A Theology of Church Leadership by Lawrence O. Richards and Clyde Hoeldtke Zondervan, $12.95 Reviewed by David Lim Academic Dean, Western Pentecostal Bible College, Clayburn, British Columbia Canada
Church leadership has been on a quest for identity over the past twenty years seeking the answers to several questions. Is there a truly biblical theology of leadership? Can modern management methods apply to church work? Is pragmatism the key test?- does it bring souls into the kingdom of God? Or, should we simply listen to what God tells us for our particular situations?
As church leaders from every social, economic, educational, and denominational background wrestled with these leadership questions, several intriguing ideas emerged.
Elton Trueblood (The Encourager) pictured the pastor as the coach of a team, enabling it to win the game. His joy came from watching his players develop ability and insight to fulfill their functions.
Findley Edge (The Greening of the Church) felt the church should be like a miniature theological seminary in which the key enablers specialize in their areas of ministry and lead the congregation to exercise their gifts in spiritual and social concerns. The key purpose of the church is to educate for practical living in Christ.
Bruce Larson and Keith Miller (The Passionate People) brought in the emphasis on relational ministry and interaction in small groups. A church should be a place of openness where hurt humanity could identify with fellow humans, and acceptance would not be based on achievement, but on personhood.
Ray Stedman (Body Life) focused on each member finding his ministry within the body of Christ and sharing it. Laymen were to be involved in every area of leadership.
With the breakdown of authority in society and increasing permissiveness came a reaction in the church to the idea of democratic forms within the church and family. Men like Bill Gothard (chain of command) and Jay Adams (confrontational counseling) in evangelical circles, and Bob Mumford and Juan Carlos Ortiz (shepherding) in charismatic circles confronted people with the authority of the Word of God and of the elders and church leaders. The need was for obedience.
Peter Wagner (Your Church Can Grow) and others of the church growth school believe strongly in diversities of gifts in different Christians. Some lead as ranchers would, bringing in different people to handle the different flocks; some are more like shepherds who handle the flocks alone.
In recent years Christian authors have applied modern management theories in speaking to the crisis problems of the church today. Ted Engstrom, Edward Dayton, Robert Schuller, and others feel this to be imperative.
A Theology of Church Leadership by Lawrence Richards and Clyde Hoeldtke completes the spectrum on the current discussion and is a unique contribution. Their point is that only a truly biblical theology of servanthood will lead to the proper methods to reach the goal of Christlikeness, of being the incarnation of Christ in this world. This latest contribution to church leadership theory needs to be more closely examined.
For purposes of discussion we can probably isolate four styles of leadership from these experts.
Chain of command phraseology was popularized by Bill Gothard. Leaders such as Jack Hyles personify its presuppositions and goals. Such leaders are highly revered for sacrifice, ability, and charisma. The theology is related to “old-fashioned fundamentalism.” Failure in laity comes from lack of obedience. The organizations are tight, efficient, and highly demanding. Emphases may vary-soul winning, ministering gifts, or doing the work of the church-but the key methods involve following the pastor’s lead and direction.
Modem management involves the best theory available in the management field for job descriptions, organizational charts, planning, leading, organizing, controlling, and staffing. For greatest efficiency, one must follow the rules of interaction and proper respect of fellow-workers.
The pragmatic approach notes that churches grow in different ways with different leaders and varying philosophies. Leadership should not be based on any one model, but on the best way to reach the community. The emphasis is on making the church a “go” structure rather a “come” structure. We are fishers of men, not keepers of the aquarium. Since homogeneous church growth appears to be the most effective in reaching more people, that method is preferred to seeking heterogeneous growth in a multiplicity of cultures. The pragmatic approach would accept any of the other three approaches and study their successes in terms of quantity and quality.
