A remedy for the plague

One of my favourite bits of 16th-century canon law speaks about how ‘the condition of the state is ruined when it is governed by people who are stupid, demanding, and burning with ambition.’

At the same time, it continues: ‘The church of God is struggling, since it is committed to the care of those who are totally incompetent to assume so important a task. In this respect it has fallen very far short indeed of those rules of the blessed Paul, which he prescribed to Timothy and Titus. Therefore we must find an appropriate remedy for so serious a plague on our churches.’

Don’t appoint gifted people

I’ve noticed, studying those pastoral epistles for a new commentary I’ve put together, that we’re not supposed to appoint gifted people to positions of church leadership. I know that sounds like the ‘strategic’ thing to do. But Titus is not told to appoint people who have great leadership potential and scintillating oratory. Paul doesn’t say pick some people from the best families and the best universities on Crete, and fashion them into instruments for transforming Cretan society.

Titus is told to pick people whose character and commitment to the truth mark them out already as ambassadors for ‘the truth which leads to godliness’. Because Paul knows that exalting gifts and charisma over character and deep commitment would leave the church vulnerable to manipulative mercenaries and narcissists.

We’ve had enough of them – their shameful defections, their moral compromises, their abuses of power. I don’t have to name them. You know who I mean.

So, we don’t exalt gifts over godliness and a grip on the gospel. We don’t exalt charisma over character and commitment. I know that 1 Timothy 3 says an overseer must be ‘able to teach’. But that isn’t a command to find people with teaching gifts and skills, or knowledge and degrees, and appoint them. Ability to teach is about more than didactic pedagogic technique. It’s also about someone having such a firm grip on the truth that consistency of life and clarity of teaching flow out naturally and inevitably.

From all classes and types

This is why the Reformer, Martin Bucer, said in his book on The True Care of Souls that we shouldn’t be looking for just one type or class of people to lead the church. ‘God has not distributed his gifts in this way,’ he says. ‘In order that it may be seen that all Christians, high and low alike, are nonetheless one in Christ, ministers of the church have been taken from people of high, middle or lower classes, as each was found to excel in the necessary gifts for the care of souls … the Lord desires to have a group of people involved in the ministry of the church and uses many different sorts of people in it, who also come from all classes and are of all types.’

So, we’re not supposed to care how talented someone is, how passionate, how entrepreneurial, how attractive and clever or social media savvy. It doesn’t matter what their educational or family background is. That’s not what we’re looking for in the next generation of church leaders.

If...

The most important, but often ignored, word in the whole of Titus chapter 1 is the first word of verse 6 (in the Greek or the ESV). Titus is told to appoint people as elders IF – and only IF – he can find people who match the pastor’s job description in Titus 1:5-9.

That means we’re not seeking those who can make an impressive career in the church, ‘the ones to watch’. Rather, we’re to be on the lookout for those who are trustworthy and true. Because we’re not after sparkling celebrities, but faithful stewards of the gospel and loyal servants of God.

I know it sounds mundane. But it’s harder than we think to be this subversively counter-cultural in our leadership selection. Yet this is how we change everything.

So next time you hear someone complaining about the current crisis, about how ‘the condition of the state is ruined when it is governed by people who are stupid, demanding, and burning with ambition’… remember that the church is struggling too. It is unsettled, unhealthy, and unfit in many ways. The remedy for our plague is not ‘a great leader’ – it’s godly, faithful stewards.