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In this blog, I provide encouragement and biblical teaching on the nature of our Good Shepherd, and how that relates to being a shepherd of His sheep. As the our Lord said:

"Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All who came before Me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly." (Joh 10:7-10)

"I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep. He who is a hired hand, and not a shepherd, who is not the owner of the sheep, sees the wolf coming, and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. "He flees because he is a hired hand and is not concerned about the sheep. "I am the good shepherd, and I know My own and My own know Me, even as the Father knows Me and I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep. (Joh 10:11-15)

"Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter by the door into the fold of the sheep, but climbs up some other way, he is a thief and a robber. But he who enters by the door is a shepherd of the sheep." (Joh 10:1-2)

Some of the topics covered include the the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, who is the Good Shepherd and our Senior Pastor, the shepherding role of elders, the need for pastors to provide good care for the sheep, the servant-hood of elders, the need for people to hear and recognize the Lord's voice, direction on how to teach and preach the Word, the significance of the seven angels of the seven churches of Asia in Revelation, church government, the purpose of structure in the Church, the proper way for disciples to treat their leaders, the need for biblical submission to authority, dealing with persecution against leaders, accusations against leaders, the distinction commonly made between clergy and laity, women teaching men, the need for leaders to be accountable, correctable, and teachable, the use of titles, as well as love, mercy, holiness, righteousness, true success as a minister, and raising the dead.

The Lord, Our Shepherd	The Shepherding Role of Elders	The Servant of the Lord
Our Senior Pastor	Accountable, correctable, and teachable	Success in God's Eyes
How to Treat Leaders	Clergy-Laity Distinction unbiblical	No One to Intercede
Jesus Christ the Nazarene	The Priesthood of All Believers	A Personality Profile of the Apostle Paul
A Tale of Two Kings	Leadership Approach Reveals View of God	Wisdom for Wealthy Preachers and Prosperity Teachers
Local Church Leadership	A Word to the Wise and Learned	The Great Shepherd of the Sheep
Women Teaching Men	How to Preach and Teach the Word	The Pros, Cons, and Purpose of Structure
Raising the Dead	Guarding Your Prayer Life	Boasting: From Human Pride to Christ-Centered Glory
Beyond the Theology: Paul’s Relational World in 2 Timothy	Courage in the Surf: A Reflection on Rescue and Redemption	The Shepherd Is the King: A Christ-Centered Reading of Psalms 23 and 24
Preparation of the Preacher	What Thirty Pages of Sayings Taught Me	The Sheep, the Goats, and the Heart Behind our Actions

Attribution notice: Scripture quotations taken from the NASB and from The Holy Bible, New International Version® NIV®, unless otherwise noted.

Author's note: You may also access my complete blog directory at "Writing for the Master. 

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Len Lacroix is the founder of Doulos Missions International.  He was based in Eastern Europe for four years, making disciples, as well as helping leaders to be more effective at making disciples who multiply, developing leaders who multiply, with the ultimate goal of planting churches that multiply. His ministry is now based in the United States with the same goal of helping fulfill the Great Commission. www.dmiworld.org.

Accountable Correctable and Teachable

If you want to serve in the Body of Christ, you need to be accountable, correctable, and teachable. I learned long ago from my mentor, Owen Carey, that these characteristics are necessary for anyone who desires to function in their God-given place of service. The easy way to remember these is that the first letter of each word forms the acronym “ACT.” Let’s open our Bibles and find out what the Word of God teaches us about this.

Accountable
First, let’s look at being accountable. There are many people who are sincere Christians and even pastors who have no true accountability in their lives. A person who is accountable must give an account for himself. He does not act independently, but allows others to hold him accountable for his actions and words. He’s willing to submit himself to other men whom he trusts. He doesn’t just have a form of accountability without any teeth, like being accountable to others who always agree with him. That means those men are free to ask him questions from time to time about his life and ministry. It means that their lives are open for examination from one another.

Questions are just one way that we hold each other accountable. Here are some examples of accountability questions in God’s Word:

Peter’s Question to Ananias
The apostle Peter held Ananias accountable for his actions. Ananias was a part of the church in Jerusalem, where Peter was serving in oversight. Ananias and his wife Sapphira saw Barnabas sell a piece of land he owned and give all the proceeds to the church. So they decided to do something similar, in order to look just as generous as Barnabas, except they secretly kept back some of the money for themselves. It was this secret withholding that got them into trouble. Peter said, "Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back some of the price of the land? "While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not under your control? Why is it that you have conceived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to men but to God." (Act 5:3-4)

It would not have been a problem if this couple had publicly declared that they were giving only part of the money to the church from the sale of their property. But in light of what Barnabas had just done, they were pretending to do the same as he did. They did not act with full disclosure. They acted in deception.