Servant theology is one of the most stimulating, creative approaches of recent years, yet Richards and Hoeldtke claim it is as old as the New Testament church. The malaise of the church is blamed on a wrong perspective of what the church really is and, therefore, a wrong emphasis on what it does. If the church is the body and Christ is the head, it implies that leadership functions belong uniquely to Christ. The body is an organism, not an organization; people are more important than projects. Here are some of the book’s key points:
¥ The church exists to edify itself and to build people into the full image of Christ, not to win the world or accomplish certain programs.
¥ The task of ministry in the world belongs to Christians, individually or in groups. If the church would truly be the incarnation of Christ, then individual members would fulfill the tasks. The issue in our churches is to minister to one another, not administrate or manage.
¥ Policy making, goal setting, and decision making belong to Jesus, not human beings. If Jesus is Lord of the church, then trust him to use the organism.
¥ Leaders lead, not by demanding, but by modeling the Christ-life in all the truths they teach verbally. Modeling is best accomplished in relationships with people, in families, and even in informal situations.
¥ A church that is project oriented cannot be people oriented. The Christian church is the unique organization in the world that is totally people oriented. Christians have no strength to fulfill their tasks until they gain it in fellowship and ministry within the body of Christ.
¥ No organizational method of modern management is genuinely geared to meet human needs, according to McGregor’s Theory Y. respecting man’s need for self-actualization and fulfillment. Human organizations put the enterprise before the person. Persons are used to meet the ends, as in McGregor’s Theory X.
Richards hits out at glaring problems in the church today. Sunday school teachers seem to impart knowledge, but no corresponding change of lifestyle. Many churches institutionalize ministry as jobs in the church rather than functions of an organism sharing gifts with One another. External form is substituted for internal life.
Board members, Sunday school teachers, youth leaders, and others are quitting because of overwork and pressure-not desiring another church position. Frustrated by failure, they feel no support and life from the rest of the body of Christ except as they fulfill certain role expectations.
Very little interaction among members of the body takes place. Communication is usually one-way and at best two-way, rather than in context with other members of the body of Christ.
Churches today focus on human leaders instead of allegiance to one another and to the head, Jesus Christ. They seek harmony at any cost rather than openness and interaction in the body. They seek personal rights rather than a shared life; doctrinal issues, legalism, and dogma rather than the Lordship of Christ; measures of spirituality instead of genuine prayer, worship, sharing of gifts, and bearing of personal responsibility.
Richards admits that a servant leader might look weak and indecisive to some. He will seek consensus with his leadership team as they pray concerning God’s will in their decisions. He might suffer persecution from those who want him to take a more forward, managerial approach. But he will be following the one New Testament pattern that will lead to openness, sharing, spontaneity, creativity, and life in the church.
Few will disagree with Richards’ section on building allegiance in the church, but many would rather not accept the presupposition that allegiance to persons can be built only into an organism and not an enterprise. Most churches fall into the category of enterprise.
Richards is at the avant-garde of creative Christian thinking. He stimulates my thinking and bothers me. That’s why I read his material. I like to be bothered with new ideas that shake me out of my security and ease in Zion. I want to challenge him. That’s why I want to suggest the following tentative critique of what is presented in this book.
First, if Richards and Hoeldtke are right in their presuppositions, then all church management styles are wrong, even if souls are saved and people grow in Christ and find a rich experience in serving God; for in the long term, that church will degenerate to enterprise. Is Richards reacting to a domineering type leadership, overstating to make a point, or possibly seeing a number of unique growth situations that follow the servant pattern? Do these men feel this is the one pattern for every culture, church, and situation? They seem to feel it is the New Testament pattern.
Second, is the interrelationship between organism and organization being underestimated? These men infer that the church has no enterprise or organizational tasks in the traditional sense. Does not the body have any other duties than that of building itself up? Did Paul have enterprise in mind as he established churches and sought their growth? If not, why the split with John Mark after the first missionary journey, and why the change of heart years later when Paul says of Mark, “He is profitable to- me for ministry” (II Timothy 4:11)? Mark had not come up to Paul’s earlier expectations, but finally matured as a useful vessel.
