info@9marks.org | http://www.9marks.org

Contents

Editor’s Note

Jonathan Leeman

HIRING AND FIRING

When Should Ministry be Staffed?

Adding staff wisely means knowing what the Bible would say about staff, and it means knowing how a new staff position will affect your congregation.

By Jamie Dunlop

You Have an Obligation to Fire Incompetent Staff

Idle and untrustworthy staff members should be fired for the sake of stewarding God’s money. Here’s why, and how to do so wisely and lovingly.

By Matt Schmucker

You Should Think Twice Before Firing Incompetent Staff

Even though churches contain an organizational component, churches are different than other organizations. That means we need to approach questions of firing differently.

By Phillip Jensen

NUTS AND BOLTS

Blessings and Trials of Short-Term Staff

There’s a cost, and it’s not for everyone, but short-term staff serve both your church and other churches.

By Mark Dever

Why Your Second Hire Might Be an Administrative Pastor

Have you ever given thought to the advantages of hiring someone who was both an administrator and a pastor? There are at least nine.

By Ryan Townsend

How Much Should You Pay Your Pastors?

Churches should be generous with their pastors without tempting them to greed. This article provides some principles for striking that balance.

By Patrick Traylor

SENIOR PASTOR: YEA OR NAY?

The Case for the Senior Pastor

A defense of the biblical warrant for and practical usefulness of the role of senior pastor.

By Greg Gilbert

The Case Against the Senior Pastor

Why not have a senior pastor? Here are four reasons.

By Shawn Wright

MISCELLANEOUS BOOK REVIEWS

Book Review: Radical Together

by David Platt

Reviewed by J.D. Greear

Book Review: Exponential

by Dave and Jon Ferguson

Reviewed by Josh Manley

Book Review: Axiom

by Bill Hybels

Reviewed by Bobby Jamieson

Book Review: Heralds of the King

by Dennis Johnson

Reviewed by Bobby Jamieson

Audio

What is the Mission of the Church? Part 1 with Greg Gilbert and Kevin DeYoung

In view of their new book, Kevin DeYoung and Greg Gilbert discuss the mission of the church, social justice, and the gospel. *Listen online Now »

Posted on September 1, 2011

Business Practices and the Church with John Hardin

What does it mean to view a church like a business? Is it wrong to market your church? Mark Dever asks John Hardin these questions and more based on his recent doctoral work on church marketing. *Listen online Now »

Posted on August 1, 2011

* This audio might not be supported by your particular device

Jonathan Leeman

Editor’s note

It’s easy to overlook the importance of wise management in the life of the church. But pick up your Bible and read 1 Kings 3 to 5. God gives Solomon wisdom, and the next thing you know, Solomon is doing everything from studying hyssop to getting foreign kings to help him build the house of the Lord. All the while every citizen lives peacefully under his own vine and fig tree. The point? Among other things, wisdom is a God-given skill for the work of ordering, building, and prospering the affairs of his kingdom.

The local church’s central work, 9Marks believes, is a prophetic one—proclaiming the Word of our Priest and King. But should God provide, you should want to build a big platform for that Word, and to set it in a teacher’s lectern, and to sit it in a counselor’s chair, and to give it a piano, and to send it out the doors and overseas, and to do everything you can to let that Word reverberate through your church and beyond.

But doing all this takes the wisdom of Solomon, so to speak. It takes skill in wisely discipling people and sometimes even hiring them to facilitate the work of the church.

I almost wrote, “hiring them to do the work of the church.” But Jamie Dunlop’s excellent article reminded me of why we should hire staff—to facilitate the church’s ministry, not to do it. If his article helps to know when to hire, Matt Schmucker and Phillip Jensen help to think about when (or whether) to fire.

Mark Dever, Ryan Townsend, and Patrick Traylor offer a few other nuts and bolts of staff management. And Greg Gilbert and Shawn Wright duke it out over whether we should call anyone a senior pastor.

Through all of this we pray that God would grow you in the wisdom of him who was wiser than Solomon, so that everyone in your church, too, would prosper in holiness, love, and grace.

By Jamie Dunlop

When Should Ministry Be Staffed?

What areas of ministry should be taken from volunteers and given to a staff person?

It’s tempting to answer that question by saying “anything that needs to get done.” Yet think for a moment of all the dangers that staff pose to gospel ministry in a local church. When staff do ministry,

• it can communicate to the congregation that “real” ministry belongs in the hands of trained professionals, and that gospel work is out of their league.

• it can decrease the urgency a congregation feels to do ministry themselves.

• ministry can increasingly depend on staff. Over time, the great mass of ministry need in the church can far outstrip staff capacity, and the entire structure may break down under its own weight.

• if the staff stares into the abyss of unmet spiritual need in a congregation, they risk burning out, since they see themselves as God’s means for meeting those needs.

• the staff may not only deprive other church members of the joy of doing that ministry themselves, but deprive the congregation of a key tool for building unity.

THE BIBLICAL FOUNDATION FOR STAFF

Should we therefore fire all of our staff? I’d suggest not.

While the New Testament emphasizes ministry by every church member (e.g. 1 Cor. 12; Eph. 4), some key passages provide a framework for determining when staff positions are prudent:

1. When possible, preachers should be staff.

First Timothy 5:17 tells us that “the elders who direct the affairs of the church well are worthy of double honor, especially those whose work is preaching and teaching.” The reference to “the worker deserves his wages” in the next verse makes clear that by “double honor” Paul is referring to financial support. We see the same idea in Galatians 6:6.

Ideally, a church should be able to pay its most gifted teachers to relieve those men of the need to find employment outside the church. Given Paul’s focus in the pastorals on teaching others both corporately and individually (e.g. 2 Tim. 4:2, 2:2), it would seem he envisions these paid elders teaching beyond the pulpit.

2. Make provision to keep the preachers from being distracted by other necessary tasks.

Notably, the reason the first deacons were chosen was to address a unity issue that was

distracting the apostles from the ministry of the Word of God (Acts 6:2). While this principle applies most directly to deacons in a local church, it also has relevance to church staff. That is, a church may decide to hire staff to handle the kinds of matters which would distract the church’s preachers from their main work.

3. The job of church leaders is to equip church members to do ministry.

A third principle is seen most clearly in Ephesians 4:11-13. There we learn that Christ gave various types of leaders to his church “to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature…”

Two items are worth noting here. First, the “ministry” of the church is being done by the entire congregation, with leadership in an equipping role. Second, when the leaders equip the whole congregation for ministry, the result is unity and maturity. It is good and right for the ministry of the church to be performed by the entire church, not merely paid staff.

JOB DESCRIPTIONS FOR CHURCH STAFF

Putting these three principles together gives us two different “job descriptions” for church staff:

1. Some staff should be gifted teachers we set aside from secular employment to develop this gift for the edification of the church. This is a clear application of 1 Timothy 5:17 and Galatians 6:6.

2. Some staff can be individuals who support these men so that they are not distracted from their primary work of preaching and teaching. This applies the priorities seen in Acts 6:2 for churches that have money to fund more than one staff position. These supporting staff essentially function as paid deacons—and can range from an executive pastor to a music ministry assistant. In doing this work, these supporting staff are to facilitate ministry by the congregation (Eph. 4:11), not to take that ministry away and do it themselves. Supporting church staff do not exist to “professionalize” ministry but rather to facilitate ministry by ensuring that necessary matters of logistics, maintenance, and so on are done capably and efficiently to promote unity within the congregation.

“The Great Commission gives every local church the dual priorities of making disciples in their own community and of preaching the gospel to the nations. Neither job will ever be completely finished this side of heaven, and yet both are to be our priority.”

Of course, all of this is subject to the financial constraints that exist in every church. The Great Commission gives every local church the dual priorities of making disciples in their own community and of preaching the gospel to the nations. Neither job will ever be completely finished this side of heaven, and yet both are to be our priority. So we should never fund staff who meet needs in our own community that feel very real, at the expense of neglecting our responsibility to the nations—where gospel need, though no less urgent, is easier to ignore because it is so removed from us. Nor should we be so missions-minded that we neglect pressing needs in our own congregations. That would destroy the engine of disciple-making that is our best hope of reaching the nations.

SOME QUESTIONS TO GUIDE YOU

With these principles in mind, here are some questions to guide you in thinking about staffing:

1. Consider your staff one by one. Are they merely doing ministry, or are they equipping your congregation for ministry? Even the Sunday morning preacher is there primarily to equip. Restructure any jobs that have become focused on doing ministry with little or no focus on equipping others for ministry. This can be a particular challenge for staff positions that involve community service or evangelism.

2. Is your church budget in line with the priorities of the Great Commission? Are you over-emphasizing the ministry needs of your own community? Or shortsightedly hobbling your church’s disciple-making in the name of outreach?

3. Is your congregation confusing facilitating gospel ministry with gospel ministry itself? Cleaning the church bathroom is ministry if we “work as unto the Lord.” But from the perspective of eternity, would more be gained by hiring a janitor and directing those volunteer hours to evangelism or teaching or care for hurting church members?

4. Would your congregation step in to do the jobs of your staff if they were all laid off? Or have you artificially increased the importance of some ministry-related activities by locking them into your church budget as staff positions? In your church, there is a “free market” of Spirit-filled, Scripture-taught Christians who are all making time-value tradeoffs against a variety of God-given priorities. This provides an assessment of where to invest time and energy that should not be overlooked. Sometimes a congregation is sufficiently immature that its assessment of what is important should be overlooked. But generally, if an activity is not important enough to get done if the staff position were eliminated, it is likely not important enough to get done at all. This can be a particular challenge for staff positions dealing with music and other aspects of the Sunday service.

CASE STUDIES ON TIMING

One of the challenges facing a senior pastor or board of elders is determining exactly when a new staff position is needed. How do the three Biblical principles laid out above help answer the timing question? The examples below serve as case studies in this regard.

1. Hiring an Associate Pastor

An associate pastor serves in two different roles: he teaches the congregation (1 Tim. 5:17) and he supports the main preaching elder so that he can teach well (Acts 6:2). As such, assuming money is available, churches should hire an associate pastor for at least two reasons—for the sake of the fruit and for the sake of the need. Sometimes, churches might decide to hire one of their own members to become an associate pastor simply because he has proven so fruitful in unpaid ministry that the church wants to pay him full-time to be even more fruitful.

Yet sometimes churches might hire an associate pastor because of the need. It may be that the main preaching elder is struggling to care for both the congregation and his own family because the congregation is growing. It’s true that all the elders (paid and unpaid) should work to care for the congregation, but a church might decide that the level of need warrants someone full-time for the task. An associate pastor helps ensure that neither teaching, nor congregational care, nor a pastor’s own family fall through the cracks.

2. Hiring a Pastor for Evangelism

Many Christians find evangelism uncomfortable, and yet are guilt-ridden about the lack of it in their lives. For that reason, hiring a pastor for evangelism can be a high risk proposition. On the negative side, some church members might feel that such a hire frees them from their responsibility to share their faith since they have hired someone to “do it for them.” On the positive side, a good pastor for evangelism can facilitate this ministry in a congregation.

If a congregation is reluctant to evangelize, the first thing it needs is sound teaching both in public and in private. As such, I would suggest that a church not hire a pastor for evangelism until evangelism is already hardwired into the congregation’s DNA through the teaching of the Word and the work of the Spirit. At that point in time, if additional facilitation of this vital ministry is needed, such a hire might make good sense. The same thought process would apply to other ministry areas that congregations would gladly—but mistakenly—hand off to staff, like youth ministry or mercy ministry.

“If a congregation is reluctant to evangelize, the first thing it needs is sound teaching both in public and in private.”

3. Hiring a Facilities Manager

If a church owns a building, facilities management is important—and excellence in this area can greatly facilitate the ministry of a local church. Unlike for the prior example, Christians in no way share a responsibility to clean the church toilets like they do for evangelism. So there is little spiritual danger in hiring a facilities manager.

