How is a pastor to answer this question: “Are you qualified to lead the church?”
For pastors, it feels a bit presumptuous to say yes. The church is Christ’s body, his bride, the temple of his Spirit. What human is worthy to guide it? But it feels hollow and faithless to say no.
In some ways, the question reminds me of a cartoon we ran in Leadership a while back: “You say you covet your neighbor’s humility … that’s a tricky theological issue.”
One pastoral staff member I asked this question of, replied, “I feel qualified educationally and professionally. My personality and my desire to minister qualify me. But on the spiritual level, when I examine myself, I sometimes feel completely unqualified.”
How do we handle the stringent biblical expectations (1 Tim. 3:1-13; 2 Tim. 2:1-15; Titus 1:5-9), which Darrell Johnson in the Leadership Handbook of Practical Theology summarizes in four words:
Commitment. Are you clearly committed to Jesus Christ? Do you have a passion to know him?
Convictions. Do you have biblically informed convictions—about who God is, who humans are, the meaning of history, the nature of the church, and especially the meaning of Jesus’ death and resurrection? Are you learning to “think Christianly” about every dimension of life—money, time, sex, family, recreation?
Competence. Do you know how to make your way, and help others find their way, through the Bible? Have you identified your spiritual gifts, and can you help o thers discern and deploy theirs? Do your relationships, especially with family members, display the integrity and love of Jesus?
Character. Do you exercise self-control, hospital-ity, gentleness (control of anger), quest for holiness, temperance? Is there evidence of dying to the love of money, to manipulation, to always having it one’s own way?
The standards are high, rightly so, not only to insure the church’s vitality, but also for the leader’s sake. Unless leaders have strength of character, they won’t survive the pressures and temptations of leadership with faith intact.
Do you meet these standards? Most of us, if totally honest, would have to say, “Not always.” Does that mean we’re disqualified? No. Many leaders in the Bible whom God recruited—Moses, Gideon, Isaiah—felt unworthy. They questioned their competence. They knew they didn’t always meet the standard.
Someone has astutely observed, “It’s not a matter of perfection, but direction.” Are you moving toward greater Christlikeness? Do you desire to take on the character of Jesus? Are you willing to admit when you fail? Being a leader doesn’t mean faultless perfection, but it means we act in faith, doing our best, confessing and repenting of our sins, and seeking, by grace, to grow.
This takes courage—not the absence of fear and doubt, but following God’s call in the midst of fear and doubt.
At Leadership, we recently saw an embodiment of this kind of courage in Bonnie Rice, our editorial administrator for ten years. Battling cancer, Bonnie’s body was severely weakened, and the doctors suggested a ventilator to give the chemotherapy a chance to work.
Reluctantly Bonnie agreed, but told her husband, “Make sure it doesn’t stay in long. Because with a ventilator, I can’t sing.” Within a week, Bonnie’s body wore out. We mourn her death, but I’m confident this courageous woman is now joyfully singing the praises of her Lord.
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Marshall Shelley is executive editor of Leadership.
1996 Christianity Today/LEADERSHIP Journal
