You See Bones, I See an Army (cont,)

Continuing on with my highlights and thoughts on the book by Floyd McClung.

Three Responsibilities of Those Who Lead in a Simple-Church Community

those that are given spiritual leadership are called to lead.  It is going in front.  It is making decisions and persuading others to be part of the decision.  You can tell a leader because he or she has a following.  He is not thinking in terms of hierarchy, but of relationship and responsibility.
Three primary responsibilities of those who lead in a local ecclesia:
To guard
  1.  Against wolves from within (Acts 20:28-30)
  2.  Against false doctrine (2 Tim. 4:1-5)
  3.  Aginst decievers (2 John 7-11)
  4.  Against those who cause divisions (Rom 16:17-18; Titus 3:10)
  5.  Aginst influences of sexual promiscuity (1 Cor. 5:9-13)

To govern
  1.  By caring for people.
  2.  By teaching God's word.
  3.  By correcting people in error.
  4.  By appointing other elders.
  5.  By making decisions.

To guide
  1.  By teaching the Word.
  2.  By discipling and equipping others to lead.
  3.  By imparting passion for God's glory to others.

Simple church by its size and nature needs a coaching and supporting leadership style, not a directing or delegating manner of leading.

Submission to Spiritual, Task, and Teaching Authority
The Bible makes it clear that we are to be committed to a local community of Jesus-followers.  Being part of a simple-church community includes submission to true spiritual authority, which means we are humble enough to allow ourselves to be served by others with spiritual gifts we don't have.  Some have erroneously taught that to be part of a simple church or house church is to be free from all spiritual authority.  In fact, submission to a person or a group of people who follow Jesus is a sign of spiritual maturity.  That includes submitting to those who lead.  However, there is a difference between submission and blind obedience.  Obedience for the sake of obedieince is not good.  We can obey evil as well as good; we can obey man when we ought to obey God.  Nor is obedience that produces conformity biblical obedience.  Obedience to spiritual leaders in order to gain acceptance feeds an unhealthy need for approval.

Three Kinds of Authority
Task Authority
A person put in charge of a task or projects gives assignments and direction.  Under him or her is a group of people whose responsibility is to comply with the leader's instructions as promptly and efficiently as they can.

In a work situation, sometimes we just needd to be told what to do and do it.

Teaching Authority
Teaching authority is based on the ability to persuade.  The pastor or leader who balks at being asked legitimate questions needs to understand the difference between the different types of authority. 

Spiritual Authority
The purpose of spiritual authority is not for passive compliance but for people to be motivated from the heart by Jesus' commands.  Those with spiritual authority have responsibilities to guard, govern, and guide those they are given authority to lead.  Their task is made easier if those they lead submit to their leadership.  If their leadership is exercised in a mature manner, they will seek to influence those they to hear God for themselves and obey him from the heart.  Spiritual growth happens through self-discovery, not imposed obedience.  The purpose of spiritual authority is to inspire people to obey the commands of Jesus and to equip them for service, not command or control people's lives.

The essence of Christian maturity is a response from the heart to the will of God and to the direction given by spiritual leaders. 

A spiritual leader may be a channel of God's Spirit motivating a person, but that person still needs to internalize what God is saying to him or her.  Telling people what they must do, and why they should not do something else, may get a leader the immediate results he or she wants, but it doesn't produce spiritual maturity in others. 

The exercise of spiritual authority in relation to this kind of obedience should be aimed at helping people discover the will of God by hearing God themselves.  If people know how to hear God themselves, then spontaneously reproducing movements of simple churches are much more likely to happen.  Top-down spiritual authority stifles a movement, making the leaders the bottleneck through which all decisions must pass.  But when people hear God for themselves, they can get on with the work God has called all of us to do.

Tomorrow we'll look at a summary of spiritual authority, among other things dealing with leadership.  Today I was able to work about and hour and a half with Greg doing landscaping.  It was great.  Though I have pain, while I was working, I felt no pain.  Tomorrow it may hurt again, and possibly even worse, but it was better than staying home thinking about it.  I hope to continue working through my healing over the next few weeks.  Have a blessed sunny Monday.