Humility and Pastoral Leadership

I have just finished relistening to the IX Marks interview with Bruce Winter.

Winter is a significant scholar, especially on historical backgrounds.  And in this interview he turns the world upside down on the issue of leadership.

In short, Dr Winter says that the notion of "leadership" as emphasized today in the church is counter to the New Testament.  The cult of leaders, the exaltation of leadership as the paradigm of ministry, the accent on teaching people to be followers -- all of these are, in his grasp of the ancient world and the New Testament, a great error. 

And he knows whereof he speaks, as his doctoral work is a direct study of how Paul refused to take up the mantle of leadership as understood in his day.  Most exceptionally, this is seen in 2 Corinthians.

Dever presses him multiple times, trying to push him into the notion of leadership, cites Scripture and practical example.  But Winters answers consistently.  Being a pastor in a church is a responsibility, and it calls for serving and feeding the people. It is not to be defined as an authority, but a service.  It is not a call to teach people to be followers, for only Christ is to be followed.  It is a familial role, not a hierarchical role. 

Winters issued a clear word to pastors, to think God's thoughts about leadership -- not secular thoughts.  

I commend this interview again, and want to get a hold of his book on Paul and the Sophists, found HERE. I am sure his book will give further food for thought. 

All of this begins to make sense. If Paul was the leader par excellence in the New Testament, what do we have?  Not a man of charisma, but a man of exceptional suffering, a man who was despised and maligned and considered to be the offscouring of all things.  He refused to live up to the charismatic leader model.