Lead: 12 Gospel Principles for Leadership in the Church

by Paul David Tripp

A spiritually healthy leadership community should be always considering and regularly discussing the question of balance in the lives of its leaders. It should always be lovingly looking to see if there is evidence of imbalance in any of its leaders. It should care about the health of each leader’s marriage, each leader’s relationship to his or her children, the devotional life of each leader, the physical well-being of fellow leaders, etc. You should care about those things not only because you love each leader but also because they function as key indicators that something is out of balance in the heart and life of one with whom you lead. This side of eternity, it’s loving to assume a struggle of heart balance (Creator vs. created) in the members of your leadership community, and because you do, to look for signs of imbalance. A war of desire and motives still goes on in all our hearts and will only cease when our Savior has welcomed us into his final kingdom.

Here’s the bottom line. The number-one characteristic that every church or ministry should want in each of its leaders, and which should be regularly monitored and encouraged, is a heart in balance.

His leadership is shaped by faith, not fear. He leads out of humility and neediness, not pride and self-reliance. He is uncomfortable with a disharmony between his public ministry persona and his private conduct. He is quick to give grace because he knows how much he needs that same grace. She does not love power and position more than she loves God and the people he has called her to serve. He stewards the gifts of others rather than use those gifts to gain position and control for himself. He is as excited about and committed to the private pastoring of his family as he is to his public leadership work. She resists being defensive, and is humble and approachable toward others and quick to confess sin. He does not take credit for things he could never produce on his own without the sovereignty and grace of God and in partnership with others. He does not use ministry calling and position to build a kingdom of his own. She cares more about living and leading in a way that pleases God than about gaining the praise of those around her. He argues for what is right but in a way that is gracious, patient, and understanding. He does not look for his identity in his role as leader but rests in his identity in Christ. She leaves the people around her feeling loved and nurtured, even in places where ministry is hard and the leadership community seems divided. He never talks in negative ways outside the leadership community about those he has been called to partner with in ministry. ...

Helpful!

Grace allows a ministry-leadership community to function as a robust gospel community where candor, nurture, and protective love are the norm.

This is not an exhaustive list but a sampling of areas to lovingly look at as you commit to mutual leader care. Marriage and family problems Workaholism Lack of commitment to a regular devotional life No regular commitment to sabbaths of rest Unhealthy ministry or leadership relationships Lack of regular, meaningful connection to the fellowship and mutual ministry of the body of Christ Debt Unwholesome communication Anger Discouragement, depression, or burnout Physical ill health Resistance to loving criticism and spiritual care Domineering or controlling manner Unreconciled relationships

But we press on with confidence and hope because we know not only that our labors will not be in vain but also that our Lord fights for us even when we fail to fight for ourselves and for one another.

A leadership community is spiritually safe and prepared for a long-term and productive life of ministry only when what is important to God is not just theologically important to them but also functionally important.

The life and work of a leadership community is shaped not just by the gifts of its leaders, their vast experience, the force of their public personalities, entrepreneurial skill, or vision and strategic planning, but most importantly by their values. Whatever they value most shapes the way they relate to one another, what they long to accomplish, and what they name as success. So it is important for a ministry leadership community to keep asking the question, “Is what’s important to God still important to us?”

The saying is trustworthy: If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task. Therefore an overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not a drunkard, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. He must manage his own household well, with all dignity keeping his children submissive, for if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God’s church? He must not be a recent convert, or he may become puffed up with conceit and fall into the condemnation of the devil. Moreover, he must be well thought of by outsiders, so that he may not fall into disgrace, into a snare of the devil. (1 Tim. 3:1–7)

Leaders who have character, lead with character, model what is truly important, and encourage the same in others.

A leader who is quarrelsome values being right and in control more than he values what God says is right in his heart and life. A leader who is not self-controlled can’t say no to himself because he values what he wants more than he values what God wants for him. Every character quality on this list is a window into what God values most in the heart and life of those he has called to lead.

