A question that divides many Baptist congregations is”who
runs the church?”
In healthy churches, experts say, secure pastors and lay leaders
share a common vision of mutual leadership. But when either the pastor or lay
leaders attempt to tip the balance in their favor against the wishes of the
other party, conflict often results.
A question that divides many Baptist congregations is”who
runs the church?”
In healthy churches, experts say, secure pastors and lay leaders
share a common vision of mutual leadership. But when either the pastor or lay
leaders attempt to tip the balance in their favor against the wishes of the
other party, conflict often results.
Control issues are the No. 1 reason for forced terminations
of Baptist pastors, according to research by LifeWay Christian Resources of
the Southern Baptist Convention.
The number of ministerial firings by Baptist churches has grown
to alarming proportions, says Jan Daehnert, director of minister/church relations
for the Baptist General Convention of Texas.
In a majority of these cases, disputes over pastoral authority
play a significant role in the conflicts that led to termination, Daehnert says.
And that doesnt even include the many other cases where ministers moved
on to another church to keep the issue from coming to a head.
While its easy to point fingers at either pastors or
laity in conflict over authority issues, responsibility lies at the feet of
both, Daehnert says.
“The authority issue is primarily seen in the pastoral
role, but its also a laymans authority issue,” he adds.
Two scenarios are common, Daehnert says. In one, laymen accuse
the pastor of being “too heavy-handed,” “too authoritarian”
or a “dictator.” In the other, the pastor views lay leaders as thwarting
his leadership with their controlling tactics.
Theological perspectives of some pastors, who believe they
have a God-given mandate to run the church, compound the problem.
Authoritarian pastoral styles are commonly associated with
a strongly conservative theology, but such tendencies affect others as well,
said Howard Batson, pastor of First Baptist Church of Amarillo. Texas.
“It has nothing to do with Baptist politics,” Batson
adds. “It really is an interpersonal skills problem.”
“As a pastor develops a healthy self-esteem, he is less
likely to be dictatorial and more likely to be a strong leader,” Batson
says. “When hes not sure of himself, hell either hide in a
corner or shout from the rooftop. When hes sure of himself, hell
do neither of those.”
Bob Sheffield, a specialist in church-conflict mediation with
LifeWay, agrees with Batsons assessment. “The more insecure a person
is, sometimes the more authoritarian he has to be. If youre secure, you
can allow people to be involved in decision making.”
Daehnert says conflicts over pastoral authority stem from deeper,
unresolved theological issues in churches.
“Pastoral authority is a piece of the picture that has
been overemphasized because other parts of the picture are out of shape,”
he says.
He says he believes the problem is that Protestant churches
“never completed the Reformation. Weve never known how to reconcile
the role of the pastor and the role of the layman in ministry.”
The fault sometimes lies with pastors who, even though Baptist,
“have kept some of the old Catholic church tendencies” of clerical
superiority, Daehnert says. That may be compounded when laity “turn over
to the pastor authority that really belongs to Jesus.”
At other times, amid a succession of short-term pastors, lay
leaders become so accustomed to managing all the business of the church that
they leave no room for pastoral leadership.
While another problem receives less attention, Batson says,
some pastors give too little leadership. “On that end, theyre withdrawn
and apathetic and provide sporadic leadership. They lack initiative.”
The best road to travel lies between these two ditches, he
says.
“What most churches want is a healthy team-ship approach
to leadership. You lead, but you do it as part of a team, including the committees
and the congregation. Its not so much, God told me, and this is
what we’ve got to do, but,’Heres what God has told us together.”
Batson, Daehnert and others acknowledged that some Baptist
churches want a pastor who will give strong direction. That’s OK, they said,
if the church hires a pastor who shares that vision of leadership.
Too often, Sheffield says, search committees dont adequately
understand what the church wants in a pastor.
“Sometimes what the congregation has been heard to say
is, We need a strong leader. But their definition of a strong leader
and the pastor’s definition are different,” he adds.
But more often, “the pastor-search committee will go on
the basis of what they think,” without surveying the congregation, Sheffield
notes.
That can be a problem because “most pastor-search committees
dont represent the church as a whole; they represent the cutting edge
of the church. Why are people put on the pastor-search committee in the first
place? Because theyre leaders and they want things to happen.”
In reality, churches may need different styles of pastoral
leadership at different stages of the congregation’s life, Sheffield says.
He compares the situation to a parents role in leading
a child.
“There are times, if youre pastoring a mission church,
the pastor is going to have to be more hands-on and directive than he might
need to be if he has developed his congregation properly,” Sheffield says.
But just as a parent cannot give direction to a grown child
the same way he or she would to a toddler, a pastor must adjust the leadership
role as a congregation matures, he added.
Sheffield and Daehnert both believe many pastors have bought
into an incorrect definition of leadership, confusing it with management.
Leaders are not managers, they insist, and authority is not
the same as influence.
“If you take Ephesians 4 literally, our job as pastors
is to equip the saints for a work of ministry,” Sheffield says. “We
will be leaders, which is a sphere of influence, not managers.”
Daehnert points to a book, “The Servant,” written
by a corporate executive using biblical principles. The author, James Hunter,
quotes sociologist Max Webers distinction between power and authority.
Power, Daehnert says, is “the ability to force or coerce
someone to do your will, even if they would choose not to, because of your position
or might.” Authority is “the skill of getting people to willingly
do your will because of your personal influence.”
So a person could be in a position of power but not have authority with people,
Daehnert says. “Authority is based not on position but on influence.”
(ABP)