by Thomas Scarborough

During the course of my postgraduate studies in Christian leadership (now four years), I have gradually come to see Church leadership in terms of LAW AND GRACE. The distinction between Law and Grace is of course one of the most fundamental distinctions in the Bible: “You are not under the law, but under grace” (Romans 6:14). That is, while Christian believers used to be under the law, and judged by the law, they are now under grace: not only have all our sins been forgiven, but God freely gives us “all things” through Jesus Christ (Romans 8:32).

What does this have to do with Christian leadership? The case is stated here, somewhat simplistically.

Let us first consider “Leadership by Law”: Needless to say, the Law is all about behaviour: the way that people should act, the direction in which people should go. Leadership by Law therefore seeks to change members’ values and behaviour, or to change the direction in which members are travelling. It is sometimes called leadership by INFLUENCE: “No, not this, but that. Not this way, but that way.” Of course, to be a Christian, and to be a Church, is all about change and progress in Christ. But the question is HOW. Does this come about, in the first instance, when a leader applies his or her influence — even pressure? The problems with this approach are that a Christian leader may experience deep frustration when people do not change, or the leader may be faced with conflict when members RESIST change.

There is a similar thing, which I would call “Membership by Law”: In this case, it is the Church MEMBER who judges the LEADER by the law. The member focuses on the leader’s right or wrong behaviour, or on the leader’s right or wrong decisions: “Why did the leader do this? Why did the leader decide this and not that?” Often the focus, then, is on sin and guilt in the leader (or what a member CONSIDERS to be sin and guilt). The problem with this approach is that every Christian leader is only a poor copy of Christ, and can easily be criticised if one tries. In fact, a great many leadership actions or decisions can be questioned if people just put their mind to it: “Why did the leader laugh at such a joke? Why should we do missions in Pakistan and not in Peru?”

But now let us consider “Leadership by Grace”: In this case, the leader is not seeking to change people’s values and behaviour, or to change the direction in which they are travelling. The leader is looking for ways in which the GRACE of God can be poured out on a congregation, or on a Church group, so that GOD can do the work, through His grace. The great Reformers spoke about “the means of grace” — that is, those things through which God’s grace is poured out on the Church. The most important of these was the Word of God, the Bible. So leadership by grace means pointing people continually to the Saviour, and to the Word — then the Holy Spirit does the work in people’s hearts. The advantage of this approach is that the leader can lead with a sense of freedom. Also, God is given a special kind of honour and glory for all that happens in the Church.

Lastly, let us think about “Membership by Grace”. In this case, the members do not judge their leader by the law, but they judge their leader by grace. This is what this means in practice: the members are focused on God’s GRACE THROUGH the leader. Everybody knows that the leader is just a “clay pot” (2 Corinthians 4:7). “Of course,” they say, “we KNOW that he or she is just flawed and weak and prone to sin. However, our leader has been graciously anointed and appointed by GOD, for God to reveal what HE can do with such an average clay pot.” The advantage of this approach is that one can still love and honour a Christian leader although they are only human. Also, members can have the faith that God can use — in fact, that God does overrule — weak actions and decisions of the leader by His grace. God is, after all, the Almighty.

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Thomas Scarborough is the minister of a multi-cultural, urban congregation in South Africa. He is registered as a postgraduate student at Fuller Theological Seminary and at the South African Theological Seminary.