Latest / Reformed Thinking / The Steward, Not the Sovereign: Breaking the Idol of Self-Will in the House of God

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The Steward, Not the Sovereign: Breaking the Idol of Self-Will in the House of God · Reformed Thinking

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Welcome back to Reformed Thinking.
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I have to admit, looking at the stack of notes and research for
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this session, I I hesitated a little before we started
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recording. Usually we're excited to open a
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file, but this one, it feels different.
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It feels, I don't know, dangerous.
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It is a dangerous topic. Yeah, it's the kind of thing
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that makes you look around the sanctuary on Sunday morning and
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just wonder if you're even allowed to, you know, think
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these thoughts. I get that, but I would argue
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it's not dangerous because the Bible is vague.
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The scriptures are, I think, crystal clear here.
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OK, it's dangerous because we are about to confront a very
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popular idol in the modern church.
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So what are we talking about? We're opening up Titus chapter
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1, specifically verse 7. We are, and we're analyzing the
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biblical qualification for an elder to be not arrogant.
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Oh, arrogant. See, that's where I get sucked
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right out of the gate. Because on the surface, that
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just, It sounds like a personality test.
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It sounds like the Apostle Paul is just saying, hey, try not to
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be a jerk. You know, be nice.
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Is that really enough to sustain a whole deep dive?
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It feels like we're making a mountain out of a molehill if
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we're just going to talk about manners for an hour.
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And if you think this is about manners, or you know about being
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a nice guy, you're missing the tectonic plates moving
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underneath the text. OK, so there's more here.
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So much more. We looked at the commentaries,
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the lexical data, and the Reformed systematic theology all
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surrounding this one passage, and what we found is that this
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is not about personality quirks, it is about the structural
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survival of the Church. The survival of the Church.
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Yes, and the text we're analyzing specifically that
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Greek term othea. It argues that an arrogant
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leader isn't just rude, he is functionally a thief.
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A thief. OK, hold on.
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When I think of a thief in the church, I think of the guy
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embezzling from the building funds.
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Sure, the obvious stuff. Yeah, or the treasurer cooking
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the books. You're telling me that a
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personality trait, arrogance, makes a man a thief?
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Functionally, yes. That is the core argument we
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really need to work through today.
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We have to dismantle this popular CEO model of ministry
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that has really taken over since the mid 20th century.
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And replace it with what? And recover the biblical model
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of the economist, which is the steward.
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If we get this wrong, we are not just dealing with hurt feelings
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or a, you know, tense board meeting.
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We are dealing with a distortion of the very image of Christ.
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The stakes could not be higher. Well, let's get into the text
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then. If you're going to say this is
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about theft and the survival of the church, I want to see the
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evidence. We are in Titus chapter 1, so
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set the stage for us. Where is Titus and what is he
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doing? All right, so Paul is writing to
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Titus, who is his Apostolic delegate, his kind of man on the
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ground, and Titus is stationed on the island of Crete.
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Crete. Now, we need to understand
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Crete. This was not a vacation spot in
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the 1st century. It was a moral disaster zone.
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Paul's not very complimentary about them later in the chapter,
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is he? No, he's not.
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Not at all. In verse 12, he actually quotes
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one of their own prophets. Right, which is always a good
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move. Yeah, and the prophet calls them
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evil beasts, lazy gluttons. It was a culture just defined by
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total self indulgence. The mindset was I do what I
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want, when I want and I don't care who hurts.
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So into this chaos, Paul sends Titus.
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He does, and he leaves him there with a very specific mandate.
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Appoint elders in every town. He is building the leadership
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structure of the church right in the middle of this mess.
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OK, so he gives this list of qualifications.
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We've seen these lists before in other places, like in Timothy,
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husband of one wife, believing children, that sort of thing.
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Right, but there is a microscopic hinge in the text
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that connects verse 6 and verse 7.
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And I think most people when they read it, they just read
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right past it. In English, it usually shows up
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as the word for for an overseer. For that's the hinge, that
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little word. It's the Greek word gar, and in
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logical discourse it's massive. It connects the argument.
