30/11/2024
LEADERSHIP IS NOT SUPERIORITY!
In the local church, there is leadership between the pastor and the flocks, not superiority; the pastor is not superior to the flocks, they are just different.
It is a different anointing that is upon him, a unique anointing as a shepherd.
There is an anointing upon the member of the church to function as members of the Body of Christ; at home there is leadership between the husband and the wife and children, not superiority.
Leadership exists in the society between the government and governed, not superiority. There is never superiority between the same class of beings, only leadership.
Of course, there is superiority and inferiority between different classes of beings such as human beings and animals. It is correct to say that man is superior to animals or plants. God created both plants and animals for man.
Indeed, man is superior to angels, animals, and plants. Man is inferior only to the Godhead as man was made in the class of God.
IT IS IMPORTANT TO STRESS THAT ONE MAN IS NOT SUPERIOR TO ANOTHER MAN.
Never! Not on the basis of colour, gender, age, education, possession, and opposition. That is so important: the white man is not superior to the black man; male is not superior to female; the aged is not superior to the younger; the strong is not superior to the weak; the rich is not superior to the poor.
This is so important; the issue is leadership based on the factor of function and not creation, based on factors or expertise and not birth.
Regarding an engineering problem, the engineer will take leadership over the doctor or lawyer and that does not mean the engineer is superior to the doctor or lawyer; but when it’s a medical case, the doctor will take leadership. When it’s a legal case, the lawyer will take leadership. If a doctor has a case in court, he can’t argue his case, he will get a lawyer;
that does not mean the lawyer is superior to him, but he gives leadership to the lawyer because of training and expertise.
In the issue of home administration, the man is the leader over the woman; the woman takes the lead in the issue of getting pregnant and producing children—a man can’t get pregnant.
The same way, when you are dealing with the Body of Christ, the apostle operates in leadership in the fivefold offices. In the local church, pastors operate in the leadership just like the husband operates in leadership in the home.
For example, if an apostle attends a local church for Sunday services, he has to submit to the leadership of the pastor out of understanding, because the pastor is the head of the local church. God has equipped the pastor to help the local church; God has equipped the apostle to provide leadership in the Body of Christ.
If I’m a pastor and visit the home of a church member, I will submit to his leadership at the dining table and allow him to pray because he is the head of his home. There is such a thing as spiritual jurisdictions; problems come when people cross their jurisdiction and try to do what God has not sent them to do. There are people who want to assume the role of the head of the body of Christ. It is only Jesus who can say the whole Christian in a town should fast for three days;
nobody else can do that. For example, it is the head that can say “I want Christians in Kenya, etc, to fast”.
But nobody can say, ‘I’m calling Christians to come and fast’; no government can decree that. You can’t control my finger to move because you are not the head of my body; also, I can’t do the same thing to your leg.
If my church member now allows me to pray, of course I will pray; but if his wife is sick, the pastor comes to pray only if the man of the house allows the pastor to pray. When we understand different roles, we know that we need each other in an understanding of unity that the devil can’t break.
Now, if there is a sick person in the church, and there is a brother in that church who carries an anointing of healing, then he takes the lead in the issue of praying for the sick. But if his pastor does not have the anointing of healing, then the pastor will submit or give leadership to that brother/sister to pray with the anointing of healing on that single occasion. That single occasion does not make that brother/sister a leader over the pastor. The pastor’s authority is an ongoing one. It is only in the area of his anointing that the brother can have occasional leadership, but the pastor has the perpetual leadership in the church because of his calling.
When people understand this, we will be willing to yield to leadership without losing the integrity of our passion or without feeling inferior.
Following leadership is not the same thing as feeling inferior. Following leadership is something that comes with understanding, knowledge, and maturity.
So in the local church, you see the pastor holding perpetual leadership by calling; but the brother/sister with the anointing of healing operates occasional leadership by gifting, by appointment, or by expertise, and that is when the sick is present.
Similarly, in the home, the husband holds perpetual leadership by creation and assignment by God, but the wife operates occasional leadership by expertise and by assignment given by the husband.
In the Body of Christ, two offices that must understand their roles are the apostle and the pastor. Sometimes, the apostolic office that wants to take over a local church is not biblical. The pastor is equipped to help the church and the apostle operates in the general Body of Christ. We need to understand the difference of function and allow each other to express our gifts from God within hindrance or complexes—inferiority or superiority.
Earlier we reviewed 1 Corinthians 15:10; we would return to it:
"But by the grace of God I am what I am: and His grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all yet not I but the grace of God which was with me".
Shalom
Reuben Mgodeli
Mennonite Bible School
SA MENNONITE COUNCIL-SAMC
