教会领袖生存和服事法则 How to Survive & Serve as a Church Leader?

Title: How to Survive and Serve as A Church Leader
Date: 10 September 2023
Preacher: Pastor Zhang Li

Let us pray: Heavenly father, please let your spirit guard our thoughts, and the words from our mouths, so that Your words penetrate and stay in our hearts, transform our lives day by day. In Jesus name we pray, Amen!

【leaders and followers？】

Mankind stay in communities, all kinds of communities, such as families, villages, neighbourhood, schools, companies, cities, countries. Inside a community, people interact with each other, everyone has his/ her roles, some are leaders, the rest play all kinds of supporting roles.
Structure wise, some communities are quite flat, as on the left; whereas some are having a the structure on the right. No matter what kind of structure a community takes, normally leaders are the ones with authority and power to govern, to judge, to make important decisions, they also hold great responsibilities for the wellbeing of the whole community and the individuals in it. Meanwhile the majority of the community – the common people who follow the leaders, are not only taking orders passively. They too, have the right to voice up, to evaluate and eventually to decide whether the leaders could carry on with their job.
When everyone stays in their own place and fulfills responsibilities, then this community is healthy, well-structured, is able to operate smoothly. However, if the leader and the followers are unable to fulfill their respective responsibilities for any reason, the society will face serious problems.
I’m not gonna talk about politics and management this morning, instead my focus is the roles of leaders and congregation in a church.
 
A church shares many similarities with other communities in the world, such as organizational structure, different roles played by the leaders and followers. etc. But church also has its uniqueness; it is a community established by God, with its primary purpose centered around faith, worship, and Biblical teaching. Church is called by God to be a witness of the Gospel of Jesus, and to serve the world. Church leaders are those with the responsibilities to lead God’s people to fulfil its goal and calling, Therefore, the guidelines and foundations by which church leaders serve are significantly different from those of other communities.
How do church leaders follow God's heart and build a community of faith that fulfills God's calling? This is a very big topic, today we're going to learn about the survival and service principles of church leaders from 1 Tim 4:6-16.
I know the word "survival" might sound a bit harsh, but don’t forget that Timothy was a young pastor, in his early 30s, he’s serving in a quite difficult situation. He needed to be able to stand up for his beliefs and values in the face of opposition and false teachings. The passage tells us clearly that Timothy was young, it's likely that many of the church members were older than him. Some of them may not have respected him or listened to his teaching and leadership.
Pastors who are called by God and serve His church, do have spiritual authority and theological training. They teach about God's words, care for and shepherd the congregation, they should be respected and be spiritual role models for believers.
Other church leaders, such as elders and deacons, cell leaders, are also called by God, lead and serve brothers and sisters in love with spiritual authority, they too, should be respected and obeyed.
But are all church leaders always respected and loved? Are there any cases where the leaders and the congregation aren't getting along? I bet there are. And if you think about it, you can probably think of some examples, right?
In this passage, Paul gives Timothy - the young pastor, honest and wise advices. There’re 4 points:
1. Hold onto and teach the truths of the faith （v. 6,8,13,16）
A church leader must be a faithful keeper of God’s truth, carefully, correctly and earnestly preach the word of God to believers.
2. Train self in Godliness（v. 7-9）
A leader must pay close attention to his/her own spiritual/internal life, strive in spiritual growth, do spiritual devotions regularly, connect with God all the time, draw on the power of the Holy Spirit, and live in a godliness before God.
3. Teach by life with compassion, faith and integrity（v.12）
Paul emphasized that a pastor should set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity. Actions speaks louder than words, Matthew Henry said in his commentary of this passage, “Those who teach by doctrine must teach by their lives, or they will tear down with one hand what has been built with the other”
4. Serve with spiritual gifts and authority（v.14）
Spiritual authority and gift come from God. A church leader must properly use them to serve the church and man.
Paul told Timothy, when you work towards all these, you yourself, as well as the brothers and sisters in your church, will grow in faith. You will be a faithful servant of God, a good spiritual role model for your fellow believers, and God’s church will be established. Those who are older than you will respect you and be open to your teaching and counsel.
In God’s kingdom, in the community of God’s people, these are the principles for leaders. A leader who longs to serve God and to serve the church in a healthy and effective way, must grow toward this direction.
Brothers and sisters，we are all very familiar with these principles. The Bible addresses similar principles again and again:
Church leaders must be able to teach and explain the truth of God correctly, have good character and be upright in behavior, live a godly life, and use their spiritual gifts in the right way.
Today I’d like to reflect further from Paul’s teaching:
1. Is Paul’s teaching (1 Tim 4:6-16) necessary in modern context？
2. Why is the character and life of a leader addressed so often？
3. Is there a message for the congregation as well?

