Those Pesky Nicolaitans 2: What Church Leadership?

“So, who’s in charge now? I need to know who to ignore.”

Doctor Who S9 E3, ‘Under the Lake’ (2015)

Let’s launch straight into today’s reading, shall we?

 

This is the pulpit in the cathedral in my home city. I hate pulpits, for reasons that should promptly become apparent.

What, therefore, is it, brothers? When you come together, each one has a psalm, has a teaching, has a revelation, has a tongue, has an interpretation; let all things happen for building up. If someone speaks in a tongue, (let there be) about two or at most three, and each in turn, and let one person interpret; and if there be no interpreter, let him be silent in assembly, and let him speak to himself and to God. And let two or three prophets speak, and let the others make a judgement. And if (something) is revealed to another sitting, let the first be silent. For you can all prophesy one by one, so that all may learn and all be encouraged. And the spirits of prophets are subjected to prophets, for God is not of disorder but of peace, as in all the assemblies of the saints.¹

Huh. I wonder, dear reader, how much like a typical service at the church you attend does that sound?

In this little chunk of Paul’s first letter to his brothers and sisters in Christ at Corinth, he’s giving them some pointers on how to keep things orderly when they meet together; it seems as if they were doing a lot of talking over one another in uninterpreted tongues, which isn’t exactly a recipe for effective mutual encouragement. So Paul indicates in which circumstances it’s more productive to be silent: if you’ve got something to say in a tongue, but there’s nobody to interpret it, keep schtum; if you’re busy saying a prophecy when someone else present receives a revelation from God, yield the floor.² But take a look at that second sentence, and notice what Paul there considers a given about corporate worship: when the saints come together, each one of them brings something to say. And then again a moment later: you can all prophesy one by one. Paul had a problem with the Corinthians all speaking at once; he didn’t have a problem with them all speaking, full stop.

In essence, Paul says, look, guys, instead of all speaking at once, you should all be speaking in turn. He doesn’t say, look, guys, instead of all speaking at once, you should all be listening to the pastor/vicar/minister/insert other term for the guy who stands at the front and delivers the sermon. And on top of that, according to what Paul says, any individual who speaks is not exercising authority over the rest of those present, but subjecting him- or herself to their collective authority: let two or three prophets speak, and let the others make a judgement … the spirits of prophets are subjected to prophets.

According to this picture of things, then, I should rock up at a meeting with my fellow-believers expecting to hear various other people offer psalms and teachings and revelations and so forth, to evaluate whether these seem sound, and to give my opinion on that matter as part of the collective; and to have whatever psalm or teaching or revelation I may have to offer subjected to the same treatment. What has happened at the vast majority of the church services to which I have rocked up during my life, on the other hand, is that I have heard one person deliver a teaching. End of. I mean, sometimes it’s a very good teaching, but that’s not the point. Do we not all have spiritual giftings which we are commanded to exercise for the building up of our brothers and sisters? And yet have you ever seen the guy at the front yield the floor because a revelation was made to someone sitting down? Have you ever seen the congregation make a group judgement about the soundness of what they’ve just heard from the front?

If we’re doing church the way the Bible says we should, nobody should be up the front. There shouldn’t be a front. King Arthur had the right idea when he had his famous table designed by Sir Cumference.³ The authority belongs to the body as a whole, not to any particular appendage of it. Well, unless you count the Head.

 

A round table for a dinner-party ... ooh, that links rather well.

The scribes and the Pharisees … love the first couch at the dinner-parties, and the first seats in the synagogues, and the greetings in the marketplaces, and to be called by people Rabbi. But you are not to be called Rabbi, for your teacher is one, and you yourselves are all brothers. And call no man your father on the earth, for your heavenly Father is one. And you are not to be called instructors, since your instructor is one, the Christ. The greatest of you shall be your servant. Whoever exalts himself shall be humbled, and whoever humbles himself shall be exalted.⁴

Look at the logic in what Jesus is saying to his disciples here. Nobody in the Church is to be given the title of ‘rabbi’ (literally ‘my great one/master’, but translated in the New Testament as ‘teacher’) – why? Because the Church ultimately only has one teacher. Nobody in the Church is to be given the title of ‘father’ – why? Because the Church ultimately only has one Father, our God in heaven. Nobody in the Church is to be given the title of ‘instructor’ – why? Because the Church ultimately only has one instructor, the Lord Jesus Christ himself. As for us, we’re all brothers. We’re all on the same level, and the only one above us is God. If we style ourselves as teachers or fathers or instructors – or, I might add, as Reverend So-and-So, Pastor So-and-So, His Holiness So-and-So the Umpteenth, et cetera (yes, I’m putting all those in one box) – we’re trying to usurp God, because he is the only one who has a right to exercise authority over the Church. And anyone who tries to make himself great like that is going to be brought low.

Isn’t this amazing? We are all brothers. None of us is any more important than any other of us. We are equals, all formerly dead sinners ransomed for the same price and adopted to the same status as co-heirs of eternity. God relates to each of us directly, with Christ as our sole mediator. How huge a privilege is that? And yet how huge a call to humility? In a world stuffed to the seams with inequality of every variety, we march to a different beat. Among us, greatness is not to be in charge, but to serve – to make oneself last and least for the sake of one’s fellows.

So it sort of leaves me scratching my head when people talk about things like being called to church leadership, or whether women ought to take roles in church leadership. Like, what church leadership? The next step up from being a common-or-garden believer in the Lord, is being the Lord himself. Church leadership, adelphoi (and I have never used that term more meaningfully), is not a category that exists.

Footnotes

¹ Whole chapter: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+corinthians+14&version=ESVUK. You’ll have noticed I’ve given my own translation rather than sticking to the ESV, so sorry for the clunkiness.

² And, if I’d kept the quotation coming for a couple more verses, he’s about to give a third scenario involving women. But I think if I were to deal with that jazz in this post, it would rather distract from the main point. Another time, perhaps.

³ Ahem. Sorry. Will a pertinent Studio C sketch, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZiIVvEJ8m0, do by way of apology? (Watch right to the end.)

⁴ Again, whole chapter: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=matthew+23&version=ESVUK.