How should leaders lead?

Leadership is having a hard time.

Appalling abuses of power in Christian circles sit within a broader suspicion of power and authority. Some speak of a crisis in recruitment to pastoral ministry. Seeing the demands of leadership, and those who fail, perhaps it is no surprise that people aren’t clamouring to join up.

Yet from another vantage point, I also see encouragements. One delight in my work with Biblical Counselling UK (BCUK) is meeting with pastors taking a sabbatical. Many have chosen to take our foundational course, Dynamics of Biblical Change, as part of their sabbatical, and that has involved me meeting with them one-to-one for some open-ended discussions. I have been struck again and again by the honesty, integrity and passion these pastors feel for their church families and their ministry.

The New Testament, indeed the Lord Jesus Himself, sets a radically distinctive shape to leadership. I was struck recently by the three images Paul puts before us in his first letter to the church in Thessalonica. In quick succession, he uses images of child, mother and then father to describe his ambitions as an apostle of Christ. They provide a challenging template.

1. Lead like young children^*

Paul says ‘we could have asserted our authority’, but we didn’t. ‘Instead, we were like young children among you.’ This is Christlikeness in the use of power. Jesus had authority and glory and honour, but set it aside to come in humility, as a servant. In imitation of Christ, there should be something utterly distinctive about Christian leaders. Not self-important, not self-promoting, not self-focused in any way. Not even insisting on respect, but simply longing to be allowed to serve. This is discipleship 101. Jesus said: ‘Anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it’ (Mark 10:15). Having begun that way, we must continue that way. A child knows their dependence. A child doesn’t assert their authority.

^{*(I should, perhaps, note that there is debate on the translation of 1 Thessalonians 2:7. Some early manuscripts have ‘young children’, others ‘gentle’ – there’s only a single letter difference in the Greek. Leon Morris lands on young children and I’ll go with him. But the ideas, if not the first image, still works even if you prefer ‘gentle’!)}

2. Lead like nursing mothers.

'Just as a nursing mother cares for her children, so we cared for you’, Paul continues (1 Thess. 2:7). It’s such a striking image. Paul compares himself to a breast-feeding mum. With all the tenderness, intimacy and self-giving love such a relationship involves. It’s so personal. ‘We were delighted’, Paul says, ‘to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well’. This is no distant, six-feet-above-contradiction, kind of pastoring. It’s a down-in-the-weeds, sharing-life-with-you style of ministry. Leaders are to nurture those they serve with the very personal love shown by a nursing mother.

3. Lead like an encouraging father.

Paul’s third image comes just three verses later – ‘for you know that we dealt with each of you as a father deals with his own children’ (1 Thess. 2:11). This one concerns encouragement. Rather than import our own ideas about fathering, notice what Paul accents. He uses strong words about giving courage and emboldening believers to ‘live lives worthy of God’ (v.12). This is an ambitious father wanting the very best for his child – urging them forwards, cheering them on, encouraging them to set the very highest ambitions for their lives – that it might be a life that God is pleased with.

Not many, James warns us, should presume to be teachers. It is a demanding task and those who teach will be judged more strictly (James 3:1). Yet it is also a noble task (1 Tim.3:1) requiring the very imitation of Christ. Jesus was humble and gentle and came not to be served, but to serve (Mark 10:45). Also, relationship with Jesus is as personal as it is possible to imagine – we are united with Christ. And, finally, He urges us to live worthy lives by giving up everything to follow Him.

If you are a leader, why not renew your commitment to lead like this – in humility as a young child, with personal love like that of a nursing mother, and with fatherlike encouragement and godly ambitions for those you lead.

If you aren’t a leader, pray for those are. Pray that they would be leaders like this, and that in our churches we would do what we can to make their work a joy and not a burden (Heb.13:17).