1. Is Paul’s teaching (1 Tim 4:6-16) necessary in modern context？
In our modern society, specialization is in every area and field. Anyone who have served in a ministry must have some ideas of the skills needed to serve. In addition to the biblically exegetical, academic, pastoral, and teaching abilities that come from formal theological training, pastors also need skills on administrative management, financial management, communication, and teamwork. Elders and deacons who participate in church governance, CGLs who shepherd and lead cells also need some of these abilities.
Then are Paul’s teachings enough in the complex church environment? Are these principles adequate for various needs that the church faces today?
I don’t think these principles cover all the qualifications of a church leader. They are absolutely important and necessary. In other words, these are the foundation or basic principles for a leader to survive and serve in church.
With the increasing complexity of church governance and the specialization of theological education, modern churches are gradually shifting the balance in the selection of leaders from the character and life of the leader to various specialized abilities. In choosing and evaluating a leader, we pay more and more attention to the person's administrative and management ability, while neglecting the basic qualities that church leaders must possess.
Please do not misunderstand me, I am not saying that all of the skills and abilities are not important. Leading a church is a very complex and tough job, thus all kinds of abilities are important. But in the face of such a daunting task, we must decide which qualities count the most.
In other words, if we have to choose between character and ability, what should we choose?
Actually this is not our decision, but God's decision. Among all of the qualities a leader should hold, God cares the most about our characters, our lives, and our hearts. God is the one we are serving, the church is God's representative on earth. So the church must operate according to God's principles. Only by doing so can the church embrace the new life of Jesus Christ and fulfil the task entrusted by God.
In short term, such as 2, 3, 5, or 10 years of time, maybe God’s principle won’t give us the results we are expecting. However, brothers and sisters, the success of a church is not evaluated by factors we value the most, such as size and numbers, projects and popularity, but what God values. What God concerns about is the life, the quality, and strength of His church, His church must be able to hold onto His words, and be His witness in 50, 100, 500, or even thousands of years of time.
God not only tells us the principles, but the Lord Jesus also sets an example himself: he came to the earth, being the servant king. His entire life reflects all of the Father’s characters, such as love, forgiveness, justice, endurance, faithfulness, and humility
When a church leader has such character, you are bearing the image of Jesus Christ. People can see Jesus through you, they will be attracted, lives will be transformed.
As I was preparing my sermon today, I thought of a man, Samson. When we say that God values a church leader’s character the most, Samson seems to be an exception. God chose Samson to be a leader, However, he did not treasure God's calling, he did not treasure all the chances God gave him. Samson did not keep his identity as a Nazarite, he repeatedly pursued ungodly women and resulting himself captured by the enemies, eyes gouged out.
B/S, God chose Samson to be a leader, not because he was an upright man.
In fact, no one deserves God’s calling, not one of us.
God empowered Samson, God also expected him to change, to become a godly man. Finally, in the last moment of his life, he repented to God, and God, by His grace, gave him one last chance to kill many Philistines.
Please don’t use Samson as your excuse. Samson is a tragic figure, a tragic leader. If he could have turned back in God's repeated forbearance, he would have better protected his people, and his life would not have ended so miserably.
2. Why is the character and life of a leader addressed so often？
Church leaders must be constantly reminded, because we are all humans, leaders are no exception, pastors are no exception. leaders have God's calling and spiritual authority, at the same time, they also have weaknesses and darkness inside.
Let me use pastors as examples. Pastors started with a pure heart, simple motive, when entering the field of full time ministry, not caring about gains and losses, not pursuing praises from man at all. However, as we serve for a little longer, we get more and more experienced, our hearts might twist little by little. Pastor is a public figure, working among people, interacting with people, being respected and criticized by people, gradually he or she will have the tendency to pay more attention on how others look at me, the tendency of pursuit for man’s approval, instead of God’s, the tendency to care more about title and power.
Also, pastors and other church leaders do face great challenges when serving, there are people who do not obey you, there are people who are more capable than you, there’re times your ministries just don’t move at all. then the darkness and weakness might take you over.
We have all heard, more or less, those church leaders who fell down due to money, power, and sex. Being a church leader is a dangerous job.
Lately I started to read this book by Paul Tripp, dangerous calling. Dr. Tripp is a pastor, …
This is a diagnostic book for pastors and other church leaders as well. (next slide ) The author says, “This book is written to confront the issue of the often unhealthy shape of pastoral culture and to put on the table the temptation that are either unique or intensified by pastoral ministry. those problems are so common that when I read the book, I echo many struggles/problems he described.
