Description
In this fourth episode in the Mentoring Intelligence Series, Phil explains the difference between authority and power and how one is life-giving and the other controls rather than empowers and releases others. This is central to understanding that the relationships in the Body of Christ are completely different to the ones in the institutions in which we are embedded and living. In the Body, there is to be no hierarchical structures – different functions, yes – but unlike in the world we are not to lord position and power over others, particularly under the guise of spirituality. He then makes the application from Jesus’ teaching and its importance in order to be effective in mentoring others.
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Video Script
Episode 4 Intro: Authority versus Hierarchy
We have been looking at how Jesus’ model of leadership was counter cultural in his day as well as pretty much every culture since. We are beginning to see that to develop others through an open honest mentoring relationship we will need a new attitude and perspective on leadership. But if there is no hierarchy in the body of Christ, how do we explain the passages on authority in the Church and what seems to be different levels of leadership? And how does this fit with Jesus’ teaching?
“We want a King like the other nations!”
We have been looking at Jesus’ teaching regarding leadership and how in his Kingdom there is to be no hierarchy of relationships, unlike the prevailing cultures around us. Of course, there is a variety of functions and gifting in the body, but unlike the Gentiles, we are not to lord position and power over each other. Actually, those with influence are to use it in a completely different way. For others, rather than for themselves.
There are some positive examples of this even by leaders in the Old Covenant. We think of men such as Moses with Joshua or Elijah with Elisha. Unfortunately, they seemed more the exception than the rule. A few prominent negative examples quickly come to mind, for example, King Saul. You remember him, tall, good looking, square jaw….the type of guy you want to be your captain or leader.
Well, no big surprise, so did the children of Israel. Remember “We want a king like the other nations!” We want to impress everyone with our leader and the prestige of a real nation. Seems not too much has changed. Now, as then, God was not impressed and was on the record against this ill-fated desire.
It seems that Saul fit the mold pretty good. You get the feeling that he knew he stood a head taller than everyone…..and really like it. Though he started out good and rather humble by the current cultural standards, by the end power had corrupted even him. Maybe within his context and given who he was he didn’t have much of a chance. But after some 40 years on the throne, it became clear that it was going to be hard to wrestle the crown from his clenched, bony fingers. So when the game was up, empowering the next generation and releasing them was not really in his DNA….as we’ll see, that might be a bit of an understatement of the day.
Do Kings Typically Mentor Others?
Let’s look at the story from a mentoring perspective. As the first king of Israel there would have been no more likely candidate to teach the next king what it meant to be king. But in those days and let’s be honest it’s pretty similar today, people in power rarely give it up willingly. Instead of mentoring the next generation, he – like many other leaders – had a rather unique technique. I’ll give you a clue…. it involved sharp spears and moving targets. Now granted he was a product of his time…..as we are….so instead of dying to self as the Messiah would one day teach, he felt threatened and tried to skewer the next generation to the palace wall. Of course that being young David.
In future episodes we are going to learn some lessons about mentoring from David’s point of view, but we do see here that even though he probably learned a few things from dodging spears…..maybe similar lessons to what you learn from getting dumped in the middle of the lake as we saw before. But the resilience to learn things is not an affirmation of the methodology. Though some survive the deep end , or in this case dodging spear, it’s not exactly an ideal way to learn leadership is it?
Of course, we like to think of ourselves as quite different from these examples. After all, it’s the 21st Century and we have evolved, right. Well maybe not so much. In the various countries where I have been able to serve over the years, I have noticed a striking similarity when it comes to leadership culture in most society. Whatever name you put on it, even nice Christian names like pastor, bishop, elder, there is an eerie similarity to how we do leadership in the church compared to the society we are embedded in. We might be a little more like King Saul than we want to admit.
(Fallen) Cultural Models
In the African context, there is a history of the chief of the tribe and so pastors and church leaders tend to be the chief of their flock, in Latin American cultures, the prevailing model is that of a macho man or the strong man. While in other contexts, admired leaders tended to be in the form of a general, so churches are run with the command ad control precision of the military. Now we in western cultures we have our own type of leader we admire and its typically the famous person, or perhaps a business CEO.
Different models, but basically the same heart. The last two thousand years of church history tells the tale of how we have taken what were to be mere functions within the church – intended to equip the saints – and turned them into hierarchal offices with positions, titles and power. We read back into Eph 4 something the original author never could have intended or he would been contradicting Jesus’ basic teaching on the subject. In my “Fivefold Ministry” series I dig a bit deeper into that specific topic.