With Richards and Hoeldtke, enterprise ministries are the responsibility of individuals, groups, or parachurch organizations, and building the body is the task of the church. Can one make such a distinction between the finger and the body? Cannot enterprise build the body? If Richards says yes, then much of the task of edification can be accomplished through enterprise. If the answer is no, then the exercise of the body’s parts has nothing to do with the building of the body. Maybe the issue is not “either organism or organization.” Maybe it’s a matter of degree.
Third, is this view the biblical one? Without doubt, servant thinking is integral to any biblical view of leadership. Richards and Hoeldtke imply that Old Testament leadership failed and was not an organism in its nature. While the New Testament church does not follow the Temple pattern, many similarities could be related to the Tabernacle, God’s organization of Israel in the wilderness, and God speaking charismatically through kings, judges, and prophets.
The dynamic of the organism is dependent not only on the interaction of the body, but on the touch of the Spirit. This may explain why many churches are surging ahead and throbbing with vitality using traditional management methods.
Servant leadership implies consensus among the leaders before action is taken. Moses couldn’t use this pattern. Jesus made unilateral decisions. Paul declared his judgment as an apostle as he administered discipline. Was there total consensus in Acts 15? If so, why the persistent problems in the churches on the issue of Christian liberty? Could “Christ the head” ultimately degenerate into consensus leadership, or at best, a forced consensus? The issue of power is not fully resolved in servant theology.
Fourth, cannot a leader be task oriented and yet develop programs in light of gifts and ministries in the congregation, and help the members find their places in the body of Christ? If we start developing people, can we not lead on to fulfillment of the Great Commission through those same people-the church? In other words, can we not have enterprise in organism, and even develop stronger organism as we strive for certain enterprises?
Fifth, a servant-relational organism will not necessarily result in mission to a lost world. As Richards and Hoeldtke admit, that is the task of individual Christians in enterprise. The sovereign Lord of the harvest must lead individual Christians in their ministries to the world. But Christian groups thrive not only upon interaction, but upon mission that is external to that organism, a mission that is integral to being the people of God-the church.
Perhaps I am simply reacting to a creatively new approach to leadership. I may ultimately agree with them as I continue on my pilgrimage-they say so many crucially important things. We cannot lightly dismiss proposals in this well written, documented, and thoroughly researched book. It is must reading for all who are seriously involved in Christian leadership.
Ministering to Youth- A Strategy for the ’80s. Edited by David Roadcup Standard Publishing, $5.95 pb Reviewed by Nate Adams, Youth Director, First Baptist Church, St. Charles, Ill.
Unintimidated by the uncertainty of the ’80s and the traditional unpredictability associated with youth, Roadcup has compiled a comprehensive primer for today’s youth minister. The chapters are written by leaders in their fields and include almost every facet of youth work.
The book opens with a historical analysis of youth culture. In the progression from agrarian to industrial to post-industrial society, the transitional period dubbed “youth” has changed dramatically
Faster physical maturation and faster social and cultural changes create a frightening awareness in youth that the type of life they’re preparing for has never been experienced by prior generations. The ’60s and ’70s in particular produced a “youth subculture” characterized by unique values and norms.
“This situation doesn’t reduce or minimize the role of the family or the church for youth,” Roadcup maintains, “but intensifies the obligations of each to provide nurture, acceptance, loving understanding, and practice in problem solving for youth. Although parents cannot lead their children where they have not been themselves, they can lead as to how they got where they are.”
The next chapters focus on the youth minister and the goal that he sees as transformation to Christlikeness. How? To summarize a chapter: “If the Scripture is taught for response, the Holy Spirit is given free reign in people’s lives, and adult models will build loving relationships with youth and share life experiences. Over time, young people might come to live the kind of lives we’ve dreamed of. If these conditions are not met, no program, however attractive and well attended, will have any worth.”