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It shows cause and effect. So what's it connecting?
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Verse 6 talks about the potential elders home life,
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specifically that his children should not be open to the charge
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of debauchery or insubordination.
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Then verse 7 starts with four. It's telling us why that home
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life matters so much. It's building a bridge.
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Paul is building a logical bridge.
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He's arguing that domestic chaos is often a symptom of something
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deeper in the Father. A symptom of what?
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I have to play devil's advocate here for a second.
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Go for it. I know plenty of good, humble
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men who have a child that you know, goes off the rails.
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Teenagers make their own choices.
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Are you saying if a kid rebels, the dad is automatically
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arrogant? I mean, that feels like a heavy
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burden to lay on parents. That is a fear of pushback, and
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we have to be really careful here not to crush grieving
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parents who have done their best and prayed their hearts out.
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But look closer at the text in verse 6.
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It specifies that the children are not open to the trump of
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debauchery or insubordination. The language implies a certain
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kind of out of control wildness, a pattern that suggests the home
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has no real boundaries, no real governance.
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So. It's not about a single bad
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choice the kid makes. No, it's about the atmosphere of
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the home and the logic of the guard.
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That little word for suggests that if a home is that chaotic,
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you have to look at the father's leadership.
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Is he negligent? Is he just checked out?
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Or, and this is where our topic comes in, is he so overbearing?
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So authorities that he has actually provoked that
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rebellion. So the chaos in the living room
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is is often a mirror of the father's ego.
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Precisely. If a man is self pleasing at
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home, he destroys the piece of his own house.
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Paul's argument is simple, and it's devastating.
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If he destroys his own house because of his ego, you cannot
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transplant him into God's house and expect him to suddenly
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become a servant. That makes sense.
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The Four tells us that the private life is the proving
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ground for the public office. You can't be a tyrant at the
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dinner table Monday through Saturday and then a gentle
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shepherd in the pulpit on Sunday.
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OK, so we crossed the bridge of four and we land on this next
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phrase. The research highlights the
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grammar here as being very specific.
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It says for an overseer as God, Steward must be above reproach.
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Yes, the keyword there is day. It's a Greek verb That means it
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is necessary, it is binding, or one must.
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This isn't a suggestion. But isn't must sort of implied
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in all the commandments? I mean, you must not steal.
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Why focus on this one word here? Because of what it's connected
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to. It's the reason for the
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necessity. It doesn't say he must be humble
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because humility is a nice personality trait, right?
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It says he must be above reproach as God steward.
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The necessity, the divine compulsion, comes from the role
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itself. I think I need a real world
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analog to get my head around that.
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It's a bit abstract. OK, imagine a bank teller.
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A bank teller must be honest. Why?
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So they don't steal the money. Right.
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Not because honesty gives the bank a friendly atmosphere, or
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because the manager just prefers nice people.
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He must be honest. Because if a teller is not
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honest, the bank ceases to function as a bank.
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It becomes a crime scene. Exactly.
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The role itself demands the quality.
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Honesty isn't a bonus feature for a bank teller, it's the job
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description. So you're saying if an elder is
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arrogant, he's not just a bad elder, he stops functioning as
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an elder entirely? In a fundamental way, yes.
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He ceases to be a steward. He starts acting like an owner.
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And that brings us right to the word of the hour, the specific
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word Paul uses to describe this disqualifying trait.
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Awfadees. Awfadees.
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OK, let's break that down. I know we have some listeners
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who love the etymology. What are the roots here?
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It's a compound word, pretty straightforward actually.
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The first part is autos. Autos like automatic or
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autograph self. Right self and the second part
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is hide. Am I it means to please or to
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enjoy? Huh.
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Hot am I? Sounds a bit like hedonism.
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It's the same route so literally the authades man is self
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pleasing. Self pleasing.
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That sounds, well, broad. I mean, who doesn't want to
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please themselves? I want to eat a good steak.