In short, being a church leader is a dangerous job, so leaders must be alert all the time, and be reminded very often to keep their hearts right.
3. Is there a message for the congregation as well?
The answer is YES!
In the passage, there’s Paul the letter author, Timothy the letter recipient, there’re also many people hidden between the lines, the members of the church of Ephesus, such as the brothers and sisters, the church elders.
They, too, participated in Timothy’s ministries;
they, too, played very important roles on how Timothy can survive and serve in the church.
The passage tells us that:
Some people received Timothy’s teaching
The elders laid hands on Timothy to give him gift through prophecy;
Some looked down on him;
Some followed his examples
Some cared for him and could notice about his progress
Church is the body of Christ, everybody is a part of it, everyone is connected and interact with each other, … the congregation does play a significant role on their pastors, elders, deacons, and cell leaders.
Actually in certain circumstances, every church member could be a followers. Allow me to explain. You might have different types of leadership responsibilities. For pastors, they are leaders most of the time. However, in different positions and ministries, everyone will inevitably play the role of a follower at times, even for pastors. For example, Ps. NH leads an elderly cell on Wed, teacher Cathy is the member; while for the comm of our 140 anniversary journal, teacher Cathy is in charge, Ps. NH as the comm member, works under teacher Cathy.
let’s look at the role of followers. This is a very serious topic.
Today’s sermon tells us, how a church leader can survive and serve. As a follower, how do we take this teaching? Do we use it as a magnifying glass, to probe all kinds of problems of our leaders?
Or do we use it as a health checkup list, an indication of my leader’s spiritual, emotional and physical conditions?
When we look at Paul’s teachings in 1Tim 4:6-16, we might sense some problems of our leaders, let it be isolation from people, bad attitude when taking comments, impatience, not caring, injustice, handling matters wrongly, etc, etc, …… please do NOT point your fingers and say that you’re not good enough, you don’t deserve my respect and obedience.
Please do NOT jump into any conclusion too fast, such as, he/she is not called by God, something is wrong with his/her character.
Please also do NOT gossip around about your findings.
Instead, please pray first. Pray for ourselves, also pray for our leader. Let God first search our hearts, am I biased against this leader? Is it because of my personal preference? do I have solid evidence that he/she has some problem, or I’m just being judgemental?
If the leader does have some problems, which everyone of us have, lease pray for him/her. Yes, pray!!! Follow the guidance of the HS, either check with the leader directly, by showing sincere care and concern first. Check things out by asking, you look tired recently, are you ok? How is your ministry? Are you very stressed lately? What can I pray for you?
We can also express our concerns through the correct channel, like our cell leader, elder/deacon/pastor whom we trust.
When we come to jubilee context, there’re 8 full-time and part-time pastors. it’s normal that you prefer some pastors over the other. Maybe it’s the sermon, the personality, the looking, the point of views, or the gender. Please, brother and sisters, like what I said just now, please pray, first pray for yourself, then pray for the pastor whom you don’t like. This is an opportunity God gives you to serve your pastor.
Last, please allow me to say something personal.
The following words are from a pastor with the least experience and serving years in Jubilee.
in Oct 2020, after graduating from TTC, I joined Jubilee Pastoral team. I am very grateful for being able to start full time ministry here. The church, the session, the pastoral team, are all very accommodating and friendly, I received lots of guidance, help, advices and encouragement from all of you.
This is my first time to be a full-time pastor, I knew very little about all the challenges, or dangers, a pastor might experience. In the past three years, I have gradually realized that this is a very tough and demanding calling, not only does it tests everything you learnt in theological college, but also your spirituality, EQ, IQ, maturity, and even your physical strengthen.
Please don’t take me wrongly, I am not complaining, but sharing with you my personal reflection on this passage. The God who called me will surely carry me through, but I also hope that you pray for me. Not only pray, but teach me, give me advices and suggestions, tell me if I do anything wrong. There’re many constructive communications:
Once an elderly sister told me that I speak too fast for Singaporeans to follow.
A brother told me that my PPT background is too bright for the elderlies.
A sister shared with me how to handle conflicts, how to communicate with people who has different opinions from me.
An elder taught me how to interact with church members, it’s a good opportunity if I stand at the entrance of the worship Hall after service, I can shake hands and say Hi to many.
I’m very grateful for all these. Please approach me if you want to help me here and there.
In summary,….

When everyone does his/her part, God’s church can fulfil His will on earth.

华语崇拜视频链接：https://youtu.be/48PeR6qbFAY?si=6PQpDE2fqrNHJ76b
Bilingual Service Video Link: https://youtu.be/U5SgVnKi00E?si=hLFHOuSr_raL6LrJ