back under you again. Someone who can help you understand religious trauma and power dynamics and spiritual manipulation and what happens when you're lied to and lied to in an organization that claims to be from Jesus.

The Answer: Jesus the Good Shepherd

So let's come back to the question: How do you trust? Who can you trust? Hebrews gives us an answer. And I know this is not a perfect answer. You're like, "I don't like that answer." But here's the answer.

Now may the God of peace who brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus Christ, the great shepherd of the sheep. — Hebrews 13:20

Jesus is the good shepherd. He is the good shepherd. What makes him good? Every other shepherd protects the sheep from wolves. Jesus protects his sheep by becoming a sheep. He stands in harm's way. He lays down his life for the sheep, for the flock. He allowed the judgment that we deserve to fall on him alone. He made himself accountable for us.

He laid down his life for the sheep, and he sustains the church. He's here. He's here when we open up his word, and when we sing songs, and we meet in that building for Sunday school, and those classrooms upstairs. He's ministering to those children. We meet for premarital counseling. We have a board meeting about the budget. He's here. He's the shepherd of the sheep. Human institutions, churches are gonna come and go. Leaders are gonna come and go. But Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. You can trust him. He is a good shepherd and he will not fail his sheep. And he'll bring you home.

I know that's not a perfect answer. I know that's not an easy answer. That's the Bible's best answer. And let's pray that it is so at our church.

So I'm not gonna end today's sermon with a cute story that makes us all feel good. I'm gonna pray and ask you to pray with me.

Father, guard our steps and guard our church. Guard me, guard our elders. Father, we live in a really sad time and we know lots more sad things than generations before us because of the internet. We thank you, Lord, that you're cleaning house in your church. Lord, there's a lot that needs to be cleaned out and we pray, Father, for your spirit to do that. We also pray, Father, that you would protect your sheep. Lord, we pray for those today whose faith is just really devastated by the failures of pastors and elders. And we pray, Father, that you would restore them. Pray that they would find healing and hope. We pray that for those who hear this morning, for whom this is sort of their last ditch effort at church. For would you draw near to them, shepherd them, comfort them, feed them, guide them. Father, we pray for our church that it would be what you want it to be. Lord, we pray all this in Christ's name. Amen.