If you have a building, hiring a good facilities manager should be a priority as soon as it is financially prudent. By caring for church infrastructure, this staff member will enable both pastors and church members to focus their time more effectively on the ministry and fruit of the Word.

4. Hiring a Director of Children’s Ministry

Sometimes the timing of a staff hire has more to do with church unity than logistical burdens, and this is often the case in children’s ministry. If support staff are essentially paid deacons, as I’ve said, then their primary role is maintaining church unity. That was the case with the first deacons in Acts 6 who were appointed because a logistical issue was threatening the unity of the church.

As pastors know too well, children’s ministry is rife with opportunities for disunity. While it is tempting to deal with these threats to unity by “professionalizing” the ministry and handing it in its entirety to staff, this is neither biblical (Eph. 4:11) nor is it often very practical given the sheer number of adults needed to run a children’s ministry.

As such, as a first step in managing children’s ministry, a church will likely appoint a volunteer deacon for this role. Over time, when this responsibility exceeds the capacity of a volunteer deacon, a church will want to create a staff position—not to do the ministry, but to facilitate it—who manages logistics to protect the unity of the church. The trigger in hiring is when the logistical work required to protect unity has outgrown the capacity of even the most dedicated volunteers.

About the Author:

Jamie Dunlop is an associate pastor of Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington, DC.

By Matt Schmucker

You Have An Obligation to Fire Incompetent Staff

Is it ever right to fire church staff? If so, when? And how should you go about this difficult task?

DEDICATED TO THRIFT

Walking down the street recently I noticed that the name on a nearby bank had changed again. Another failure or merger? The signs had changed, but I noticed a message carved into the stone when the bank building was originally constructed in 1874: “Dedicated To Thrift.”

Thrift? There’s a word you don’t hear much. But it’s a good word. It means using money or resources carefully and not wastefully.

Stewardship is another good word that we may not hear much, but is found throughout Scripture and is similar to thrift. It’s taking responsibility for something and managing it well. We see two good examples of stewardship, along with one bad one, in the parable of the talents in Matthew 25. Two of the characters are commended for their stewardship and management, while one is condemned. He’s called “wicked and slothful” since he did nothing with the talent given to him.

I want to argue that it is right to fire Christians who are staff members of churches based on this idea of stewardship.[1] It is right to fire Christian employees who are poor stewards. A local church has been given many talents: time, money, buildings (in some cases), members, and opportunities to be faithful witnesses in the community in which they are situated. Stewardship calls the local church to seize these talents, manage them well, and bear fruit for the spread of the gospel, the strengthening of the local church, and ultimately the glory of God.

WHY DONORS GIVE

Let’s remember that members of our churches are voluntarily giving their money for the spread of the gospel. As stewards themselves, donors faithfully give so that more people may be won to and grown up in Christ. That transaction—a donor giving his money to a church—has the implied understanding that money won’t be wasted or misdirected, but that it will be stewarded well for the purposes for which it was given. The donor is implicitly saying, “I want to take the money God has given me to steward and set it aside, together with my fellow church members, to support the time of this particular Christian so that he can give more of his time and gifts to the spread of the gospel.” An unfaithful employee of the church undermines the trust which underlies a Christian’s giving.

ONLY “GOOD-TO-GREAT” EMPLOYEES STAY?

What qualifies as such poor stewardship that one should be dismissed from a job? This is where it becomes very difficult to give a satisfying answer in a short article. But there are some categories that, I think, justify the removal of an employee for the sake of the mission and the faithful stewarding of the resources of the church. Who then should be fired?

“In our day, lazy and idle behavior isn’t simply a person taking cat naps at the desk. It can take the form of long lunches and personal phone calls, or lingering on Facebook, email, and the newsfeeds.”

• The non-Christian: “Workers of lawlessness” (Matt. 7:23) and “Workers of evil” (Luke 13:27) certainly qualify as unfaithful, along with anyone who meets the description of “not inheriting the kingdom of God” (1 Cor. 6: 9-10). They function as reverse witnesses in their work, and they should be removed from staff. Some of you may be chuckling under your breath at this point. But I speak from experience: one member of a church staff who was a known adulterer was initially instructed to get counseling, after which he would be restored to his staff position. May that never be!

• The lazy and idle: When a lazy or idle person receives pay for work that he did not do, he is essentially stealing from his employer. We should no sooner have a lazy or idle person on our church staffs than we would house a known thief. Paul speaks strongly to this issue:

Now we command you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you keep away from any brother who is walking in idleness and not in accord with the tradition that you received from us. (2 Thess. 3:6)

For even when we were with you, we would give you this command: If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat. For we hear that some among you walk in idleness, not busy at work, but busybodies. (2 Thess. 3:10-11)

In our day, lazy and idle behavior isn’t simply a person taking cat naps at the desk. It can take the form of long lunches and personal phone calls, or lingering on Facebook, email, and the newsfeeds.

• The divisive: Unity is a prime concern in Scripture, especially in Paul’s writings. Unity is a fragile thing, particularly in an all-volunteer organization like the church. Unity must be worked for and protected. Paul writes,

I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment. (1 Cor. 1:10)

A divisive staff member is incredibly powerful. He has the ability to undermine authority, gut the good motivations of younger workers, and rob the leadership of the joy God intends them to have (Heb. 13:17).

• The untrustworthy: “Moreover, it is required of stewards that they be found trustworthy” (1 Cor. 4:2). Have you ever given a task to someone who is known to be untrustworthy or unreliable? This predicament causes inefficiencies, ineffectiveness and frustration. In Acts 6 the apostles are looking to appoint men of “good repute” so that they can devote themselves to prayer and the ministry of the word. If they don’t find trustworthy men, then the Apostles’ ministry will be diluted at best as they spend distracted time picking up the pieces of unfaithful ministry.

• The unmotivated: Proverbs 16:26 says, “A worker’s appetite works for him; his mouth urges him on.” Proverbs 21:25 says, “The desire of the sluggard kills him, for his hands refuse to labor.” There is a class of people who appear to be unmotivated. They don’t hear the urgency in Jesus’ words when he says in John 9:4, “We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work.” To put it positively, the church staff member should be characterized by zeal!

• The incompetent: This is a tough one. You could have a well-intentioned, solid believer who simply lacks the skills for which they were hired and therefore is unable to perform the necessary tasks. In this case, I think you still need to dismiss or relocate the employee based on the stewardship principle.

“Long transitions show kindness to the individual and make for peace within the church.”

PRACTICAL ADVICE

The burden of this article has been to establish the principle that, in certain circumstances, it is right to dismiss church staff employees. You can do this well or poorly. Should you find yourself in the unenviable situation of needing to fire one of your staff, you might consider the following:

1. Do it with the approval of other leaders. Don’t act alone.

2. If you are able, depending on the circumstances, give the fired employee lots of time to transition to another job. Assuming the employee is a member of your church, if you act in such a way that the dismissed employee immediately feels pressure to provide for his or her family you are potentially inviting bitterness and division into your church. Long transitions show kindness to the individual and make for peace within the church.

About the Author:

Matt Schmucker is vice president of 9Marks and executive director of Together for the Gospel.

By Phillip Jensen

You Should Think Twice Before Firing Incompetent Staff

The gospel, rather than the world, must set the standards of life for Christians in every aspect of life, including the workplace. Holiness involves being different from the world, but this does not mean we have lower standards than the world or can ignore local industrial legislation. It does mean we will draw our concerns not from normal practice, but from the Scriptures.

If this is true of regular commercial practice for the Christian, how much more should it be true of employment practices in our church life, including the question of whether or not to fire church workers for incompetence.

CONSIDER YOUR PRESUPPOSITIONS

To think Christianly about something as commonplace as workplace practices requires a critical analysis of our own presuppositions. Sometimes the Spirit uses God’s Word to reveal these presuppositions to us, and sometimes he helps us to understand these presuppositions in order to better understand his Word.

On this issue our assumptions frequently come from the pattern of industrial relations that we are used to in our society. We sometimes discover our presuppositions from another context, such as working overseas or studying history.

Within the church we often need to experience other denominations to realize the assumptions that we are making. The difference between the employment philosophies of clergy (e.g., Anglican self-employed and Baptist church-employed) is quite significant but largely unnoticed by people who never move out of their own denomination. Sadly, this aids us in unwittingly reading our own denominational practice into the Scriptures. So, for example, it is very hard to determine the New Testament meaning of the word “deacon” without bringing into the discussion something of the office in your particular tradition. Even determining to transliterate diakonos as “deacon” instead of translating it as “servant” is affected by our traditions.

THINK BIBLICALLY, NOT IDEOLOGICALLY

Broadly speaking, Western economies are heavily influenced by socialism and/or capitalism. Either of these can point to the Bible and to Christian thought as the source of some of their key ideas. Either of them can be criticised for failing in some key Christian notions. And both of them fail the Christian test by being fundamentally materialistic in their worldview.

Unfortunately, Christians who are in one camp or the other have been informed that it is a binary choice. So once committed to one political economy even Christians seem to find no good in the opposite. This thinking has been determined more by the world than by the Scriptures.

Christians should not see workers as units of production but as people made in God’s image. We should not treat them on the basis of the bottom line but on the basis of their relationship with God. Just as we do not abort babies or “euthanise” the elderly, so we do not treat fellow labourers impersonally or for our own benefit. The labourer is worthy of his hire and more. For even an ox is to be allowed to benefit directly from its labour, and if that is true for an ox how much more for a human.

In addition, the slave master is to remember that the slave has his rights and that the master is answerable to our heavenly Master who will treat us without partiality. Nowhere outside the Bible will we be taught “giving to those in need” as a motive for doing honest work (Eph. 4:28).

SACKING THE INCOMPETENT?

But let’s return to the question at hand about sacking the incompetent member of a church staff.

The first problem with this question lies in defining “incompetent.” If it means dishonest, lazy or disloyal, the Christian boss may well take action even to the extent of sacking. People are primarily responsible to provide for themselves by their labour and the church is not to be burdened by people’s laziness and unwillingness to engage in work.

Paul would not have the Thessalonians feed a lazy man who refuses to work (2 Thess. 3:6-12), or even provide for the young widows who learn to be idlers, busybodies and gossips for lack of useful employment (1 Tim. 5:9-16). Furthermore, while a young man like Mark may be given a second chance by Barnabas, Paul was not wrong in refusing to take on mission again, a man who had deserted them on a previous mission (Acts 13:13, 15:37-39).

No doubt there are times when there is a downturn in the economy, or some difficulty in the church, and staff members have to be dismissed because there is not enough money to pay for them. Yet at such a time it is important that faithful workers are given every generous help to find alternative work. Other staff members should look to how they could help out of their pay to provide. And congregation members who have employed them should share in the consequence of the downturn.

CHURCH EMPLOYMENT DIFFERENT FOR FIVE REASONS

However, we cannot assume that normal, even Christian, business practices are the right model to follow when it comes to church employment. Church differs from the community in several respects.

“Family look out for each other’s welfare and share each other’s burdens. While it is wrong to treat other people and foreigners unjustly, it is doubly wrong to mistreat a sibling (Obadiah 10).”

Firstly, we are family. It is easy to use the language of brothers and sisters but far more important to treat each other as family. Family look out for each other’s welfare and share each other’s burdens. While it is wrong to treat other people and foreigners unjustly, it is doubly wrong to mistreat a sibling (Obadiah 10).

Secondly, ministers of the gospel need to be recognized for their work (1 Cor. 16:18) as the teaching elder deserves double honour (1 Tim. 5:17). Speaking the truth in love, speaking the oracles of God, calling upon people to repent, and preaching the gospel of Jesus, especially in your own community, leads not only to great love but also to great animosity. It is therefore very important to protect those whose work places them into the forefront of gospel ministry. We don’t want them to be tempted to weaken the message, to become lovers of praise, to compromise the truth for personal security, or to become partial. Knowing that he has the secure backing of the church in his job will enable a pastor or church staffer to confront both the difficult situations and people in the congregation. But when a pastor has to find favour with the powerful of the church, lest he be summarily sacked, he is no longer leading God’s people but following the fat sheep (Ezek. 34). I recall speaking at a pastor’s conference where a middle-aged man said, in tears, “I agree the Bible teaches what you say, but I could never put that into practice in our church, for they would sack me immediately.” In that case, what is the point of being the pastor?

