Leadership in the Local Church

Introduction: Authority from the Scriptures

My subject today is leadership in the local church, and the reason I want to speak on this is to show what the New Testament says concerning leadership in the local church. The two letters that deal specifically with this are First Timothy and Titus.

Now, some of the things I say may sound contentious, but Paul writes to the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 11 and says, "If any is contentious or argumentative, well, we have no such custom." So it is not the purpose to be contentious or argumentative, but simply to show what the scriptures say.

Sometimes the scriptures can be as a sword. The Bible says that the Word of God is quick and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword. But we want to follow what the scriptures say. We do not follow what society says, or what the world says with its agenda. We don't even follow what other churches say, because our authority does not come from other churches. It certainly doesn't come from society. Our authority comes from the scriptures.

The Divine Order: 1 Timothy 2:12-15

I want to begin by reading from 1 Timothy chapter 2, from verse 12 to the end of the chapter. Paul writes:

"I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man, but to be in silence. For Adam was formed first, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived, fell into transgression. Nevertheless she will be saved in childbearing if they continue in faith, love, and holiness, with self-control." -- 1 Timothy 2:12-15

So Paul says here that he would not put a woman into a position of authority over a man in the church, and he gives two reasons why.

The first reason is: "For Adam was formed first, then Eve." There is a divine order. In 1 Corinthians 11, Paul speaks more specifically about this and says that Christ is the head of the man, and the man is the head of the woman. There is a divine order that needs to be seen in the church.

The second reason is: "Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived, fell into transgression." When Eve was deceived in Genesis, she was perfect -- yet the devil was still able to deceive her. There is something about the female nature or character that left Eve more susceptible to deception. In fact, she took a leadership role and went ahead of her husband, and she was deceived. If Adam had been there in the leadership role that he should have been in, then perhaps things would have been different.

But then Paul goes on to say, "Nevertheless she will be saved in childbearing if they continue in faith, love, and holiness, with self-control." The wonderful and beautiful thing about women in the church is this motherly instinct -- even if they don't have children, they still have this motherly instinct, which is such a great blessing in the church.

The Ministry of Older Women: Titus 2:3-5

You might ask, "Well, what should a woman do in the church?" For that we go over to Titus chapter 2. Paul talks first about the aged men, the elders, and then he talks about the older women.

"The older women likewise, that they be reverent in behavior, not slanderers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things -- that they admonish the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, homemakers, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be blasphemed." -- Titus 2:3-5

This beautiful motherly nature of the woman is a great blessing -- being able to teach the younger women how to be Christian mothers, Christian women, and how to live the Christian life. They teach the younger women to reflect the wonderful Christian life they have, both in the home and wherever they are, so that the Word of God may not be blasphemed.

So the women are extremely important. The older women -- women of experience, women whose lives are an example to others -- can teach the younger women. And of course, that wonderful motherly instinct is fabulous in teaching the children and being able to bring up children to love and to serve the Lord. Women are vitally important in teaching the younger women and teaching children.

Women as Deacons: 1 Timothy 3:8-11

But is there anything else that women can do in the church? I believe there is. Going back to First Timothy chapter 3, you come to verse 8, which talks about deacons in the church. The word "deacon" means "servant."

"Likewise deacons must be reverent, not double-tongued, not given to much wine, not greedy for money, holding the mystery of the faith with a pure conscience. But let these also first be tested; then let them serve as deacons, being found blameless." -- 1 Timothy 3:8-10

Deacons do all of the administrative work. They run the church. They do all the work that needs to be done. Without the deacons, the church cannot function.

But then it goes on to say in verse 11:

"Likewise, their wives must be reverent, not slanderers, temperate, faithful in all things." -- 1 Timothy 3:11

That word "wives" can also be translated "women." So it is not necessarily the wives of the deacons, but specifically mentioned in the same passage about qualifications for service, which implies that these are women who also have a function as deacons. In Romans 16:1, it talks about Phoebe, who is a deacon -- a servant -- in the church of Cenchrea.

So can women be deacons in the church? Yes, I believe they can. Verse 11 is referring to women who serve in the church, doing the administrative work, helping to do all the work that needs to be done. In fact, common sense tells us that women can be deacons -- but we don't go just by common sense. We go by the scripture, and verse 11 there, I believe, is saying exactly that.

So women can be deacons in the church. That is an office they can hold -- doing the administrative work, the business work, everything that needs to be done regarding the running of the church. They are very active with the children, very active with the younger women, and very active in the running of the church.