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I want to sleep in on Saturday. Does that make me authades of?
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Course not. We're all sinners who struggle
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with selfishness. That's part of the fall.
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But this word describes something deeper.
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It's a settled character trait, A disposition.
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Aristotle actually talks about this type of man in his Magna
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Moralia. What does Aristotle say?
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He defines the Orthodox man as surly.
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He describes him as someone who adheres strictly to his own
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counsel and this is the key part, refuses to listen to
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reason. Oh I know that guy.
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We all know that guy. You're in a meeting, 5 people
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look at the data and say we should go left and he just says
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no, I've decided we're going right.
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And he can't explain why, other than the fact that it was his
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idea. It's not just confidence.
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Confidence listens to data. It weighs arguments.
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Authadia, that's the noun form, is an inability to accommodate
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others. It views collaboration as
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weakness. It's the guy who thinks deep
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down, if I didn't think of it, it's not a good idea.
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And contextually, this is what the Cretans were like, right?
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You mentioned the evil beasts Lazy Glutton's comment earlier.
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They were the original self pleaser.
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Right. The entire culture of Crete was
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I do what I want, I eat what I want, I lie.
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If it helps me, Paul is saying the elder must be the antithesis
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of the surrounding culture. A countercultural figure.
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Absolutely. If you put a self pleasing man
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in the pulpit in Crete, you don't have a shepherd, you just
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have a cretin in a suit. Or, for our tradition, a cretin
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in a Geneva gown. A cretin in a Geneva gown.
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And that distinction between pleasing self and pleasing God
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is where we move from just talking about personality to
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talk about theology. This is where we had to get into
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the concept of the Oconomos. The steward.
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This is Section 2 in our outline, the steward versus the
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owner. And this seems to be the heart
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of that thief accusation you made at the beginning.
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It is the Oconomist. This is one of the most vital
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concepts for leadership in the new investment because it is so
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countercultural to how we view leadership today.
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How so? Well, in the ancient Greco Roman
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world, an economist, a steward, was very often a slave.
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A slave, but he's running the whole household.
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He has the keys to the treasury. He's.
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A high-ranking slave for sure. Think of Joseph and Potiphar's
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house in Genesis. He managed the money, the crops,
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the staff. He had immense authority, but,
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and this is the absolute crucial part, he owned nothing.
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He owned nothing. Not a single coin, not one stalk
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of wheat. Every decision he made was
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subject to the will of the master.
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If the master said sell the wheat, the steward could not say
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no. You know what?
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I'm holding on to it because I like how it looks in the barn.
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He'd be fired or worse. He had authority, but it was all
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borrowed authority delegate. So applying this to the church,
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if the pastor is the Orconimos, the steward.
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Then the church has a master and it is not the pastor.
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The Master is Jesus Christ. He bought the church with his
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own blood. He is the owner, the pastor, the
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elders. They're just the managers.
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They're the hired help, so to speak.
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So when a pastor says, and we've all heard this or something like
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it, my vision for my church is X and he pushes that vision
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through even when it hurts the people.
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He is stepping out of the role of steward and sitting in the
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chair of the owner and that is theft.
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He is stealing authority that does does not belong to him.
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He is embezzling power. Arrogance is the posture of
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ownership. That reframes everything.
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This leads us into some deep theological waters.
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Now we need to distinguish between what our notes call
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ministerial and magisterial authority.
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Now I know some listeners might gloss over when we use terms
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like that, but you're arguing this distinction might be the
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only thing protecting you from spiritual abuse.
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It's systematic theology one O 1, but we have largely forgotten
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it. Magisterial power is the power
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to create laws. It's the power to say this is
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true because I say it is true. Because I said so.
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The ultimate parent card. Right.
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And in the universe, that power belongs to God alone.
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He's the magistrate. Now the Roman Catholic Church,
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and we say this recognizing our historic differences, claims a
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version of this for the Church Magisterium.