Practical helps given for reaching the goal include in-depth discipleship, effective Bible study, large-and-small group fellowship, and authentic service. Roadcup then shows how the youth minister can involve others and obtain help in the ministry. “The superstructure of any solid youth ministry,” he says, “is the development of a qualified adult volunteer staff.” Here the author targets one of the greatest needs, and often one of the greatest weaknesses, of youth ministers today. He zeros in on zealous young do-it-yourselfers whose approach often leads to frustration. Roadcup sets forth some basic qualities to look for in youth workers and outlines a practical program for counselor recruitment and training.
Other valuable resources offered are sections on getting started in youth ministry and on planning a year’s approach. Administrative aids and creative ideas are explored along with an examination of the interview-call process, and the youth minister’s relationship to the senior minister.
Fortunately, Roadcup does not consider a solid, on-target ministry to the youth group as a complete strategy. Contributing writers deal with youth evangelism and developing leadership in youth. Les Christie writes, “We, as youth ministers, have tended to become keepers of the aquarium instead of fishers of men, and our kids are bloated from always taking in Christ’s love, but never giving it out. Evangelism must begin not with an ‘I ought to’ attitude, but with an ‘I must’ motivation.” With this statement as a premise, Christie lays down a structure for starting an effective outreach program, and outlines simple presentations of the gospel and personal testimonies.
A closely-related section offers suggestions for recruiting and nurturing youth leaders and motivating them to lead. “If you want to motivate kids, look at them with God’s eyes, seeing what they can become.” Young people must be praised, and even more important, they must be allowed to fail.
The closing section is an excellent smorgasbord on social activities, drama, choir, puppets, and retreats. A 32-page appendix listing books and other resources adds further help.
This is a book that combines a good balance of the theoretical and the practical. There is variety in approach, but unity in strategy.
The Positive Power of Jesus Christ by Norman Vincent Peale Tyndale House, $8.95 Reviewed by William G. Enright Pastor, First Presbyterian Church. Glen Ellyn. 111.
What is the gospel we preachers proclaim? Do we announce good news or blather bleak warnings? Do our sermons conjure up guilt and insult self-worth, or do we free people to dream as we excite their innate curiosity for God? Is our preaching an invitation to joy or a summons to judgment? Do our pulpits put people in touch with their balcony thoughts or their cellar fears? As word dealers, does our language entice listeners to strike out on the fast-moving expressway of divine grace or does it encourage detours as we build barricades inhibiting spiritual yearnings? These were some of the questions disturbing my mind as I read this book.
To be honest, I liked Peale the preacher, but felt Peale the author might be little more than the patron saint of pop pulpit psychology. Now I admit it I was both prejudiced and wrong. More important, in my snobbishness, I was blocking out part of the preacher’s world of reality: the person in the pew. Peale has his finger on the pulse of the men and women coming to hear us preach Sunday after Sunday.
Too frequently I associate big words with big thoughts, and complex sentences with profound ideas. It took someone such as Peale to remind me that awesome thoughts can be couched in simple phrases. Theology can be told via story and anecdote. As Peale has discovered, the people in the pews simply want to know what difference the gospel makes where they live.
Peale has caught what we preachers too often miss. Authentic communication has no place for cant or the camp, for the chic or the cliche. He comes across as simple without being simplistic. With him, as with most effective preachers, true profundity is always packaged in simplicity and attractively wrapped in the vitals of life.
Summer is my time to map my preaching for the coming year. As l wrestled with sermon themes and biblical texts, Peale forced me to ask three additional questions:
1. What do I preach? Is it good news proclaimed in a positive way? For Peale, “the power of Jesus Christ is, indeed, positive and life-changing.” Why? Because the gospel is “more positive and infinitely stronger than any negative forces arrayed against it.” As Peale says, “The positive power of Jesus Christ is without limits. By constantly stressing the message that faith in Jesus Christ changes lives, and by witnessing to this phenomenon in every possible medium . . . I’ve seen some amazing results of the power.”