Thirdly, many ministry jobs require moving the whole family into a new location. Being sacked similarly requires moving the family out of the community. This can create great hardships for ministry families and children. Unlike many jobs where we are socially strangers to our clients, customers and colleagues, most ministries require our congregation to be our neighbours and our friends. This does not mean a minister cannot be sacked. But his situation is very different from many jobs where the worker can continue in his house, his children continue in their school, his wife continue in her network of friends, and the whole family continue in their church, while the man seeks a new job in the same city.

Fourthly, we work for a voluntary association. Monetary profit is not the bottom line in our work context. Instead it is gathering God’s people into fellowship around his Word. This creates a different set of expectations and standards than the world. Church members are not customers, demanding better service from our employees. We are family gathering together to build each other and the church. Ministers do not have the same responsibility/authority structure in their pastoral ministry as workers have within the workplace.

Fifthly, the work of the Lord is not able to be measured except by faithfulness. And even that is not really open to scrutiny. So, Paul refuses to be judged by any person, and does not even judge himself (1 Cor. 4:1-4). So how do we measure incompetency? It is like trying to measure success in the ministry. Churches can grow and offertories increase despite and even because of the unfaithfulness of the minister. Some of the great heretics of history have had wonderful personal skills and great popularity. Indeed it is almost incumbent on a false shepherd that he is really attractive to the people on matters of appearance and worldly success. On the other hand, the true prophet of God is all too frequently despised and rejected as the Lord was in his day.

For all these reasons, a church’s hiring and firing policies will be very different to most places of employment.

SOME PRACTICAL CONCLUSIONS

What does this mean practically?

It’s not appropriate to sack competent staff members simply to suit the current developments at the church. Some churches sack staff members because the church leadership wishes to have a different team composition. It can be that the church has grown and different gifts are needed. It can be that a new team could revitalize the church in the doldrums. This seems to me to be failure of care, love and justice. It seems unloving, ungrateful, and harsh to sack a staff member—especially a faithful one who has seen the work grow to a new level—and so seriously inconvenience his life, family, and ministry because of inadequate management or planning by the church leadership. Rather than train the staff in new directions, or possibly choose not to follow new directions, or choose the staff more carefully with a long term view in mind, it is easier for management to change the employees—easier for management, not for the staff member.

If the staff members are employed on the basis of short-term contracts, and they know this is the practice before they start, the outcomes are not so bad. It is far better to hire slowly and continue training so that we find and develop workers to grow with the church than to dispose of them when they no longer suit us.

As with so many ethical issues in Christ it is a matter of motives. And, as with all such matters, we have to remember the deceitful and sinful nature of our own hearts.

About the Author:

Phillip Jensen is the dean of Sydney at St. Andrew’s Cathedral and the author of Two Ways To Live. Further articles by Phillip Jensen are available at www.phillipjensen.com.

By Mark Dever

Blessings and Trials of Short-Term Staff

It may seem intuitively obvious that long-term church staff are better than short-term staff for administrative and even pastoral work. Indeed, there are disadvantages to short-term staff. But there are also some distinct blessings that come with deliberately hiring for the short-term.

Let me back up first. Many churches throughout history and around the world today exist with no paid staff. Not every church can afford it. Why do churches then have staff? The New Testament makes it clear that, as they are able, churches should pay their primary teachers (Luke 10:7, 1 Cor. 9:14, Gal. 6:6, 1 Thess. 2:6, 1 Tim. 5:17). If a congregation is large enough, it may even be able to support other individuals to serve the ministry of the church. Such additional staff could conceivably do everything from children’s ministry to administration to local outreach to anything in between.

Along these lines, it may seem obviously desirable for such staff to serve for reasonably long stretches of time, and my own church does have some longer-term senior staff (called associate pastors). Long term staff

• Provide a church with a sense of stability;

• Accumulate broad and deep institutional knowledge;

• Build strong and deep relationships;

• Learn well the strengths and weaknesses of the body;

• Grow in faith as they witness God changing people over long stretches of time;

• Accumulate the personal capital and trust necessary for giving meaningful criticism and encouragement when it’s required for fellow staff and church members;

• And more.

Still, in spite of all this, our church has chosen to have a number of staff positions that are deliberately short-term. These are individuals—often young men—whom we hire for one to seven years for doing administrative and even pastoral work for us (called pastoral assistants and assistant pastors). Our intention is for them is to spend some time with us and then move on—some to seminary, some right into other pastorates.

And yes, this brings its share of trials—really, the opposite of the bullet points above. In the hand-over from one staff to the next, matters are forgotten, files are lost, the hard work of training has to start all over, institutional and pastoral knowledge walks out. Even more painfully, relationships end. Coming and going is emotionally wearing.

Yet there are clear benefits. First, fresh ideas come with fresh people, especially if they’re encouraged to share honestly and openly. They come with their own experience of God’s grace in how they were converted. They come with lessons learned in other churches. They come with what God has taught them was spiritually beneficial in the past. All this will benefit your church’s ministry.

Second, new members of the staff have fresh eyes for your church’s situation. Even if they have already been a part of your congregation, their entrance onto the staff can change their perspective.

Third, bringing young individuals onto staff for several years invests in them and, what’s more, invests in the churches they will one day serve. It helps them to imbibe your understanding of God’s Word and God’s church, as well as the culture of your congregation and staff. A few years on a careful church staff can teach things that no years of classroom training ever can. Besides this, it gives these individuals the opportunity to build relationships with other staff.

Fourth, short-term staff do real ministry and real work, both in the lives of church members and in the pastoral staff supported by their administrative work.

In all these ways, short-term staff can be very valuable.

Part of the equation for figuring out how serviceable short-term staff can be for your church is considering how transient your congregation is. The more transient your congregation is, the lower the relational cost to relying on short-term staff.

“The more transient your congregation is, the lower the relational cost to relying on short-term staff.”

In our church, anyone who has been a member for even three years is an old-timer. We take in enough members every other month to quickly give any new staff member a host of new faces to care for. What’s “short-term” to a twenty-year member doesn’t look “short-term” to the people who just joined. To them, the one-year old staff member looks as permanent as the parking lot.

Short-term staff are a blessing from God. They should be used for his glory and their own good, as well as for the good of other congregations they may yet serve.

About the Author:

Mark Dever is the senior pastor of Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington, DC and is the author of Nine Marks of a Healthy Church (Crossway, 2000).

By Ryan Townsend

Why Your Second Hire Might Be an Administrative Pastor

Here at 9Marks, one of our favorite books on pastoral ministry is Colin Marshall and Tony Payne’s The Trellis and the Vine. The main idea is simple: in the disciple-making work of Christian ministry, the real growth that churches should pursue is the growth of the vine (Christians); growing the church’s trellises (administrative structures) is important only insofar as it helps the vine to grow.

If Marshall and Payne are right, and we think they are, there are some clear implications for what kinds of staff a church should look to hire. For instance, it just might be a good thing for your second hire to be a trellis-builder: an administrative pastor.

Certainly this is not the right course of action for all situations, but I’d like to raise a few of the advantages of an administrative pastor for your consideration.

YOUR FIRST HIRE: A FAITHFUL PREACHER

The matter of first importance is to find a man gifted by God to preach the gospel and the whole counsel of Scripture, since God always saves and sanctifies through his Word. Like the apostle Paul, we have to be committed to letting everything else fail—if it has to. The preaching of the gospel and the Scriptures is the only thing that must continue (e.g., Acts 20:18-24).

That means, if a church can only hire one pastor, it should be a man gifted by God to preach the gospel and the Scriptures.

YOUR SECOND HIRE: CONSIDER AN ADMINISTRATIVE PASTOR

Nevertheless, vine growth in a church becomes easier and more efficient with good “trellises”—strategy, structures, processes, tools, and communication. Such trellises both steward our resources and relationships and promote supernatural, gospel growth.

Since my conversion thirteen years ago at Capitol Hill Baptist Church, I’ve had the privilege of seeing the vital importance of this trellis work in Matt Schmucker’s service as Mark Dever’s administrative pastor, and now I have the privilege of working with Jamie Dunlop, the current executive pastor, who serves the church in this same way. I’ve seen up close all the details, pastoral demands, prayers, and work that are required to run a church through my own experience of serving as Clifton Baptist Church’s administrative pastor.

Often, preaching pastors make their second hire a general-duty associate pastor. The idea is that this man will help with teaching, counseling, worship, adult education, and children and family ministries. These matters are vital to a church’s ministry, and it’s important for a pastor to get help in these areas. Yet often, an administrative pastor is not considered a key part of the team. Or if he is, the role is not considered a pastoral one. I believe this oversight has hindered much vine growth. A man who is both a pastor and an administrator best understands the nature of vine growth and stewards the trellises appropriately, because he approaches them pastorally.

This brings us to why I believe a good second hire for a pastoral team is sometimes an administrative pastor—a man who is qualified as an elder/pastor and as an administrator. As I said before, this may not be the right course of action for every church, but I’d like offer it as one possibility.

Why should the administrator be a pastor? He should be a pastor because much of the job, from the big-picture (e.g., strategy and organization) to the small details (e.g., budget line items and members’ meeting agendas), requires sound theology, pastoral discernment, regular communications, preaching and teaching, strong, servant-hearted leadership, and humble, loving diplomacy. And he should be gifted in administration, organizational strategy, and communications because his job requires him to define, build, and manage the organization and its infrastructures—the strategy, processes, tools, and people affected by the church and its ministries.

NINE MORE REASONS TO HIRE AN ADMINISTRATIVE PASTOR

Here are nine more reasons why your church might benefit from making the administrative pastor the second hire:

1. Strategy

As the man who brings the Word of God, the preaching pastor is the natural vision and voice of any church. Nevertheless, every vision and strategy requires someone to come behind it, to drive the planning and discussion, to think through the practical details, and then to implement the nuts and bolts of it all. This takes a lot of time, patience, biblical knowledge, pastoral discernment, and hard work. This is what a good administrative pastor does in conjunction with the other pastor(s) of the church.

You might have seen the portrait of Charles Spurgeon that has a couple of men hidden in the shadows of the background. Did you notice the men in the background? The portrait serves as a gentle reminder that Spurgeon was able to minister as he did and have such success, in part, because he had such men in the background. Most, if not all, good ministries and ministers will have such people.

2. Organization and Infrastructure

Typically, strategy consultants say that an organization will only succeed to the extent that clear processes and tools are in place to build, support, and maintain that organization and its strategy. Now, gospel ministry is different because true growth comes supernaturally through the gospel. Still, there is an important stewarding of our natural resources which churches must consider in building the trellis. And this is the job of the administrative pastor. An administrative pastor’s job requires that he build and maintain processes and tools for all the parts and pieces of the church. These nuts and bolts may include:

• managing the church’s building(s) and property;

• overseeing the logistics for the regular schedule and events of the church;

• managing the administrative tasks, personalities, and details of the church staff, membership process, church finances, meetings, important church documents, and so on.

3. Communication

The clearest strategies and the most effective processes and tools will fail without good communication and teaching. Much of the responsibility for communication falls to the preaching pastor and elders as a whole, but the administrative pastor sits in a special position and can therefore serve as the glue that holds together the church leadership, the non-pastoral staff, and the members of the congregation. A good administrative pastor sees all the details that make up a church body and its organization. At the same time, he will, by God’s grace, maintain an eternal, Christ-centered, gospel-saturated perspective.

Practically, this will play out in the way that he communicates to all the parts of the church and diplomatically ensures that all the parts hear and understand one another. He will lead the pastors in communicating effectively to the congregation and taking advantage of the regular means of communication. Especially in a congregational polity, an administrative pastor will be very helpful in teaching and leading the congregation through important, unclear issues.