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They believe the Church has the authority to bind the conscience
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on things not explicitly found in Scripture.
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But as reformed folks, as Protestants, we don't have a
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Pope. We are not supposed to act like
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we have a Pope. The Protestant view, the
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biblical view, is that church officers only have ministerial
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power. They are ministers, servants.
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Their authority is declarative. That's the keyword.
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Declarative. Unpack that for us.
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What does that mean in practice? It means they can only declare
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what Christ has already established in His Word.
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They don't make the law, they just announce the law.
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Think of a traffic cop. A traffic cop has authority,
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right? If he holds up his hand, you
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stop your car. Right.
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I'm not going to argue with him. But the traffic cop can't make
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up the speed limit on the fly. He can't pull you over and say,
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you know what? Today the speed limit is 10 mph
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because I'm in a bad mood. No, the law is set by the
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legislature. He just enforces it.
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He is a minister of the law, not the author of the law.
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His power is ministerial. OK, let's make this practical
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for the church. If a pastor gets up in the
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pulpit and says the Bible says do, do not commit adultery, that
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is ministerial power. Correct.
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He is reading the King's decree. He's acting as a herald.
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But if he gets up and says to be a good Christian, you must vote
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for this specific political candidate, or you must
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homeschool your children, or you absolutely must stop drinking
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coffee. He is now exercising magisterial
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power. He is binding the conscience
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where Scripture has left it free.
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He is making up new laws for God's Kingdom.
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And the moment he does that, he is acting like a little Pope in
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his own little Vatican. The.
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Little Pope. It's a terrifying image, The
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crazy thing. Our own confessions, our own
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tradition warns us about this explicitly.
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You pulled up the Westminster Confession of Faith for this.
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Chapter 31, Section 3 says all synods are counsels, since the
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apostles times, whether general or particular, may air.
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And it adds and many have erred. It's such a humble admission.
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It is basically a group of some of the most brilliant
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theologians in history getting together and writing down in
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their foundational document. Hey, just so you know, we might
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be wrong about some stuff. But the arrogant pastor, the
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Asadas man, he doesn't have that clause in his personal
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constitution, does he? Not a chance.
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He operates with a functional infallibility.
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If you disagree with his new building project, you're not
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just disagreeing with a budget item.
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You are resisting the spirit. You are being rebellious.
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He equates his preferences with God's will.
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And that's where it gets so psychologically damaging.
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Because if you convince yourself that your good ideas are
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actually God's ideas, than anyone who says no to you isn't
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just an opponent, they're an enemy of God.
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And you can justify doing almost anything to an enemy of God.
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That is why we call it structural legalism.
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It's not just that he's a grumpy guy, it's that he has built a
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structure, an entire system where his will is the law.
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And that is why Paul says in Titus, for an overseer as God
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steward must not be arrogant, because if he is, the whole
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structure of biblical authority collapses into tyranny.
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And when that structure collapses, people get hurt.
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Really hurt. Which brings us to the next
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section of our deep dive. We need to look at the fruit of
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this arrogance, because Titus doesn't just list arrogance and
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then stop. It's the head of a very nasty
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list of other sins. It is.
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It's the upstream source. Look at the list in Titus 1.7.
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It says an overseer must not be arrogant, not quick tempered,
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not a drunkard, not violent, not greedy for gain.
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It reads like a domino effect, one thing knocking over the
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next. It absolutely is.
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Let's trace it. Why is the arrogant man quick
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tempered? We need to understand the
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psychology here. It's not just that he has a bad
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temper, it's what psychologist might call a narcissistic
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injury. OK, when you are self pleasing,
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when you view yourself as the center of the story, any
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resistance to your will, any no, feels like a deep personal
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attack. So if I raise my hand in an
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elders meeting and say I'm not sure we can afford that new
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sound system right now, the arrogant man doesn't hear a
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budget concern. He hears I hate you and I want
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your vision to fail. He interprets contradiction as
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assault. He can't separate his ideas from
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his identity, so he lashes out. The anger is a defense mechanism
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for his fragile ego. A humble man can handle a no.
