Step One in Resetting the Church

Who's driving this thing?

Think back to your driver’s ed days. It’s your first time out on the interstate, and, thanks to all the warnings you read in the handbook. you’re being meticulously cautious to avoid speeding. 

After all, speeding is dangerous. And you certainly don’t want to catch the attention of any police officers taking radar readings. 

“You could probably go a little faster,” the driving instructor says. 

“No, no—safety first. Don’t want to go too fast.” you reply. 

“But,” objects the instructor, “the speed limit is 75 and you’re only going 23 miles per hour.” 

You consider his point. “Oh. Well at least I’m not speeding.”

While you’re patting yourself on the back for not being one of those reckless drivers who weave in and out of traffic and tailgate cars who do the speed limit, you’re endangering yourself and everybody else by not going nearly fast enough.

Sure, there’s plenty of danger in driving at higher speeds. But at a certain point slow, overly-cautious driving becomes a different kind of dangerous. 

Where am I going with this analogy? 

Because we live in a time when the truth is so heavily under attack, we also live in a time when it’s very easy to be deceived as to where the real problems lie.

We can take great caution against an error that may be very real, but one we’re not in danger of accepting. In the meantime Satan uses our one-sided vigilance to sneak other errors in the back door. 

One such deception, and the one I want to key in on in this article, pertains to church leadership.

There are numerous horror stories out there of abuse by church leadership, where ministers and elders have put undue burdens on the membership, or crossed a line and tried to micromanage people’s lives, and so forth. It’s certainly a problem to be aware of and guard against. 

However, at this point in time churches are far more likely to swing way too far in the other direction. “Church customers” come and go as they please, and too often ministers and elders take a hands off, “we’re here if you need us” approach. 

As we drive 25 mph to guard against over-involvement, we are sitting ducks for the dangers of false doctrine and nominal Christianity. Instead, we need a heavy emphasis on what leadership is supposed to do and not just what they aren’t supposed to do. 

And what they’re supposed to do is a lot more.

The Bible’s shepherd metaphor teaches us how to think about the roles of leaders and followers. God is our Shepherd who feeds us, protects us, and comforts us (Psalm 23). He put shepherds over His people, and the shepherds fed themselves instead of the sheep (Ezekiel 34). Jesus came as the Good Shepherd who would die for the sheep when the hireling shepherds ran away out of self-preservation (John 10). 

Before His ascension, He called on Peter (and, by extension, the rest of the apostles) to take up the mantle and feed His sheep (John 21:17). Peter in turn called on his fellow elders to shepherd their flock and set an example to be followed (1 Peter 5:1-3).

As I’ve written before, in our democracy-based, hyper-individualistic society we bristle against the sheep and shepherd analogy, but it’s how Christ set up His church.

The church’s structure is heavily dependent on elders taking on this shepherd role and executing it strongly and competently.

Here are three ways they are to do so.

Connection

The shepherd is to know his sheep. If he is going to give account for their souls (Hebrews 13:17), he had better know their names, their personalities, their strengths and weaknesses, and the state of their walk. We have missed the boat on this in two different ways.

First, in our more “successful” (i.e. bigger) churches, it quickly becomes impossible for elders to know their people in this way. Getting into everyone’s living rooms or having every member for a visit at your kitchen table becomes impossible at a certain point. So we accept a broader managerial structure.

Second, since the church is built like a business, and we the leadership put out the events and programs for you the membership, the members are counseled to go to the elders with concerns or needs. That’s not how shepherding works. Shepherds are to go to the members and find out what the needs are.

Thanks be to God for those elders who understand this and prioritize getting face to face with their members. They truly are worthy of double honor (1 Timothy 5:17).

Direction

There are numerous stories in recent years of people leaving the churches of Christ or denominationalism for Roman Catholicism or Eastern Orthodoxy. One of the most commonly cited reasons is the clear path to spirituality. You don’t have to wonder what to do. They tell you the what, when, how, and why. “Say these prayers, do this reading, attend this mass, etc.”

While we would certainly have numerous issues with the content of those prescriptions, the idea of church leaders giving their sheep tangible, actionable steps toward greater spirituality is something we should be implementing. As noble as the intention is behind a congregation purchasing a set of devo books and making them available to each member, that is not the hands-on direction people need.

How much instruction do most Christians get with regard to building a personal devotional walk? You know you’re supposed to read your Bible and pray. You might have had a class or two on what to do with that time. But has anyone walked you through the practice? That’s what shepherds are for.

And not only are they to teach people how to walk the walk. They are to routinely follow up and make sure you are. I’ve heard from elders who lament occasions like a couple coming to them as a last-ditch effort before divorce, wondering “Why didn’t they come to us sooner?” Perhaps the question should be, why weren’t you connected enough with them to know they were struggling?

Sheep need that kind of direction. We need elders who can give a spiritual health score of every member in their care at any given time. 

Correction

This is where the accusations of meddling and overstepping become their strongest. But correction is one of the primary roles of the eldership. 

Let me give you an example. Publications like ours consistently bang the drum that skipping worship for sports or other non-emergency, non-sickness events is a practice that should be unthinkable for Christians. 

Such articles and videos are liked and shared by the kind of Christians who are in hearty agreement and would never think about skipping church for a baseball game. The flagging Christians who are the true target audience either never come across such critiques, or quickly dismiss them when they do. There is no accountability there, just a hope that maybe somebody somewhere will be convicted. And, by God’s grace, sometimes they are. 

But what if elderships drew a line in the sand and let members know that if they miss worship for trivial reasons, they will be confronted and, if they still don’t stop, put under discipline? Isn’t that how it’s supposed to work? Isn’t that who’s supposed to be handling this widespread issue? 

When you see a 4-year-old running through the grocery store screaming and knocking things over, the manager doesn’t lecture the child. He lectures the parents. The kid wouldn’t be running around like crazy unless the parents were allowing it. They are accountable for the kind of behavior they tolerate in their family. 

Meanwhile, while many of us have gone on for years lamenting sporadic attendance in churches across America, elders have sat by and refused to put a stop to it. It would not happen if it were not allowed to happen. And preaching a sermon on a matter does not count. It’s the same as the parent trying to get the child’s attention while they run rampant. “Johnny… Johnny, don’t knock over that fruit display. Johnny that’s not very nice.”

The same could be said of feminism, immodesty, porn addiction, gossip, sinful entertainment, and any other sin that gets tacitly allowed. Outside of adultery, substance abuse, and literal crimes, there are very few sins that warrant direct addressing in the average congregation today. Shepherds must draw that line in the sand and make clear what God expects of His people. 

Churches are starving for this connection, direction, and correction. But it’s going to be an acquired taste. When elders ramp up their involvement, draw nearer to their people, and raise the bar of expectation, some will bristle. Some will lob accusations of abuse. 

Imagine the backlash if an eldership began going to young women in their church to say “Please don’t wear that outfit to worship again, and while you’re at it you probably shouldn’t wear it anywhere else, either.” Or if they confronted a man who seemed to have an excuse to miss every fellowship opportunity. Or if they let a member know that he should not be watching that pornographic television show, and he shouldn’t be posting about it online for others, either. In other words, imagine the backlash if they shepherded.

But if those backlash-raising voices were concerned about proper shepherding, they would recognize it when they see it, and they would recognize that we often haven’t had it. In other words, they would recognize that we’ve been driving way too slowly rather than way too fast. And, it’s time to step on the gas a bit more.