A Biblical Approach to Church Leadership
The Role of the Pastors is a message from a series on The Church. The passage is from 1 Peter 5:1-5.
We believe that a plurality of leadership is biblical. It’s odd to see Christian leaders in the New Testament alone. Jesus sent disciples out by 2. Paul even makes it clear that (for the most part) he works in teams. Even our God expresses Himself in a triune nature between the Father, Son, and Spirit. God’s plan for all of us includes that we are not alone. We were meant for community. From this we can say that having multiple lead pastors is biblical.
Because we have the gift of brotherhood. It’s a gift for us and we believe it is the best gift when it’s available. We can do this because of the kind of brotherhood that exists between Robin, Daniel and Matthew. We realize not every church has that. Our unified camaraderie gives us this option.
Empowerment. Our multi-lead pastor model reflects the strategy of Paul in 1 Corinthians 12 where he describes the body of Christ functioning more powerfully as a unified but diverse group. Diversity enhances the body’s ability and unity makes sure that it works in cooperation. Robin, Dan and Matthew have the same philosophy and doctrinal convictions but we do find that our unique gifting make us each more effective. In other words, we have the belief that we are better when working together than apart.
Increases wisdom and decreases burdens. We are an elder led church. A lot of churches are scared of elder led because they fear that it will give too much power to leaders. We think it does the opposite. Every decision we make occurs among spiritually mature and trusted brothers by consensus. When leaders are isolated they make many of their decisions on their own. This increases the burden on the individual who is alone in convincing an entire church of their direction and it decreases the wisdom of the decision. If we are willing to share leadership in humility to trusted, proven people then we will also share the burdens and be less likely to burn out.
Fiscal responsibility. This is a rare approach in our culture. However, at Refuge City Church, no one receives a salary. We want to keep our budget very slim so that we can continue to be a generous people to our church body and community. All three of our lead pastors work a full-time job and never intend to receive money from our church.