In this passage, we find that Peter asked Ananias four accountability questions: 1. Why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back some of the price of the land? 2. While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? 3. And after it was sold, was it not under your control? 4. Why is it that you have conceived this deed in your heart?

Peter’s Question to Sapphira
Peter also held Sapphira, the wife of Ananias, accountable. She was an accomplice to this whole matter. And Peter responded to her, "Tell me whether you sold the land for such and such a price?" And she said, "Yes, that was the price." Then Peter said to her, "Why is it that you have agreed together to put the Spirit of the Lord to the test? Behold, the feet of those who have buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out as well." (Act 5:8-9)

Note that Peter asked Sapphira two accountability questions: 1. Tell me whether you sold the land for such and such a price. 2. Why is it that you have agreed together to put the Spirit of the Lord to the test? Sometimes people need to ask you questions, in order to hold you accountable. And we should not become defensive or evasive when they do so.

Rich Man’s Question to the Manager
Jesus also spoke about a certain manager who needed to give an account of his actions to the rich man for whom he worked. Now He was also saying to the disciples, "There was a rich man who had a manager, and this manager was reported to him as squandering his possessions. "And he called him and said to him, 'What is this I hear about you? Give an accounting of your management, for you can no longer be manager.'” (Luk 16:1-2)

The rich man asked the manager one accountability question: What is this I hear about you? Give an accounting of your management!

As I make disciples, I walk in a mutually accountable relationship with them. We ask each other questions on a regular basis like this: 1. How have you been a testimony for Christ this week through both your words and your actions? 2. How have you experienced God in your life this week? 3. How are you responding to the promptings of the Holy Spirit? (i.e., promptings occur when the Lord leads you by His Holy Spirit). 4. Do you have any need to confess sin? 5. How did you do with the Bible reading we agreed to last week?

In leadership, this is just as important, if not more so. The Roman centurion recognized the authority of Jesus. He said to the Lord, "For I also am a man under authority, with soldiers under me; and I say to this one, 'Go!' and he goes, and to another, 'Come!' and he comes, and to my slave, 'Do this!' and he does it." (Mat 8:9). He knew that if you want to function in a place of authority, you yourself must be submitted to authority. You cannot do so otherwise. That’s why I have surrounded myself with men to whom I am accountable.

Those who exercise the oversight in the Body of Christ must be under authority. They must be in mutual accountability with other men. There are no “Lone Rangers” in the Church. You cannot say, “I’m the pastor, or I am an apostle, so I am accountable to nobody but God.” Without accountability, we are all vulnerable to veer off course into error. It can happen to anyone. That’s one of the reasons why we need each other this way.

Some of the key areas where we need to be accountable as disciples and leaders are finances, our relationships with others like our spouses, and what we view on the Internet, as well as other photographic media. There is no area of our lives that God does not see. And we all need to be accountable to someone we can trust, whom we allow to speak into our lives, asking questions of us. So we can see from Scripture that accountability is a basic aspect of service.

Correctable
Now that we’ve briefly looked at the need to be accountable, let’s see what it means to be correctable. To be correctable means you can be corrected easily. If you are saying or doing something incorrectly, then others can come up alongside you and bring correction.

Two examples from Scripture come to mind when I think of people who are correctable. The first example is from the life of King David. He was a great and godly King, whom the Lord had used mightily. But in a moment of weakness, he was tempted with sexual sin, and gave into it. He committed adultery with Bathsheba, the wife of one of his best warriors, Uriah the Hittite.

After he had did so, he then covered it up. He brought Uriah in from the battlefield and got him drunk. Then he tried to convince Uriah to go sleep with Bathsheba. He apparently hoped that if she became pregnant from his sexual liaison with her that Uriah would assume it was his child and not suspect any foul play.

But Uriah showed great leadership character. He could not require his soldiers to do anything he was not willing to do himself. So he could not go and lie with his wife at home, while his men were away from their wives, risking their lives out there on the battlefield. Since he refused to allow himself this pleasure, David’s attempted cover-up failed. So David successfully arranged for Uriah to be killed on the battlefield, and in doing so, he was guilty of murder.