“A good administrative pastor understands that while businesses are profit-driven, churches are relationship-driven. This is a much harder task to manage.”

4. Member Care

A good administrative pastor will see needs among the congregation that others are not aware of. With pastoral discernment, love, and empathy, he will be able to act on behalf of the church so that they are faithful to care for one another. For example, he will assess needs and help build an effective deacon structure to cover those needs.

5. Staff Care

A good administrative pastor practically cares for the staff. For example, do they have adequate health insurance, compensation, and housing, along with a comfortable work environment? Further, he can act as a liaison between the church staff and other leaders. A good administrative pastor understands that while businesses are profit-driven, churches are relationship-driven. This is a much harder task to manage.

6. Stewardship and Finances

Much theological insight and pastoral discernment go into making a church budget and managing a church’s finances. Further, the ongoing accounting needs of a church require a man who is organized, efficient, above reproach, and trustworthy. A good administrative pastor manages and stewards a church’s resources faithfully. He uses wisdom in appointing a competent, like-minded treasurer. And he ensures that money counting and other financial processes are transparent, biblical, and effective.

7. Teaching and Discipling

An administrative pastor should have the gift of teaching. Therefore, he should be able to serve as an elder and assist in the regular teaching, discipling, and mentoring of the local church. Further, he could train and mentor other men who feel called to such a position.

8. Corporate Witness

Our God is a God of order, detail, and beauty. While a church’s physical appearance should not be the basis of our strategy for church growth and evangelistic outreach, it can subtly help or hinder a church’s witness. A good administrative pastor will put up attractive, unpretentious signs, landscape the grounds, ensure the building and grounds are safe and comfortable, work hard at informing visitors so that they can find the restrooms or other parts of the building, and so on. Such attention to practical details will encourage the community and attract the notice of visitors.

9. Glory of God

In many ways, the work of a good administrative pastor should go unnoticed. That is, if he’s doing his job well (with God’s blessing), the church should run smoothly and without too many bumps along the way, and all the while he’s standing in the shadows.

And such good work, attention to detail, and faithfulness in many small tasks will provide a solid platform for the preaching of the Word in public and private, bringing glory to God. In short, the faithful teaching and ministries of a biblically healthy church can be wonderfully enabled and enhanced by faithful management, stewardship, and administration.

About the Author:

Ryan Townsend is executive director of 9Marks.

By Patrick Traylor

How Much Should You Pay Your Pastors?

Budget season. The phrase strikes fear into the hearts of many pastors. Visions come to mind of grizzled finance committee chairs with decades-old axes to grind, and interminable business meetings where the relative merits of incandescent versus compact-fluorescent light bulbs are debated.

It ought not be like that.

This article offers some brief perspectives on pastoral compensation decisions based on my three-year service as deacon of budget at Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington, DC. First, I will comment on how healthy churches tend to generate healthy pastoral compensation decisions. Second, I will mention two biblical principles that are important for determining how much churches should pay their pastors. My prayer is that these perspectives will be of help to local churches as they undertake their annual compensation review process.

HEALTHY CHURCHES BETTER SUITED TO MAKE WISE DECISIONS

In general, it takes a healthy local church to produce a God-glorifying, encouraging, and amiable pastoral compensation decision.

In particular, a biblical understanding of local church membership and leadership is essential to healthy compensation decisions. Wise compensation recommendations and decisions are made by

• congregations who recognize that it’s to their own advantage to respect and honor their pastors, and that sound teaching is life-giving and precious (e.g. Heb. 13:17; 2 Tim. 3:16-4:5);

• a plurality of (paid and unpaid) elders who recognize that they will give an account for how they shepherd a flock purchased with Christ’s own blood (cf. Acts 14:23, 16:4, 20:17, and 21:18; Titus 1:5; Jas. 5:14);

• deacons who understand and communicate the needs of the congregation and who act as shock-absorbers whenever threats to unity come (cf. Acts 6:1-7; 1 Tim. 3:8¬–13).

If all this is true, the first step in preparing a healthy compensation decision is, by God’s grace, to build a healthy local church with biblical structures of leadership and accountability.

Now to some practical out-workings of good polity. There is wisdom in removing the pastoral staff from the process of making decisions about compensation. A non-staff elder or deacon of budget can gather the information—discussed in more detail below—essential to proposing a wise compensation decision. Two or more non-staff elders can take this information and develop a compensation recommendation for all the non-staff elders to consider, who would then in turn make a recommendation to the congregation for approval on the overall budget (at CHBC, we don’t publicize the actual compensation package for all the staff, but that information is available upon request). I’ll not soon forget the picture of all the staff elders at Capitol Hill Baptist filing out of the elders’ budget meeting, and with complete confidence leaving the compensation discussions to the non-staff elders.

Without a biblical understanding of healthy church membership and leadership, it is less likely that a local church will reach a healthy compensation decision.

TWO PRINCIPLES FOR PAYING PASTORS

Scripture instructs churches to encourage their pastor(s) through fair compensation. Scripture also warns the church to beware a pastor who serves primarily for money.

“Those responsible for pastoral compensation should understand that a “keep a pastor poor to keep him humble” perspective is simply unbiblical and damages the church.”

Many American churches undercompensate their pastors. Many families have had to struggle through years of financial hardship, not because the Lord wants his ministers to feel financial pain, but because churches do not know how to be generous. Those responsible for pastoral compensation should understand that a “keep a pastor poor to keep him humble” perspective is simply unbiblical and damages the church. At the same time, a pastor can succumb to greed as quickly as any other person. It’s not difficult to open the newspaper and find examples of greedy pastors and unscrupulous churches.

Scripture speaks to the carnality and ungodliness of both excesses, and guides the church into a middle way that encourages pastors without tempting them to avarice.

Encouragement

In 1 Timothy 5, Paul instructs the church about caring for certain Christians. In verses 17–18, he states, “The elders who direct the affairs of the church well are worthy of double honor, especially those whose work is preaching and teaching.” And then he quotes Deuteronomy 25:4, saying “Do not muzzle the ox while it is treading out the grain,” and, apparently, the saying of Jesus recorded in Luke 10:7: “The worker deserves his wages.”

Also, Galatians 6 instructs: “Anyone who receives instruction in the word must share all good things with his instructor” (Gal. 6:6). Failing to provide a fair wage to our pastors undercuts their ability to care for their families (cf. 1 Tim. 5:8), and the Lord will hear their cry (Jas. 5:4).

It is an unwise congregation that believes that a pastor should be willing to work for, and his family to live with, poverty-level wages for the kingdom of God. Instead, the local church should encourage their pastors not only by submitting to their biblical leadership (Heb. 13:17), but by appropriately compensating them for the care they take over the souls of the church.

Consider the following.

• Housing. In matters of housing, encourage your parsonage-dwelling pastors by providing additional retirement-related compensation to make up for the lack of equity in a house. If the church does not have a parsonage, it should pay a pastor adequately to live in the neighborhood of the church. This enables his family’s ministry of hospitality, a ministry that is required for all elders (1 Tim. 3:2).

• Education. In matters of education, encourage pastors who are fathers of school-aged children by providing additional educational allowances if the public schools, particularly in urban areas, are unsuitable for their children’s moral and intellectual development.

• Raises. In matters of productivity, reward pastors who have labored well in the Lord’s vineyard by being sure to provide cost-of-living raises and even performance-related raises. The Department of Labor publishes detailed statistics on the costs of living; these should be consulted annually to ensure that pastoral salaries are not eroded by inflation.

• Proportionality. Ensure that different levels of compensation between pastoral staff are sensibly related to experience and job responsibilities. Pastors with similar experience and job responsibilities should be compensated similarly.

• Discipleship. Provide a book and meal budget for pastors. Books are great tools for evangelism and discipleship. And in modern urban settings, much good discipleship and evangelism occurs over meals. Lunch time might be your pastor’s most productive time of the day, as he disciples individuals in the congregation and builds relationships with non-Christians.

• Professional growth. Provide a professional-growth budget for pastors to be used both for conferences and to build their own libraries. Pastors who receive occasional fellowship with other pastors, and who continue to grow in the knowledge of the Bible, are happy and effective pastors. Equip them to equip you.

Consider too whether a particular compensation decision will encourage your married pastor’s wife. It is no easy thing to be the wife of a minister, even if money is of no concern. A church should not compound the challenges to a pastor’s wife by being close-fisted when it comes to questions of housing, education, hospitality expenses, and the reasonable expenses of the ministry.

These words of counsel are given primarily for the church in a contemporary American setting. But no matter one’s context, churches should look for context-specific ways to be open-handed with the pastors who care well for the church.

Guarding against Avarice

The second and countervailing principle is that the church should not lavish its pastors with extravagant compensation. Peter directs pastors in this way: “Be shepherds of God’s flock that is under your care, serving as overseers—not because you must, but because you are willing, as God wants you to be; not greedy for money, but eager to serve” (1 Pet. 5:2).

An effective way to guard against overcompensating a pastor is to consider the collective wisdom of many churches’ pastoral compensation. An excellent resource with which to compare pastoral compensation decisions is Richard R. Hammar’s Compensation Handbook for Church Staff. The Handbook is based on an annual survey of churches, and presents compensation data organized in categories such as church membership, income, setting (urban, suburban, and rural), and pastoral education, and it provides compensation information on base salary, housing allowance, parsonages, and benefits. Not only will the Handbook provide local churches with “market data” related to pastoral compensation, it will also act as a brake on unreasonable compensation.

FIRST THINGS FIRST

I cannot overemphasize the importance of healthy church membership and leadership to the pastoral compensation process. In my work, it was a great joy to find a congregation, elders, and deacons who affably went about the annual budget process without a single dispute or cross word. Where there were disagreements, the unity of the Spirit prevailed and disagreements did not become disagreeable. “How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity!” (Ps. 133:1). Focus first on building a healthy church, and the budget will follow.

About the Author:

Patrick Traylor is a member of Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington, DC, where he has served as deacon of budget. Patrick has been a husband to Ronna for over twenty years and a father to Benjamin for more than five. He practices environmental law at Hogan Lovells US LLP.

By Greg Gilbert

The Case for the Senior Pastor

I am a member of a congregationalist church. I am one of seven elders in my church. I am a senior pastor. And I think all three of these roles are biblical and are good for the health of a local church.

That’s not to say that I believe that all three of these roles are equally weighted in the New Testament. Just to tip my cards, I think congregationalism and plural eldership are clearly taught, such that I would say that a church needs to be structured in both of those ways.

Yet the question of a “senior” or “lead” elder is a bit different in my mind. I don’t think the case for giving one elder primary responsibility for leading and teaching is quite as open-and-shut. In fact, I think a church would be acting within the bounds of biblical legitimacy to be led by a plurality of elders with no senior pastor among them. I know of several churches who operate that way, and they have great ministries.

That said, I would say that there’s enough biblical evidence in the New Testament to warrant the idea of a senior or lead pastor among the pastors. Further, I would argue that such a structure is helpful to a church and that, in some ways, such a practice is close to inevitable. But let’s start with the Bible before turning to pragmatics.

BIBLICAL WARRANT FOR A SENIOR PASTOR

Several things in the Bible provide warrant for the idea of a senior pastor. Here are some:

1. God Gifts and Calls Individuals to Lead his People

First, God has a pattern of gifting and calling individuals to lead his people.

That’s not to say it always works this way. Moses had his seventy, to be sure. But the seventy had their Moses, too. Joshua, the judges, the kings, the high priests—all are examples of God calling a single man to be the point-of-the-spear in leadership.

Don’t misunderstand me: the fact that a point-of-the-spear exists in these biblical cases is not the same thing as a command to establish a point. But it is a biblical pattern which is instructive, and we probably shouldn’t ignore it.

