The Model of Human Leadership in the Church

“…some men came down from Judea and were teaching the brothers, “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.” Paul and Barnabas…were appointed to go up to Jerusalem to the apostles and the elders about this question. So, being sent on their way by the church…they came to Jerusalem [where] they were welcomed by the church and the apostles and the elders, and they declared all that God had done with them. The apostles and the elders were gathered together to consider this matter.

…Then it seemed good to the apostles and the elders, with the whole church, to choose men from among them and send them to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas…with the following letter:… “Since we have heard that some persons have gone out from us and troubled you with words, unsettling your minds, although we gave them no instructions, it has seemed good to us, having come to one accord, to choose men and send them to you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul…For it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay on you no greater burden than these requirements: that you abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols, and from blood, and from what has been strangled, and from sexual immorality. If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well. Farewell.”

From Acts 15

Right now there is a movement stirring that downplays the role of the gathered church, and of any kind of formal leadership or human authority in the Body live sex web sites of Christ. The problem is, I can’t read passages like the one above without wondering where we would be today if there was no visible congregational life in the early Church. Not only were Paul and Barnabas submitted to a local congregation, but that congregation was in some sense submitted to the apostles and elders that “headquartered” in Jerusalem.

And what the Jerusalem leaders decided was then written down and distributed as a list of requirements that had to be followed. Fortunately, it was a short list, and not a very religious one.

But make no mistake: There was human leadership; there was authority; there was some type of gathered and structured expression of the local church.

If this were an issue of apostolic jurisdiction only, it would have died off with the Jerusalem council, but this human leadership element of New Testament Christianity continued into subsequent years. Paul kept appointing elders and other leaders in each city where he proclaimed the gospel. And even towards the end of his life, he could encourage his disciple, Timothy, to walk in authority over a local congregation (2 Timothy 2:14 & 25; 4:1-5) as well as give instructions to Timothy regarding how set-apart leaders of the church should conduct themselves (2 Timothy 2:15 & 24).

We need the big CHURCH as well as the local church, and the many expressions of human leadership that exist in her. Yes, those structures and expressions are flawed, but I’m glad God uses flawed things, because otherwise He would have stayed far away from using me.