Since David was not willing to confess and admit his own sin, God sent Nathan the prophet to correct him (2 Sam 12:1-12). Nathan did so quite effectively and it brought the Lord’s conviction upon David. He didn’t get defensive and say to Nathan, “I don’t have to listen to you. I’m the king.” Once David was confronted with his sin, he immediately repented. Then David said to Nathan, "I have sinned against the LORD." (2Sa 12:13a). And it was then that David wrote Psalm 51, a broken hearted prayer of repentance to God. While there were still serious consequences for his sin, God had mercy on David and forgave him. In the end, David was correctable.

Another example of someone who was correctable is Peter, the apostle. Here’s the story as the apostle Paul told it: “But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. For prior to the coming of certain men from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles; but when they came, he began to withdraw and hold himself aloof, fearing the party of the circumcision.” (Gal 2:11-12).

God had previously shown Peter, known as Cephas, that it was all right to eat and associate with Gentile believers, and he did so freely. But then some men began to influence Peter in a wrong way. These men taught that Gentile believers must be circumcised like Jews in order to be accepted by God. This caused Peter to withdraw himself from associating with the Gentiles, out of fear for what the circumcisers would say. And when Peter visited Antioch, Paul confronted him face to face over the matter. Paul said that Peter was clearly in the wrong and even though he was one of the original twelve apostles, Paul corrected him. We have no reason to believe that Peter rejected Paul’s confrontation. Peter was correctable, and God continued to use him mightily. He was instrumental in many key decisions in the church that gave freedom to the Gentiles, and he went on to die a martyr’s death for Christ.

Sometimes we need correction in an area of our life where we are committing sin. We may have justified it in our own eyes or become deceived in some area. Paul taught Timothy to “preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction.” (2Ti 4:2). There’s a time when it’s necessary to reprove or rebuke. If we repent when we are corrected, then there is forgiveness and mercy. But if we continue in sin, that’s different. Paul taught Timothy this way: “Those who continue in sin, rebuke in the presence of all, so that the rest also will be fearful of sinning.” (1Ti 5:20)

Other times we may need someone to correct us in an area we were simply mistaken. It’s not always a sin that needs to be corrected, but sometimes it can be something that we were going about doing in the wrong way. We may need to be instructed, redirected or lovingly guided back on track.

If you want to serve publicly, then you must be open to receiving correction. If you prophesy in the church, there is the potential for you to do a lot of good, building up the Body of Christ. But there is also the potential for you to do a lot of harm to people. If you are off base on something you say or in your delivery, then you may need to be corrected. If we’re not willing to be corrected, then one of two things generally happens. Either we stop serving and pull back, or we plunge forward in our own ways and do damage to others.

Lastly, let me say a word to those who may need to correct others. How we correct someone must always be in line with the heart of Jesus. We should not do it in such a way that intentionally humiliates the person or damages him. Instead we should be gentle and speak the truth in love. Sometimes all that’s needed is to exhort the person or appeal to them. Paul taught Timothy, “Do not sharply rebuke an older man, but rather appeal to him as a father, to the younger men as brothers.” (1Ti 5:1). The one who seeks to correct another person needs great patience. We need to remember that we are all imperfect human beings. There’s no need to be harsh with each other. We are a family in Christ and should treat each other that way.

Teachable
The final characteristic of the Lord’s servant that I’d like to examine is the need to be teachable. No matter what your ministry is in the Body of Christ, you need to be teachable. It doesn’t matter whether you are operating in hospitality, helps, serving meals, visiting the sick, or proclaiming the gospel. It doesn’t matter whether you are teaching the Bible, prophesying, or caring for the sheep. No matter what your gift is, you are not exempt.

A great example of this is Apollos. He was a great teacher of the Word. Here’s his story:

“Now a Jew named Apollos, an Alexandrian by birth, an eloquent man, came to Ephesus; and he was mighty in the Scriptures. This man had been instructed in the way of the Lord; and being fervent in spirit, he was speaking and teaching accurately the things concerning Jesus, being acquainted only with the baptism of John; and he began to speak out boldly in the synagogue. But when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately.” (Act 18:24-26)

Apollos was an eloquent man, who had been instructed in the way of the Lord. He was mighty in the Scriptures, fervent in spirit, and spoke boldly for Christ in public. It’s important to note that he spoke and taught accurately concerning Jesus. But he was only familiar with the baptism of John, which was a baptism of repentance.

