Biblical Leadership and Community

God has given us aids as we grow in our faith—biblical leadership and biblical community.

Biblical Leadership

Part of God’s provision for the church is gifted leaders—pastors and teachers. We are all called as leaders in one sense, but God has given the church specific office of leaderships to help the Body of Christ mature.

A biblical leader needs to be three things:

1. Steward: This involves an eternal perspective, recognizing that God has given you all that you have, and that you need to manage it well.
2. Shepherd: A shepherd’s position is with the people. He must guide, protect, and feed the sheep, applying the perspective of stewardship.
3. Servant: This relates to a leader’s practice. A biblical leader serves the people he shepherds.

Leadership is about equipping others to use their gifts and grow in their faith. It is other-centered rather than focused on the self, protecting members of the Body of Christ from false teaching.

Biblical Community

Because we live in a fallen world, false teaching is sure to come. We need to grow in maturity by submitting to biblical leadership and by teaching one another.

We cannot do this alone. A biblical community is essential to the faith, because in community we find encouragement and exhortation. Meeting regularly—even informally—with a group of other believers strengthens our faith (Hebrews 10:25). It is a process of mutuality that will help us mature in the faith, appreciating the unity and diversity of the Body of Christ.

When we meet together, we need to speak the truth to love. In doing so, we must be careful to avoid two opposite extremes. The first is having all doctrine and no love. The second is being loving without speaking the truth.

Truth and love are not inimical. The more we are rooted in the truth, the more we are grounded in love.

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Watch other videos from Ken’s Monday night study.

For more on spiritual gifts, take a look at facet 9 of Ken’s revised Conformed to His Image.

Interested in learning more about biblical leadership? Try Ken’s Handbook to Leadership.