2. Paul Wrote to Timothy, Not to All the Elders of the Church in Ephesus

Second, Paul wrote his letters to Timothy, not to all the elders of the church in Ephesus.

That’s significant for a few reasons. For one, he seems to understand that Timothy has some special responsibility to “charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrine” (1 Tim. 1:3). Now why would that charge belong specially to Timothy? It seems that, in some special way, it was primarily his job to teach the congregation. He was the one who would “put these things before the brothers” (4:6), who would “command and teach these things” (4:11), and who would “teach and urge these things” (6:2). Moreover, it is to Timothy as an individual man that Paul gives the charge in 2 Timothy 4:1-2 to “preach the word.” That does not mean that the other elders in the church were not to do those things. It just means that Paul seems to have regarded Timothy as having the regular, primary role of teaching the congregation during his temporary ministry in Ephesus. Thus he encourages him specifically in that work.

3. Some Elders Are Paid by the Church

Third, the New Testament talks about some elders who are specially set aside to be paid by the church.

First Timothy 5:17, for instance, speaks of those elders who “labor in preaching and teaching.” The verse is famously difficult and subject to controversy. Some think it contemplates two classes of elder; others say the word “especially” means something more like “by which I mean,” so that the second phrase just describes again those mentioned in the first phrase. I wonder, though, if the emphasis should be on the words “those who labor,” specifying those whose work, career, and livelihood is preaching and teaching. That’s certainly the emphasis in the very next verse, that when a person is asked to “labor” at a certain task, he should be paid for that work.

First Corinthians 9:6-14 also contemplates those who make their living by proclaiming the gospel. To be sure, Paul isn’t claiming that he was a “senior pastor.” The argument is that as an apostle he could have demanded a living from the church. Neither of these passages, therefore, is without difficulty, but I think the main idea still stands: one way or another, the New Testament contemplates some leaders who are set aside by the church to be paid to do the work of preaching and teaching.

4. The “Angels” of the Churches in Revelation—Maybe

Fourth, the “angels” of the churches in Revelation may be primary teachers of those churches. That position is frequently ridiculed, unfairly I think. There are essentially three ways to understand the “angels” to whom the letters are written.

First, and perhaps most likely, you can understand them as angels, straight-up. That’s the way the book of Revelation uses the word “angel” some sixty-nine times, and not once (except perhaps in these letters) does it mean anything other than a heavenly being. But then again, the letters are talking to the churches, not to any angel. They talk about salvation and glorification and faith in Jesus, stuff that has very little to do with angels. And if the letters are addressed to heavenly beings, how are the churches supposed to find out what’s in them? At best, you have to say that addressing the letters to the angels and not to the churches themselves is one of the many, well, peculiarities of apocalyptic literature.

Second, some have understood the “angels” to be something like the “souls” of the churches, their respective personalities, personified characters, spirits, or something. I’ve never had much truck with that argument. It just doesn’t jibe very well with how the word “angel” is used anywhere else in Scripture. An angel is a messenger.

Third, some have argued that, here, the “messengers” of the churches are those who would deliver the message from the Lord to their churches—the teachers of the churches. The word “angel” is used elsewhere in the NT of a human messenger (see Luke 7:24 and 9:52, for example), and understanding it in that way solves the problem of how the letters would be known to the churches themselves, and not just to their heavenly guardians. On the other hand, it creates the problem that the word “angel” isn’t used of humans anywhere else in the book of Revelation, and angels play a pretty prominent role in the book.

Honestly, I tend to think that the first interpretation mentioned here is the correct one. But I don’t think the third is ridiculous.

So what do we say about all these things? Certainly I think we should admit that there’s nowhere near enough biblical evidence to put the presence of a “senior pastor” at the level of warrant we see for congregationalism and plural eldership. On the other hand, the pattern of leadership revealed in the Bible, the role played by Timothy in the Ephesian church, the presence of paid elders in distinction to unpaid ones, and the possibility of a single human “messenger” in the churches of Revelation provides, I think, enough warrant to keep us from saying that the role of senior pastor is forbidden or unwarranted.

PRACTICAL CONSIDERATIONS

Unless you conclude that the senior pastor model of church leadership is unbiblical, it’s probably a good idea to think about the benefits and drawbacks of that model in an actual church.

I’ve been a part of both churches that did and did not have a senior pastor among the elders. My own church, Third Avenue Baptist, went through a period of two-and-a-half years where we had a plural eldership with no senior pastor. To be sure, there are definite benefits to both models. In the end, though, I think the benefits of having a senior pastor outweigh both the drawbacks of that model and the benefits of not having one. Here are some of the reasons I have come to that conclusion:

1. Continuity in the Church’s Teaching

First, continuity in the church’s teaching is a good thing.

There is definitely something good about a church hearing the voices of a number of men teaching the Bible to them. The variation in style, emphasis, and experience can stoke interest and provide perspective. We experienced all those benefits at Third Avenue during our period without a main teacher.

But we have also experienced the benefits of having one man who does most of the teaching and preaching: The sermons build on one another from week to week. The congregation grows in knowledge of the Scriptures right along with their pastor. And a sustained emphasis and vision can be drawn out over years. Provided that teacher is teaching faithfully, that kind of sustained attention will be a good thing for a congregation. It’s similar to the difference between reading a book written by a single author and reading an edited volume: there’s value in multiple voices, but there’s also value in a sustained argument coming from a single mind.

2. Leadership Is Facilitated by Having a Point Person

Second, leadership is facilitated by having a point person. In other words, it helps to have someone who is individually charged and gifted to push things forward, to direct discussion, and to have his attention focused on the church and its movement every day of the week. In my few months as a senior pastor, I have noticed that a lot of my time—when I’m not preparing to teach—is spent pushing forward projects and initiatives that have stalled for one reason or another. Through emails, phone calls, conversations, suggestions, and encouragement, I’m able to push things forward in a way that a whole board would have a hard time doing. Part of that is simply a function of time: my church pays me so that I will have time to do that kind of work, while the other elders of the church have full-time jobs that prevent them from doing it in quite the same way.

I have also noticed that it’s helpful to have someone (me, as the senior pastor) who is expected to think certain things through before they come to the whole elder board for a decision. There are times when I’ll come to the elders with an open question (i.e., “What should we do about this?”), but I don’t do that with every issue, and my elders don’t want me to, either. Our meetings last long enough as it is! Instead, we have found it helpful and efficient on most questions for me to come to the elders with a concrete proposal; they are then fully authorized to tinker with, adopt, or reject such proposals entirely. But the time which the church purchases for me by paying me a salary makes it possible for me to do that kind of thinking, and that translates into a form of leadership—telling the elders what I’ve concluded would be best, but being completely willing to submit to their final word.

3. The Emergence of an Individual Leader Is Almost Inevitable

Finally, as I said at the beginning of this article, I think the emergence of an individual leader, in some form or fashion, is almost inevitable. You can certainly work against it and seek to push other men to the front. We do that at Third Avenue, even having adopted a senior pastor model. But still I think a congregation is almost inevitably going to recognize that one man is a slightly better preacher than the others, or a slightly better counselor, or a slightly better persuader. And that’s going to mean, over time, that a bit more authority and trust flows to one or two men over the others.

“Leadership is like water on a plate: it flows very quickly, and it’s very hard to keep the plate perfectly level so that the water doesn’t tend toward one side.”

Of course you can say that you want such roles to be distributed among several men, and that’s fine. But still, it’s rare for people to be able to maintain perfect equilibrium in the matter, so that no one man accrues any more authority than any other. Leadership is like water on a plate: it flows very quickly, and it’s very hard to keep the plate perfectly level so that the water doesn’t tend toward one side.

That’s not necessarily a bad thing, either. Yes, I want my congregation to know that they have seven pastors, and I want them to know that all seven of those pastors are godly, wise, super-competent, and spiritual men. But all seven of us also recognize that it’s a good thing for one of us to be able to exercise leadership among the elders themselves, to facilitate discussion, and to do some advance thinking—and then to communicate the leadership and final decisions of the elders to the congregation.

NEITHER REQUIRED NOR FORBIDDEN, BUT USEFUL

All in all, I don’t think there’s a slam-dunk argument to be made here. I don’t think the Bible requires churches to have a senior pastor, and I don’t think it forbids them from doing so, either. There’s enough warrant in the Bible to make it a biblically acceptable practice.

That said, there are practical advantages to having a senior pastor. Both the teaching and leadership benefit by having one man who is set aside to give time and attention to those areas.

About the Author:

Greg Gilbert is the senior pastor of Third Avenue Baptist Church in Louisville, Kentucky. He is the author of What is the Gospel? (Crossway, 2010) and, with Kevin DeYoung, of What is the Mission of the Church? (Crossway, forthcoming).

By Shawn Wright

The Case Against the Senior Pastor

Should churches call one of their pastors the “senior pastor”? To state my answer as moderately as I know how, I will lean in the directly of saying “probably not.”

Certainly there are many places where I would agree with those who would answer that question with a “yes.” Churches who use the title of “senior pastor” might, like me, affirm that the Lord has given a plurality of elders real authority in the church (Acts 14:23; 20:17, 28; Phil. 1:1; Jas. 5:14), and that elders should lead by their teaching and living (1 Tim. 5:18; Heb. 13:7, 17; 1 Pet. 5:1-4). And I would affirm, like those who say “yes,” that one man’s particular gifting may cause him to rise above the other elders in leadership and influence in the congregation.

Still, for all this agreement, I’m hesitant to say that a church should formally recognize one elder as the senior elder. This is not a settled conviction either for me or for the other elders in the church I serve. We hold this position lightly. We have dear friends and mentors whom we greatly respect who are called “senior pastor.” In fact, a minority of us would be fine with the title “senior pastor,” and I can foresee the day when our church calls a pastor “senior pastor,” whereas I pray we never deny the doctrine of the Trinity or the substitutionary nature of the atonement. But for now, our church has chosen not to adopt this title for any of our pastors.

At our church we are blessed to have many gifted men who serve as elders, both in a non-paid and in a paid (or staff) capacity. We have chosen to title the staff elders according to their functions in the church in order to distinguish them from other staff and to identify the areas of ministry over which they have special responsibility. For example, we have a “pastor of preaching,” a “pastor of discipleship,” and a “pastor of member care.” But we don’t call any one pastor “senior pastor.”

I would like to explain our hesitancy to call a man “senior pastor” by asking four questions.

TITLES MATTER

First, what does calling a man “senior pastor” communicate?

Titles communicate how significant we view a person to be and what we gauge our relative status vis-à-vis that person to be. I have taught my children to reply to instruction by saying, “Yes, sir.” I refer to the leader of the seminary where I teach as “president.” I have approached the bench in a courtroom and called the person sitting there “Your Honor.” Words of address matter greatly.

And they matter in the church. They matter to the congregation and they matter to the person who is being addressed. At a school or in a court, deferential titles of respect are appropriate. But they don’t seem to be proper in the body of Christ. We want to be careful that our titles of address reflect the reality of who we are as a body in Christ. In Christ we are brothers and sisters; we are all saints; we have deacons and pastors/elders/overseers who are servant leaders protecting and serving the body. But I don’t think we have New Testament warrant to label anyone “senior” as if his status is above that of others in the body.

Our church is located very near a seminary and we are blessed to have many members from there, some of whom are professors, including me. Yet every year our elders send a letter to our church members encouraging them not to elevate seminary professors in the congregation above others by calling them “Dr.” at church. Whereas we think it may be appropriate for students to call a professor “Dr. Wright” in the classroom, we don’t think that this is appropriate in the church. In church we’d prefer for them to say “Shawn” or “Pastor Shawn.” Though we are surely called to give special honor to certain kinds of individuals within the church, such as older men, widows, elders, and even the vulnerable (see 1 Tim. 5:1, 3, 17; 1 Cor. 12:23), there are no distinctions between members of the church in formal status or the deference we should show to some over others.