When these two disciples of Christ, Priscilla and Aquila heard him, look how they handled it. They took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately. They didn’t embarrass him with a public correction. Priscilla and Aquila co-labored with the apostle Paul (Rom 16:3), and even hosted a church in their home (1Co 16:19). But they walked in humility toward this man of God, treating him with love and respect.

Notice how teachable he was. Even though he was so well known and effective in his ministry, he was open to being taught more accurately concerning Jesus. This is the attitude we should have. It doesn’t matter if you are a highly effective teacher or preacher of God’s Word. It matters not how famous you are or how many years experience you have behind the pulpit. You still need to be teachable.

There are times when your doctrine may be out of line with Scripture and someone needs to show it to you. Don’t argue with them, bristle, or get defensive. Listen to what others have to say, especially those to whom you have submitted your self or with whom you co-labor. But anyone should be able to come to you and teach you something, including a child. As long as what they are showing you is based on God’s Word, you should pray about it and ask the Lord where you may have been incorrect. Diligently search the Word to see if these things are true, and then make the adjustment where it is needed.

Now what do you do if the person who is over you in Christ is teaching something inaccurately? You should take them aside and discuss it. Sometimes doing this right after they speak is not always the best way. Likewise, email is the worst form of communication to try and resolve any sort of conflict, including a doctrinal one. A lot of damage can be done when we use email to try to show someone an area of Scripture more accurately. This also applies to correcting a person as well. The reason is that the person can read tone into the email that you may not have intended, and it may end up hurting them. You could do more harm than good approaching it that way.

You may need to go up to them and invite them for lunch. Let them know you love and appreciate them and that you’d like to get together to talk. Spend the time to show you care and sit with the person in a relaxed setting.

When you meet with the person, a good way to begin is to ask him, “What was in your heart when you shared that?” Take the time to first understand the person, before you seek to be understood and make your point. Once you have come to understand the person’s motive and intentions, as well as what he actually meant by what he said, you are better able to address it.

If the matter cannot be resolved with your leader individually, it’s appropriate to request time to sit with him and the other elders to discuss it in front of them. This might happen if your leader does not agree with what you have attempted to show him. In that case, humbly present your concerns to him before the other elders. If he is truly accountable and teachable, this will be received well.

That doesn’t mean that everything will work out the way you want it to. There is the possibility you may be incorrect about the matter you have sought to teach. But this is the best way to handle it. It should result in everyone searching the Scriptures together in great humility to find the Truth. And ultimately the truth of God’s Word should be upheld. Everyone should grow in respect for one another, and their relationship with each other should be stronger as a result of this experience.

Putting it All Together
In order to serve in God’s house, you need to have the right character. I’ve learned that a person can destroy with his character what he has built with his gift. You may spend years building something great for God with your gift. But if you do not allow God to deal with a character flaw, it will eventually destroy what you have built. If there is an area of your life that is not in obedience to the Lord’s Word, then it will all come crashing down eventually and damage many people (Matt 7:27).

Make sure you first deal with your character flaws before you start to serve publicly. The only way to do so is to allow other godly people to speak into your life. You need to be accountable, correctable, and teachable, and then you can ACT. You may still have areas in your life that the Lord is working on, and you may not be perfect yet. But if you are accountable, correctable, and teachable, you will be free to serve publicly in the Body of Christ.

Attribution notice: Most Scripture quotations taken from the NASB.

Author's note:  If you enjoyed this post, you may also like the other posts in this blog available through the Home page, such as A Tale of Two Kings, The Servant of the Lord, The Shepherding Role of Elders, Success in God's Eyes, A Personality Profile of the Apostle Paul, Persecuted or Popular?, and Having a Servant's Heart. You may also access my complete blog directory at "Writing for the Master."

Do You Want to Know Him?
If you want to know Jesus personally, you can. It all begins when you repent and believe in Jesus.  Do you know what God's Word, the Bible says?

“Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God, and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.’” (Mar 1:14b-15).  He preached that we must repent and believe.

Please see my explanation of this in my post called "Do You Want to Know Jesus?"

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Len Lacroix is the founder of Doulos Missions International.  He was based in Eastern Europe for four years, making disciples, as well as helping leaders to be more effective at making disciples who multiply, developing leaders who multiply, with the ultimate goal of planting churches that multiply. His ministry is now based in the United States with the same goal of helping fulfill the Great Commission. www.dmiworld.org.