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He could think, OK, maybe I'm wrong.
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Let's look at the numbers together.
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The all fails man cannot handle a no because his entire identity
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is wrapped up in being right, in being the guy with the plan.
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And then you get drunkard and greedy for gain.
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How do those connect back to arrogance?
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The self pleasing man feels entitled.
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That is the connection. He feels entitled to indulge his
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appetites, whether it's with alcohol or something else.
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He feels entitled to other people's money.
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I. Work so hard for this church.
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I deserve this expensive meal, this bonus, this.
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This lifestyle arrogance convinces a man that the people
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exist to serve him rather than the other way around.
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His comfort becomes the goal. That reminds me so much of the
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Old Testament passage. The sources brought up Ezekiel
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34, the anti shepherd. That is a devastating chapter,
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just devastating. God is prosecuting the
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shepherds, the leaders of Israel, and His main charge is
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this. You feed yourselves, but you do
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not feed the flock. He says you eat the fat, you
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clothe yourselves at the wool, you slaughter the fat ones, but
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you do not feed the sheep. They were using the sheep as a
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personal buffet, a wardrobe. Essentially, think of the
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difference between a shepherd and a vampire.
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They both deal with sheep, but the shepherd bleeds for the
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sheep. He gives his life for them.
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The vampire bleeds the sheep. The author to his leader uses
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the sheep to sustain himself. Financially, sure, but also
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emotionally. He needs their applause to feel
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good. He needs their compliance to
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feel big. And the result.
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The inevitable result, Ezekiel says, is that the flock is
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scattered. Scattered people leave, they get
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hurt, they get disillusioned with the church, maybe with God
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entirely. And it's not just hurt feelings.
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We have to talk about the doctrinal poison that comes from
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this. The sources make a very strong
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point that arrogance it eventually leads to heresy.
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How so? I usually think of heresy as
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just, you know, being bad at reading comprehension or getting
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a tricky doctrine like the Trinity wrong.
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It often starts in the heart, not the head.
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The arrogant man cannot be corrected, so let's play it out.
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Let's say he drifts slightly on a theological point.
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A brother comes to him in love and says, hey, I think you're a
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little off here in your sermon. The text actually says this.
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What does the humble man do? The humble man says thank you,
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let's open the scripture together.
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I might be wrong. The afat is man defends himself.
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He double s down. He digs in his heels.
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He interprets the correction not as a help, but as an attack on
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his authority. So he moves even further into
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error just to prove that he was right all along.
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He defends his error as a personal victory, not as a
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stewardship of God's Word. Exactly.
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He starts to create new theological justifications for
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his own behavior. He bends the Bible to fit his
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life rather than bending his life to fit the Bible.
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And that is how cults start. It almost always starts with the
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leader who cannot be questioned. This feels terrifyingly relevant
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because when we look at the modern landscape, we see a huge
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shift in how we even define leadership.
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And this brings us to Section 4, Modern counterfeits.
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We've really moved away from Shepherd to CEO, haven't we?
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We absolutely have. Since the mid 20th century,
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maybe a little earlier, there has been this pragmatic invasion
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into the church. We started looking at successful
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corporations at General Motors and Apple and saying we need
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that in the church. We want the visionary, the
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executive, the guy who can move the needle and grow the brand.
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The strongman, the decisive leader.
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The strongman. And we began to value
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decisiveness over character. We excuse arrogance as the, you
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know, the cost of doing business.
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You hear people say it all the time.
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Well, yeah, he's a bit rough around the edges.
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He steamrolls people in meetings.
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But look at the growth. Look at the numbers.
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He gets things done. He.
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Gets things done, but Christ never hires wolves to do a
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shepherd's work. It does not matter how much wool
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the wolf brings in, he is still a wolf and eventually he will
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eat the sheep. One of the most dangerous cards
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this visionary leader plays, according to our notes, is the
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God Told Me card. This is huge, and we have to be
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clear here. As Reformed Christians, we're
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generally cessationists. Can you define that quickly for
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a new listener? Sure, we believe the Canon of
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Scripture is closed. God has spoken fully and finally
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in His Son, and that speech is recorded for us in the Bible.
