The first
thing to be considered about leadership in the bible is servant
leadership. The servant leadership is
different in servant-hood. All
Christians are called to server one another.
Jesus showed us a perfect example in washing His disciples’ feet. When Peter protested, Jesus told him ‘unless
I wash you, you have no part with Me.’ (John 13:8) However, the servant leadership is to lead
and to manage with a servant's heart.
After
Moses led the Israelite out of Egypt to the promise land, he did face many
problems, overwork and not able to sustain.
His father in law gave his wisdom to Moses to raise up other leaders and
divide into smaller groups to those leaders.
With that advice, Moses was successful in leading those people. In the New Testament, Paul was giving the
structure for the Church of Ephesians about five-fold ministry leadership. “And He Himself gave some to be apostles,
some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the
equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body
of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of
the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness
of Christ;” (Eph 4:11-13)
Both the
Old and the New Testament are pointing out the team leadership from God. God is the trinity who are the Father, the
Son and the Holy Spirit. They are
binding in love and honor to show the perfect unity. It is the picture that God want us to bind in
Him with loving Him and loving one another.
There are a few points why team leadership is better than sole
leadership:
1.
Working non-stop is not sustainable no matter what your
calling is. Something is always going to
break down if anyone works non-stop. It
could be your relationship with family, friends, health issue, and even
intimacy with God. God’s calling to us
is for His kingdom not for ourselves. As
a team that will be working together with one goal, one mind to fulfill His
plan for His kingdom.
2.
Working as a team will identify your personal gift and
function your gift better. The church
needs to have different gift to make different piece work. Although the sole leadership is gifted, the
body of Christ still needs to have multiple gifts to function right. Apostle Paul was gifted in many areas. He was functioning as apostle and prophet,
teacher, pastor, and evangelist in his ministry but he pointed out that the
team leadership structure to the churches for he knew the church community
needs to function in long-term.
3.
Working as team leadership will help us to live out the
Sermon on the Mount The servant
leadership is base on the sermon on the Mount life style: in humble, honor,
love and summit to one another. Apostle Peter
was called to the Jews in Israel and functioned in five major gifts to the
churches. Jesus' brother James, was the
leader of churches around Jerusalem that Peter still summit to this leadership
while he is in that city. It is a
perfect picture to live in Christ-likeness.
4.
Team leadership provides the accountability to one
another. As a church leader, he should
live as an example to all followers.
Leaders in churches are facing many temptation everyday. Many leaders have been tempted by the evil spirit
and failed which caused them to leave their ministry. The team leadership should be built on trust
so that they can be accountable to one another in their spiritual life and keep
it holy and won’t let Satan break up the team.
The
team leadership is the best structure for the churches. We all have differences for we are all
different parts of the body of Christ: functioning in different parts and in
different ways. It brings the better
vision from God and fulfills the vision through every one of us. The beauty of unity is powerful and at the
same time it gives the highest glory to God.
