Series on the Modern Lukewarm Evangelical Church – No. 12
Many Protestant churches succumbed to the secularizing modernist culture during the first sixty years of the Laodicean period (1870 to the soon-coming Rapture of the faithful church). They became known as the liberal-modernist-progressive Protestant churches that have a strong history of following the episcopal form of church government (e.g., top down rule of the pope through church hierarchy to the local priest, and the laity at the bottom) or the presbyterian form (committee rule). During those sixty years, the Roman Catholic Church continued its 1,700 years of corrupt church government. Together, the Catholics and the liberal Protestant churches are false churches that claim to be Christian but are apostate.
Those faithful Protestant churches that came into the Laodicean period were generally described as conservative, fundamentalist, or evangelical and almost all kept their allegiance to the first century congregational model of church government. However, a disturbing trend began to emerge among evangelical churches in the 1950s and 1960s. Even though evangelical churches generally retained the congregational form of government in their constitutions and bylaws, many began adopting a CEO-corporatist style of church leadership which in many respects contains significant elements of the authoritarian episcopal and presbyterian forms of church government. This drift away from the first century model has significantly contributed to the emergence of a modern lukewarm evangelical church.
Congregational form of church government before its demise in the last half of the twentieth century
In the not too distant past, most evangelical churches had a preaching pastor leading the church, whether a seminarian, Bible school graduate, or self-taught. The first qualifications of pastors of that era were that they were God-called and had a leadership gifting as a preaching pastor. Seminary or Bible college degrees did not determine their gifting or call, but many sought training either before or thereafter. In Greek, the word “pastor” means to be a shepherd. The shepherd tends his flock by which is meant that he pastors the flock, gently rules them, associates with the flock as a friend and companion, keeps company with them, and feeds the flock.
Standing at the side of the preaching lead pastor in the pre-1960s were the elders of the church. Elders were men and women who had been given a leadership gift (sometimes more than one) as an evangelist, prophet, teacher, and possibly as an apostle being sent out and supported by the local congregation, i.e., missionary. As was the case in the first century church, most elders were not professionally trained or degreed in their gifting, but they functioned in their leadership gifts with equal status with the other elders of the local church. Their leadership gifts were just as important to the shepherding of the local church body as that of the lead preaching pastor. Otherwise, those churches could not have survived in the first century or the present day.
Growth of the CEO-corporatist leadership style in church government during the last half of the twentieth century
Just as the episcopal form of church government created an unbiblical division between the clergy and laity within the Roman Catholic Church, so does the CEO-corporatist style of leadership create an unbiblical division between the pulpit and the pew in Protestant churches. The CEO style of church leadership grew out of the mega-church phenomenon beginning after World War II and eventually became known as the Church Growth seeker-friendly method of doing church. This movement profoundly damaged a multitude of evangelical churches of all sizes. The pastors of smaller congregations soon began to imitate the teachings, methods, and mindset of the mega-church gurus who promised that their methods were the best way to build a church in the modern age. The mindset of these pastors changed from shepherds to managers.
To quickly give an overview of the outworking of the CEO-corporatist leadership style in church government in the modern evangelical church, I quote from a 2013 interview of Glen Newman, author of Pastors Move Over – Make Room for the Rest of Us. Although the author does not agree with many of his prescriptions for a return to the first century model of church government, he has correctly diagnosed the reasons for the departure of the evangelical church from that model and the consequences thereof.
Ephesians 4:11, 1 Corinthians 12-14 shows a clear system of all believers ministering to one another and worshipping house to house. The elders were the leadership of that day and servant leaders at that. But they also recognized each other’s personal gift of ministry. In the New Testament there were no “CEO” type leaders and in fact there were multiple pastors within the flock, ministering and nurturing those that needed it…[Newman] attributes the origins of the senior pastor model to the Constantinian era in the fourth century and notes that it was later adopted as a part of the Roman Catholic tradition.
The pastor in that church (mega church) isn’t really pastoring anybody. What the people are doing is they are watching a show on the stage. When there is no service, behind the scenes the pastor is running the church like a business and his assistant pastors are like middle managers. I [Newman] believe that the elders should be leading the church. Not people who sit on a church board but spiritual leaders, and we have forgotten that the elders are the spiritual leaders…For many centuries the church has been run either like a monarchy or in the modern Protestant churches like a business.