How to Treat Leaders

Being a leader can be pretty tough. The leader is the one whom people usually blame if things are not going the way they would like. In fact, leaders in the church usually serve night and day. They don’t have regular office hours where they can leave work at the office when they go home. Often they are taken for granted and the importance of their role is minimized. But what does the Bible say about how we should treat our leaders?

Pray for your Leaders
The apostle Paul wrote to Timothy, "First of all, then, I urge that entreaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgivings, be made on behalf of all men, for kings and all who are in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity." (1Ti 2:1-2)

This is of primary importance. We need to pray for our leaders, not just the leaders of our national government, but also those in authority in the church. If we all spent more time praying for our church leaders, rather than criticizing and blaming them, things would go better for them and their flocks.

Imitate the Faith of Your Leaders
"Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith." (Heb 13:7)

What does it mean to imitate the faith of your leaders? The Greek word used here literally means to mimic. This does not mean to mimic their personality, but rather their faith. In other words, you should reproduce the same faith you see in them. You should follow them.

This is what the apostle Paul meant when he wrote to the Corinthians, "Be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ." (1Co 11:1). Notice he said, "as I imitate Christ." To the degree that Christ is central in the lives of the leadership, you can follow them. And to the degree that Christ is not central in their lives, you should address that with them humbly. If they do not receive what you have to say, then that's when you may need to move on to someplace else.

It's difficult for most people to take what they read in Scripture and put it directly into practice in their own lives until they have seen someone else model it for them. This is one reason why godly leaders, who make Christ central, are so important. As you watch them imitate Christ, you will see what it looks like to be a disciple, and then you should imitate them.

Obey Your Leaders and Submit to them
"Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you." (Heb 13:17)

Perhaps it's best to begin this section on obedience with an important caveat. As a friend of mine commented: "I think when you try to define obedience and its requirements, you also have to define and find what the limits of biblical leadership are, something that is usually never done. So in most situations, there has been a lot of abuse, because it has been commonly understood that the leader is beyond questioning. I agree that in some areas, the leader’s authority is full and final, but that the scope where this is true is actually quite limited. So what commonly occurs is you have a leader, who believes his leadership domain is plenary when it is not. Then he gets offended when the 'followers' chafe at something, and they both lose respect for each other, and end up at odds. I think it all stems from misunderstanding of the leader’s real role, and that is to lead, not dictate." I agree with my friend's comments, and I think he adequately sums up the caveat.

With that said, elders in the Body of Christ are supposed to be keeping watch over the souls the Lord has placed under their care. They must give an account to the Lord for those souls. Many times people take this for granted and do not sense any sort of accountability to their elders. Rather they are always in a non-committed state, choosing to remain "a visitor" wherever they go.

While there is no Scripture that says you must have a "home church," it is assumed in Scripture that you will be connected to the Body of Christ in a local assembly, where you are accountable to the elders there. That does not necessarily mean you need to be part of an institutional church, as we normally think of church in the twentieth century. It could be a house church, as well.

It would also seem to go beyond Scripture to suggest that elders are accountable for the souls of every visitor who attends one of their services on occasion. At least, it's not the same level of accountability as that which concerns the people who have made a commitment to be an ongoing part of that local expression of the Body of Christ. Therefore, it's necessary for the elders of a local assembly to know who are the ones whom the Lord has led to commit themselves to serve under their oversight.

If certain people insist on remaining perpetually non-committed, this presents an issue for the leaders. Since the elders are accountable to God and one another, then the people under their care need to make a decision before the Lord where they will be planted and serve. That's why you need to make up your mind where the Lord is leading you to be connected, and then follow through with your commitment.

Respect Your Leaders
Paul wrote to the Thessalonians, "We ask you, brothers, to respect those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you, and to esteem them very highly in love because of their work. Be at peace among yourselves." (1Th 5:12-13)

Here we are taught not only to respect our leaders, but to esteem them very highly in love. And it's important to note that he is referring to specific leaders here. First, he means those who labor among you. These are not simply people who carry a leadership title, but do not serve. The text connotes those who diligently labor. In other words, they are toiling and working hard. And they not only do so while positioned separately from you. They are especially working like this "among you," in other words "in your midst." They come up alongside you to help you grow in your walk with the Lord.

Secondly, Paul here refers to the leaders as those who are over you in the Lord. This expression in English comes from the Greek word “proistamenous”, which means to “preside,” “maintain,” “be over,” or “rule”. Not all leaders in the Body of Christ around the world are over you in the Lord, but only those who specifically have charge over you. I realize this is contrary to what many people believe today. Many reject the notion that anyone is in charge of them or over them. But this is not my idea. It's straight from the Word of God. These are the ones we are to esteem very highly in love.

