There are always a multitude of inquiries concerning the leadership of the church. In many situations, the members are perceiving that there is a difference between the behavior of some of their existing leaders and the leadership that they notice in the life of the incarnate Son of God. They are even perceiving that there is a difference between how the church is led today and how the church of the first century was led by incarnationally devoted servants of God. We know this because of many directives that came from the Holy Spirit to correct dysfunctional leadership in the first century, which directives we use as a textbook to correct our own leadership challenges.

This is not to say that the early church was perfect. The fact that they were dysfunctional in some areas of leadership is to our benefit because we have in our hands today the Spirit’s corrective manual of discipline in order to sort out any problems that we may have in reference to our own leadership.

Our leadership challenges are particularly true in a world wherein many members of the body sit in corporate board rooms, or are employees of some business from Monday through Friday. There seems to be a constant concern, therefore, that the leadership of the corporate/political/business world is finding its way in among the disciples, and thus taking hostage the sheep of God. This threat is simply a part of the world in which we live, and thus, we need to thoroughly understand the leadership principles that are revealed in the New Testament, which principles are disturbingly different from what is sometimes prevalent among many religious groups throughout the world today.

• Consulting the leadership manual: In contrast to the world, and in reference to the gospel, leadership among the disciples of Christ is inherently determined by the very nature of the gospel (good news) of the incarnate Son of God. When a group of disciples in today’s corporate/political/business environment consider leadership among the disciples, they are invariably faced with a daunting challenge that is presented by the example of the leadership behavior of the world. Leaders sometimes think that they can lead the church of disciples as they would lead in world affairs. But in all matters concerning church leadership, Jesus must be both our teacher and example. The Holy Spirit must be allowed to have already produced a manual on church leadership, which manual was completed over two thousand years ago. When it comes to incarnational leadership, the world can offer little in comparison to what the Spirit has already completed.

Unfortunately, it is almost inevitable that the behavior of leadership that permeates the corporate/political/business world today finds its way in among those who should be following the teaching and example of the incarnate Son of God. We must, therefore, when considering the behavior and function of church leaders, focus on the behavior of the incarnate Son of God, not on the leadership ways of the world in which we live. Only the incarnate Son of God can be the standard by which we would both live and behave as His disciples, and in particular, conduct our lives in leading incarnationally obedient disciples.

In our present world, we are faced with an almost insurmountable challenge concerning the behavior of church leaders. If we rely on the ways of the world in this matter, then we are certainly in trouble. Therefore, in order to begin our transformation into being incarnational leaders, our first concern is to understand the leadership that was revealed by the incarnate of the Son of God. Once we somewhat understand the incarnation, then we can more effectively apply the example of the Son of God to our own lives. So before we can lead among the disciples who have given themselves over to King Jesus in response to the gospel, we must first understand what the Son of God went through in His incarnational journey of giving up being in the form of God to allowing nails to be driven through His incarnate hands.

• From spirit to flesh: The organic function of the body of the Lord Jesus is not determined by democratic procedures by which the membership might exercise some authority at the end of a democratic process of voting to make laws they would bind on the body. On the contrary, King Jesus was given absolute authority over all things before the ascension (Mt 28:18). And thus, the democratic power struggles that are common in government and corporations must have no place among the gospel-obedient citizens of a kingdom that has only one Lord and King who reigns with supreme authority over all things (Ep 1:20-23). When it comes to decision-making amount the members, therefore, the authority of Jesus over all things must always be in the forefront of our thinking and planning.

Before we can come to any understanding of how our leaders are to behave themselves among gospel-obedient disciples, therefore, we must first understand the nature of the leadership that was revealed through the incarnate Son of God who now has all authority. In order to do this, we must first understand one very important point. Before His ascension and coronation, Jesus reminded His disciples, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.” From this statement alone we understand that 100% of the authority over all things in the galaxy and on earth is within the control of King Jesus. Not one percentage point of authority has been left for any human being on earth, including all church leaders.

Church leaders are given responsibility to care for the flock of God (At 20:28). They are not given authority to be lords over the flock. The position of the authoritative head of the body has already been filled (Cl 1:18). If one would move into this realm of authority among the disciples, therefore, he has moved from assuming responsibility among the sheep to being in some position or office in order to lord over the sheep. There can be no lords of authority among or over the sheep of God. Jesus is our one Lord with all authority.

Therefore, when we consider leaders of all those who have submitted to the autocratic kingdom reign of King Jesus, then all things in reference to the order among gospel-obedient subjects has been fulfilled in the one Lord Jesus Christ (Ep 4:5). All this is drastically different from the order of authority in the corporate/political/business world in which we live. We must be very careful, therefore, not to import into the body of Christ the leadership that is characteristic of the world. There can be no chairmen, no presidents, and no lords among the disciples of Jesus. There can be no corporate boards with invested authority who would slip mandates under a board room door to the anxiously awaiting employees outside.

