Peacemaking in the Church and Beyond - Lesson 8

So, let's talk about number two. Number two is the whole area of unified leadership. In 1987, I was pastoring a church in Pennsylvania, and we faced a major crisis. In September that year, I learned that the volunteer director of our children's ministries, who was also the church organist, was married for 12 years and a member of that local church since the day he was born, had contracted AIDS through homosexual activity, and no one knew of his other life. Now 1987, if you remember, the history of AIDS, was before most people in the general public were real knowledgeable about AIDS, including myself. There was actually widespread panic in society as a result of this about how the disease was spread and so forth. In the following months, I worked tirelessly with this brother in Christ and his wife and his extended family. His sister was in the church. Her family was in the church. His brother in law, his nephews, his nieces. His father was one of our elders. His mother, his brother was a prominent minister in another state in our denomination, his lifelong friends, all who were in this church. And I consulted with attorneys. I worked with our denominational leaders. The issues were extremely complex from a legal point of view, from a pastoral care point of view, from a medical point of view, from a church discipline point of view. It was a mess. Our church was one of the first in America, actually, to deal with this kind of thing, at least in any kind of public way. How do you separate the sin from the sinner and the sin from the medical consequences of that sin? And it was uncharted territory. 

In the first meeting of the church elders after I broke the news to them, and this was actually some months later, one elder commented, “This could be the worst disaster we have ever faced.” Another responded right after him, he said, “With all due respect, I believe this could be our finest hour.” So will conflict in our churches be perceived as a disaster? Or will it be one of our finest hours? The answer to these questions, as was the case in my pastoral experience, often depends on the quality of the church's leadership team. The church I pastored made it through that conflict crisis and is a vibrant ministry today, partly due to our elders and our pastoral staff and a massive dose of God's grace, I won't kid you. 

If your team is cohesive, committed, and gospel centered, you can make it through times of conflict, and it will become your finest hour. But if you don't have that kind of team, it's dicey, and you will definitely flirt with disaster. The difference between the two rests often in the leadership team. Have you experienced that in your own journey? What do you think? Is that too strongly stated For those of you that have been in leadership in the church. What do you think about that? Agree? Disagree? Let's reflect for a few moments. 

STUDENT: Well, the scriptures tell us basically to expect hardship and challenge and difficulty, so we should be preparing ourselves for that and how to respond; it shouldn't be a surprise or something we avoid or deny or that kind of thing, because in reality, it's good for reality. We need to be willing to face these things and see how we can have Christ lead us in them, and what does he want us to learn? 

STUDENT: The unified leadership, of course, will offer support, too, which you definitely need. 

STUDENT: A unified leadership that has a view of the gospel that we're all in the same boat, and we need the same Savior. If the team was unified there, then such a situation could actually be their finest hour, because it's not managing sin, but it's pointing to the fact that we all sin at some point, in some way or another; it can bring the church together in a way, to understand that and to be more willing to see that we are all in Christ. 

STUDENT: In another church that I have kind of watched, it's super important to have the passion for the Gospel and Christ to be the leader instead of -- I think it's so easy to get it confused that the head pastor is our leader? I mean, yes, he's our leader, but we should all be going in the same direction, and I have observed the pastoral staff sort of implode on each other just because of a silly misunderstanding that happened from an office prank that happened at a time when it was causing one person a little bit of stress because it was their thing that they have do, and so he was like, look, you know, I need to find these things that I need for the kids ministry or whatever that you guys have hidden, and they kind of turned that into,’ oh, you're such a square.’ And then it was as though they didn't like him anymore, and so the idea then it was teams, you know, just so you're triangulated, you know, into the different teams of staff, and the head pastor was very controlling, and so you have this ‘it's about us’; it's not about being unified; it's not about the gospel and us going in the same direction anymore; it’s us working against each other. 

Other thoughts? 

STUDENT: I think there needs to be good communication among the leadership and working through the different opinions and even the conflict. But at the end of the day, they do need to be unified in the direction they’re going to go, so it is not creating a confusion among those that they are leading. 

Well, let's get into a little bit of the detail, this issue of unity, because it is such a critical issue. The writer of Ecclesiastes said, “Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.” Leaders can do amazing things when there's a common bond of unity, when there are strong relationships, when there's love for each other, when there's an unconditional commitment to a common purpose. We see this unity illustrated in the early church. In Acts chapter 6, for example, we saw the apostles were united, and they were able to move quickly to resolve dispute over the distribution of food -- you know the story about when the deacons were assigned and so forth. And then again in chapter 15, the leaders were united in resolving tensions over the conversion of Gentiles. 

