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The Leadership Of The Church — God Governed

When Samuel (God’s prophet and judge – 1 Samuel 3:20; 1 Samuel 7:15) grew old, he appointed his sons to preside as judges over Israel (1 Samuel 8:1). Unfortunately, their character and disposition of heart was not like that of their father (1 Samuel 8:3; cf. 1 Samuel 3:10; 1 Samuel 3:19).

In response to this problem, Israel’s leaders said to Samuel, “Look, you are old, and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now make for us a king to judge us like all the nations” (1 Samuel 8:5). These men recognized the problem of a morally corrupt leadership, but their fatal mistake was putting their complete trust in a mistake-prone human being (i.e., “a king …. like all the nations”), instead of in the all-knowing God (1 John 3:20; cf. Psalm 4:5; Psalm 37:3 ; Psalm 40:4; Psalm 62:7-8; Psalm 118:8-9).

As Samuel prayed to the Lord about the matter, the Lord told Samuel, “Heed the voice of the people in all that they say to you; for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected Me, that I should not reign over them” (1 Samuel 8:7).

When the New Testament church began experiencing similar difficulties in the early second century, they unfortunately followed a similar pattern — the end result being their adoption of a man-made hierarchy in church government similar to that of the Roman Empire. However, a man-made hierarchy was never God’s desire or design.

In the Lord’s church, there is no board of trustees, no president, no hierarchy of religious “officials,” and no pope. Rather, every member is directly responsible to God and Christ (cf. 1 Corinthians 11:3; Ephesians 5:23). While there is no human hierarchy in the Lord’s church, there is God-ordained leadership. The inspired writer Paul notes the existence of “bishops and deacons” in a local congregation (Philippians 1:1).

These terms are simply describing spiritual roles of “service” within the Lord’s church — nothing else. Deacons are servants given specific responsibilities requiring godly character (1 Timothy 3:8-12). Bishops (also called elders or overseers (Acts 20:17; Acts 20:28), oversee the congregation’s spiritual needs and provide the most expedient way for them to implement God’s will (cf. Acts 20:28; 1 Peter 5:1-3).

While elders, deacons, and preachers have no authority within themselves to legislate behavior, they do have the authorization to implement divinely legislated behavior (Hebrews 13:17).

The Lord’s church is not a democracy, but a spiritual kingdom (Matthew 16:18-19; John 18:36). Jesus is our King (1 Timothy 6:14-15) “” we are His servants (cf. Romans 1:1; Philippians 1:1; Titus 1:1. Therefore, congregational leadership is based on those individuals who have a proven record of spiritual service to the Lord (Mark 10:42-45).

Let us therefore honor these servant-leaders of the Lord’s church by giving them our respect and full support (1 Timothy 5:17-18; cf. Matthew 10:10).