Re-thinking Authority

 It was about that time that the mother of the Zebedee brothers came with her two sons and knelt before Jesus with a request.

"What do you want?" Jesus asked.

She said, "Give your word that these two sons of mine will be awarded the highest places of honor in your kingdom, one at your right hand, one at your left hand."

Jesus responded, "You have no idea what you're asking." And he said to James and John, "Are you capable of drinking the cup that I'm about to drink?"

They said, "Sure, why not?"

Jesus said, "Come to think of it, you are going to drink my cup. But as to awarding places of honor, that's not my business. My Father is taking care of that."

When the ten others heard about this, they lost their tempers, thoroughly disgusted with the two brothers. So Jesus got them together to settle things down. He said, "You've observed how godless rulers throw their weight around, how quickly a little power goes to their heads. It's not going to be that way with you. Whoever wants to be great must become a servant. Whoever wants to be first among you must be your slave. That is what the Son of Man has done: He came to serve, not be served — and then to give away his life in exchange for the many who are held hostage."-- Matt 20:20-28  (from THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language © 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson. All rights reserved.)

 

Working through this series on the 12 traditions of AA and the church is good for me. I am struck by some of the responses to it, and have been forced to think through what I see as different in how in general terms the church is organized[1] and how AA is organized. One post even garnered a response in a friend’s blog. You can read it here along with my initial response to his criticisms.

I’m struck by the taught dichotomy between the direct teachings of Jesus and the teaching of Paul and the apostles to the NT church. It seems to me, and I could be off base here, that we can’t simply dismiss the teaching of Jesus about authority in favor of a more Hellenistic understanding of authority that modern teachers get from Paul.

Jesus had a bunch of people following him because they thought Jesus was going to make them a “somebody”. He repeatedly pushed back against the idea.

·                  “If you want to be first you have to be last…” (Mt 19)

·                  “If you want to save your life you have to lose it” (Mt 10 & 16, Mk 8, Lk 9 & 17)

·                  “Take up your cross and follow me.” (Mt 16, Mk 8, Lk 9)

·                  “But the greatest among you shall be your servant.” (Mt 23)

·                  “If anyone among you wants to be first, they must be last of all and servant of all” (Mk 9)

·                  “The one who is the greatest among you, must become like the youngest, and the leader like the servant.” (Lk 22)

Later in the Biblical story Paul was helping a small often struggling church organize in world that didn’t seem to want it around. He fought against people that questioned his apostleship. He battled some really weird and wonderful heresies, and people who took authority in the church to lead it astray.

The New Testament church is encouraged to appoint elders & deacons. And apparently they are to at the very least “care for and apply themselves to” their congregations. Six times Paul uses the Greek word: proïst¢mi which means – “direct, be at the head of, manage; care for; apply oneself to”[2]. as he speaks about Church leadership. It is funny how we automatically jump to the conclusion that Paul must be telling those men to “rule”, “manage”, or “direct” their congregations,

Paul and Jesus don’t have to be at loggerheads on this issue. Paul could simply be urging his elders in light of what Jesus said to apply themselves to and care for the congregations give over to their care.

This is not a question of authority. Jesus had authority. He taught with authority, He healed with authority. He forgave sins which took authority. He cast out demons authoritatively. He even raised the dead. Jesus had authority. And then in Mat 28 he gave that authority to his followers. John spells it out a little differently. “As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” (Jn 20)

Jesus personified the bullet list above. He was the servant. He came as a babe, and grew up among the people to the point that many rejected him because he was too familiar. He had been a lad playing in the street in their midst. He was last. He took up his cross and forfeited his life. Then he told his disciples – the 12 apostles to go the way he came to them.

Jesus had authority but it was not his own. It came from the Father and manifested itself through the Spirit of God working through him. The disciples also had authority but it was not because of their position as apostles. Like Jesus, it was because of the Spirit which indwelt them. Too often today, church leaders have authority because of their position. They are like the disciples seeking to sit on the right and the left of Jesus in his Kingdom. “Jesus, aren’t you lucky to have me,” they utter under their breath so that no one, including themselves might hear.

AA leaders have authority but it is not their own. Their authority is simply the twelve steps and twelve traditions, what has been given to them by those that came before them.

I pondered authority in the 12 step rooms. There is authority there. Sponsors have incredible authority in the lives of their sponsees. One NA old timer told the story of being told to get a haircut twice within an hour by his sponsor simply because his sponsor didn’t like the first one he got and wanted to see how willing the sponsee was. That sponsor probably abused his authority in that instance, but similar stories are not uncommon in recovery rooms.