Because of this, it is a passage I visit regularly, and it has become a consistent cry for help to my Lord that has marked my prayer life. Take time, right now, to reflect on the words of Paul in 2 Corinthians 5:16–21: From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

We are part of the amazing work of God where he re-creates us in Christ, reconciles us to himself, does not hold our sins against us anymore, and then turns and entrusts the message of these glorious realities to us.

Failing to be patient, self-sacrificing, tender, loving, forgiving, humble, serving, gentle, faithful, and kind is a failure to lead as an ambassador of the Savior King who sent you.

I am persuaded that if we made ambassadorial calling our leadership standard, not only would we no longer allow things in our leaders that we have tended to allow, but we would be filled with such remorse at what poor ambassadors we are that we would fall to our knees in confession and seek the rescuing, forgiving, and enabling grace of God and publicly confess our weakness and failure to those God has called us to lead.

Every leadership community needs to understand that ministry can be the vehicle for pursuing a whole host of idolatries. In this way, ministry leadership is war, and we cannot approach it with the passivity of peacetime assumptions.

In the beginning of a leader’s ministry there is a high level of concern for character and a whole lot of loving encouragement and accountability. In getting to know a leader, he is watched carefully for how he does his work and relates to others. He is surrounded by the kind of community every leader needs. But as the months and years go by and the leader’s gifts bear fruit in rich and exciting ways, the leaders around him begin to close their eyes and shut their ears. Maybe it’s anger in a meeting that is not addressed, or an attitude toward an employee that is not confronted, or something inappropriate said about a woman that is not addressed. This powerful and effective leader now has the power to silence needed gospel voices in his leadership community. Fellow leaders become comfortable with resisting the promptings of the Holy Spirit. Things are said and done that they know are wrong, and when they happen, there is a check in their spirit, but they fail to respond to the prompting, and they sit in silence.

This once loving, watchful, rescuing, and protective gospel community has morphed into a community of defenders and advocates. The power and performance of this leader have left him unprotected and unpastored. The success of his ministry is loved by his fellow leaders more than he is. The castle he has built has become more precious than his soul. Fellow leaders have cowered in silence when he has resisted loving concern and confrontation, rather than loving him with the kind of sturdy, unrelenting love that comes when fear of God has defeated fear of man.

We may be swindled into not seeing things clearly and accurately, but his view of us is always perfect. His presence and work in and through us is our hope, and because it is, we can commit ourselves to doing better. We can own our weakness and our failures and accept his invitation to fresh starts and new beginnings.

Leadership in the church of Jesus Christ is not just a battle for theological faithfulness, gospel purity, and methodological integrity; it is also always a war for the heart of every leader.

1. Each leader must humbly accept and be growingly aware of his susceptibilities.

He knows who we are at heart level, he knows the nature of the world we live in, and he knows the kinds of attacks we face, because he faced them.

2. As a leadership community, personal and corporate spiritual war must be a regular part of our ongoing conversation with one another and a central focus of our prayer together.

I am heartened by leaders who never stop listening, examining, and learning.

But I am very concerned when a leadership community has no time for and gives no place to honest and protective conversations about the spiritual war, inside us and outside us, that is the regular life of every leader in every church and ministry everywhere. We need to talk humbly and honestly; we need to listen carefully and with sympathy; and we need to speak with wisdom, comfort, encouragement, and warning.

When it comes to the great spiritual war, the victory of our captain welcomes us to be humbly honest and functionally courageous. May we live and lead together with that victory in view.

3. We must examine and defend ourselves against Satan’s devices.

True leaders don’t think that the ministry they have been called to lead and those they have been called to lead belong to them. A true leader knows that people are not the objects of his power and control but the focus of his sacrifice and service. Every ministry leader carries the identity of servant, and any leader who begins to think of himself in a different way is in spiritual danger and has abandoned the true character of his calling.

I must confess there have been times when I have been spiritually discontent because the Lord hasn’t exercised his power to make things easier or more comfortable. I’ll walk away from a tough meeting, a hard conversation, or an unfair critique and think, “Why does ministry have to be so hard?” In that moment, I’m not just talking to myself; I’m complaining to my Lord. There are times when I am tempted to wish that ministry was more a throne than a cross.