Honor Your Leaders
"The elders who rule well are to be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who work hard at preaching and teaching." (1Ti 5:17).

So there is a clear instruction to honor our leaders. In fact, those who rule well, those who maintain the flock well, especially those who work hard at preaching and teaching, are worthy of twice as much honor as leaders who simply discharge their minimum duties.

There are many ways to honor people. One way is to bless them with gifts. And in the context of this passage, Paul was explaining that we must financially support our leaders. He continued, "The laborer is worthy of his wages." (1Ti 5:18). So financial gifts are one way to honor our leaders, and certain leaders are worthy of double the honor we would normally give. As he taught the Corinthians, the Scripture says, "YOU SHALL NOT MUZZLE THE OX WHILE HE IS THRESHING." (1 Co 9:9). That's not just referring to animals. “So also the Lord directed those who proclaim the gospel to get their living from the gospel.” (1Co 9:14). As he wrote to the Galatians, "The one who is taught the word is to share all good things with the one who teaches him." (Gal 6:6). Therefore, look out for your leaders, and be careful not to withhold from them what they deserve.

Avoid Accusations Against Leaders
"Do not receive an accusation against an elder except on the basis of two or three witnesses." (1Ti 5:19)

So anytime someone speaks to you, making an accusation against an elder, don’t receive it. Unless there are two or three witnesses who can substantiate the accusation, dismiss it.

Avoid Using Titles for Leaders
"But do not be called Rabbi; for One is your Teacher, and you are all brothers. "Do not call anyone on earth your father; for One is your Father, He who is in heaven. "Do not be called leaders; for One is your Leader, that is, Christ. But the greatest among you shall be your servant. “ (Mat 23:8-11)

Jesus taught that those who serve as overseers of the flock must not be called leaders. True leaders serve, and we all have One Leader, Jesus Christ. In this one blog alone, I have used the word “leader” nearly fifty times! That reflects how ingrained this word has become in our vocabulary. Yet the only time it is used in the New Testament is when Jesus told us not to use this title. Even in the Hebrews passage I have quoted earlier, the original language does not use the term "leaders," but literally says, “Obey those who led you and submit to them…” (Heb 13:7). So when we need to refer to those who lead us, it would be better to choose a term used in God’s word, such as elder or overseer (Tit 1). And when speaking directly to these people, we should avoid titles altogether.

Yet how often do people call leaders, “Father,” “Holy Father,” “Pastor,” “Reverend,” “The Right Reverend,” “Apostle,” “Bishop,” “Archbishop,” “Bishop Doctor,” or “Elder so-and-so”? Some people may even refer to a leader as God's "General." Don’t do this to your leaders! And if you are a leader, don’t let people call you by any of these titles! They should be able to address you by your first name, just as Paul was addressed by his first name and just as the members of the Body of Christ should address one another by their first names. We are family, and brothers and sisters don’t use titles to address each other.

Putting it All Together
So often, we see leaders being falsely accused, blamed for things, and not honored or supported by the people they are presiding over. Yet we are taught in God’s Word to hold our leaders in honor, to pray for them, to support them financially, and to obey them so their work will be a joy rather than a burden. We are not to receive accusations against them that cannot be substantiated by two or three witnesses.

We are also taught to obey our leaders in Christ and submit to them. This requires a commitment on our part to be planted in a local assembly and be accountable to those who have the oversight there.

Even so, in all this, we need to avoid addressing them with titles, since this only puffs them up. We want to help them to walk humbly and not lead them into the sin of pride, which is the human tendency.

If you have not treated your leaders the way you should, there's still a chance to do so. Now is the time of God's favor. Now is the time to ask Him to forgive you and help you to do what His Word commands.

Attribution notice: Most Scripture quotations taken from the NASB.

Author's note: If you enjoyed this post, you may also like the other posts in this blog available through the links in the side bar. If you would like to read more on this topic, see my other post in this blog, "The Lord, Our Shepherd." You may also access my complete blog directory at "Writing for the Master."

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Len Lacroix is the founder of Doulos Missions International.  He was based in Eastern Europe for four years, making disciples, as well as helping leaders to be more effective at making disciples who multiply, developing leaders who multiply, with the ultimate goal of planting churches that multiply. His ministry is now based in the United States with the same goal of helping fulfill the Great Commission. www.dmiworld.org.