A major difference between that sponsor and the abusive pastor is that the sponsor didn’t ask to sponsor the sponsee. The sponsee asked him to sponsor him and gave him whatever authority he had. In the church, “sponsors” (pastors) look for “sponsees” (disciples), taking authority over them in direct disobedience to Jesus. In recovery, sponsees look for sponsors, giving authority to them.

Being a sponsor is no fun. You start with a completely self obsessed, hurting, grandiose, childish, and oversensitive person calling you every day and telling you all the stuff that is going through their crazy, often disgusting minds. Sponsors sponsor to remember the craziness that used to flow around in their cranial cavity. They do it because they know that the only way that they can hope to hang onto all the gifts that they have been given is to give them away. They do not do it for the position of authority it gives them in another human being’s life. It is a lot of painstaking thankless work. They do it in order to learn to love. And teach others to love.

Too often I fear that pastors find their authority, not given by God but by the nature of their position. This is the problematic authority which has ruled much of the church for much of its history. It is the authority that leads to spiritual abuse, manipulation and destroys lives. It is what is visible to a world that distrusts anything associated with the church.

It is in contrast to the authority of Jesus which was not / is not problematic. Jesus never tried to force his ways upon anybody. He never once tried to control another human or tried to manipulate them into behaving in a way that he thought would be better for them. That was not the authority he practiced. He did not manage his disciples but rather won them over with attraction rather than promotion. We need to get back to this kind of authority.

And what I now think is true, is that the model of AA helps facilitate a Jesus leadership more than a historic church model which has proven to be Machiavellian too many times.

---

[1]  Historically the church has caused kingdoms to fight wars over how they think churches are to be organized so I can only speak in general terms. A congregational church in New England organizes itself differently from a Church of England congregation in Yorkshire, and we haven’t yet addressed the Presbyterians in the Midwest United States or the Methodists in the Deep South, house churches in Forest Grove, OR, independent Baptists in Florida or Charismatics in Michigan, Lutherans in Washington DC, or Catholics in Rome, or the Plymouth Brethren in Arizona. When I speak in terms of “organization” I am speaking in the broadest possible categories of understanding authority and governing.

[2] from Exegetical Dictionary of the New Testament © 1990 by William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company. All rights reserved

Comments

[Malana Ganz]

Wow...coning down on a pastor for not attending a sports event? Sounds like a relationship breakdown to me. Are we willing to accept our leaders for who they really are and the gifts that God has given them, or, as BFM says, just a mirror of themselves?
I agree that authoritative pastors make some people feel safe. It seems easier if these people don't have to think for themselves - but I think it stunts their growth in God.

[Barefootmeg]

Just posted some of my own confused thoughts on church leaders here - http://dandelionwine.multiply.com/journal/item/48/Church_Leaders It's a lot more questions than answers, but I'd love to hear your thoughts on reasonable expectations.

[Barefootmeg]

Hmmm, I'm rereading some posts our pastor made awhile ago about elders. Two are sermons by John Piper and then I think he lists a bunch of verses below that. (I'm still working my way through the Piper bits.) They're here ( http://tameion.multiply.com/tag/elder ) if you're interested.

A line that just jumped out at me as fitting right in with the conversation here: "In other words [Peter] is practicing what he preaches in verse 3 -- that elders lead by example not by lording it over the flock."

[Barefootmeg]

I find myself wondering what it is that we look for in a leader. I suspect that colors our view of leading and authority.

My grandmother chose her churches based on the timbre of the priest's voice. If he *sounded* authoritative (whether or not he said anything decent) then that's where she went. She wanted a deep, booming voice that made her feel like the guy was connected to God.

I know that the elders at our church recently came down on our pastor because he wasn't attending the sporting events of kids in the church. They obviously want someone whose extracurricular interests mirror their own. I would also venture to say that they're looking for someone who runs the church without them having to do much of anything themselves.

I would say the general understanding of leadership at the Church of the Sojourners in SF was that the leaders were to have a sense of the struggles of the members and make sure there were others coming alongside them helping and guiding them. And the leaders set the direction of the church in terms of what they'd all study -- sort of charting the social consciousness of the church.

I don't know where I'm going with this except to say that I think some people prefer pastor's who are strongly in control and maybe even a little domineering because then they feel certain that things will be maintained such that their environment will be "safe." I don't think I can say this is necessarily good or bad, just that it is. As people with different personalities, we need or expect different things from those who are in leadership based upon our own needs or desires or experiences.

[Malana Ganz]

Really good points about how a person receives authority! Also like several other thoughts today.