Your complaint about schedule is never just about schedule, your complaint about exhaustion is never just about how tired you are, and your complaint that you never seem to get the break you think you need is never just about time. All horizontal complaints have a vertical component. Even though I may not be aware of it, my complaint about the bad service at a restaurant is not just a complaint about my particular server but also about the manager who trained her and watches how she does her work.

A life of quiet or not so quiet complaint hammers away at your confidence in the wisdom, goodness, and faithfulness of God. It causes you to rest less comfortably in his care. Why? Well, because you tend not to seek out and rely on someone whom you no longer trust. A leadership community that has developed a culture of grumbling is, because of that, in spiritual danger. It is simply hard to willingly and joyfully serve the master you don’t trust in the way you once did, no matter what your formal theology tells you about his wisdom, goodness, and faithfulness.

The church is intended to be messy and chaotic, because the mess is intended to yank us out of our self-sufficiency and self-obsession to become people who really do love God and our neighbors. God puts broken people next to broken people (including leaders), not so they would be comfortable with one another but so they would function as agents of transformation in the lives of one another.

These passages immediately expose what a poor servant I am. I hate when things are in my way. I grow quickly impatient with seemingly needless hassles and delay. I wish I could say that I am okay with being challenged, disagreed with, contradicted, or debated. I love predictable weeks and being surrounded by people who appreciate me. I struggle to love people who critique my love.

And I marvel, once again, that the Lord would ever use me, that he never thinks it was a mistake to call me, that he is never disgusted with me, and that he greets my struggle with boundless love, incalculable patience, and mercies that are thankfully new every morning. I know too that he hears my longing and is, by grace, molding my heart into a servant shape.

The call to a life of joyful servitude and willing suffering is itself a grace. In calling me to deny myself, God is freeing me from my bondage to me. Self-focus never leads to happiness, it never produces contentment, and it never results in a satisfied heart. The more a leader has himself in focus, the more he thinks about how ministry inconveniences him, and the less he will experience true joy and lasting contentment. The call to servanthood is the tool that your Lord uses to free you from your discouraging and debilitating bondage to you. The call to servanthood is not just for the glory of your Lord and the benefit of others, but it is God’s grace to you as a leadership community. This is the upside-down world of ministry calling. The pathway to freedom is servanthood, the pathway to greatness is slavery, and the pathway to deep and lasting joy—joy that people and circumstance cannot take away—is denying yourself. It is only the grace of the Redeemer that will make a ministry leader find joy in the upside-down world of leadership to which he has been called. Leader, have you entered into that joy, or has it been robbed by delusions of mastery?

My prayer is that we would be empowered by God’s grace to be joyfully willing as leaders to live the suffering-servant gospel that is our reason for existing, in everything we say and do, in the place where the Savior has positioned us.

Biblical Christianity is thoroughly and foundationally relational. No one can live outside the essential ministries of the body of Christ and remain spiritually healthy. No one is so spiritually mature that he is free from a need for the comfort, warnings, encouragement, rebuke, instruction, and insights of others. Everyone needs partners in struggles. Everyone needs to be helped to see what they cannot see about themselves on their own. This includes leaders. It’s not enough to just do leadership activities together, because there is not a moment in time when every leader is free from the need of gospel community. Every leader, to be spiritually healthy, needs spiritual help—every one.

A spiritually healthy leadership community is spiritually healthy when it is a safe place for struggling leaders to speak with candor and hope.

A gospel-shaped leadership community will be a confessional community, where leader honesty is a not only a constant protection but encourages a deeper and deeper dependency on God. Confessing communities tend to be humble communities. Confessing communities tend to be worshiping communities. Confessing communities tend to be praying communities. Leaders who confess tend to be tender and kind when people they are called to lead mess up and need to confess. The more a leader has the joy of being in a confessing community, the more he will come to see his need for grace, and because he does, he will tend to be a giver of that same grace. In a confessing leadership community, leaders’ pride shrinks and worship of God grows.