We feel that Jesus’ words in Matthew 23 are apropos here. Our Lord told his disciples, “You are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all brothers. And call no man your father on earth, for you have one Father, who is in heaven. Neither be called instructors, for you have one instructor, the Christ. The greatest among you shall be your servant” (vv. 8-11). Although Jesus wasn’t directly addressing titles in the church, the principle seems to apply. As much as we can, we desire to follow him in this way and not give anyone a title that may tend to communicate to him or others that he has a status above theirs. We are all one in Christ and each part of the body is as important as the others.

MAINTAINING PARITY AMONG THE ELDERS

Second, what does labeling one elder “senior pastor” say about a church’s view of the parity of all the elders?

There is no biblical command for elders to submit to a “senior pastor.” But doesn’t calling one of the elders “senior pastor” subtly suggest that he is above the other pastors/elders? All the lawyers in a firm may have certain academic qualifications and professional abilities, but the junior partners understand that there is a difference between them and the privileged senior partners. Is this the sort of difference we intend to communicate about the body of elders in a local church?

Each elder needs to fulfill the biblical requirements for being a pastor. Each must be a man of character, gifted with leadership and teaching abilities. Because of this, we think there should be parity among the elders of a church, with no one sitting in authority over the others. Each is gifted to be an elder, and the church needs each of the elders to be on par with the others in order to protect from any usurpation of power on the part of one elder or a group of elders.

Sometimes advocates of a senior pastor position argue that the senior pastor “only has one vote” together with the rest of the elders. But this doesn’t account for the fact that the job title itself formally, if subtly, increases his authority, whether or not this extra respect has been earned.

In the New Testament, the apostles held plenary authority in the churches. So isn’t it instructive that when the apostle Peter writes to scattered churches in Asia Minor he addresses the churches’ leaders not as an apostle but as a “fellow elder” with them (1 Pet. 5:1)? Even the apostle doesn’t elevate himself above these other gifted leaders in the church.

BEING A SERVANT

Third, can a pastor be “senior” and “servant” at the same time?

A strong tenor of NT teaching is that leaders in the church are to be servants (cf. Mk. 10:43-45; 1 Pet. 5:3). Of course, other passages also show that elders have true authority in the church and are accountable for how they exercise that oversight (cf. 1 Tim. 3:4-5; Tit. 1:6-9; Heb. 13:17). Given our culture’s understanding of what a “senior” position means, and given the fact that Scripture never calls an elder “senior,” might it be better to call the primary preaching pastor simply “pastor” or “preaching pastor”? Might this be less confusing to our church members?

WATCHING OUT FOR PRIDE

Fourth, might being called “senior pastor” lead a pastor to pride?

Pride is a slippery beast. Of course, simply being called “pastor” or being recognized as a leader in a fellowship can lead one to be puffed up, so it’s not just the title “senior” that’s a danger to a pastor.

“Pride is a slippery beast.”

Yet I have noticed some zealous young men, especially those going to plant churches, call themselves the “senior pastor” of a non-existent congregation. The church has no members, let alone any other pastors, yet somehow they’re the “senior” minister. This may be attributable to the zeal of youth, or it may just be a concession to traditional usage. But it may also function as a warning to all elders.

We need to battle any desire to have others think highly of us because of our office. Rather, the church is to follow us as we follow Christ. They should see in us humble, teachable, steady guides who are fellow followers of Jesus. Jesus is the “senior” partner in this relationship. He alone is the “chief Shepherd” of his church (1 Pet 5:4).

About the Author:

Shawn Wright is pastor of leadership development at Clifton Baptist Church in Louisville, Kentucky, and associate professor of church history at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.

Reviewed by J.D. Greear

Book Review: Radical Together

David Platt, Radical Together: Unleashing the People of God for the Purpose of God. Multnomah, 2011. 176 pages. $14.99

I think it would be really difficult to write a follow-up to a best-selling book, but I think David Platt has done about as good a job as can be done in his new Radical Together (hereafter, RT). RT reflects both a continuation and a maturation of the thoughts introduced in Radical. RT reinforces the prophetic call issued in Radical and applies it in new ways as Platt fleshes out what it looks like to lead a congregation day-in and day-out in radical response to the gospel.

As the title implies, RT contends that the only way to really live in radical response to the gospel is in the context of a local, gospel-centered church. Along the way, RT corrects some misconceptions that resulted from Radical, such as the tendency of some to read it as a “to-do list” for super-Christians.

I loved reading RT. It reads as the transparent struggle of a successful megachurch pastor wrestling to align his ministry philosophy with the gospel. David asks lots of questions, sometimes giving definitive answers, and sometimes leaving tensions unresolved. Even if you disagree with some of his conclusions, you will be enriched through the process of examination.

BIG IDEA: DO OUR MINISTRIES REFLECT WHAT WE SAY WE BELIEVE ABOUT THE GOSPEL?

The question underlying all the others is this: Does the shape and focus of our ministries reflect what we say we believe about the gospel?

In the book’s six chapters, Platt reflects on six apparent paradoxes in Christian ministry:

• One of the worst enemies of Christians can be good things in the church (ch. 1).

• The gospel that saves us from work saves us to work (ch. 2).

• The Word does the work, not our programs, facilities, or ingenuity (ch. 3).

• Building the right church depends on using all the wrong people (ch. 4).

• We are living and longing for the end of the world (ch. 5).

• We are selfless followers of a self-centered God (ch. 6).

Platt’s primary target is a worldly wisdom that he believes has displaced simple faith in the gospel. For example, contemporary church wisdom holds that the single most important factor for growing a church is the quality of the weekend program. Quality programming indeed builds an audience, Platt concedes, but will it build a church? The real power of Christianity is in the preached word, Platt says, not in the soundboard. While the latter may attract an audience, only the former can transform the heart. Furthermore, what caused “a great sense of fear and awe to be upon every soul” and God to “add to their number daily those that were being saved” was not the quality of a performance but the beauty of Christ’s body on display in the community (Acts 2:42–47). Audiences may be built by a performance but communities will only be transformed by the gospel.

Platt also believes the contemporary church is much too at home in the world, distracting itself with amusements while billions die outside its doors. Platt’s logic is simple and compelling: if we really believe what we say we believe about the gospel, we cannot turn a deaf ear to the cries of millions around us dying in body and soul. Platt thus reminds us that we must sometimes sacrifice the “good” of favored church programs for the “great” of the Great Commission. Gospel theology demands urgent missiology. Platt offers several practical ideas to this end, from church-wide budget cuts to foster care initiatives to short-term mission trips.

“Platt also believes the contemporary church is much too at home in the world, distracting itself with amusements while billions die outside its doors.”

One of the most helpful parts of the book for me was David’s observation that our fascination with the Sunday morning program has caused us to neglect the power available to the church. Jesus said that because he went to his Father his disciples would do “greater works” than he had done (Jn. 14:12). How could that be possible? After all, Jesus raised the dead! And it is impossible to preach with greater clarity and power than he did. Jesus’ apostles’ works would not be greater in power than his were; they would be greater in extent. While Jesus was on earth, the power of the Spirit resided on him alone. After he went to the Father, the Spirit came to dwell in every believer. The “greater works” Jesus spoke are thus accomplished when a body of believers carries the power of the Spirit into the community. Why is it, then, that most churches are structured in a way that features the gifts of a few while neglecting the gifts of the many? The gathering of the church is vital to its health, but the sending out of the body is essential to its task. As such, should not a church’s success be evaluated on the basis of sending capacity just as much as seating capacity?

This book was a breath of fresh air for me. With clear examples and compelling stories, Platt shows what it looks like to be a disciple of Jesus in an affluent culture. Evangelical religiosity is not discipleship, and the people in our churches need to know the difference. Further, Platt reminded me of what it looks like to believe in the simple power of the gospel. He helped me to sort through a lot of man-centered, flesh-powered, church growth fads and showed me again God’s vision for, and his promises to, his church. I was moved and inspired.

A FEW CONCERNS

There were a few things about RT that raised concern.

Reducing the Entire Christian Life to the Great Commission

As with Radical, RT tends, in places, toward reductionism. Platt sometimes speaks as if the Great Commission is God’s only purpose for us, and only things done toward that end have any real value. Yet the Scriptures teach that God is glorified by, and has a plan for, skills that aren’t “directly” applied to the Great Commission. For example, the Spirit filled Bezalel and Oholiab with skill in artistry and craftsmanship, which they used to beautify the tabernacle (Ex. 31:1–5). And Paul told Timothy that God gives material blessings to his children for their enjoyment, and they can and should enjoy them in moderation, without guilt (1 Tim. 6:17).

But how can we bear to use some of our money for enjoyment when there are so many needy around the world? How could God have directed Bezalel and Oholiab to “waste their time” on beautifying the tabernacle when there were so many poor, homeless strangers in Israel? The biblical answer is that God is glorified as we exercise our talents and enjoy his gifts, not only when we directly engage in Great Commission work.

The scope of Christian discipleship includes learning to glorify God in all things, including how we work, eat and drink, love our families, and enjoy creation (1 Cor. 10:31, Col. 3:21-24, 1 Tim. 6:6-9, et al.). Brook Hills Bob has not been reached merely for the sake of Brook Hills Baruti (93), he has been reached for the sake of God’s glory, that Bob might glorify Him in all that Bob does. In short, “radical” devotion to Jesus does not mean pursuing one dimension of discipleship to the neglect of all the others. “Radical” should apply to how we pursue all of the Bible’s teachings, not just the Great Commission.

Who Resources the Great Commission?

I also got the sense in reading RT that Platt believes the burden for resourcing the Great Commission rests on the church, and thus every material thing we own should be evaluated against how it can be used for the Great Commission. However, God has not placed the burden of resourcing the Great Commission on our shoulders. And that’s a good thing, because we could not sustain it.

God is the supplier for the Great Commission; we are never more than dependent servants. Jesus went to great lengths to demonstrate that to his disciples: He fed the multitude to overflowing with just five loaves and two fish and provided tax money for one of his disciples out of a fish’s mouth. He left no doubt that he did not need his disciples to supply him with anything! Our responsibility is simply to faithfully steward what God has given us. That includes, of course, giving generously—even extravagantly—to his work on earth, but we should be very clear that God is not depending on our resources to get his job done. Further, some of what God provides he intends for us to enjoy, and we are free—and even commanded—to do so with thanksgiving and without guilt. We should give as faithful stewards, not as those who suppose they must be world-saviors. The former leads to freedom and generosity; the latter to guilt, despair, and burn-out.

At Times Over-reactive

Finally, while David’s critique of the church growth movement is prophetic and timely, I thought in a few places it was over-reactive and a little unfair. For example, Platt dismisses the “seeker-sensitive” movement in one paragraph by saying, flatly, that in Scripture there are no true seekers. Thus, anything we do to attract people to our churches lacks theological basis (108). It is true that there are no genuine “seekers” of God (per Romans 3:10) apart from God’s Spirit, and that many church growth strategies attempt to build the church through the power of the flesh. But saying that there are “no true seekers” does not mean that God is not already at work in some, drawing them to the faith (for example, Cornelius in Acts 10:1–5).

For “seekers” like Cornelius, the hospitality of our churches can adorn the gospel and encourage faith. Some of what “church growth” advocates prescribe is simply that—equipping a congregation to be hospitable to its unbelieving community.

We have a statement at our church that “the sermon starts in the parking lot.” We believe that how we treat a guest gives them a glimpse of the hospitality of Christ. Believers should be the most hospitable people on earth, and their public gatherings should be no exception. If I were having unbelievers over to my house, I have a hard time seeing how God would be glorified through lousy directions, awkward parking, and a cheap meal.

“If I were having unbelievers over to my house, I have a hard time seeing how God would be glorified through lousy directions, awkward parking, and a cheap meal.”

Now, is our hospitality toward unbelievers of greater value than the preached Word? Of course not. (And this is where much of the church growth movement goes desperately wrong, as Platt notes.) But that doesn’t mean it has no value. Balance is, of course, the key. And this book certainly goes a long way in confronting a Christian culture that has gone entirely out of balance in one direction, even if perhaps it takes us a little too far in the other.