Is it much Different in the Church?
But for now, I think we all could agree that many of our leadership models in the church are pretty close to what we see in the world, just with different titles….but as the saying goes, if it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, guess what….it’s probably a duck!
Now of course we are a bit more sophisticated, after all we have evolved, so we use nice biblical titles but often if our hearts have not transformed there is not much difference as to how leadership looks in the church and the world around us. But what is really dangerous is that when we implement Christian leadership with a “I am the leader who speaks for God” type of mentality, it creates the perfect conditions for spiritual abuse, turning people away from not only the church but God himself. I am sure you can think of many contemporary examples, I don’t have to provide names and dates here. I just never want to one of them.
So we need to consider the idea of authority and power and how they interrelate. I would suggest that there is a difference. Biblical authority is light years away from to use Jesus’ words “power as the Gentiles exercise.” Power is a zero-sum game, if I give some of my power to others, then I will have less. Every politician around the world knows this intuitively which is why they fight to hang on to it once they got it. It’s on page one of every Dictator’s Handbook for Success.
Difference Between Authority and Power
However, authority is quite different. Authority is not life-sucking, but life-giving if used correctly. As we develop others and release authority and responsibility to them, we grow a bigger pie rather than just trying to slice up our little pie. An amazing thing happens, as they grow and mature, we have actually more influence and hence more authority to give away.
Let me explain it like this. As we use your gifts, they make room for us in the body of Christ; we are meeting a need. As others benefit from our God-given gifts our influence will naturally increase. Now this measure of influence then creates a certain measure of authority and responsibility and can even lead to others giving us a title or position. But, and this is an important but, true biblical authority does not necessarily have to lead to relationships controlled by hierarchical power and structures. Remember Jesus’ words, “with you it should not be so”.
The issue becomes, what will we do with the authority that we have gained by exercising our gifting and callings? Will we use it to benefit ourselves or use it to serve and help others, even if this means having a lesser role. As John the Baptist said, “I must decrease so that he will increase”. Kind of revolutionary, eh? But this is the only way to remain a healthy part of the body rather than some isolated “king” or whatever you want to call it.
Authority Balanced by Vulnerability
Perhaps this graph can help to visually describe this process. There are four quadrants with the vertical axis signifying a continuum in the degree of authority a person has and the horizontal axis the degree to which we have made ourselves vulnerable. In order to reflect Jesus’ leadership model, God-given authority in our relationships must be balanced with this thing called vulnerability. I have found it quite interesting over the years that many languages don’t have one word that really reflects the meaning. I wonder why that is?
To be vulnerable encompasses the meaning of being authentic, but also includes the idea of potential and willingness to be hurt and wounded. Not something most leader’s are attracted to, yet it is an indispensible ingredient to any relationships based on love. Remember in the Body leaders are just like all members in this regard. If we are unwilling to be hurt we will not be able to fully love. And the relationships in the body of Christ are to be based on love – “they will know that you are my disciples by your love.”
Leaders in the church are part of the Body like everyone else. They are not on a pedestal or above others in the body. This false hierarchy that we have created is not only bad for the Body, but it also puts unhealthy pressure on leaders who are trying to live their own spirituality on their own. All of us are only healthy in community.
No Vulnerability = Authoritarianism
Without this attitude of vulnerability our hearts will inevitably become hardened. Having open honest relationships is essential for healthy leadership. Being vulnerable means having others that you can be open and honest with. Instead of being on a pedestal our platform ministry aligns with our personal life. So no need to hide. We don’t have to pretend we are more spiritual than everyone else.
So in the Body of Christ, the more gifting and influence one has the more vulnerable one must be willing to be or human nature (sin) will lead us to authoritarianism, rather than servant leadership. Instead of grace in serving others, we will use our authority to either show others how great we are or manipulate them to achieve our vision.
Remember the story of the Apostle Paul ? He writes to the early church that because he had been given so many revelations and giftings, God had told him that he was going to have to live with a thorn in the flesh. We are not sure what it was exactly, but we do know he didn’t like it and it was uncomfortable. Its purpose was to keep him humble so that he would not use his authority to abuse others – as we know, a temptation for all of us but particularly the multi-gifted among us. It’s hard to think of yourself more highly that you should ……with a thorn sticking in your side …. and others seeing it.
We don’t have time here to get into the details here, but I never want to be under leadership or mentored by someone that does not show me their scars. Even Jesus, our Master Mentor did not hide his scars after the cross. He actually displayed them as a confirmation of his authority….remember Thomas….touch my hands, my side….That’s vulnerability.
