The Church Now and Then: Any Commonalities? (Part 3)

Samuel Tengey, PhD

First of all let me once again thank you all faithful readers for your interest in my articles and for your very insightful comments, which have always spurred me on to continue to address the issues of common concern to contemporary church. To those who have emailed me, I am much grateful. To those who feel my articles are stepping on your toes, I sincerely apologise but do beg to differ that that stepping on people’s toes: launching an open attack on the church or church leaders has never been the motive behind my articles. I will be very contradictory, and who am I to ‘kick against the pricks’, if I would seek to destroy the very thing that I have for all my years worked hard to build. As a Christian, a pastor’s son, a preacher and a conference speaker on church leadership my intension has never been to leave any cracks in the Christian faith. On the contrary it is to help preserve and protect the faith by helping strengthen and cohere the church through addressing some of what I think, are anomalies associated with the practice of the Christian faith (not the tenets of the faith itself) and with the practice of the pastors’ profession and the performance of the church leadership’s role.

I suppose most of the issues I discuss are pretty much the questions that many Christians have but which they unfortunately cannot ask because they have been taught not to question the authority of the Church and its leadership as that would represent revolting against God. I do believe as church members we have the obligation to respect church leaders and their authority, and that members need to ensure they conduct themselves in a way that allows order to prevail in the church. However, I also believe that church members are also entitled to speak their minds on issues, especially those they do either not understand or agree with although again, this must be done orderly and with respect. While I do not believe in disorder I do think nonetheless that disagreements and conflicts, which are almost inevitable in any human institution, should not necessarily lead to church breaks as has often been the case nor do I always take a negative view of conflicts. I do believe while they can be destructive, disruptive and distractive, conflicts can in many instances come to move us out of our comfort zone, catapulting us into realms of growth, progress and development as we look for alternative, more progressive approaches to doing what we do. I thus employ all of you faithful readers to read me carefully for a more deeply founded, critical analysis of my articles.

I therefore, employ all of you to once again, with patience, come with me as I navigate you through the third part on this series. In this part, I focus briefly on: (i) the church’s approach to conflicts; (ii) the potential consequences of leadership action in response to conflictual situations in the church; (iii) the crisis in church leadership with leaders becoming obsessed with privileges accompanying a leadership position rather than the responsibilities; (iv) the decay of faithfulness from the psyche and dictionary of church leadership; and (v) the distorted concept and approach to authority in the church.

Leaders, conflicts and organisational dynamics…

Working with human beings places a necessity on leaders to understand the dynamics of organisational behaviour and conflicts. Organisation theory suggests two perspectives on conflicts with respect to organisational development. Structural theorists believe in order, as opposed to conflicts, as a prerequisite to organisational development while conflict theorists believe conflicts are necessary [resource] for organisational development. The latter believe that societies and organisations develop through the processes of ‘thesis-anti-thesis-synthesis’. The thesis stage represents a situation of order resulting from the establishment of a dominant idea, which has come to be accepted as the only way of doing things. At the anti-thesis stage, an alternative, seemingly conflictual or contradictory idea begins to surface and gain credence. This stage is characterised by disagreements, resistance, and counter theory-buildings all in protest against the new, emerging ideology. Depending on the strength, coherence, and consistency of new idea with general societal expectations, the new ideology may either wither away, dying as it were, a natural death or may gain ground, coming either to dominate the earlier ideology or provide a substance for reviewing it. This is the synthesis stage. It is in the synthesising stage that a new, disparate product is formed. In short, there is progress and development when the new is found to promote the social good more than the old. The new may actually incorporate salient features of the old. Either way, there is development. Much of social evolution has followed this path.

This model could work in certain aspects of the church’s life and work. I am sufficiently careful not to suggest that we can subject the whole body of thoughts that make up the Christian faith to such an ever-changing conceptual perspective. Let me state categorically that this applying this approach to Biblically-grounded doctrinal issues will simply not work because it will be shaking the foundation of what we believe. Nonetheless, I do believe there are several aspects of the church’s operation-where the church leadership has set the rules and regulations-which can be subjected to this form of analysis, and which can produce very progressive outcomes. It would thus be helpful for churches to recognise during conflict times that that particular time may represent a moment 9with the right response to conflicts) that can catapult the church from its present position to a new, better, more progressive one, where it becomes more effective in playing its role.

Churches are traditionally opposed to conflicting and opposing perspectives, and this disposition could be blamed for several church conflicts and break-ups, which have ruined many vibrant and powerful churches and ministries. If conflicts arose between Paul, Barnabas and Peter over the circumcision of new believers (Acts 15: 1-29); and between Paul and Barnabas over the choice for John-Mark (Acts 15: 36-41) then their presence in contemporary ministry should come as no surprise. But what is uniquely important here is that when they arose, the conflicts were resolved, resulting in unprecedented growth. This raises legitimate questions about the way and manner many churches respond to conflicts, and how conflicts are allowed to break churches and rob them of rich human resources.

Leadership action: potentials and devastating consequences…

In times of conflicts leaders need to be entirely aware of the potential of the consequence of their actions on the members. In any conflict situation a leader’s action can either inflame the fire as a gallon of petrol or quench the fire as a gallon of water. Conflicts often arise in the operation of spiritual gifts-actually expected to bring growth and edification to the body of Christ. This does not suggest we avoid spiritual gifts; what it does suggest is the need to become sufficiently prepared and resourced to handle the associated conflicts so the operation of the gifts can be directed at collaborating and complementing, not competing with each other. Leaders need to be conscious of the potential of their action on the wider church community. Leadership action then in conflict situation in the church can be likened to the action of army officials or commanding officers whose decisions are crucial and deterministic during warfare times. In trying to address this problem, Strategic Resourcers (www.strategicresourcers.com) a church leadership development consultancy firm has a module, which they teach in seminars and conferences to pastors and church leaders. This module introduces participants to the realities and dynamics of modern organisations, demystifies organisational conflicts, dispels fallacies about organisational conflicts and interrogates some of the church’s traditional taken-for-granted perspectives on and response to conflicts. It suggests practical, step-by-step procedure for resolving church conflicts in ways that not only prevents church breaks but also lead to growth, progress and development.

