TAKE ME TO YOUR LEADER

Patterns of Leadership

in the New Testament

Loveday Alexander

Leadership: the eucharistic challenge

Luke 22.24-27 [Cf John 13]

Let the greatest among you become as the youngest, and the leader [ho hegoumenos] as one who serves [ho diakonon].

For which is greater, the one who sits at table or the one who serves? But I am among you as the one who serves.

Can we talk about leadership at all?

Greatest

[senior]

Sitting at table

Leader

Being served

First among you

[least]

junior

Waiting at table

= one who serves

(diakonon)

Serving

Slave of all

Servant leadership

‘Only the slave of all is qualified to

govern all. And slavery to others is

embodied in the act of dying for them’

(Paul Minear).

‘Jesus carries out the will of the

heavenly Father for the sake of those to

whom he is sent’ (Birger Gerhardsson).

What does diakonia mean?

John N. Collins, Diakonia: Re-interpreting the Ancient Sources (Oxford 1990).

Does ‘ministry’ = ‘service’???

Diakonia: root sense ‘go-between, agent’ (not table-service, not ‘menial’ service). (“Going messages”)

Serving the church, humanity — or God?

Waiting at table — or ministry of the word?

Mk 10.45: ‘The Servant of God carrying out a charge laid on him, a particular personal commission under God…..the opposite of all that is powerful and glorious’ (Collins 251).

What does ‘leader’ mean?

“Leaders” is the modern word. … Of a

ruler one asks justice, incorruption,

diligence, perhaps clemency; of a

leader, dash, initiative, and (I suppose)

what people call “magnetism” or

“personality”. C.S.Lewis, 1954.

How does the NT talk about

leadership?

No words for ‘rule’ or ‘power’ (why?)

Concern about ‘acting the boss’

Delegated ‘authority’ (exousia = permission)

‘leader’ (hegoumenos) only 5 times: Luke 22.26, Acts 15.22

Hebrews 13.7, 17, 24

Hegoumenos: Leader? Ruler? Guide?

Leadership patterns in the NT

The apostle and the elders

The leadership triangle

The ecclesiological grammar of Paul’s

letters

Local leadership

Trans-local leadership

Astonishing trustfulness of an

apostle: Acts 14.22-23

Strengthening the souls of the disciples

Exhorting them to continue in the faith

Many tribulations

Prayer and fasting

They committed them to the Lord in

whom they had believed.

The Apostle and the elders: Acts

20.

PAUL (v.24): The ministry (diakonia)

that I received from the Lord Jesus, to

testify to the good news of God’s grace

ELDERS (v.28): Watch out for

yourselves and for all the flock of which

the Holy Spirit has made you overseers

(episkopoi), to shepherd the church of

God

The diakonia of the apostle

Serving the Lord

Humility & trials

The diakonia I received from

the Lord Jesus

To testify to the gospel of

God’s grace

Life of no value:

imprisonment & afflictions

declaring to you the whole

counsel of God

Remembering the words of

the Lord Jesus

How I lived among you

Declaring and teaching

in public and from house to

house

Testifying publicly of

repentance and faith

Warning: false teaching

Admonition

Not covetous

Self-supporting: example

Help the weak

The diakonia of the saints

The Holy Spirit has made you overseers (episkopoi)

To care for the Church of God

which he obtained with his own blood

You yourselves know

Take heed to yourselves

And to all the flock

Overseers ..

To shepherd the church

Be alert, keep watch

Wolves, false teachers

Remember me

You know

Remembering the words of the Lord Jesus

The God dimension

Acts 20.32:

I commend you to

God and to the word

of his grace, which

is able to build you

up and to give you

the inheritance

among the saints…

Acts 14.26:

Paul & Barnabas

returned to Antioch,

where they had

been commended

to the grace of God

for the work which

they had fulfilled …

Hebrews 13.24, 7

Bear with my word of exhortation

Greet all your leaders and all the saints.

Those from Italy send greetings.

Grace be with all of you.

Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God: consider the outcome of their life, and imitate their faith.

Hebrews 13.17

Obey your leaders and submit to them

for they are keeping watch over your

souls,

as those who will have to give account.

Let them do this joyfully and not sadly

for that would be of no advantage to

you.

1 Peter 5.1-5

I exhort the elders among you,

as a fellow elder …. witness …. Partaker in

glory to come

Tend the flock of God that is in your charge

Willingly …. not for gain .. eagerly …

not domineering [Lord] … but examples

When the chief shepherd is manifest …

The God dimension

Heb 13.20-21

May the God of peace … equip you to do his will, working in you … that which is well-pleasing in his sight … through Jesus Christ … glory ….

1 Peter 5.10-11

The God of all grace,

who has called you to

his eternal glory in

Christ, will himself

restore, establish,

strengthen and settle

you. To him be

dominion for ever and

ever. Amen.

A

C B

The leadership triangle

Circle = points of intersection with ‘the world’: not just within the church!

Triangle (NOT management diagram!) A God \ B people / C leader

A God \ B local / C trans-local

Equilateral: both sides equally important

‘You led your people like a flock

By the hand of Moses and Aaron.’

Relational: horizontal and vertical

Dynamic, interactive

The ecclesiological grammar of

the Pauline letters

Confidence (1 Cor 2.3)

The whole people of God

Letter-openings: A triangular set of relationships: Cf. I Thess 1.1.

Paul, Silvanus & Timothy [C]

To the church of the Thessalonians [B]

In God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ [A]

1 Thessalonians: God-taught

1.2-4 We give thanks for you all .. We know that he

has chosen you.

2.4 approved by God .. entrusted with the gospel…

not to please men but to please God.

2.7-8 gentle as a nurse .. Ready to share our own

selves with you …

4.1,9: Just as you learned from us … you yourselves

have been taught by God … do so more & more.