From St. Paul to Peale, preachers have insisted that their charter is to preach Christ. Why does Peale call it the positive power of Christ? For him, the reason is autobiographical. As a young preacher, he came to grips with his own sense of inferiority in his struggle to find himself, and discovered this power. A great plus in this book is that it opens the window to the soul of Peale the preacher and Peale the man; his integrity shines through-the man and his message are one.
2. How do I preach? Peale seems to say: positively, practically, and with gusto and with an eye on the person in the pew. This book throbs with story, anecdote, and personal diary. It has something visceral about it. The appeal is more to the will and the imagination than to cold reason. One clue to Peale’s effectiveness both in the pulpit and in print is his daring to be himself .
3. Wherein lies the power of preaching? For some, the power is in the intellect; for others, it’s the polished phrase. For most of us, it is sheer, dogged discipline and hard work. For Peale, the power of preaching is belief in the power of Jesus Christ. He believes that the belief of the preacher, via proclamation, can become the belief of the listener. He is convinced that preaching Christ’s power brings about astonishing changes in people’s lives. Yet because the power belongs to God, he can sit back and let God be God. He does not try to typecast the way God should work. In the sermon, the preacher becomes a channel for the power, and simply lets it happen. As Luther said at the time of the Reformation: “The Word did everything. I did nothing. The gospel simply ran its course.”
As I read this book, I was goaded and challenged to take a new look at my preaching. As I closed the book, I also felt as though I were off the hook. The power belongs to God, for the power is God. As Peale puts it:
“The power to remake a person from weakness to strength, from failure to success, from hopelessness to creative achievement-this is the positive power of Jesus Christ in action. There is no romance, no creativity to equal it. Here we have the greatest of all human dramas-that of change from the worst to the best-and all due to spiritual power working in d human being.”
I feel ready to preach again.
The Energy-efficient Church by Total Environmental Action The Pilgrim Press, $4.95 pb. Reviewed by Daniel W. Pawley, Assistant Editor, LEADERSHIP
Why send money up your chimney? Based on a thorough energy conservation analysis of three churches in Massachusetts, this practical book shows how to realize savings of up to 50 percent of your annual energy use (thousands of dollars per year) for only hundreds of dollars in investment.
For winter conservation, have a heating contractor check the efficiency of the burner in your church’s heating plant. A tune-up will not reduce your building’s need for heat, but it will reduce its need for fuel, and your church will save hundreds of dollars.
Many church heating plants cycle on and off too frequently if the plant is oversized for the actual heating needs of the church. By reducing the size of the fuel intake nozzle, or the size ‘of the burner motor, you can greatly increase efficiency. An expert can assess your situation and perform the necessary alterations at low cost. This may increase your heating plant’s efficiency as much as 30 percent.
If you climb on top of your church’s roof this winter and huddle around the chimney, you might find enough heat for a Bible study or a board meeting. By installing an automatic stack damper which closes when the burner cycles off, you can eliminate the waste
of heat escaping up the chimney. In the three churches, installations of the stack damper ran between $200 and $700; and the range of savings was between $90 and $1627. Warning: compare estimated costs and benefits carefully.
Another important conservation measure is an annual check of your heating distribution system. Pipes and ducts which run through unheated spaces should be well insulated. In steam systems, the radiator valves sometimes allow steam to blow past them so that water condenses in the return pipes, wasting heat. Check the valves periodically; repair or replace them when necessary.
In water systems, air bubbles often block the flow of hot water, and the radiator must be bled. Malfunctioning water pumps also cause waste.
In air systems, heating efficiency is considerably lowered by dust-clogged air filters, improperly adjusted dampers, and malfunctioning fans. Professional checks and repairs for these systems can be expensive, but the three churches individually saved up to $3300 in the winter of 1977.