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We don't believe in new binding private revelations today, but
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the authorities leader often claims a private line of
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communication with God that no one else has.
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I've been praying and I have a vision from the Lord for our
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church. And if you argue with the
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vision, you're not arguing with the pastor, you're arguing with
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God. It is the ultimate trump card.
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It completely bypasses all biblical accountability.
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If I stand up and say I think we should build this new building
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because it seems like a wise use of our resources, we can have a
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debate. We can look at the wisdom of it.
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But if I stand up and say God told me to build this building,
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the discussion is over. That is the ultimate act of self
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will, because it cloaks my personal ambition in the very
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voice of God. It creates A Protestant
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Magisterium of 1. It's scary because it works.
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It shuts good people down. But there's another side to this
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coin that we have to talk about. It's not always the loud table
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banging tyrant. Sometimes arrogance is nice.
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The celebrity pastor, or what are notes called the nice
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tyrant. We have to distinguish between
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temperament and character. Arrogance is not always
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shouting. Sometimes it is charm.
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The guy who smiles while he manipulates you into getting his
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way. Right, he flatters you.
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He avoids open conflict at all costs, but he subtly works
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behind the scenes to make sure he is never crossed.
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He creates a culture where access to him being in his inner
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circle is the ultimate prize. We call this the Green Room
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culture. True, the green room where the
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pastor is whisked away by his handlers before and after the
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service so he doesn't have to interact with the common folk.
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It's inaccessibility as a sign of importance.
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His time is too valuable for the ordinary person, and you have to
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contrast that with the Incarnation.
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The Gospel says Christ dwelt among us.
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He was touchable. He was interruptible.
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The arrogant leader dwells above us.
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He is too important to be bothered by the very sheep he
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claims to shepherd. That contrast is the perfect
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segue to our next section, Section 5, because you cannot
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talk about this disqualification without looking at the ultimate
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standard at Jesus Christ as the anti authorities.
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This is where the theology moves from critique into worship.
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If we want to know what not self willed looks like in its purest
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form, we have to look at Jesus. Romans 15 verse 3 says it's so
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simply for Christ did not please himself.
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Which is just an astounding statement when you stop and
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think about it. If anyone in the history of the
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universe had the right to please himself, it was the eternal Son
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of God. He had all authority, all power,
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all rights, and yet Mark 10.45 tells us he came not to be
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served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom.
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The Gethsemane moment is the peak of this right?
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The ultimate contrast? It's the ultimate rejection of
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Authadia. There in the garden, Jesus is
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facing the cup of God's wrath against sin.
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Every human instinct, every impulse for self preservation
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would scream save yourself. There has to be another way.
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What does he say? He says, Father, if you are
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willing remove this cup for me, nevertheless, not my will, but
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yours be done, not my will. That is the qualification for
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ministry right there. An elder is only qualified to
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the degree that he mimics that posture of surrender.
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The arrogant pastor is an Antichrist figure and I use that
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term technically meaning in place of or against Christ
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because he asserts the very self will that Jesus refused to
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assert. Jesus died on the cross to kill
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self will. The arrogant pastor revives it
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and puts it on display in the pulpit.
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That puts a whole new weight on it.
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It's not just a personality flaw.
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It is fundamentally contrary to the gospel itself.
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So for the listener who is sitting there thinking, OK, this
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is heavy. I need to know, is my church
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safe? Is my leadership healthy?
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We need some diagnostics. Section 6 in our notes gives us
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some practical tests. These are practical and they
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might be uncomfortable to apply, but they are necessary.
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The first one we have is the no test.
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The no test How does a man respond when he is told no?
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It's easy to look humble when everyone is saying yes to all
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your ideas. But what happens when the
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session or the elder board says no, we cannot do that budget
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item? Or when a church policy
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constrains him from doing what he wants to do?
