Going it alone?

The topic at hand is biblical church leadership. There are many models of church leadership. Books abound to help leaders develop their skills and giftings to be as effective as possible. Here, we will take a quick look at one often overlooked aspect – you don’t have to be alone. The Bible consistently extols plurality. Community, teamwork, and group participation are seen in both testaments. This communal aspect of life in Christ figures in narratives and in didactic theological reflections. We will see the Pentateuch, Wisdom literature, the Gospels, Acts, and epistles to show that the idea of plurality is seen throughout the Bible.

General awareness has moved away from the Lone Ranger mentality toward a more team or community-oriented perspective. Nonetheless, western society is still highly individualistic in its practical life. Church has not been as radically different in many cases. The temptation to “go it alone” in heroic fashion is ubiquitous. Teamwork is fine if people come with me, but if they won’t, I’ll do it myself. Many have had negative experiences on group projects, teaching us that teamwork means we will have to carry the weight of others. So, even when there is a general recognition of the benefits of teamwork, it is hard to move to a practical outworking of that idea. It is still more fun to watch a LeBron James or a Michael Jordon than a team with great teamwork but no big-name stars. Stand-out CEOs, sports heroes, and politicians capture the attention. Similarly, it is not a well-working church of 75 members with a healthy leadership group in rural Pennsylvania that is emulated, but the leaders who seem to stand above the crowed, like Mark Driscoll, Andy Stanley, John MacArthur, and Rick Warren (depending on your theological commitments). The Bible, however, shows that it is more optimal to work in teams. Just because the big, popular names seem to have it all and do it all, does not mean that is the best way forward.

Teamwork in the Old Testament       

Check out the heroic Moses shouldering the burden of the Israelites leaving Egypt. Even with direct divine help, Moses couldn’t keep up with the demands of sole leadership. He remained the leader, but had to distribute the labor. He became part of a team.

Moses’ father-in-law said to him, “What you are doing is not good. You and the people with you will certainly wear yourselves out, for the thing is too heavy for you. You are not able to do it alone. Now obey my voice; I will give you advice, and God be with you! You shall represent the people before God and bring their cases to God, and you shall warn them about the statutes and the laws, and make them know the way in which they must walk and what they must do. Moreover, look for able men from all the people, men who fear God, who are trustworthy and hate a bribe, and place such men over the people as chiefs of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties, and of tens. And let them judge the people at all times. Every great matter they shall bring to you, but any small matter they shall decide themselves. So it will be easier for you, and they will bear the burden with you. If you do this, God will direct you, you will be able to endure, and all this people also will go to their place in peace.” So Moses listened to the voice of his father-in-law and did all that he had said. Moses chose able men out of all Israel and made them heads over the people, chiefs of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties, and of tens. And they judged the people at all times. Any hard case they brought to Moses, but any small matter they decided themselves. Then Moses let his father-in-law depart, and he went away to his own country. (Exodus 18:17-27)

That teamwork wasn’t just the wise counsel of Moses’s father-in-law either. God Himself further instructs teamwork.

Then the LORD said to Moses, “Gather for me seventy men of the elders of Israel, whom you know to be the elders of the people and officers over them, and bring them to the tent of meeting, and let them take their stand there with you. And I will come down and talk with you there. And I will take some of the Spirit that is on you and put it on them, and they shall bear the burden of the people with you, so that you may not bear it yourself alone. (Numbers 11:16-17).

Moses was burnt out. This feeling is familiar among church leaders today.[1] Can anything be done? There are many ideas circulating to confront the crisis felt by many pastors. And, it is a crisis! It is leading too many pastors to depression and self-harm.[2]

Well, God helped Moses through depression and burnout through plurality of leadership. He shared the load and lightened the burden of leadership by distributing it among other capable and gifted leaders in the group. Being spiritually alone leaves the pastor vulnerable. He has no one with whom he can confess doubt or sin. If he confesses to a superior, he may lose his position. If he confesses to the congregation, he may lose respect and the ability to lead effectively. The pastor who is not part of a functional team has the entire load of the church’s spiritual needs (in many cases their physical needs too). The sole pastor cannot do what is commended in a passage he probably reads at weddings, Ecclesiastes 4:9-12: Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up! Again, if two lie together, they keep warm, but how can one keep warm alone? And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him—a threefold cord is not quickly broken. The text is not primarily about marriage.[3] It is about companionship and friendship.[4]

To avoid burnout we need a team, not a lone wolf. To have accountability we need a team. To be most effective we need a team that can provide feedback in real time. Without counsel plans fail, but with many advisers they succeed (Proverbs 15:22). We become enamored with our plans and ideas. To be effective we need outside voices.

Teamwork in the New Testament

Jesus was well aware of the way we were made and designed. He didn’t call one hero disciple, a Superman who can do everything himself. He called twelve. Like the Fellowship of the Ring in Tolkein’s famous trilogy or the Avengers movies of the Marvel franchise, Jesus’s followers were meant to work in teams. You are aware of the twelve disciples. You are aware of the inner circle of Peter, James, and John (like at the transfiguration in Matthew 17:1). As He sent His followers out, He commonly did so in pairs. Read Mark 6:7 and Luke 10:1 to see the twelve sent out by twos and then 70 followers sent out by twos as well. Fast forward to the Last Supper. Jesus sends Peter and John to make the preparations (Luke 22:8). On the road to Emmaus in Luke 24:13, we still find the disciples travelling in pairs. They don’t go alone; that wasn’t Jesus’s practice.