I've seen this kind of leadership unity get churches through family meltdowns, through building programs, through financial crises, through restoring people that are in sin, through changing denominations, and even, even using drums in the worship service. But beware, a ‘dream team’ can turn into a nightmare, and it does happen, and it can happen quickly. The united part requires constant attention, and it requires constant intention. 

Some years ago, the International Olympic Committee began allowing professional basketball players to compete in the Olympic Games, and that was the first time the USA put together a ‘dream team,’ and you probably remember that they crushed the opponents. They were unstoppable the first Olympics they entered. But as they went on, the USA Olympic basketball teams became more a collection of talented individuals rather than a united team, and they lost to seemingly inferior players. The dream team lost its way. Thankfully, they've regained their way now, but for a time they even began competing among themselves, and it turned literally into a nightmare for our country. 

Some of the leadership teams that we see in the Bible worked together very closely through thick and thin. Barnabas sponsored Saul into the church, mentored him as a young leader, and then it just kind of fell apart when they had a sharp disagreement over what would happen with John Mark, and so they went in their different directions, and there are some that justify that, but the point is they had a conflict that was not reconciled, and it happens even to the best of us. And then there's Simon and Peter, these two giants of the early church. They got into an issue over circumcision. Paul seemed to be in more than his share of scraps. I don't know if that's because he was an apostle or what it was; maybe it comes with the territory of being a church planter, I don't know. But Satan specializes in sowing conflict among leaders of the church. Sadly, I hear many pastors say, ‘my biggest struggle isn't dealing with the world out there, it's dealing with my own leadership team, it’s dealing with the very people that I work with day by day.’ And so these are real realities why leadership is so critical. 

Leadership struggles that lead to disunity are obvious to us: Control; people, force their way on others within a team, often employing spiritual language to get their way. Poor communication. Leaders are called, I believe, to a higher standard of communication, and we'll get into communication in some depth when we get to the practical tools, but poor communication is one of the banes of the church. Different giftings. It's easy to assume that my gifts are the most important gifts within the church, and so if I have the gift of discernment, then I must be more in tune with God than you. 

Competition. Well, let me say something about biblically unqualified leaders. Too often we assume, and I don't know what you think about this, but too often I think we assume that just because someone is effective in the business world in a particular category that that automatically qualifies them to lead in the church. So oftentimes we turn our governing boards into boards of directors that focus on strategic planning and budgeting, etc., which are all certainly important, but we underestimate how important it is to have this passion for the gospel, to understand the role of shepherd, and to be mature disciples of Christ, to lead the flock during times of crisis and times of need. 

And then finally, there's competition; instead of cooperation, there's competition. The classic case is that deacons see their job as keeping the pastor in line, to point out the faults. The pastor sees that his only boss is the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit, and so everybody else is answerable to him because he's answerable to them. And so it goes. What other struggles of leadership contribute to disunity among the leadership team? Pride. Okay. Just plain old pride. Good. Others? 

STUDENT: Comparison is also competition. 

Okay. 

STUDENT: Differing visions can sometimes wreak havoc. 

So, the point is each claiming they have the vision from God, perhaps, as a crass way to say it.

STUDENT: It may not even be couched in that strong rhetoric, may just be this is the way we should all see is the way we should go, and there's this tension that starts to pull things apart, because that's not managed well; the different visions aren’t managed well. 

STUDENT: Limited resources, so they're competing for the resources and then their own little kingdom and their own little ministry, and that can lead to disunity. 

Limited resources. 

STUDENT: We just had a committee meeting this week, and one of the committee members brought to the team a vision for a ministry, and it was a well thought out, well-presented vision. Basically, the resources weren’t there to accomplish that, and so the answer was, no, you can't implement that vision at this time, so when the meeting ended, I approached that person and I said, “You know, I really appreciate your passion and all the work that you and others have put into this proposal, but can I speak to you as an elder? Would that be okay?” And she said, “Yeah.” I said, “Right now you're at risk because you’ve put all this effort into it and you didn't get what you wanted, and the devil will come after you, and he will want to lead you in the wrong directions. He will want to send messages to you that will bring about bad things in your life and in others’ lives,” and I said, “so don't give him a foothold, resist him.” And this is part of that struggle of visions. I want this and somebody else wants that, and how can we manage that without imploding? 

Very good example. Thanks for sharing that.