Leading the Church (1)

For the church to proclaim the message of the gospel and coordinate the activities of the members effectively, there needs to be good leadership. That is, there needs to be church leaders (literally “overseer” or “bishop” and “servants” or “deacons”) to facilitate the work of evangelism and discipleship.

Every church has to grapple with who leads and who helps. We can’t all be leaders with no helpers or all helpers with no leaders. So Paul describes the qualities we should look for in a leader and the helpers.

Surprisingly, Paul doesn’t really focus on the skills, gifts, or experience of a leader, except for being “able to teach” (v 2). Nor is there mention of the things we usually see in a resume, like education, expertise or employment history. That’s because church leadership should be in the hands of someone with good character, more than ability. Who a leader is is ultimately more important than what they can do.

Concerning character, the leader “must have a good reputation” (v 2)—a term covering all aspects of inward and outward behaviour. There’s to be no observable grounds for blame and no accusation that can be raised against them. It’s not that they must be perfect, but they “must be above reproach." To explain, Paul describes the length, depth, and breadth of a potential leader.

• Length. How long have they been a Christian? They should be seasoned, tested, and mature in the way of Christ. They mustn’t be a recent convert (v 6).
• Depth. Is their obedience to Christ shallow or deep? Their faithfulness in marriage, self-control, and moderation (vv 2-3) are good signs that they’ll be trustworthy in other areas.
• Breadth. Is their faith in Christ evident in private and public life? The way they govern their home (v 4-5) and conduct themselves with non-Christians (v 7) are good indications of whether or not they’ll be able to model the “faith and love that are in Christ Jesus” (1 Timothy 1:14).

Respond in Prayer

Lord, we pray for our leaders. May their kindness, gentleness, sensible ways, friendliness, hospitality, and faithfulness to Christ be sustained and strengthened as an example to others of the love of Christ. Amen.

Lawson Murray

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version® (NIV®).