In Acts we find the same tendency. Peter and John are together in the temple in Acts 3. The church appoints seven to help administer the feeding of the widows in Acts 6. Paul’s missionary journeys are groups with people like Barnabas, Timothy, Titus, Silas, and Luke.

The idea of plurality really shouldn’t surprise us theologically. The church, both locally and universally, is the body of Christ (Ephesians 4:15-16).[5] Each member has giftings and services for mutual edification (1 Corinthians 12:12-14, 25). Christianity is not meant to be an individualistic philosophy of life. Christianity is meant to be lived out in active community.[6] The term “church” in Greek is ekklesia, and refers to an assembly, a group called out to congregate together.[7] Jesus expected His followers to be a church. For, in Matthew 16:18 Jesus said that He would build His church. It is not the only place He uses the word “church.” In Matthew 18:17, Jesus gives instructions for how local churches should handle conflict. Jesus assumes the presence of local churches that would be regularly meeting together. Elsewhere Jesus speaks of His flock (John 10:16). The idea is the same. Jesus did not form an individualistic religion.[8]

Against Extreme Individualism

Yet, church leaders often fall into individualism. The rest of the church is the body, but the leader is unnaturally separated from the body. He is oddly alone. He is the piece of coal far from the barbeque, slowly cooling off and burning out. Instead of latching onto the many examples of plurality and teamwork (we have only seen some prominent examples, the topic is far from exhausted), the church leader will often latch onto people in positions of sole leadership in the Bible. However, many of the examples that are used to justify sole leadership are actually roles that are by design pointing forward to the unique Christ! Moses worked with a team, but he remained over the others, a sole leader of the people. Moses, of course, was meant to prefigure Christ’s leadership (1 Corinthians 10:1-6 and Hebrews 3:1-6). The Old Testament kings were a concession by God when the people rejected His leadership. God’s first choice was not a monarchical type of leadership for His people (1 Samuel 8:5-9). Now, of course, several kings did an outstanding job within that less-than-ideal role. David was exemplary as king. He, insofar as he was a good king who followed God, was also used to prefigure Christ (Acts 13:22). Likewise, the role of High Priest was used to prefigure the work of Christ (Hebrews 8:1-2). Yes, there have been roles of sole leadership. It is also true that sometimes one most hold the line even if no one else will accompany. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego were thrown into the furnace together. Daniel, on the other hand, seems to have been alone in the lion’s den. Like Daniel, Paul had to continue when no one else was willing. He says, “At my first defense no one came to stand by me, but all deserted me. May it not be charged against them! But the Lord stood by me and strengthened me, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it. So I was rescued from the lion’s mouth (2 Timothy 4:16-17).

Certainly, the exceptions do not prove a new rule. The fact that a police officer may not give a speeding ticket to a driver rushing to the hospital with his wife in labor does not mean that speed limits no longer exist or that speeding tickets will not be given. The church leader is not parallel to Christ. The lone leader may do a noble job within his role, but this does not justify continued deviation from God’s design. If God’s design is for plurality in leadership, we must be open to it. No, perhaps that is too weak. We must not get to the point we are just “open to” God’s design for marriage or for the plan of salvation. Why should we settle for being “open to” God’s design for church leadership. If we find that the Bible offers a pattern to follow, we should be desirous of following it.

Conclusions About Working Together

Is the Bible silent on plurality of leadership? From what we have seen, certainly not! God designed us to work with others. The optimal plan is for us to not be alone. If community is good enough for the Triune God, it’s good enough for me. Without condemning those who labor for the Lord admirably with no team or support, we can still aspire to become more conformed to the plan of Christ as revealed in His Word. Even if we cannot immediately fix a problem, we can still admit the problem and seek its solution.

Now in gathering these communities, and in setting them in order, the Apostles had, when alive, and when dead, by their writings still have, the sole right of legislating, ordering, and disposing of all things. But it is not the will of Jesus Christ, because it is not adapted to human nature, nor to the present state of his kingdom as administered in his absence, that the church should be governed by a written document alone. Hence in every city, town, and country where the Apostles gathered a community by their own personal labors, or by their assistants, in setting them in order, for their edification, and for their usefulness and influence in this world, they uniformly appointed elders, or overseers to labor in the word and teaching, and to preside over the whole affairs of the community. To these also were added deacons, or public ministers of the congregation, who, under the direction of the overseers, were to manage all the affairs of these individual families of God.
Alexander Campbell, The Christian System

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[1] Excerpt: A Rapid Decline in Pastoral Security, Barna. https://www.barna.com/research/pastoral-security-confidence/.

[2] Why Pastors Are Committing Suicide?. https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/why-pastors-are-committing-suicide/

[3] Stuart Weeks, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Ecclesiastes, The International Critical Commentary on the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments (London: T&T Clark, 2020), 590-592.

[4]  Knut Martin Heim, Ecclesiastes: An Introduction and Commentary, Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries, volume 18 (Westmont: InterVarsity Press, 2019), 85, Ebook Central .

[5] Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen, An Introduction to Ecclesiology: Historical, Global, and Interreligious Perspectives, Second edition, revised and expanded (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2021), 23. Ebook Central.

[6] John R. W. Stott and Tim Chester, The Church: A Unique Gathering of People (London: Inter-Varsity Press, 2019), 31-32. Ebook Central.

[7] Stanley J. Grenz, David Guretzki, and Cherith Fee Nordling, s.v. “church,” in Pocket Dictionary of Theological Terms (IVP Academic, 2010).

[8] Steve Wilkens and Mark L. Sanford, Hidden Worldviews: Eight Cultural Stories That Shape Our Lives (Downers Grove, Ill: IVP Academic, 2009), 42.