How Jesus portrayed church structure: Leadership submits downward

Jesus stated that church should be a shallow V rather than a pyramid, with leaders at the bottom. Jesus commanded leadership to submit downward to those they serve rather than the people submitting upward to leadership. This is contrary to what nearly every Bible school teaches. This is because those schools are teaching the pyramid model, and order among the ranks is required to maintain the pyramid. Without heavy teaching on submission and authority, the base of the pyramid begins to flatten out and the pyramid collapses.

In Mark 10: 42-45 Jesus said: "You know that the rulers of the Gentiles (non-believers) exercise lordship over them: and their great ones exercise authority upon them. But it shall not be so among you: but whosoever wants to be great among you, shall be your servant. And whosoever is the chiefest, shall be servant of all. For even the Son of Man came not to be ministered (served) to, but to minister (serve), and to give his life a ransom for many".

Notice that leadership is commanded to submit downward, to each other, and those they are to serve. There is nothing in the Gospels about the ‘membership’ submitting upward to leadership.

The reader may quote Hebrews 13:17 as an example of membership being told to submit to leadership:

"Obey those that have the rule over you, and submit (yield) yourselves for they watch for your souls, as they much also give account, that they may do it with joy, and not with grief: for that is unprofitable for you."

Yet Vine brings out that this word translated ‘obey’ is not the word ‘obey’ (hupakoe) at all. It is the word peitho, which means "to persuade, to win over". He goes on to say, "The ‘obedience’ suggested is not by submission to authority, but resulting from persuasion." He also states: "’Peitho’ and the word ‘to trust’ are closely related.

In other words, the writer of Hebrews is not commanding the people to obey their leadership, he is urging them to be ‘persuaded’ or ‘won over in trust’ by the leadership, so leadership (may serve) them with joy. If leadership truly does what Jesus told them to do, submit to those they serve, then those they serve will gladly be persuaded and won over by them.

Additionally, Jesus’ last instruction on the subject of leadership is found in John 13: 4-12 when he washed the feet of the disciples. Remember that in Mark 10, the disciples are jostling for position and authority, trying to establish their own territory to rule over. Jesus told them their hearts were wrong, and the true leadership that comes from God submits downward to those they serve. He emphasized his point yet again, by performing the most menial task in those days, washing feet.

The rest of the NT agrees with Jesus. I Cor 3: 10-11 states that Jesus is the foundation and Paul, as an apostle, helped lay the foundation (of Jesus) in the lives of the Corinthians. The very walls of heaven have as it’s foundation, the lives of the apostles (Rev 21: 14).

Consider the work of the foundation. Foundations serve the rest of the building that rests upon it. When building a house the foundation must first be set. The rest of the building rests upon that foundation. In this part of the country, Tulsa, there is big business in foundation repair. The soil is largely made of clay that absorbs and holds water, or dries and cracks in drought. Many foundations crack and settle as the soil beneath expands and contracts.

Jesus is the foundation stone. A foundation stone, when using stone blocks, must be set the firmest and most true. From that one corner stone the rest of the walls are built, and they must be built straight and level. Jesus is that corner stone, and the apostles right next to him.

Some might argue that the heart of leaders in pyramid shaped organizations can still be that of a servant, thus fulfilling what Jesus said. I would agree that their schedules are filled with things to do, but I would make the point that Jesus didn’t want us to serve a structure, but rather each other. Many a pastor has been frustrated by the endless meetings, committees and official functions that require his attendance, when his heart is really to spend time teaching and discipling the believers. But thinking that these things ‘go with the territory’, he sees no other way to answer his heart’s call to disciple people.

Much like a person who surrounds himself with so many possessions he spends all his time maintaining them and ignoring his family, too many pastors in a pyramid shaped church must, by the nature of the thing, serve the organization rather than the people they are to serve.

The missing link

The missing link is something which was understood by the original readers of the NT letters, yet is lost on our western culture in America. That missing link is relationship.

Being a teacher, I like to refer to many scriptures when I am teaching. I am known for telling people to turn to a passage, then backing them up to the previous couple of verses ‘to set the context’.