• Revelation of a leadership standard: In our challenge to transform our personal character into the nature of the gospel, we sometimes import into the body of Christ attitudes of corporate competitiveness or political pomp that is characteristic of the world in which we live. This is a particular problem in those nations wherein there has been vigorous debates among politicians for several decades. In such a social culture subsequently feel that we are in competition with one another, or threatened by the presence of one another as supposed politicians in the political world. We thus use the church of disciples as an opportunity to behave politically. Nevertheless, we must recognize and repent of this common behavior and thinking among the disciples that is totally contrary to the very nature of the gospel of the incarnate Son of God.

Remember when Paul wrote the following? “For if by one man’s offense [Adam introduced sin into the world], death reigned through the one [sin of Adam], much more they who receive abundance of grace [that’s us] and of the gift of righteousness [from God] will reign in life through the one, Jesus Christ” (Rm 5:17). Those who live according to the incarnate Savior, who reigned over and conquered spiritual death at the cross, and afterward ascended to become the King of kings and Lord of lords, have likewise become kings in this life as a disciple of the King. Jesus now reigns over all things. As subjects of His kingdom reign, we too reign with Him in life. But we must not forget that our present reign is over the unbelieving world through our obedience to the gospel, not the body of kingdom subjects. Our reign over the unbelieving world is contingent on His present continued reign from heaven. We must not forget this, lest we seek to reign on earth over one another as the church of His subjects.

In forgetting to transform competitive attitudes and behavioral patterns that are contrary to the behavior of the incarnate Son of God—which behavior was revealed in His journey from being on an equality with God in spirit to being God in the flesh of man that hung on a cross outside Jerusalem—we often manufacture autonomous church groups as an opportunity to compete with one another as if we were in a corporate board room, or in some political debate with other politically minded leaders. In fact, the concept of the autonomy of individual local groups of disciples rose out of a misunderstanding. Such power-hungry behavior sometimes found its way in among the disciples of the first century. However, such behavior was vigorously opposed then by the Holy Spirit through the pens of the early writers of inspired Scripture. He continues to oppose such today through the pages of the New Testament.

The vast majority of the members of the body in those early days sought to emulate in their lives the nature of the actions of the Son of God in His incarnation from heaven to earth. Though we cannot go through the transformation of an actual incarnation, there is still a behavioral life-style lesson in the incarnation of the Son of God that must become the foundation upon which our behavior as His disciples must be established. The Holy Spirit wanted to make this very clear as He guided the hands of disciples as Paul (More later.)

Self-exaltation is typical of the corporate/political/business world. But such behavior is totally contrary to incarnational behavior. Unfortunately, such self-exalting behavior sometimes finds its way into the leadership of the church. We may complain about one behaving as a lord among the leaders, but we must first look to our own behavior.

The reason the church body sometimes produces self-exalting lordship leaders is that the existing leaders have often behaved as such among the disciples as they would behave in the corporate/political/business world in which they weekly work and live. Young leaders, therefore, who arise among the body of members subsequently believe that they too must behave in the same manner as the existing leaders if they would be future leaders in the church.

Some young leaders often rise out of a competitive body of members in order to struggle “through the ranks” to be leaders “of the church.” These young leaders often conclude that if all the members must behave in a corporate/political/business manner Monday through Friday, then they too are tempted to believe and behave in the same manner. Instead of emulating on the incarnate behavior of the Son of God as the guiding principle for leading the people, they too often take a peek into a corporate board room, or clone their favorite politician or business owner. But this thinking is nowhere found in the New Testament.

• Misleading road maps for leadership: Lordship behavior is often perpetuated throughout the decades by those who have never fully understood the selfless nature that is inherent in the good news of the incarnational journey of the Son of God. This lordship behavior is a perpetual curse by which most of the religious world functions today. The common scenario is that young leaders who seek to rise among the disciples are stymied by the existing leaders who maintain their lordship over their local diocese of disciples. What consequently results is that the rising young leaders are encouraged to go out and start their “own churches” in order to likewise lord over a flock just as the leadership of the local church from which they were given birth to be lords.

The result is that a history of lordship leadership is perpetuated among religious groups. There is then a competition between local “pastors” in the community who compete for control and contributions in local independent churches. This all takes place in view of a statement from the Holy Spirit that leaders not lord over the flock of God (1 Pt 5:3). It is for this reason that many members are wondering what we are talking about when we speak of incarnational leadership. People of faith have moved so far away from the example of Jesus that they have a difficult time finding their way back to the true Lord Jesus Christ. It is as if people have invented in their minds a “Jesus” that is totally foreign to the Jesus we read about in the New Testament.

We must insert here something about the self-centered culture of the “me generation” that is so prevalent today throughout the Western world. When children are reared in families with the attitude that they can do nothing wrong—there are no losers—or that they are the constant center of attraction, then this me-culture of people arise in the body of disciples with prerequisite conditions as to how the church should behave. When the local the church places little emphasis on the gospel of the heart of God that was revealed through the incarnate Son of God, then young people grow up “in the church” with the thinking that they must continue to receive special attention. It is for this reason that it is difficult for those of the Western “me generation” to understand the selfless nature of the incarnational leadership of the Son of God. It is challenging for them to understand that the Jesus who is revealed in the New Testament was an incarnate God who allowed Himself to be crucified. And if the leaders of the existing church are not living incarnationally, then another generation of lordship leaders are produced for the future church.

