I don't know how to talk about "leadership” anymore.
I was on a phone call with a friend discussing "leadership" in the church and the opportunities men and women should both have. Of course these conversations usually go in the direction of complementarianism and egalitarianism. This time the conversation was different for me.
The conversation was not different because my views had recently changed in regards to men and women, but the conversation was different because my thoughts on "leadership" has drastically changed. I realized that I wasn't inclined to use the word "authority" as I had been in the past. I wasn't thinking about people being "over" each other.
I see Jesus constantly changing the flavor of the conversation. When Jesus talks of leadership, it seems to be almost an obsession with him to redefine leadership as being a servant, as being under someone. Jesus seems to be telling us that we should be racing to the bottom not the top. We should be empowering people as servants from underneath not lording over people from above.
All this talk of being a servant was refreshing to my soul. I was thinking about how it has huge ramifications for how we think about church. Then I began to think about APEST and various giftings (from Eph. 4:12ff: Apostles, Prophets, Evangelists, Shepherds, Teachers). I thought about how Jesus said that we should call no one rabbi, or teacher, or lord, because we only have one of those.
It seems good and healthy that instead of thinking of one great leader (remember Israel wanting one of those) above the people, we think of teams of people serving under people. At times (because of gifting and experience) we will defer to each other to lead us. This results in something that looks more like situational leadership than positional leadership. I guess what I'm advocating for is not positional leadership, but rather situational leadership. I'm feeling compelled that as a team we should serve from the bottom, and we should look to each other to at times teach us out of our areas of strength. While we do this, we look to the great teacher, Jesus.
I know this is a loaded thought, but it all seems to be clicking beautifully in my mind. Imagine a group of people running to the bottom, not the top, handing the leadership staff to each other throughout the course of the gathering as we humbly defer to each other because of gifting, capacity, and experience in a certain area. Leadership then is not something that is lorded over people, but something that is fluid as we follow Jesus together.
Mike Jarrell oversees coaching, vision and training at Narrow Road Communities in Harrisburg, PA. He also serves as director of the Creo Collective.