Essay #2 – Leadership in Today’s Church:
What is Wrong and Why it Matters (Part 1)
by Christopher Wells (3/2025)
This is the second essay in a series on significant problems that urgently need to be addressed in the Christian church. I am writing these essays to foment discussions that will hopefully lead to real and lasting change in churches and assist believers everywhere in helping their congregations get back to our Biblical roots. If we are brave enough to have these discussions and prayerfully examine the Word of God for guidance on these issues, it can help end widespread abuse (both passive and active) within the church and lead to a more vibrant, impactful, and fulfilling Christian life for us all, to the glory of God and the expansion of His kingdom here on earth.
Before we go further, I’d like to use an illustration to demonstrate the approach I’m going to use in this essay. Many people are familiar with the Secret Service of the United States, whose job it is to protect the President and Vice President. What you may not know is that they are also responsible for investigating crimes related to counterfeiting U.S. currency. A counterfeit dollar bill is identified by comparing it against the real thing. If I were to be given a real U.S. one-dollar bill and a very good fake, I would probably have a fifty-fifty chance (emphasis on the chance part) of telling which of the two was the fake. And why is that? Is it because I’m not smart enough? Is it because I’m incapable at some level of completing the task? No, neither of these is the case. The reason I would have about as much chance of success as failure at the task is that I have not spent countless hours studying the original, so I would very likely not be able to spot the small discrepancies between the two.
Now, imagine that I’m given a fake dollar bill as change at a store. Would I even sense that something was different in the way the fake bill felt or catch a glimpse of a tell-tale sign of a counterfeit as I looked down to receive the bill from the cashier? Almost certainly not. Real Secret Service agents, however, do spend many, many hours studying the real thing. They spend time touching the currency to tell how it feels. They probably know dozens of ways to identify a fake, but all of them come down to this: comparing the fake to the original will eventually show that there are differences between the two, and it is the differences that determine which of them is genuine and which is not.
As I examine the issues surrounding church leadership, I will approach the analysis in much the same way. Why? Well, the plain truth is that most of the people reading this article have lived their entire Christian experience within church organizations that utilize a counterfeit authority structure. In other words, most Christians have been taught to believe that the authority structure of the church they attend is what God intended when, in fact, it often is not so. Therefore, if this is the case, how do we progress? How do we identify the flaws in a particular church’s authority structure with that as our starting point? The answer is that we go back to the standard of what that authority structure is supposed to look like so we can become experts in the real thing. And that source is the Bible. Only when we have a thorough understanding of what God intended the authority structure of the Christian church to look like and how He intended it to operate can we adequately compare that to the authority structure currently utilized by the vast majority of local churches today.
Much of what is accepted today as fact by many churches concerning how the church should be run, as well as the roles, responsibilities, and the extent of the authority of church leaders, is not described in the scriptures but rather is handed down as a matter of tradition or interpretation that takes significant license with what is actually described in the Bible. The result of this license taken with scripture is that the authority structure we see in many churches is far removed from God’s original design, and the authority claimed by many in church leadership far exceeds what is described in the New Testament. The church leaders of today have, in many cases, created an authority structure that, by virtue of its design, greatly increases the probability of abuse against the members of the church, while at the same time serves to limit the potential of those same believers to fulfill their true calling as dynamic, spirit-filled ambassadors for Christ in a world that desperately needs their influence. We will examine these effects in greater detail in subsequent essays.
Now that I have laid out the groundwork for our examination let’s begin by establishing a rough outline of some of the major passages of scripture that outline the roles and responsibilities of various church leaders.
The Bible teaches that the top leaders of the church are apostles, pastors, and elders. In Ephesians 4:11-13, the Apostle Paul outlines the five-fold ministers of the church, two of which are apostles and pastors. While the word ‘elder’ is not specifically mentioned here, the role and office of an elder is discussed in numerous other passages, and it is widely interpreted to be inclusive of both the roles of apostle and pastor (see 1 Peter 5:1-6 and Vine’s Expository Dictionary reference to ‘pastors’ from Ephesians 4:11). Pastors and apostles, in other words, fulfill the role of elders in the church. Vine’s Expository Dictionary summarizes the function of the elder as “. . . those who, being raised up and qualified by the work of the Holy Spirit, were appointed to have the spiritual care of, and to exercise oversight over, the churches. To these, the term ‘bishops,’ episkopoi, or ‘overseers,’ is applied.” (Also see Acts 15:22 and following; 1 Tim 5:17 and following, et al).
The qualifications of elders (i.e., pastors) fall into two main categories: those qualifications that describe the character of a person (1 Timothy 3:1-7, Titus 1:5-7) and those duties which the elder is expected to perform in service of the church. For our immediate purposes, let’s focus on the duties that an elder is expected to perform. Here is a list of the duties of an elder as mentioned in the scriptures:
- Elders (pastors) feed the flock through the act of preaching and teaching (1 Peter 5:1-3, 1 Timothy 3:1-7, 1 Timothy 5:17, Titus 1:5-7)
- Elders (pastors) pray for the sick (James 5:14)
- Elders (pastors) rule on issues of theological debate and protect the flock from false teachers (Acts 15:1-7, Acts 20:28)
- Elders (pastors) deliver decrees for the church to observe (Acts 16:4)
Now that we have examined the functions an elder is expected to serve in the church, let’s take a look at the following scriptures related to the appointment of elders and their role:
Titus 1:5 (NASB95)
For this reason I left you in Crete, that you would set in order what remains and appoint elders in every city as I directed you,
Acts 14:21-23 (NASB95)
After they had preached the gospel to that city and had made many disciples, they returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch, strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and [saying,] “Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God.” When they had appointed elders for them in every church, having prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord in whom they had believed.