This (the CEO led churches) have created passive, uninvolved congregations that in many respects are spiritually immature due to this dependency on the professional clergy to do what they should be doing themselves…the CEO-type approach to church government was of particular concern in megachurches where church members can easily be forgotten.[1]
Much of what Newman has said is correct. However, I believe that evangelical churches that emerged at the beginning of the First Great Awakening mostly followed the first century model in the context of modern times up to the 1960s. But adaptations of the first century model due to the “context of modern times” do not mean that gifts of leadership in the local church are to be deconstructed and refashioned to fit the demands of the modern world. Rather, the essentials of the five-fold ministry elements and their application in the local church must be retained but adapted to reach and minister to people in current cultural life (e.g., use of itinerant evangelists to preach in the local church on a periodic basis). The rise of the CEO style of leadership is an example of the deconstruction of the five-fold ministry elements and the local church model of government. CEO style pastors have significantly contributed to the decline or loss of the leadership giftings of other elder-pastors in the local church and a loss of the operation of the gifts of the Spirit in all believers because congregation members are transformed into spectators.
In the mega-churches and smaller churches led by want-to-be pastors of a mega-church, the church body is no longer a flock but a mega-herd or mini-herd as the case may be. Flocks are not driven but follow the shepherd for they know the master’s voice. Herds must be driven by their masters or seduced into following the goodies on the master’s hay wagon. The CEO style of pastoring is a complete distortion of the meaning of the word “pastor” and separates the office of pastor from its first century New Testament meaning of “shepherd” of the flock.[2]
Power and Control – The motivation for a CEO-corporatist style of leadership
The term “power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely” is generally attributed to nineteenth century British politician Lord Acton. As we have seen in our study, this proverbial saying seems to have been proven true by the behavior of a great majority of church leaders during the entirety of the history of the Church Age. The author would add an addendum to Lord Acton’s axiom: The greater distance there is between those ruled and those with power to rule, the greater the abuse and corruption of that power.
This is a picture of what is happening as the evangelical church transitions from an elder-led, congregational style (local control by local members of the body of Christ) to a CEO-corporatist leadership led by a single ruling pastor aided by a complicit staff of pastors and a docile board of deacons. Any threat to the leadership’s regime endangers their control and must be avoided at all cost. Things to be avoided include controversies, conflicts, voicing of inconvenient truths, and disruptions in the appearance of unity. Above all, they must control and control requires power.
Signs that signal a transition to a CEO-corporatist style of leadership
• Incorporation into the local church of Church Growth seeker-friendly methods and practices. As churches grow, the elders are replaced by paid professional staff members who receive job assignments and instructions from the CEO. The middle managers interact with the congregation and report back to the CEO. Thus, the CEO is effectively separated from his flock and is no longer a true shepherd. In elder led churches, there are multiple shepherds that interact with the entire church while fulfilling their leadership giftings.
• A gradual tightening of authority over the laity and leadership below the senior pastor. In effect, this is a gradual return to an episcopal, top down, style of church government which sharpens the distinction and widens the gulf between the pastor and the laity as happened with the Roman Catholic Church and most authoritarian and mainline churches of the Reformation era.
• Complete control over the message, the microphone, the platform, and the messengers allowed to speak to the local congregation.
• Complete control over the dissemination of financial and attendance information. Financial reports to the congregation often lack important details, consistent standards of reporting, transparency, and in some cases accuracy. Voting membership rolls and the church’s constitution and bylaws are rarely or never disseminated to the membership.
• Suppression of descent by the implementation of “leadership agreements” whereby volunteer applicants are required to give unwavering allegiance to the leadership team and their decisions, plans, and direction of the church. To be part of any facet of church ministry (the team) applicants are required to agree to every aspect of the agreement. This is a new phenomenon sweeping through the evangelical churches, and there are numerous websites that promote and supply these agreements to churches. Many leadership agreement templates contain two key phrases placed among other relatively innocuous statements which in many cases are not the business of the church but must be checked in order to be a member of the “team.” The two key phrases that assure leadership’s power and control appear to be the heart of these agreements and are similar to the following:
(1) “Support the lead pastor, pastoral staff, and the direction of our church.”
(2) “Speak positively of our church’s leadership in public and private conversation.”