Although it is not practical to reduce the size of your church building, it is possible to reduce the amount of space being heated at one time, and this saves money. You can keep unused rooms at lower temperatures by manually turning down thermostats, but this may mean you’ll have cold rooms plus an hour of shivering each morning. A better way is to install a seven-day, automatic time clock and connect it to the thermostats. The clock can be set to turn on the thermostat an hour before a room will be needed, and this avoids wasting heat.
A great contribution to energy conservation would be the scheduling of meetings in the same heating zone of your building. By using rooms in the same zone, the thermostats can be kept lowered in other zones.
Finally, proper insulation of ceilings, roofs, and walls can save a church astronomical figures over the years. The ability of insulation to keep heat from leaking out of a building is measured in “R” values; the higher the value, the better the insulation. The book comes on strong in its instruction of purchasing and installing insulation, and highly recommends that church volunteers contribute to the work. Other topics discussed include weather stripping, caulking, storm windows, shutters, and thermal curtains.
The book is printed in green ink-perhaps to remind us that evergreen trees impede the prevailing winds in winter.
121 Ways Toward a More Effective Church Library by Arthur K. Saul Victor Books, $3.50 Reviewed by Marilyn J. Baird former librarian of Ebenezer Baptist Church, Detroit, Mich.
If your church library is better known for the dustiness of its books than the value of its content, Arthur Saul’s 121 suggestions will be helpful. He makes two basic assumptions that should be the foundation for any church library service.
First, “A reading people is a growing people.” If you can’t agree with this first assumption, there is no point in even considering a library service.
Second, he believes the library “should serve and be supported by all the organizations and activities of the church.” A library collection is too expensive to build for the use of only a select group. Haphazard service and nominal support are the reasons dust gathers and chokes the vitality out of a library service.
What can a church do to set up an effective library? Saul recommends the same process used in all other church projects:
1. Establish support for the project, and consider goals, objectives, and policies that will guide the library as it grows.
2. Appoint and give direction to a library board or committee, which would establish library policies, set up a procedural manual for the library staff, take part in recruiting staff, plan for growth, administer the budget, and regularly report back to the church board.
3. Select a librarian from candidates of both sexes. Qualifications for this position should include supervisory abilities, speaking and writing abilities, training in librarianship, administrative experience, knowledge of doctrine and church practice, and some understanding of people of all ages and interests. If no one with library training can be found, the person selected must be willing to acquire training. “It takes dedicated, detailed work to make the library go,” warns Saul. “It will not be successful if operated by just anyone in any way.”
4. Saul suggests eight staff positions to support the librarian, although few churches will be able to build such a large staff initially. However, a single librarian will not be able to establish an effective library service in the same way a single Sunday school superintendent cannot handle the entire Sunday school alone. The library should never be open without a staff member present to give friendly assistance; thus this may require recruiting high school students or retirees as parttime members.
5. Space needs are often the biggest roadblocks to effective library operation. A sizable room, dedicated completely to library operation, will need to be equipped with shelving for books, storage for audiovisual materials, file cabinets for clipping file, display units for magazines, a desk for the library staff, and so forth.
6. A budget should be set each year which allows for the regular purchase of a certain amount of books, magazines, films, filmstrips, recordings, and many other items. When a policy statement is written for the library, it should outline the procedures for evaluating all material to be added to the collection, including gift materials.
7. Cataloging is the most technical library skill, and a trained cataloger is invaluable, if one is available, to carefully catalog and process.
8. The library staff will need to constantly promote their service. Saul believes “The library must be kept before the people so it becomes a part of their thinking when they consider the ministry of the church and their own lives.”
Any church setting up a library should consider several of the books Saul suggests in his work. The guidelines he has given toward development of a church library are excellent.
Copyright © 1981 by the author or Christianity Today/Leadership Journal. Click here for reprint information on Leadership Journal.