A CALL TO THE SIMPLE AND REVOLUTIONARY POWER OF THE GOSPEL

All in all, this book represents what I believe to be God’s gracious work of calling his church back to the simple and revolutionary power of the gospel. I am grateful for it, and for David Platt.

David’s book led me to serious reflection on where I have led our church to place its emphases, what we have spent our money on, and to what end we are expending most of our energies. It is one of the most helpful books I have read this year. I purchased a copy for every member of our staff to read. I would encourage you to do the same.

About the Author:

J.D. Greear is Lead Pastor of the Summit Church in Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina, and the author of Gospel: Recovering the Power that Made Christianity Revolutionary and Breaking the Islam Code.

Reviewed by Josh Manley

Book Review: Exponential: How You and Your Friends Can Start a Missional Church Movement

Dave and Jon Ferguson, Exponential: How You and Your Friends Can Start a Missional Church Movement. Zondervan, 2010. 207 pages. $18.99

Dave and Jon Ferguson dream big dreams and have great ambitions for Christ’s church. The Fergusons’ dream to reach the city of Chicago for Jesus started out as a sketch on a napkin and has now turned into a multi-site church in nine locations with more than 4,000 people in attendance every weekend. The Ferguson brothers have more than lived out the title of their influential new book, Exponential.

After beginning with the admonition, “You can do it,” Exponential is a methodical and passionate how-to guide for building churches that reproduce. As pioneers in the multi-site movement, the Fergusons are committed to challenging their readers to commit themselves to mentoring, taking risks, and dreaming big.

Exponential tells the story of Community Christian Church. Yet at every turn, the authors challenge their readers that this story can become their story, and Exponential provides guidance for making that happen.

STRENGTHS

This book has several noteworthy strengths.

Passion for the Church

First, Dave and Jon Ferguson love the church. The Ferguson brothers’ passion for their work jumps off the pages of this book. Full of energy and creativity, Exponential puts in print form what the Fergusons have labored to do in their own ministry. From going door to door to meet people in the community (23) to their desire to impact many who do not know Jesus (21), a deep love for the church and for non-Christians pervades this book.

Passion for Mentoring

A great weakness in the church today is the lack of discipleship between members. While the Fergusons use the label “apprentice,” the concept is the same, and they strongly encourage raising up leaders in the church (44-45). The Fergusons argue that “being Spirit-led is the most critical quality in the life of an apprentice of Jesus” (51). This commitment to mentoring has led many in their church to take risks for the cause of Christ that they never would have otherwise.

Willingness to Risk

Dave and Jon Ferguson consistently demonstrate that they are willing to risk for the church (54-55, 75-76, 98-99). Risking makes much of Jesus because it demonstrates that he is worthy of our trust and greatest efforts. Exponential is replete with exhortations to risk and encourage others to trust God in such a way that their life is filled with risk. A church characterized by such a culture will more deeply display the eternal worth of the gospel.

Helpful Advice About Small Groups

While they should never become mini-churches within themselves, small groups can be helpful tools for fostering relational connectivity, accountability, and encouragement, and for identifying future leaders in the church. Exponential offers helpful tips for a vital small group ministry in the church (87-102).

WEAKNESS: A PRAGMATIC APPROACH

Yet the book has a significant overarching weakness: pragmatism.

From the outset, the Fergusons state that the mission of Community Christian Church is “Helping people find their way back to God” (22). To achieve this, the authors declare they were never “content with growing one large church that would reach a lot of people” (21). Instead, they believed they could “reach more people by growing big as well as reproducing over and over again” (21, emphasis theirs). Their laudable desire to “reach more people” was part of their commendable, even larger desire “to have an impact far beyond the city of Chicago or even the United States” (22).

As stated, this is a good and right aim for any pastor who loves the gospel of Jesus Christ. Yet should the goal of reaching more people be set against listening to God’s Word about how to pursue that goal?

Exponential offers as a goal reaching a lot of people to help them find their way back to God and yet then assumes that the Scriptures have not given any authoritative direction for attaining this goal. For example, the authors “reproduced another service because [they] believed that a new service would give more people more options” (26). Further, the authors relay the story of Donna, a biker who is passionate about helping her biker friends find God (112-113). In order to achieve this, the authors suggest “we must be willing to give people like Donna permission to skip our worship services to create their own alternatives that will help people find their way back to God” (113). Further, they assert that “too often we go into a situation or a community and presume to know the form that is most needed to release the functional power of the gospel. We first must plant the gospel in the hearts and lives of people and then see what form of ecclesia emerges from the transformed community” (113).

Yet, the Scriptures repeatedly reject the notion that God’s people are in a better position than God to make their own judgments about matters related to the worship of the one true and living God.[2] Moreover, the preached Word is not only consistently presented as the means by which God has chosen to build up his people and to save sinners, but the Word is also necessary and sufficient for determining the “form of ecclesia” that emerges in society.

Pragmatism undergirds other ministry decisions offered in the book. The authors explain their decision to use video teaching in this way:

When it comes to teaching, you basically have three choices: video teaching, in-person teaching, or a combination of the two. I am convinced that as long as it is done well, any of the three approaches will work. Research backs this up and shows that the growth rates of multisite churches that use video teaching and those that use in-person teaching are almost exactly the same. (160)

Again, the authors offer a vision for ministry practice by grounding their rationale in the desired-end of “growth rates” instead of looking to Scriptural directives.

We should look to the Scriptures as the sufficient guide for method and practice in gospel ministry. While difficult for our performance-driven hearts, faithfulness to the revealed Word of God is the goal. The pastor can rest, trusting God for results. The God who seeks worshippers in Spirit and truth has revealed himself with sufficient clarity in all matters necessary for this aim to be accomplished.

“We should look to the Scriptures as the sufficient guide for method and practice in gospel ministry. While difficult for our performance-driven hearts, faithfulness to the revealed Word of God is the goal. The pastor can rest, trusting God for results.”

Human wisdom often looks good in the short-term. You can count the numbers it produces: “polls show that…” Yet human wisdom doesn’t yield good fruit over the long-term. The “numbers” tend not to be so real after all. God’s wisdom, on the other hand, often sounds a little strange up front. But God knows exactly what he’s doing, and he’s told us everything that we need to know for reaching people, and more.

CONCLUSION

In sum, from their passion for the church to their zeal for mentoring and willingness to take risks, there is much to be appreciated about Exponential. Yet the methods offered leave much to be desired, since they are largely undergirded by a pragmatic approach that is devoid of scriptural justification. Certainly reaching people for Christ, creating a culture of vitality in the church, engaging people through teaching, and creating an environment in which people feel welcome are all worthy aims of the church. Yet they must never come at the expense of faithfulness to Scripture.

About the Author:

Josh Manley is an elder at Third Avenue Baptist Church in Louisville, Kentucky and an MDiv student at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.

Reviewed by Bobby Jamieson

Book Review: Axiom: Powerful Leadership Proverbs

Bill Hybels, Axiom: Powerful Leadership Proverbs. Zondervan, 2008. 224 pages. $18.99

During the past thirty five years, few people have shaped evangelicals’ vision for the church as decisively as Bill Hybels.

And, after thirty five years as the senior pastor of Willow Creek Community Church in South Barrington, Illinois, along with well over a decade of leading the Willow Creek Association and the annual Global Leadership Summit, Hybels shows no signs of slowing down, nor is his influence abating. A great many pastors and other leaders look to Hybels as a definitive guide on leadership, and guidance on leadership is exactly what Hybels’ recent book Axiom: Powerful Leadership Proverbs seeks to provide.

SEVENTY SIX BITE-SIZED LEADERSHIP PROVERBS

The book is a collection of seventy six “axioms”—leadership proverbs and principles—which Hybels has created and practiced throughout his ministry (12), each of which is explained and illustrated in three pages or less. The book is divided into four parts: vision and strategy, teamwork and communication, activity and assessment, and personal integrity. The book is a quick, smooth read; the quality of Hybels’ writing matches the style of his proverbs in pith and clarity.

AN UNSURPRISING ASSESSMENT

My assessment of this book is not likely to surprise anyone who is familiar with the critiques of the seeker-sensitive movement that David Wells and others have offered. That is, I would suggest that while this book contains much biblical wisdom and time-tested good sense, it is grounded upon and conveys a philosophy of ministry that owes too much to contemporary corporate thought and not enough to a robust biblical theology. I’ll briefly mention some of the biblical wisdom and good sense before turning to an examination of what is less helpful.

BIBLICAL WISDOM AND SIMPLE GOOD SENSE

In axiom 5, “Vision: Paint the Picture Passionately,” Hybels lays bare his fervent love for the local church and his committed confidence in God’s purposes for it (30). While I take issue with much in Hybels’ vision for ministry, he’s exactly right on this point.

Further, a number of Hybels’ axioms are straightforward applications of biblical teaching, including “Disagree without Drawing Blood” (Ch. 34) and “Help me Understand” (Ch. 36; a practical outworking of Jas. 1:19).

Axiom 23, “First Tested,” takes 1 Timothy 3:10 seriously and exhorts pastors to consistently create hands-on tests for potential leaders—without letting the potential leaders know they’re being tested.

Axiom 17, “Only God,” humbly and correctly asserts that only God can sustain us in ministry, change people’s hearts, and bring about the spiritual fruit we long to see.

On the good sense front, most of the book’s axioms offer practical, straightforward help with the economic, relational, and administrative challenges of leading a church or another organization. Since many of Hybels’ proverbs assume that a pastor is heading up a fairly large, complex organization, these chapters will be most relevant to pastors of large churches with large staffs, and less so to others.

QUESTIONS WORTH ASKING

Yet, despite this wisdom and good sense, many of the proverbs or their illustrations convey a worldview that derives more from contemporary corporate practices than from Scripture. In order to get at these worldview-level issues, I’ll discuss and illustrate a series of questions which I would suggest that anyone who reads this book (or, for that matter, many other contemporary evangelical works on pastoral ministry) ask as they read.

1. Is this counsel in line with Paul’s goal of ministering in such a way that believers’ faith would not rest in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God (1 Cor. 2:1-5)?

The first question I’d encourage readers to pose to any of this book’s bite-sized bits of counsel is, Is this counsel in line with Paul’s goal of ministering in such a way that believers’ faith would not rest in the wisdom (today we could say “creativity”) of men, but in the power of God (1 Cor. 2:1-5)?

“If Paul took pains to ensure that he did not preach the gospel in an eloquent, rhetorically flashy way that would draw attention to himself, what message does it send when a church’s leaders turn something completely incidental into an entertaining showcase of creativity?”

In chapter 10, “The Value of a Good Idea,” Hybels recounts a time when Willow invited NFL coach and NASCAR team owner Joe Gibbs to speak at their weekend services. When their production team met to finalize the plan for the service, Hybels remarked that there was nothing “really cool” about the service, nothing that would make people “scratch their heads in disbelief, thinking, ‘How’d they come up with something as creative as that?’” (44). So, in a rapid-fire brainstorming session, the team came up with the idea of transitioning between the introductory video clip and Gibbs’ talk as if the stage were a NASCAR pit stop. When the moment arrived, and a mock pit crew burst into a thirteen second flurry of rolling, straightening, and shining before jumping over a fake pit wall into their front-row seats, “It absolutely blew everyone’s mind and in the end was the highlight of the entire service, even by Joe Gibbs’s assessment” (45).

While it’s easy to understand why this would register with many people as the highlight of a church service, its spiritual utility is less obvious. If Paul took pains to ensure that he did not preach the gospel in an eloquent, rhetorically flashy way that would draw attention to himself, what message does it send when a church’s leaders turn something completely incidental into an entertaining showcase of creativity?

2. Does the Bible require a pastor to do this?

While Hybels’ discussion of the fake pit crew is merely meant to illustrate the value of a good idea, it’s worth asking another question of it: does the Bible require a pastor to do this?