1 Timothy 5:17 (NASB95)
The elders who rule well are to be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who work hard [fn]at preaching and teaching.
In my experience in the organized church, I can only recall a few times in my over forty-five years of attending church services that I have ever heard a local church elder—other than the appointed pastor of the church in question—preach or teach from the pulpit (and rarely in the classroom, either, for that matter). Alternatively, I have witnessed numerous instances of elders praying for the sick and making decisions for the local church. I strongly suspect, for the majority of those reading this essay, that your experience mirrors mine. You may suggest that there is nothing wrong with this. However, it is a fact that one of the chief responsibilities of an elder (e.g. pastor) is to both preach and teach. It is also a fact that the Bible teaches that there should be numerous elders (pastors) appointed for this office in each local body, all of whom share the responsibility to preach and teach the Body of Christ, all of whom share the responsibility to govern the church. Yet, I know of no church organization in my experience where this instruction is routinely implemented.
Why do so many churches deviate from this clear scriptural pattern, and what are the ramifications of this in the life of the local church?
You may have found it slightly annoying that I placed the word ‘pastor’ after so many of the above references to elders. I did this specifically to begin shifting your mindset from what is typically taught in many church organizations to what is actually taught in the Bible. In many Christian churches it is taught that the pastor and elders serve two distinct roles. The scriptures, however, teach that the pastor and the elder serve the same role. They are simply two words used to describe the same office.
Let that sink in, and take a few minutes to ponder it.
Once you comprehend this fact, it will revolutionize the way you see the leadership of the church and how you view your own Christian experience within the church.
Now let’s take the knowledge we’ve mined from the scriptures—the genuine pattern of what Christian church leadership should look like—and let’s compare it to what we see in many churches today.
Since we can’t describe in detail the leadership structure of each of the multitude of churches in existence today in this essay, I’ll describe a general structure I’ve seen in many of the churches I’ve attended and been involved with over the years. It looks something like this: There is a head pastor who is the primary preacher at the main service of the church organization on Sunday and possibly on Sunday night and/or Wednesday. This pastor is a full-time paid staff member—likely the only one in many churches, with the exception of an administrative staff person. If it is a medium to large church organization, there may be one or more associate pastors who are also paid staff members and serve at the head pastor’s discretion and direction. That is to say the head pastor gives them their assigned roles and basically defines for them the scope and depth of their ministry. You may on occasion see one of these associate pastors preach the odd sermon or teach from the pulpit. One of them may be the youth minister, who preaches once a year during youth Sunday. One may be the ‘Outreach’ minister, who organizes the church organization’s outreach to the community and teaches the witnessing class. The ‘Music’ minister may be another. This church will likely have people who are referred to as elders, who are rarely paid staff and who serve on a volunteer basis, often in two-year terms. These elders (or board members as they may be called) are rarely seen in their official capacity and even more rarely called upon to preach or teach from the pulpit or in one of the Christian education classes. The role of these elders is frequently to help make business decisions regarding the church. They may be consulted by the pastor in spiritual matters as well, but this consultation is merely that. The elder board is often a rubber-stamp committee that endorses whatever the head pastor wants to do, and the final say will usually still be had by the head pastor. The associate pastors very likely won’t even meet with the elders in these meetings, if they occur at all. The elders may be called upon occasionally to pray for the sick in a rare appearance, but most likely they will only be seen by the average church-goer during the annual meeting when the new elders are elected for a two-year term or when one of the elders delivers the financial report for the year. To be sure, in some churches the elders or board members hold more power over what ministries get established or what the pastor can or cannot do, but they almost exclusively operate behind the scenes, whatever their level of influence.
Sound familiar?
How closely does what I described above mirror your own experience in church? Now, the more important question. How does what I’ve just described (or your experience in the organized church you attend) compare with the pattern of church leadership described in the scriptures?
Chances are high that the two descriptions are miles apart.
Why is that? Why do so many churches operate the way I’ve described above, and why is their leadership structure so different from what is taught in the scriptures? And why does this matter?
The church organizational structure I’ve described above is not only far removed from the Biblical pattern, but such structures create an abuse-prone environment. In such church organizations, the frequent lack of accountability and transparency combined with the consolidation of power in the hands of the head pastor leads to abusive situations and keeps the Body of Christ weak and underperforming in our calling as believers.
In the next essay in this series, we will begin comparing these two disparate leadership structures and dive into the details of these matters and why we, the Body of Christ, must begin seeking change.
Bibliography:
NASB95 – New American Standard Bible. Retrieved from https://www.blueletterbible.org
Vine, W. (24 Jun, 1996). Prophecy, Prophesy, Prophesying – Vine’s Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words. Retrieved on March 21, 2025 from https://www.blueletterbible.org/search/Dictionary/viewTopic.cfm?topic=VT0002236
The website of author C.L. Wells 