5.24 Faithful is he who calls you, who also will do it.

Trans-local leadership

Apostolic leadership

The source of apostolic leadership

Leadership images: Paul

Leadership images: later NT

The exercise of apostolic leadership

The source of apostolic

leadership

Apostolos = ‘sent’ (whose mission?)

Calling: ‘Saul, Saul’

Prophetic calling (Gal 1)

Divine grace (charisma)

The steward: giving account

Leadership images: Paul

Steward

Housebuilder / architect / gardener

Father

Nurse

Matchmaker

Ambassador

Labourer (and co-labourers)

Pilot

Leadership images: other NT

Shepherd (pastor)

Teacher

Leader (= Guide? Ruler?)

Watchman (keeping watch)

Fisher

Labourers in the harvest

Steward

Exercising apostolic

leadership

Keeping the triangle equilateral

1 Corinthians: too high

2 Corinthians: too low

Philippians: partnership in the gospel

Too high: 1 Corinthians 3

What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants (diakonoi) through whom you believed.

I planted, Apollos watered … , but God gave the growth.

I laid the foundation, another man is building upon it …

The one who plants and the one who waters are equal.

We are God’s fellow-workers; you are God’s field, God’s building.

Too low: 2 Corinthians

3.4-6: our sufficiency (competence) is of God, who has made us ministers (diakonoi) of the new covenant..

4.1: having this diakonia by the grace of God, we do not lose heart.

6.1 Working together with him, we entreat you

10.8 Even if I boast too much of our authority which the Lord gave for building you up and not for destroying you, I shall not be put to shame.

2 Cor 10-12: I speak as a fool

You bear it if a man makes slaves of you, or preys upon you, or takes advantage of you, or puts on airs, or strikes you in the face. To my shame I must say: we were too weak for that!

Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they servants [diakonoi] of Christ? I am a better one (I am talking like a madman) — with far greater labours, countless beatings, often near death.

If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness … that the power of Christ may rest upon me … for when I am weak, then am I strong.

Philippians: partnership

1.5 thankful for your partnership [koinonia] in the gospel from the first day until now.

4.15 no church entered into partnership with me in giving and receiving except you only…

2.12-13 As you have always obeyed .. Work out your own salvation in fear and trembling: for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

4.19 My God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus

The ethos of apostolic leadership

Discipleship: leadership as calling

Charisma: leadership as gift

Diakonia: leadership as service

Koinonia: leadership as partnership

Episkope: leadership as oversight

Apostolos: leadership as imitatio Christi

Diakonos Christou

To be a diakonos Christou is both an enormous privilege and enormously humbling: it is (in C.S. Lewis’ words), ‘both honour enough to erect the head of the poorest beggar, and shame enough to bow the shoulders of the greatest emperor on earth.’

The Good Priest

Bp Thomas Ken 1637-1711

Give me the Priest these graces shall possess:

Of an Ambassador the just address;

A Father’s tenderness, a Shepherd’s care;

A Leader’s courage, who the Cross can bear;

A Ruler’s arm, a Watchman’s wakeful eye;

A Pilot’s skill, the helm in storms to ply;

A Fisher’s patience, and a Labourer’s toil;

A Guide’s dexterity to disembroil;

A Prophet’s inspiration from above;

A Teacher’s knowledge, and a Saviour’s love.

Epilogue: Leadership and

Eucharist

A place of communion

A place of calling

A place of commitment

A place of confidence

Where else can we talk about leadership?

Communion (koinonia)

Horizontal and vertical: The bread that we break, is it not a sharing [koinonia] in the body of Christ? .. So we being many are one bread, one body [1 Cor 10.16]

We know that we cannot ‘go it alone’. We know too that we can only be Godlike in community. The Trinity graphically points it out. We act it out each time we gather to celebrate the Eucharist. These are simple truths for Christians, but in a world where community is fractured and societies and nations struggle, a gift for others.

[Sheila Watson in Greenwood and Hart, Being God’s People]

A place of calling: Simon, Simon

How can anyone carry God, bring God to birth in the world? How can you carry the cup without spilling it? But what if the cup is no fragile container but a deep well that can never run dry? Then you know it isn’t just your resource, your decision, but God’s insistent generosity, carrying you as you carry God.

Rowan Williams, ‘Waiting on God’ [Lady Day, 1992]

A place of commitment

You give them something to eat …

This is my Body .. It’s for you ..

Our entire existence, fears and joys are taken up to the altar in the offered bread, wine and money, to be open to and transformed by God’s holiness — that includes everything about us and not just the parts we’re happy with and proud of.

When we’ve emptied our hands through giving over everything, we receive our lives back as a blessing and a gift from God.

Greenwood & Hart, Being God’s People, 85-6.

A place of confidence

“Lord, thou knowest what thou didst, when thou appointedst it to be done thus; therefore do thou fulfill what thou dost appoint; for thou art not only the feast, but the way to it.”

George Herbert, The Country Parson, ch.22.

1 Timothy 1.12

For I know whom I have believed, and

am persuaded that He is able to keep

that which I have committed unto him

against that Day.

QUESTIONS:

•How does this ‘triangular’ structure affect the

experience of leadership — for leaders and

led?

•What does it mean (in practical terms) to say

that ultimately, leadership in the Church

belongs to God?

•Why is it important to keep in balance the

calling of God’s people and the calling of

leaders?

QUESTIONS:

•Why do you think the word ‘leader’ is so rare in

the NT? Why has it come into prominence in

recent discussion?

•What difference does it make if we routinely

substitute ‘leadership’ for ‘ministry’?

•What positive connotations does ‘leadership’

bring with it?

•What negative connotations does ‘leadership’

bring with it? Why might people be wary of it?