Granted, much of Hybels’ counsel in this book falls within the legitimate domain of prudence, pragmatics, and best practices. But when he illustrates his counsel with examples like this, it can lend the examples themselves an imperatival force. When pastors read things like this, some can’t help but feel that they’re not giving God their all if they don’t stage a dazzling production every Sunday morning.

Thus, in addition to the danger of fostering an entertainment-based church culture, there’s the troublesome fact that the exemplary force of this anecdote—together with Hybels’ exhortations to make “bold moves” (Ch. 6) and resist the “kiss of death” of “incrementalism” (Ch. 15)—can lay a heavy yoke on pastors’ necks which God doesn’t intend for them to bear.

Our response should be to ask, “Does the Bible require a pastor to do this?” And if the answer is negative, then whatever the merits of such counsel, a pastor should refuse to allow it to bind his conscience.

3. Does this recognize the sufficiency of Scripture, or compromise it?

In chapter 7 (“An Owner or a Hireling”), Hybels uses the example of the apostle Paul going to Jerusalem despite the suffering he knew would come (Acts 20-21) to argue that, “At some point in their leadership journey, every leader gets a vision from God” (37). In chapter 5 (“Vision: Paint the Picture Passionately”), Hybels writes, “God meant for you to feel as deeply about his vision for you as you do about anything. I mean that! Anything” (31).

“Here’s a question that I would suggest is especially relevant to Hybels’ discussion of “vision”: Does this recognize the sufficiency of Scripture, or compromise it?”

According to Hybels, this private, specific vision which every leader will at some point receive from God sets the standard for that leader’s entire ministry. It’s by his faithfulness to this vision that a leader’s followers will assess him (35). It’s faithfulness to this vision that determines whether a leader is an “owner” or a mere “hireling” (37). And it’s faithfulness to this vision that will earn Christ’s commendation on the last day (37).

Here’s a question that I would suggest is especially relevant to Hybels’ discussion of “vision”: Does this recognize the sufficiency of Scripture, or compromise it?

Regrettably, when a leader’s private, subjective sense of vision from God is held to be the guiding principle for his entire ministry and the standard by which he will be judged in this life and on the last day, I can’t help but to conclude that “vision” has functionally supplanted Scripture as our sufficient and authoritative rule for faith and practice. And, as with calls to creativity and “bold moves,” this vesting of authority in “vision” lays a heavy yoke on pastors’ shoulders. Further, it threatens to distract them from the yoke they are divinely commissioned to bear. That is, pastors are commanded by God to faithfully teach the whole counsel of God, which is revealed in Scripture, and to lead a church to conform as closely to God’s divinely authoritative instruction as possible. Pastors will be judged according to their faithfulness to a vision, but that vision is God’s, revealed in Scripture.

4. Does this counsel wrongly import any goals, methods, values, or standards from the corporate world into the church?

A fourth question worth asking is, Does this counsel wrongly import any goals, methods, values or standards from the corporate world into the church?

Of course there is some overlap between leading a church and running a business. Of course pastors can learn from talented leaders in any sphere. But often, pastors can uncritically absorb goals, methods, values, or standards of the marketplace which actually run counter to God’s economy.

In chapter 18 (“Plus-Side/Minus-Side”), Hybels describes how, in the face of mounting budget problems, he eventually resorted to tallying up which church staff added revenue to the church (by offering services which drew more people, and therefore tithe dollars, to the church), and which staff merely spent revenue (whether by giving money away or simply by virtue of doing work which didn’t tend to bring more people to the church). When he did this, he came to the realization that Willow needed to add some “plus-side people into the equation, or else we’ll fold as a church” (66).

While Hybels appropriately adds a few caveats (such as the fact that giving away money to missions can be a really good thing!), his counsel in this chapter boils down to the need for churches to strike a balance between the amount of “plus-side” and “minus-side” people on their staff.

Many things could be said about this, but the point I want to suggest here is that Hybels is operating within too simple an equation: more staff that meets people’s needs and adds value to the church experience equals more people coming to church. While I don’t doubt that some such trend is often evident, the problem is that this assumes that the church is a purveyor of religious goods and services, and that in order to continue to attract more people, the church must offer more religious goods and services.

The problem, in other words, is that this logic has wrongly imported standards from the corporate world into the church.

5. What does this counsel assume about the nature and source of church growth?

In Chapter 6 (“Bold Move”), Hybels writes, “As the years went by, my teammates and I began to notice that the primary reason we were making significant progress as a church was that we had enough people making ‘bold moves.’ They were thinking fresh thoughts, pioneering cool new programs, and trusting God to accomplish significant kingdom-building activity in their midst” (33).

I’m glad Hybels speaks of trusting God to accomplish kingdom-building activity, but I fear that his emphasis on creativity, novelty, and “bold moves” betrays an assumption that church growth results from our ingenuity, and is something that is readily observable and quantifiable. Both of these assumptions run counter to Scripture, which tells us that God’s sovereign blessing in the source of the church’s growth (1 Cor. 3:7) and that true church growth consists not merely in numbers of attenders or other quantifiable data, but in the spiritual fruit of lives lived in increasing conformity to the character of Christ (Col. 1:28).

So I’d encourage readers to ask, What does this counsel assume about the nature and source of church growth?

CONCLUSION

This list is far from exhaustive, but I hope it provides a useful starting point for bringing a biblical philosophy of ministry to bear on some of this book’s more questionable assumptions.

My point in discussing these critical questions is not to argue that there’s nothing of value in this book—far from it. But I hope I’ve shown that, along with much biblical wisdom and good sense, there are a number of assumptions and values in this book that don’t square very well with Scripture.

About the Author:

Bobby Jamieson is assistant editor for 9Marks.

Reviewed by Bobby Jamieson

Book Review: Heralds of the King: Christ-Centered Sermons in the Tradition of Edmund P. Clowney

Dennis Johnson, ed., Heralds of the King: Christ-Centered Sermons in the Tradition of Edmund P. Clowney. Crossway, 2009. 224 pages. $19.99

Thankfully, the current upswing of evangelical interest in Christ-centered preaching shows no signs of abating. If anything, it seems that with each passing year, more and more pastors and scholars are reckoning with the fact that Scripture itself testifies that the whole Bible points to Jesus (Jn. 5:39, Lk. 24:44-47).

Humanly speaking, one of the chief sources of the development of genuinely Christ-centered preaching in the past couple generations has to be Edmund Clowney (1917-2005). As a pastor, theologian, seminary president, and especially as a teacher, Clowney modeled, advocated, and personally passed on a deeply Christ-centered, redemptive-historical approach to preaching.

A COLLECTION OF SERMONS IN HONOR OF ED CLOWNEY

The book Heralds of the King: Christ-Centered Sermons in the Tradition of Edmund P. Clowney, edited by Dennis Johnson of Westminster Seminary California, seeks to honor Clowney’s legacy by pulling together sermons from Clowney’s students which reflect his influence. Contributors include Tim Keller, Art Azurdia, Iain Duguid, and the late Harvie Conn. Each chapter includes a personal tribute to Clowney and a sermon which bears Clowney’s imprint as a teacher and model. Of the book’s eleven sermons, eight of them are on Old Testament texts, which reflects the passion for preaching Christ from the Old Testament which Clowney consistently imparted to his students.

MODELS OF HOW TO GET TO CHRIST FROM ANY TEXT

Many pastors came of age under a hermeneutic which insisted that Christ should not be preached unless he is “in the text” (see Art Azurdia’s surely representative testimony on pp. 203-4). Others may have sat under similarly moralistic preaching which lacked such theoretical justification. As a result, many pastors have questions about just how to preach the Bible in a Christ-centered way. For such readers, this book should provide substantial help by modeling a variety of sound, biblically-grounded ways to preach any scriptural text in a way that leads to the gospel.[3]

Another highlight of the book is its consistent, almost monotonous testimony to the impact which Ed Clowney’s devotion to the Lord Jesus Christ had on his students. More than one of the contributors recalls being so moved to worship by Ed’s in-class preaching that they had to stop taking notes and simply revel in the gospel. Every contributor testifies to growing in their love for Christ and their devotion to Christ through their relationship with this man who was so deeply impacted by Christ. That Clowney’s disciples should unanimously remember him as a man who so delighted in glorifying Christ drew a consistent stream of challenging questions out of my own heart as I read, and I trust that many readers would be similarly edified by the personal reflections which accompany these sermons.

“This book is a fitting tribute to a man whose writing, teaching, preaching, and personal example have helped a good many pastors to preach Christ from all of Scripture.”

In a collection like this, it’s almost inevitable that some of the sermons will be better than others. Yet it speaks to the quality of this book, and the pastors who contributed to it, that even the less compelling contributions are serviceable models of preaching Christ from all of Scripture. More importantly, the better sermons in this volume really sing. Charles Drew’s sermon on David’s surprising generosity toward Mephibosheth in 2 Samuel 9 (Ch. 5) is a stirring meditation on Christ’s lavish love for us. And Tim Keller’s sermon from Genesis 29:15-35 on Leah, “The Girl Nobody Wanted” (Ch. 2), is simply superb. Keller is at his doggedly realistic, exegetically and existentially insightful best in this sermon, which he preached at a wedding (!) that took place during a Sunday morning worship service at the church he pastors.

A FITTING TRIBUTE

This book is a fitting tribute to a man whose writing, teaching, preaching, and personal example have helped a good many pastors to preach Christ from all of Scripture. While any Christian would benefit from reading this book, I’d especially recommend it to pastors who have read some of the more theological and how-to books on Christ-centered preaching and who want to see some examples of this approach in action.

About the Author:

Bobby Jamieson is assistant editor for 9Marks.

September/October 2011

©9Marks

Permissions: You are permitted and encouraged to reproduce and distribute this material in any format, provided that you do not alter the wording in any way, you do not charge a fee beyond the cost of reproduction, and you do not make more than 1,000 physical copies. For web posting, a link to this document on our website is preferred. Any exceptions to the above must be explicitly approved by 9Marks.

Please include the following statement on any distributed copy: ©9Marks. Website: www.9Marks.org. Email: info@9marks.org. Toll Free: (888) 543-1030.

[1] I am not addressing how one removes from office a pastor, elder or deacon who is disqualified from serving. How one approaches that issue is a different burden than what this article is intended to bear. Instead, I am addressing this article to pastors and elders, those who are biblically tasked with shepherding Christ’s church, including those in the employ of a local church.

[2] See the well-known account of the Israelites’ worship of the Golden Calf (Exodus 32) which follows the detailed prescriptions and regulations for the cultic life of Israel. Similarly, consider King Jeroboam in 1 Kings 12:25-33, in which Jeroboam’s actions are clearly portrayed as violating the revealed will of God. The same logic follows from the account of Uzzah in 2 Samuel 6 and Nadab and Abihu in Leviticus 6. Consider Jesus’ own admonition to the Samaritan woman in which he asserts that the Jews’ worship was not only historically rooted in knowledge but also that a time would be coming in which worship would be rooted in sprit and truth (John 4:21-24). Finally, consider Paul’s own regulation of worship in the church at Corinth (1 Corinthians 14:26-40). The Scriptures not only provide sufficient norms and warrants for worship but also reveal that the people of God suffer when they do not adhere to the express prescriptions God has given in his Word.

[3] That said, this book is not meant to lay a theological or practical foundation for preaching Christ from all of Scripture. Some helpful books in this vein include Graeme Goldsworthy’s Preaching the Whole Bible as Christian Scripture (see 9Marks’ review), Ed Clowney’s Preaching Christ in All of Scripture (see 9Marks’ review), Sidney Greidanus’ Preaching Christ from the Old Testament (see 9Marks’ review), and Bryan Chapell’s Christ-Centered Preaching. Perhaps the best recent book on Christ-centered preaching, which covers theological and practical territory, is Dennis Johnson’s Him We Proclaim: Preaching Christ from all the Scriptures (see 9Marks’ review).