This at least gives us one answer as to why “church” is declining in Western societies. Or better, church is simply becoming some form of religion that is defined after the nature of the members’ desires, not the nature of the incarnate Son of God. The younger “me generation” is largely turning away from those groups that have any scent of true incarnational behavior. When one of the me-generation encounters incarnational disciples, their first reaction is to change the assembly of the local church into something that pleases (entertains) themselves. “Worship” is thus changed from focusing on worship of God to focusing on emotionally exciting ourselves. The assembly of such “worshipers” thus turns into a narcissistic, self-centered music concert.

This is possibly one reason why “church attendance” in the West has drastically declined in the last two decades. Those older mature disciples have simply decided to focus their worship on God the Father in thanksgiving for the incarnational behavior of His Son who became flesh in order to bring incarnational people into the population of heaven. This was certainly in the mind of Paul when he allowed the Holy Spirit to guide his thoughts in the following statement:

“For all things are for your sakes, so that the grace that is reaching many people may cause thanksgiving to abound to the glory of God” (2 Co 4:15).

(To be continued.)

People of virtue (integrity) always struggle with their behavior in their relationship with others, and especially in their relationship with God. This struggle is simply part of living in preparation for eternity. So in our struggles, we know that sin is defined as doing that which God said we should not do, lest we be separate from Him (Is 59:2; 1 Jn 3:4). This would be the sin of commission. We break God’s law, and thus we sin, sometimes knowingly, but sometimes unknowingly. We simply cannot live perfect lives (Rm 3:23). Add to this the fact that we more often do not do good to others we know we should do, and thus, we sin by omission (Js 4:17; Gl 6:10). Without a clear and appreciative understanding of the grace of God, therefore, we would certainly live a life a guilt, never know if we were saved.

In order to deal with our guilt, we often categorize sin, and thus check off those sins we do not do. In order to make a list of such sins, we quote Revelation 21:8. We then assume that we are good people of faith because we do not do the following listed sins about which John wrote: “But the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murders and immoral people and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, will have their part in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone.” And certainly, we are not bad people as that. So far, so good.

Since we are not bad people about which John wrote, and try to do the good about which James wrote, we assume that we are fine, and thus, good people in reference to our standing before God. But we must go beyond John’s list by which we would judge ourselves somewhat righteous before God. We must also consider the list that Paul presented in Galatians 5:19-21: “Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are: fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, strife, jealousy, outburst of anger, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envyings, drunkenness, revelries, and the such like.”

It is Paul’s final phrase that gives us some grief. “And-the-such-like” certainly includes everyone beyond what John specifically wrote in Revelation 21 and Paul’s specific list of sins in Galatians 5. In both Galatians and Revelation, there seems to be under the umbrella phrase, “and the such like,” all those who are not forthright in confessing that they are often walking in some sin about which they might be unaware, or at least, unwilling to confess (See Js 5:16). In some way, we are all there.

When one encounters the gospel, beliefs and behavior must radically change. There must be a beginning of the transformation of our character, and thus, our behavior (See Rm 12:1,2). This is particularly true in reference to our relationship with people who have likewise obeyed the gospel. Drastic repentance is in store for all those who have truly responded to the gospel simply because the gospel is not of this world. Because we seek to respond to the One who gave Himself for us, this heavenly action on the part of the Son of God inspires us to think and live contrary to worldly thinking and behavior.

For example, upon one’s encounter with the gospel of the incarnate Son of God, it is often easy to repent of moral sins. We can check off those sins that were listed by both John and Paul. We subsequently stop doing bad stuff, and try to do the best we can in doing good for others as the incarnate Son did good for us. However, this is not enough in reference to our personal transformation.

There is often behavioral sin that is persistent within us in reference to our selfish ambitions, which self-centered behavior we are sometimes not willing to recognize or change. Since we often fail to recognize some of our behavioral sins, we leave some of our behavior unchecked by the gospel. In particular, we often justify our self-centered narcissistic behavior by saying that at least we do not commit the sins that are on the list of both John and Paul.

Nevertheless, when we do what we feel is wrong in some area, we often try to cleanse ourselves of our wrong with some self-sanctifying good deed. We thus satisfy ourselves by trying to do the best we can in doing good works to atone for our sins. Our good works make us feel good about sins that may persist in our lives.

But if we are honest with ourselves, we still know that we fall short in doing enough good works to feel that we are justified before God. When we presume to find atonement in our good needs, we often fail to gospel check our inner attitudes that caused us to sin, and thus, behave contrary to the gospel. So we continue on our way trying to do self-sanctifying good works, while continuing on in our wayward ways. Such is a frustrating lie to live.

It is for this reason that various statements by the Holy Spirit in Scripture become very precious. For example, “For by grace you are saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God” (Ep 2:8). It is thus very comforting to read what the Spirit concluded, “Sin will not have dominion over you, for you are not under law, but under grace” (Rm 6:14). “And if by grace, then it is no more by works [of law-keeping or meritorious good deeds], otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it is by [meritorious] works, it is no longer grace, otherwise work is no longer work” (Rm 11:6).