After checking all the boxes, the applicant must certify the application is complete, accurate, and not misleading in any way, and then sign the agreement.
This move toward ultimate control of what one does, thinks, and says in the church suggestive of the heavy hand of “big brother” found in a totalitarian society described in George Orwell’s book 1984.
• Tight control over the dissemination of contact information of congregation members that would allow direct communication between members, e.g., addresses, phone numbers, and email addresses.
• Removal from the local congregation of the “bother” of having to make decisions even if they have a congregational form of government. These congregations are seldom asked for guidance other than to vote for the propositions presented by the leadership. However, in the correctly functioning congregational model, ultimate authority resides with the local members of the church. The elected leadership roles are considered representatives of the entire congregation and subject to the local church.
• Minimize, disregard, or discourage operation of the gifts of the Spirit within the local body. Some of the gifts of the Spirit are regarded as having become unnecessary or non-operational following the first century apostolic age, e.g., divers kinds of tongues, interpretation of tongues, prophecy, working of miracles, and divine healing to name five of the nine gifts of the Spirit described in 1 Corinthians 12:4-11. Can there be any doubt as to why many evangelical churches have become lukewarm and powerless while being ridiculed and shunned by a hostile culture?
• Complete departure of the office of evangelist in the local church. There are people with the gift of soul winning in the local congregation, some by preaching and others by working with sinners around an altar or independently in other settings. One of the great disasters in evangelical churches over the last three decades is the almost complete removal of the ministry of the itinerant evangelist that in former times periodically came to local churches to preach to both saints and sinners with regard to their spiritual condition. The preaching of these evangelists often generated the spark necessary for the Holy Spirit’s revival of a local congregation. Supporting apostles sent out from the church (missionaries) are not a substitute for the office of evangelist in the local church.
• The office of prophet is no longer evident in most evangelical churches to deliver direct revelations from God; to expose sin, warn of judgments to come, uphold the righteous standards of God’s Word; battle worldliness and spiritual lethargy and false teachers; and to warn, challenge, comfort, encourage and build up God’s people. Prophets often point to sin in the camp that other elders do not quickly see. CEO type leaders fear prophets because these pastors do not want anyone to make waves or bring criticism which may reflect badly on their leadership and interfere with their goals of keeping the congregants uninformed but happy and supportive of the leadership and their agenda.
• Teaching from the pulpit by anyone but the preaching pastor is rare if non-existent unless that teacher is thoroughly vetted by the pastor as someone in substantial agreement with the pastor on almost any issue. There are many gifted teachers in full-time ministry or resident in the local church who are not allowed to exercise their leadership gift of teaching from the pulpit.
Repent, restore, and encourage
It is time for leaders and the body of Christ in the lukewarm evangelical church to repent for the abuse and corruption of the design, organization, and operation of the church as practiced by the first century New Testament church, the evangelical churches of the Philadelphian period, and those faithful evangelical churches thereafter. The congregational model of church government must be restored in full including the leadership gifts of apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers. Also, the body of Christ must be encouraged to seek the gifts of the Spirit and to exercise those gifts in the local church and elsewhere under the direction of the Holy Spirit.
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The lukewarm evangelical church is interested only in its comfortableness, prosperity, and satisfactions in this life. But this present age is the end-time spiritual battleground between God and His children vs. Satan and the dark forces of this world. The ultimate prize in this battle is the souls of mankind. We know who the victor is, but the final score won’t be announced until the end of the Church Age which will occur at the moment the church is raptured. When that moment occurs, there will be a single individual known only to God who will be the very last to person to make his or her peace with God before He calls His bride home. We must ask ourselves, what could we have done in this battle to bring just a few more souls into His kingdom before that last person is saved?
Friends, we must expend every ounce of our being in His noble cause. Hold nothing back and when our life is over we can stand before Jesus knowing that we have left everything on the battlefield.
Larry G. Johnson
Sources:
[1] Leonardo Blair, “Megachurch Pastors Running Churches Like CEOs Unbiblical, says Former Pastor,” Christian Post, February 19, 2013. https://www.christianpost.com/news/megachurch-pastors-running-churches-like-ceos-unbiblical-says-former-pastor.html (accessed August 31, 2021).
[2] Glen Newman, Pastors Move Over-Make Room for the Rest of Us, (Acton, Texas: Glen Newman, 2010), p. 33.
