“I am among you as one who serves” (Luke 22:27).

My immediate concern is always with the Lord’s church, but this principles applies everywhere.

I am pro-pastor. Always and forever. Anyone who reads the blog and knows me will agree that I honor the pastor.  God made me a pastor at the age of 22, and I’ve been one ever since.

However, we have a problem.

In churches across our land tyrants can be found who call themselves pastors and demand to be obeyed. Such men are unqualified to do anything in the kingdom and must be dealt with by courageous men and women in the pews.

Otherwise, they will corrupt the gospel, destroy the church, wound the weak, and drive away many who need Christ.

In the Kingdom of God, leaders are required to be servants.

Many a pastor misses this, and if he learns it at all, not before he has made many a bone-headed mistake and left a lot of good people bleeding in his wake.

We lead by serving.

We do not lead by dominating.

That’s it.

Scripture says the Holy Spirit has made the pastor the “overseer” (episcopos) of the church (Acts 20:28).  Scripture says church members are to “obey their leaders” as those who will give account for their souls (Hebrews 13:17).  However….

Nowhere does Scripture tell the leader(s) to play the authority card.

Miss that and you miss everything.

The moment a pastor pulls rank and demands that members obey him “because the Bible makes the pastor the head of the church,” it’s all over. He has lost the right to lead. He is no longer the servant but is making himself the ruler.

In the Kingdom of God, leaders are servants (Matthew 20:25-28) and all believers–leaders and members alike–are required to submit to one another (Ephesians 5:21).

Nowhere does the New Testament make one man–the pastor–the sole authority in the church.

Nowhere is a single pastor given the rule over God’s people.  (Scripture speaks of pastors in the plural.)

Jesus Christ is our model.  He said, “I am among you as one who serves” (Luke 22:27) and “I did not come to be served, but to serve and to give my life a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:28).

If you call yourself a Christian and Jesus Christ is not your leadership model, then you have more problems than we can possibly deal with here.

In the early church, the apostles did not throw their weight around demanding to be obeyed and followed….

–Acts 6. When dissension broke out between the Hebrew widows and the non-Hebrew widows over the distribution of food, the apostles (plural, not just one) called a meeting of the congregation and asked the people to deal with this.  When the members selected seven godly men, they sent them to the apostles to be “vetted.” The apostles ordained them and the men did their work.  See any strong-arming going on here?  None.

–Acts 10, when Peter saw what God was doing with Cornelius and “the Italian band,” he said to the other believers, “Can anyone refuse water for these to be baptized?”  He was putting the issue to all the believers and not making the decision unilaterally. Hearing no dissent, he proceeded to baptize them.

–In I Peter 5, the Apostle Peter says, “I exhort the elders among you…shepherd the flock of God among you, exercising oversight not under compulsion, but voluntarily…not as lording it over those allotted to your charge, but proving to be examples to the flock.”

It’s impossible to say this too strongly: Pastors are to serve the Lord’s people, not to lord it over them.

Paul said, “We do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves your servants for Jesus’ sake” (2 Corinthians 4:5).

A pastor does not take orders from the congregation, otherwise that would stand the leadership concept on its head.  To say it another way, he does not get his instructions from the monthly meeting of the deacons or the church business conference.  He serves the people “for Jesus’ sake.”  I take that to mean he gets orders from the Lord as to how to serve the people. (I write this in full awareness that the pastor who is determined to bully his people will twist this out of context, too.)

Pastors are under the same command to “submit to one another in the fear of Christ” (Ephesians 5:21) as everyone else.  What does this mean?

–When the phone rings in the middle of the night and a church family needs the preacher, by responding immediately he is submitting to them.

–When someone has a problem and needs time with the pastor and he counsels them, he is submitting to them (even if he has to refer them to a professional who is more qualified to help them).

–When the pastor daily prays for members of his church by name, he is submitting to them.  That is, he is putting their welfare high on his agenda.

–When a pastor studies to prepare the best sermons possible for his people in order to bless their lives with insights from God’s word, he is submitting to them.

–When a pastor receives a rebuke from his leadership team (whether the team is called elders, deacons, administrative council, or another name) for some failure on his part and he takes it like a man and humbles himself to do the right thing, he is submitting.

–When a pastor has offended someone and they are wounded, and he drives to their home and sincerely admits his wrongdoing and asks for their forgiveness, he is submitting.

–When a pastor stands in the pulpit and confesses that he has erred in some way (if the error was public, the confession must be just as public) and asks for forgiveness from his people, he is submitting.

An apology from a pastor is as rare as Halley’s comet. 

Sad to say.

You would think that the godliest, most spiritual member of the Lord’s family–shouldn’t the pastor be all of this?–would be quickest to model the traits of maturity.  “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faithfulness, humility, and self control” (Galatians 5:22-23).  Any combination of those qualities, particularly the love and humility, should be sufficient to drive the man of God to go before his people and ask their forgiveness for something he got wrong.

What should a pastor ask the congregation’s forgiveness for?

For failing to preach God’s word with courage. For being bull-headed and proud. For being insecure and thus a bully.  For failing to serve the people, but insisting they serve him.  For not setting the example in Christlikeness, but modeling the world’s picture of a leader.  For not dealing with ungodliness or wickedness in lay leaders out of fear. For not leading the church in a strong program of ministry and outreach.  For not pastoring the flock (getting into the homes, visiting them in their times of sickness and need, etc.).

When a pastor makes an apology from the pulpit, he must remember these ironclad principles….

1) Do not blame others or excuse yourself. Just say what you did. (Please don’t do like a certain televangelist and cry, “I have sinned against the Lord” and then refuse to say what you did. Be a grownup! Take your lumps.)

2) Say that you are sorry for what you did or failed to do.  Speak the words.

3) Ask for forgiveness.  “I hope you can find it in your hearts to forgive me.” Practice this. You can do it.  (Any preacher who finds those words impossible to articulate will want to practice at home by saying the same thing to his wife and children. I’d bet the farm that they need to hear the same words, too!)

4) Then, after you have apologized, said you were sorry, and asked for forgiveness, stop. Quit talking.  Sit down.

5) Have someone else step up and conclude the service.

Unless the pastor’s failures have grown to monumental proportions or the congregation is hard-nosed and calloused, God’s people will be eager to forgive and go forward.

After that, the pastor must devote himself to a new way of life, one involving constant prayer, daily contact with his leaders, and an eye always out for temptation.  Pride does not like to humble itself and will not go easily.  A bruised ego will be a constant pain and its cries for satisfaction a never-ending temptation for any minister. He must be ever watchful and live on his knees.

We leave the subject with a prayer I picked up somewhere along the way and pray often for myself:

“Lord, give me a heart of fire toward Thee, a heart of flesh toward my fellow man, and a heart of iron toward myself. Amen.”