If we respond correctly, this vulnerability keeps us humble, A requirement for those who want to be great in Jesus’ Kingdom. Actually our long term effectiveness as a leader is directly related to our willingness to humble ourselves as Peter tells us to do. Doesn’t mean we are a doormat or think bad of ourselves, just means we don’t have to convey a sense of pseudo-spirituality in our leadership.
Jesus’ Upside Down Leadership
In this upside down kingdom e don’t have to look any further than our great leader, Jesus….remember Phil 2….He intentionally took on the nature – not just pretending, but the actual nature of a servant. Why? To stay humble and vulnerable to be an example for us. Don’t know if you can get more vulnerable than hanging naked on a cross strung up between heaven and earth. His authority came from what he suffered, not heavenly titles and positions. Can’t imagine it should be any different for us.
So back to the graph, the more authority, gifts etc that we have been given, the more vulnerable we’ll have to be in order to serve others. Rather than using our gifts to get what we want from others or even to get people to help us with OUR vision. That is represented by Quadrant 1. The only way to be a servant leader is to keep our giftings and authority tethered to an authentic humble view of ourselves. My experience is that it usually takes less than ideal circumstance in order to keep me dead to self. Maybe you can do it, but I have never learned that on a nice sunny beach somewhere.
A Pebble in our Shoe Keep us Humble
We may have good intentions as leaders, but the combination of our fallen nature, growing up in a fallen culture with its societal institutions, makes maintaining a Kingdom mentality difficult. Well, actually, let’s be honest, in our ourselves, it’s impossible. Christ living within and transforming us is the only way. Even when those around us may be saying, “We want a King like the other Nations!”
So God in his love for us graciously provides us a thorn in the flesh. Instead of trying to pray it away or developing ways of hiding it, we need to get to the place where we embrace it like Paul did. Though the pattern of the world around us squeezes us into thinking that this represents weakness, it is actually the means to show Christ’s strength. Jesus actually was glorified through and because of the cross.
False teachers and power leaders are basically allergic to vulnerability and authenticity. I like to call them co-dependent leaders. They feel they need to project strength so that people will need them, and this reinforces to others a wrongheaded concept of leadership. But the expansion of the Gospel and growth of the Church is not dependent upon leaders who need fans or people who are emotionally dependent upon their leaders looking like a strongman. This is unhealthy and produces unhealthy leaders. Power leadership does not reproduce life.
Walking the Walk
Well how again does this all apply to mentoring? If we are a leader who is focuses on maintaining the externals of leadership to prove to everyone how great we are….it is likely we will not mentor others. Now it is fairly easy to preach a sermon and maybe even years worth of sermons without anyone knowing if we are applying all the truth we are preaching – it’s pretty easy to talk the talk without walking the walk. But this is impossible to do in an authentic mentoring relationship. This may explain why many leaders opt for preaching over mentoring. Mentoring by definition means opening up our life, being vulnerable, and leaders focused on title and protecting image will generally not do this.
So instead we hide behind our titles, positions, accomplishments rather than living open authentic lives. Yet the irony is it is just those types of lives that the next generation needs and wants to see. Unless they get close enough to an authentic leader, how will they learn what authenticity in the Body looks like? One of the greatest gifts I can give someone I am mentoring is to show them my scars – these are actually where our authority and life giving power come from.
In these introductory episodes in this series we have focused on the heart of leadership and how it relates to mentoring. We discovered that we need a revolutionary change in our thinking and priorities otherwise we are just trying to implement a program without the power to reproduce Christ’s life in others. Becoming a mentor begins with a transformational change in the values and priorities of our leadership, so that we view leadership the way Jesus did. Instead of just focussing on techniques and skills – we will get to that – I have found it most important to begin with heart issues.
Next time we are going to look at some attributes of biblical leadership and why these are so necessary in order to mentor others. As I’ve mentioned before, we reproduce who we are, we reproduce after like kind. Since others will be picking up what healthy leadership is through our attitudes and actions, it’s going to be really important to re-evaluate our own leadership values before we reproduce them in others. As always, I hope you’ll join me.
Some Leadership Matters to Consider
But before then, I’d like to leave you a few leadership matters to consider:
Have you had to struggle with others putting you on a pedestal, “wanting a king like the other nations”? How do you deal with this?
As you reflect on your current leadership role, in what ways do you rely on your gifting and position to motivate and mobilize others?
Finally, how willing are you to exemplify leadership that is willing to be vulnerable and pull back the curtain to show others the scars that made you into the person that you are?