The Role of Overseers: 1 Timothy 3:1-7

But then we come to the one role that is reserved for men. In 1 Timothy 3:1 it says:

"This is a faithful saying: If a man desires the position of an overseer, he desires a good work. An overseer then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, temperate, sober-minded, of good behavior, hospitable, able to teach, not given to wine, not violent, not greedy for money, but gentle, not quarrelsome, not covetous." -- 1 Timothy 3:1-3

The word "overseer" in Greek is episcopos. Some translations render it "bishop," but a better translation is "overseer." The ministry of the overseer is being able to teach -- he has a teaching ministry. I believe that overseers should be prayerful people, given to prayer and given to the Word of God.

It is just like in the Acts of the Apostles, when the apostles appointed deacons -- great men of faith -- to do the serving of tables. The apostles themselves said, "We will give ourselves continually to the Word of God and to prayer." The local church should have men of experience -- godly men who know the scriptures, who are able to teach the scriptures, who are an example through their life, and who are prayerful, praying for the people in the church.

The overseers should give themselves to preaching, teaching, praying, and serving the church through teaching the scriptures. And one rule that stands out is that they must not be covetous. You can easily see many people putting themselves forward as leaders in the church, and one thing that is so evident is that they are covetous. You see this in the televangelists on television -- have nothing to do with them.

Then it says:

"One who rules his own house well, having his children in submission with all reverence -- for if a man does not know how to rule his own house, how will he take care of the church of God? Not a novice, lest being puffed up with pride he fall into the same condemnation as the devil. Moreover he must have a good testimony among those who are outside, lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil." -- 1 Timothy 3:4-7

This person must be morally upright. If there are scandals surrounding them, they may be in the church, but not as an overseer. The overseers need to have a good reputation. These are the ones who should be teaching in the church and building the church up.

Overseers as Protectors: Acts 20

In Acts chapter 20, Paul brought the elders from the church in Ephesus to come to him in Miletus, and he spoke to them there. He said to them, "You guard the church and you feed the church, because there are going to come people from outside, as well as people from inside, who will be teaching false doctrine, trying to pull the people away after themselves. You guard the church from these people."

So these were overseers of the church in Ephesus, and Paul was telling them they had the responsibility to protect the church from false teachers.

We see actually in Revelation that the church in Ephesus did this. They tested those who called themselves apostles -- just as you have today -- and found them to be false. The Lord commends them for this. But they got so caught up with defending the scriptures that they forgot about their relationship with the Lord. They lost their first love.

That is what we must always be careful of -- that we don't become so caught up with defending the gospel or defending the scriptures that we lose our first love. It is a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. But that relationship comes out of knowledge of the scriptures. We are built up in the scriptures, and the scriptures should bring us into a closer relationship with the Lord.

Like Paul said, "I count all things as rubbish that I might win Christ." Christ was his all in all. He desired Him. But we know Him through the scriptures -- not through some voice coming from heaven. We know Him through the scriptures, being built up in the scriptures. And that is why God has put ministries in the church.

The Body Working Together

He put overseers in the church to build the church up. He put deacons in the church to enable the church to function. And He placed older men and older women in the church who can teach others -- teach the women and teach the children. It is beautiful. It is the body building itself up.

The wonderful thing is that we are a body working together. It is not a hierarchy. It is not one person up on top. We are all servants, but God has appointed men to be overseers in the church.

In the Acts of the Apostles, you also have this beautiful couple called Aquila and Priscilla. They had a church in their house, and they seemed to be ministering together, because they took Apollos aside and explained the gospel more fully to him. That is beautiful -- seeing them working together and ministering together.

I think that in the early days, when a church is being built up, sometimes the men are not there. You cannot put overseers in the church because they are not there, and so of course you need your Aquila and Priscilla working together, building the church up. But when the men are there, when the overseers are there, then the church can function according to First Timothy and Titus. If a woman has been more in the forefront but then the church gets built up and the men are there, then I believe the woman should step back, because according to First Timothy chapter 2 there is a divine order, and the woman needs to allow the men to come and be overseers within the church.

Conclusion

That is the way I read First Timothy and Titus in the scriptures. All I have tried to do is present to you the scriptures -- nothing to be contentious about, nothing to be argumentative about, but purely to say: this is what the scriptures say.

Should we have women pastors? No, we should not -- because for one thing, "pastor" is never used in the New Testament to describe somebody leading the church. So even men being called "pastors" is not a right title. It should not be used as a title. The people who lead the churches are overseers who teach, and deacons who run all the administrative work.

The Lord bless you, and I hope that what I have said will help you to understand what the Bible says about leadership in the local church. Amen.