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Does he accept it with grace? Or what's the alternative?
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Or does he get defensive? Does he engage in passive
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resistance, dragging his feet? Does he constantly try to re
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litigate decisions that didn't go his way?
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Or does he punish the people who said no?
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Maybe not openly, but you know, suddenly that guy who questioned
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the vision isn't scheduled to serve on the welcome team
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anymore. Quiet punishment that is a
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hallmark of the off the days man.
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He gives a meticulous record of wrongs.
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A humble man can lose a vote in a meeting and sleep soundly that
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night, trusting God and his brothers.
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An arrogant man loses a vote and stays up all night plotting how
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to overturn it or get back at the people who voted against
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him. OK, what's next?
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Then there is the conflict test. This is a subtle but crucial
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one. Does he confuse contradiction
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with rebellion? Unpack that.
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In a healthy church there's room for disagreement on strategy on
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non essential matters. Should we paint the fellowship
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hall wall blue or green? That is a preference, but the
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arrogant man equates his preference with a divine
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principle, so if you disagree with him, you're not just having
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a different opinion. What are you doing in his eyes?
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He sees it as if you don't want the wall blue, you don't share
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the vision. You have a rebellious spirit.
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You are opposing God's work here.
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That is such a dangerous leap moving from we disagree on paint
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color to you are sinning against God.
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It is textbook spiritual abuse. It is binding the conscience of
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God's people to the leader's personal whim.
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A humble man yields his preferences.
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He holds theological principles like they're granite, but he
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holds his personal preferences like they're water.
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The arrogant man turns all of his preferences into granite
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statues of himself. Here is 1.
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I think we have all seen at some point the apology test.
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Hold on. Not apology.
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Apology. It's an art form for the
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arrogant. I'm sorry you felt that way.
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I'm sorry you misunderstood my heart.
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My. Favorite is I'm sorry that you
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were too sensitive to handle my strong leadership style.
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Precisely. That is not repentance.
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That is blame shifting. It's actually a form of attack
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disguised as an apology. The mark of true humility is
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plain, direct confession. I sinned, I was wrong.
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I spoke harshly to you and that was unacceptable.
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And. Then and then, and this is the
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key, you look for behavioral change.
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Words are cheap. Does he actually change the
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behavior? Does he seek reconciliation or
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does he just say the magic words to smooth things over so we can
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get back to business as usual? We also have the treatment of
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the vulnerable test in our notes.
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This one is very telling. Watch how a leader treats people
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who can do absolutely nothing for his career.
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Children, the poor, the socially awkward, the elderly widow who
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has no money to put in the offering plate.
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What are you looking for? Arrogance flatters the strong,
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the big donors, the community influencers, the ones who can
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advance this platform, and it tramples the weak or at best,
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ignores them. It views them as obstacles,
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drains on resources or just invisible.
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The CEO model sees the widow as a liability on the balance
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sheet. The Shepherd model sees her as a
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mother in Israel to be honored. Beautifully put.
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And finally, the last Test here is plurality as a litmus test.
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Does he truly share power? We talk a lot about plurality of
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elders in Reformed churches, but sometimes it is just a
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ceremonial rubber stamp board. Yes, ma'am.
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Exactly. If the other elders are
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terrified to speak up, if every meeting is just a monologue from
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the lead pastor, you do not have a real plurality.
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You have a monarchy with a council of court advisors.
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True plurality forces an elder to submit to his brothers.
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If a man cannot submit to his peers in a meeting, he is not
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fit to lead the flock of God. These are tough tests, but they
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are necessary. So let's say we spot these
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things in our church. Or better yet, we want to build
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a church culture that prevents these things from taking root in
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the first place. Section 7 talks about
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congregational safeguards. What can the people in the pews
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actually do? This can feel so helpless
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sometimes. The first thing, and it's the
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most basic, is to know your theology.
