Two Models of Biblical Leadership - Part 1 #leadership 02


Recently, I was talking with someone who declared to me that his lead pastor was God’s “anointed leader” for their church.  

As we talked, he described his lead pastor this way: 

  • the lead pastor was the one with the vision for the church, 
  • God had granted him spiritual authority over the congregation, and 
  • that everyone in the church community (especially those on staff and in leadership) needed to submit to the lead pastor’s vision, come under his authority, and support him in making the vision a reality.  

I’m familiar with this view of church leadership, because I endorsed it for years. 

I’ve known many leaders - both in the church and non-church worlds - who practice this model of leadership.  Outside of the church, these types of leaders don’t attribute their leadership and vision to God, but it’s essentially the same idea. They're "large and in charge," and if you want to keep your job, you'll do what they say.  

This is the model of leadership practiced at a church where I was on staff.  When I joined this team, I didn’t have any pastoral background, but I had fifteen years of corporate work experience outside of the church. I was familiar with the most popular leadership models in the business world at the time, but I didn’t know what to expect with the leadership models inside the church world.  They might be different.  So, I deferred to the leadership model that was in place: the lead pastor was the anointed one of God, unquestioningly in charge.  He had the vision, and I existed on his staff to help him fulfill his vision.  

I was mostly fine with this.  It aligned with my view of the Bible at the time, and it reflected my deterministic view of God’s will: 


"If this man was the lead pastor, then clearly God had made him the lead pastor."  


This is a logical fallacy (specifically post hoc ergo propter hoc [I just wanted to use some Latin]), but lots of things in religion are logical fallacies...

The "Moses Model."

This model is in the Bible. It’s what I call the “Moses model” of leadership. Moses was literally chosen by God to lead the Israelites. He’s the one who went into the tent of meeting to get God’s marching orders.  He came out of the tent, his face aglow with the radiance of God, and communicated God’s grand vision and plan for his people. When he spoke, it was the unquestioned word of God.  Furthermore, when someone challenged Moses’s God-given authority, swift correction was dealt out, and the would-be usurpers typically were given leprosy, died of a plague, were run through with a sword, were killed by venomous serpents, or were swallowed by the earth.  

You can see why this model is so appealing for so many ambitious church leaders.  

This Moses model is the first of two biblical models of leadership I want to take a look at in this post.  There are lots of leadership models that we could coax out of scripture - some of them are really terrible - but I want to focus on just two of them.  

Submission To Your Leader Is A Good Thing. 

Back in my first year or two as a pastor, I found myself chaffing under the lead pastor’s direction.  I really thought the lead pastor was doing it wrong, and I was getting all worked up about how I would do things better if I were in charge.  The things I was worked up about were debatable matters like word-choice, presentation, and dress code - things that are matters of opinion. During a frustrated time of prayer, when I was lamenting my leader’s failures, I felt the Lord say to me, 


“If I’d wanted you to be the lead pastor, I would’ve made you the lead pastor.” 


That got my attention.  The Lord spoke a word of humbling to me, and I “heard” it loud and clear.  I was humbled, and I quickly snuffed my judgmental attitude and submitted to the lead pastor’s vision, even if I disagreed with some of the details.  

This was an important lesson for me to learn at that time, and one I believe anyone who has to follow someone else’s leadership needs to learn. You’re going to find yourself in disagreement with your leader over some matter, and you’ll be convinced you’re right and that you could do it better.  But submission to someone else’s leadership - especially when you don’t agree - is an opportunity for growth, and it’s one of the main ways we demonstrate the humility of Christ in our daily work.  One day you might be in charge. How do you want those under your leadership to relate to you?  

This word from the Lord hit me so hard that I did what a lot of young pastors do - I overcorrected.  I went into complete submission mode, where what I thought and wanted wasn’t important.  I took all of my opinions and my ambitions and I stuffed them in a little safe at the back of mind and closed and locked the door.  I did this out of a desire to honor God by honoring my leader.  

In my usual deterministic way, I (not the Lord) said to myself, 


“I’m a pastor on staff at this church.  If I wasn’t supposed to be here, I wouldn’t be here.  That means it must be God’s will for me to obey whatever system of leadership exists here without question.”

 

It took years for me to spot this overcorrection (it's another logical fallacy - proving too much - no Latin this time), but I eventually did.  

The Problems With The Moses Model

I don't love the Moses model.  I believe it doesn't legitimately exist in our 21st century context, and anybody claiming the "mantle of Moses" literally or figuratively should be kept out of leadership for the sake of Jesus' Church.  

Over my years in ministry, I’ve witnessed the high cost of the Moses model.  I learned that the Moses model has two great weaknesses. 