Leadership: how about honour…

Whereas leaders have automatic follow-ship, respect and honour must be earned through self-less service. The outward ceremonial introduction of the leader to the church must be followed by a conscious effort by the leader to be ratified and accepted in the hearts and minds of each of those being led through the leader’s own commitment to serve in absolute humility. However, much of present day church leadership has lost this beautiful resource called service in humility; they have instead been obsessed with the privileges and rights accompanying their position while ignoring the services they are appointed to deliver. But people don’t respect you merely because you are handsome or beautiful or because you earn a university degree; the level of respect you earn is tagged to the level and quality of service you provide. Anytime we are found asking members to be submissive or respect our authority, this may as well be an indication that we are not doing great on our service because we reap what we sow.

When we serve people’s need rather than lording ourselves over them, we come to be overwhelmed by an unprecedented level of honour we hardly anticipate (1 Tim 5: 17-18). The essence of leadership is service (John 13: 14-15) and greatness comes through servant-hood (Matthew 23: 11-12). Great leaders are great servants-this is absolutely nonsense, and opposed to the philosophy of the world. Sadly this virtue of servant-hood is decaying among Christians, as leaders are increasingly becoming obsessed with the privileges that go with their position rather than the accompanying responsibilities and services that define their position. What the church needs is a cadre of service-oriented and servant-hearted leaders whose fundamental obsession is with their responsibilities rather than privileges accompanying their position. This module is aimed at persuading leaders about the power of the rare values of servant-hood and humility that define excellence in ministry.

Leadership and authority: the law of authority…

Leadership implies delegation of authority, and a clear understanding of the dynamics of authority is a necessary first step to effective leadership. Much of the chaos associated with church today, particularly the independent charismatic churches (which is why many people are increasingly finding their way back to orthodoxy-a situation that may be described as quite unfortunate)-can be traced to a distorted view of the concept of authority and its dynamics. The exercise of authentic authority cannot be effective without a crystal understanding of what I call the law of authority, which states that:

For there to be effective exercise of authority, there must of necessity be a recognition of and respect for the authority of those by whom it is delegated by those to whom it is delegated; there can be no legitimate exercise of authority without a recognition of, and submission to a higher authority.

Against this backdrop, authority can be best understood as a chain of command, which, once broken, is rendered entirely ineffective. Paul said, follow me as I follow Christ (1 Cor 11: 1). The centurion said, ‘for I also am a man under authority, I say to one, do this, and to another, do that, and t is done’ (Matthew 8: 8-9). ‘For he had put all things under his (Jesus’) feet, it is clear that he is exempted, who has put all things under his feet…then shall the Son also be subject to he who has put all things under his feet so that God may be all in all (1 Cor 15: 27-28). The fundamental factor distinguishing Jesus from Satan is submission to authority; Jesus was submissive (Phil 2: 6-9) while Satan was not (Isaiah 14: 12-15). There are indeed those that I describe as untamed and un-submitted authorities, many of them struggling to make it! There is now a growing number of young, inexperienced ministers, who because they feel anointed, are not ready to submit to any person’s authority. They do not get any form of mentoring! They tend to mess up, struggling with things they could have been guided to do better and with less difficulty! They fail to provide the necessary leadership for their members! There is a module by Strategic Resourcers that seeks to dispel misconceptions about, and abuse of authority and present through seminars and conferences, a Biblically-based concept of authority with the view to restoring order in the body of Christ.

Leadership, faithfulness and stewardship…

Faithful and effective leaders are distinguished by their deep sense of stewardship (1 Cor 4: 2). Faithful, honest, responsible and accountable stewardship is a must, not a choice for leaders. Stewardship is about being faithful in managing what one has been asked to do, and focusing on one’s (not another persons’) area of task and assignment; it is about how effectively we manage what we have been given rather than how much we have been able to manage. In the Matthew 25 account of the talents, all the third steward was required to make was 100% (one extra-not five or even two) talent. Relevant questions by which leaders must be exercised should include: what have I been brought here to do? Whose interest have I been brought to protect? The question ‘how best can I serve the people should always precede the question what privileges can I enjoy? Jesus prayed to the Father, ‘All that you have given to me, I have kept, except the son of perdition’. The parable of the lost coin, lost sheep, and the prodigal son are all about effective stewardship. The contemporary church of Christ seems to have lost the concept of stewardship; we act as if our gifts, the souls and church money and other resources are our personal/family property, carelessly oblivious of the fact that when the chief shepherd shall appear, we shall all appear before him to render account of our stewardship (1 Peter). This module aims to emphasise the centrality of stewardship to effective leadership development.

CEO of Strategic Resourcers, Samuel Tengey is currently Director of Business School and Vice President (African University College of Communications, Ghana). He also lectures MBA students in Human Resource Development and Organisational Behaviour, and consults in leadership and management development with special interest in church leadership. Pastors can get in touch for church leadership seminars, etc

Contact: samuel@strategicresourcers.co.uk; stengey@aucc.edu.gh; URL: www.strategicresourcers.com