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The congregation must be grounded in the truth that the
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church belongs to Christ, not to the leader.
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Acts 20.28. Pay careful attention to
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yourselves and to all the flock in which the Holy Spirit has
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made you overseers to care for the Church of God, which He
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obtained with His own blood. It's his church he bought.
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It he bought it. When the congregation has that
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instinct that this is God's house, they are far less likely
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to be dazzled by charismatic celebrity.
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They need to be trained to prize holiness over hype.
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Holiness over hype. That is a bumper sticker we
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need. It is.
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And then structurally, we need to insist on real plurality, not
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just a list of names on a website.
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We need elders who hold each other accountable where no man
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is untouchable. And alongside that, we need
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clear polity. Now polity is a word that makes
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people's eyes glaze over. It sounds like boring church
29:12
business meetings, but you're saying it's actually a shield
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for the people. It is a safety wall, having
29:18
written standards for membership, for church,
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discipline, for how finances are handled.
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Why? Because of vague processes allow
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strong personalities to fill the power vacuum.
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If there is no rule written down for how something is done, the
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strongest, loudest voice in the room becomes the law.
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Written law protects the weak from the whims of the strong.
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That makes total sense if we have a written process for how
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money is spent. The visionary can't just raid
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the church account for his latest pet project without
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accountability. Right.
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Good polity, good structure restrains passion and ego with
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reason and law. And the notes also say we need
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to actively resist the celebrity culture.
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We do on a personal level. Maybe stop saying my pastor in
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that weird team loyalty possessive way.
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Stop acting like he's the only one who can pray or read
30:06
scripture effectively. Encourage members to get to know
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multiple elders. Rotate who preaches occasionally
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or at least who leads other parts of the service.
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Don't let a single man become the gravitational center of the
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church. Christ is the center.
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And finally, and this seems really hard to implement safe
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channels for grievance. It's critical.
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If a member sees something wrong, is there a clear Safeway
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to report it without getting their head chopped off?
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First Timothy 5 gives us this incredible balance.
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On the one hand, we don't accept frivolous accusations against an
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elder Taurus. We protect them from gossip.
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But on the other hand, First Timothy 5.20 O says we must
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rebuke sinning elders publicly. To do that, you need a
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mechanism. You need a process.
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If the only way to raise a concern is to confront the
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tyrant alone in his office, good people won't do it.
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They will just vote with their feet and leave.
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They will leave and the cancer will be left to grow.
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This has been a heavy conversation, but a good one.
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As we wrap up, let's try to summarize this.
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We started with this little phrase in Titus 1.7.
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Not arrogant. And we've seen it's not a
31:10
personality preference, it is a theological necessity.
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A steward wouldn't know he is not the owner.
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The safety, the health of the very life of the flock depends
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on this. If the shepherd starts to think
31:21
he owns the sheep, he will eventually fleece them or eat
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them for his own benefit. And I want to leave our
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listeners with this final provocative thought that came
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out of our sources. It really challenges our whole
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cultural definition of strength. The world, and sadly much of the
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church, says strength, is a strong man imposing his will on
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others. The alpha, the guy who takes
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charge. But the gospel turns that
31:44
completely upside down. It's his true strength is the
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power to submit, the power to wash feet, the power to say in
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the face of your own desires, not my will, but yours be done.
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So the challenge for all of us, for everyone listening, is this
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Are we building churches that attract the world's idea of a
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leader, or are we building churches that reflect the chief
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shepherd who laid down his life for the sheep?
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That is the question, and if we want the latter, we have to be
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willing as a people to say no to the arrogant man, no matter how
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gifted or charming or successful he seems.
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And that is a hard no to say, but unnecessary.
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Everyone. We should probably close by
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praying not on air, but in our own hearts and encouraging our
32:23
listeners to pray for their elders, not just for their
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success, but for their mortification of self will.
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Amen. We need dead men in the pulpit,
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men who are dead to self and live to Christ.
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Thanks for listening to Reformed Thinking.
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We will catch you on the next deep dive.