The first great weakness is: 


The Moses model hurts the organization. 


It's demotivating to work under a Moses model leader.  The demand for absolute submission stifles creativity and staff development - two things that are essential for the growth of a healthy team.  When the leader is making all of the decisions, creativity is devalued. Diversity of thought and expression are almost always suppressed.  Life-giving feedback loops are typically absent in these teams.  

Staff development suffers as well. If the Moses model leader manages to hire talented staff, the expectation to just “do what you’re told” will become suffocating for them. Those talented people will find somewhere else to work, where their contributions and ideas will be valued.  Eventually, the Moses model leader is left with a staff that is either just working to get a paycheck, or is comprised of people who are too risk-averse to seek employment elsewhere.  

I once had a conversation with a Moses model lead pastor who was bemoaning the feedback he was getting from his Millennial staff.  “I just wish they would do what I tell them to do! Why is that so hard?”  Within the year, his Millennial staffers had moved on to other churches.   

The second great weakness of the Moses model is:


The Moses model puts too much power in too few hands.  


The Moses model consolidates power with the leader. Because the leader is God’s anointed, the leader can essentially do whatever they want to do without consequence.  What the leader desires is what God desires.  What the leader says is what God says.  The natural assumption is that God always approves of what the leader does.  

As with me, my submission to my earthly leader had became synonymous with my submission to God.  Obedience becomes a sign of personal holiness.  This is EXTREMELY dangerous and creates an environment that is ripe for emotional and spiritual abuse.  

In organizations led by Moses model leaders, vital feedback is muzzled, because feedback is rebellion.  Creative debate and discussion is tantamount to questioning God’s authority.  Healthy accountability - especially for the leader - is viewed with suspicion and characterized as a lack of faith.  

I personally know at least ten pastors who carry the wounds of working under a Moses model lead pastor.  Many of them were forced to resign by these leaders, while some drifted away to other jobs.  Some doubt their gifting.  Because of the overstated spiritual aspect of the Moses model, some of them feel like they let God down.  Some have left the ministry altogether.  For some, the experience is so painful and so wrapped up in their understanding of God, that they end up rejecting God.  “If that lead pastor was God’s anointed, then I don’t want anything to do with God.”

At a minimum this is poor stewardship.  The Moses model leader hoards all of the power, and, often without even knowing they’re doing it, they drive off the very people who would bring them the success they so desperately crave.  

The Moses Model In Practice

As with any leadership model, not all Moses model leaders fall into a power-mad spiral of abuse like I’ve described.  In fact, if humans were more perfect, the Moses model might be preferred.  But Church history is littered with the stories of Moses model leaders who started out as benevolent dictators, and ended as corrupt tyrants.  For a recent example, check out the illuminating Rise and Fall of Mars Hill

When the Moses model is your organization’s assumed model of biblical leadership, your organization is choosing to be less.  Less creative.  Less talented.  Less impactful in the kingdom.  And the more spiritualized your Moses model is, the more likely your organization is at risk of a major crisis: a moral failing, a lawsuit, or an insurrection.  

Are you currently at a Moses model church community?  What would happen if you were to bring a concern to your lead pastor?  How would that conversation go?  Would he or she listen? How transparent is your leadership team? 

Command And Control

The Moses model of leadership is still a biblical model, and there’s something we can learn from it.  In today’s language, the Moses model most closely resembles the “command and control” style of leadership. This model is acknowledged as the appropriate leadership model in times of crisis, when people’s lives are at stake, and when decisions must be made quickly and decisively.  Moses needed to be the unquestioned leader of the Israelites, or they would never have made it out of Egypt.  

Some lead pastors defend their regular practice of the Moses model by saying there are lives at stake - eternal lives!  Then they lead their congregations from a place of never-ending crisis and urgency.  

As an everyday, peacetime leadership style, the Moses model is dangerous, demotivating, and exhausting.  Jack Welch’s style of top-down cut-throat Moses model leadership has become the example of what not to do in many business leadership courses today.  Unfortunately, it remains an all-too-common model for churches.  

There's Another Way

But the biggest problem with the Moses model as the de facto biblical leadership style in a church, is that it stands in direct opposition to the leadership Jesus calls us to practice.  

THE essential leadership model in the Bible, the one I believe we are all called to practice, is servant leadership.  This is the biblical leadership model that supersedes all other models you might find in the Bible.  

Who demonstrated this model?  

Jesus Christ himself.  

His leadership model will be the subject of part 2 of this post.

What has been your experience with the Moses model in the church or the workplace?

What are the stated expectations of your church community regarding your lead pastor?

What are the unstated expectations you perceive?

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