If you’ve ever been quoted by a newspaper or other publication, you know what it is to have your words taken out of context, and the anger and frustration you‘ve felt as you try to explain yourself. (usually only digging yourself in deeper)

If you’ve ever been in an argument and someone says you said something, but you know it’s been twisted because it was taken out of context, you know how important context is.

The whole of the New Testament was written within the context of strong interpersonal relationships developed through ‘churches’ that met in homes. This was their culture and the context the NT was written in. Therefore it is only within this context that we can fully understand the depth of meaning of scripture.

Just like someone quoted out of context, what they said was true, but the context with which is was spoken is the only way to gain a full understanding of what was truly meant in the quote. If we today, try to read what the scripture says out of the context of the way it was intended, we introduce error into our understanding.

Therefore, when we try to understand the New Testament through the eyes of a pyramid style church, we are seeing things askew because the context of the NT was not a pyramid, but rather a flat V, with leadership at the bottom, within the culture of close relationships meeting in homes.

The Purpose of the Gifts

In Ephesians 4: 12 the scripture says that the 5-fold gifts are ‘for the perfecting of the saints for the work of the ministry’.

It must also be recognized that all ‘the saints’ are gifted. I Corinthians 12: 4-7 mention ‘gifts’ (charismatic) found in I Cor 12: 8-10; ‘administration’ (office gifts including 5-fold and perhaps those listed in I Cor 12: 27-30); and ‘operations’ (energy or motivational gifts found listed in Romans 12: 6-8). All these gifts are given, according to

I Cor 12: 7, to everyone that they might profit.

Everyone has combinations of the gifts within them. The motivational gifts of Romans 12 provide a good example. One gift mentioned is prophecy, not the charismatic gift or even preaching, but the ‘energy’ or ‘motivation’ which is how these people see life. People with a prophecy gifting see things like a prophet: Cut and dried, right or wrong. They are blunt, usually tact is a learned skill, they have a desire for righteousness in themselves and others, and are loners to a degree. (Elijah, John/Baptist are 2 examples)

Other gifts include teachers (they like to tell everyone something they learned or how to do things right); exhorters (they like to tell stories and run on and on about their experiences, believing others will be lifted up if they tell their story); servers (who have a hard time saying ‘no’ to any need required, they like to be in the background and meet physical needs of people); ‘ruling’ (or administration, these people know how to organize anything, but sometimes put the task ahead of the people); giving (these people love to give quietly and love to see their giving make a difference; mercy (these folks identify with the emotions of others, tend to be emotional, but love to provide hospitality and support to people).

These are just the ‘motivational’ or ‘energy’ gifts. Everyone has various combinations of these gifts within them. It’s the way God made us. Beyond these, he may have given you charismatic gifts and/or called you into an office in the body of Christ. All gifts are given by God for his purposes, no matter how we earn a living.

We must recognize that every person in the body of Christ is gifted in various areas. If the 5-fold gifts are given that the whole body might do the work of the ministry, then we must understand that the work of the ministry flows through the gifts in the ‘common’ body of Christ.

Therefore the 5-fold ministry gifts job is one of empowering the saints to move into and learn to function in their gifts. This cannot happen in a pyramid shaped organization because it’s structure is about empowering the main man and keeping everyone else silent. In the flat structure portrayed by Jesus and the writers of the NT, each person is free to operate as God created them, in their own gifts.

The pyramid is built that the top man might be in the spotlight and other staff members are just players on the stage. That is 180 degrees from what Jesus said the church should look like. It is a testimony to God’s grace that he can flow through it at all, and a key to understanding why the church has become irrelevant to people outside ‘the church’. When a structure is built to empower the one at the top instead of the people, the people become anemic and their spiritual gifts and muscles become atrophied. The structure must therefore reduce itself to the lowest common denominator in the pews, and Sunday morning becomes a ritual of entertainment and manipulation instead of empowerment and discipleship.

When we look at the world we see Hollywood, the music industry, and the political realm all built in pyramid fashion, with a few ‘superstars‘ at the top. How sad it is that the ‘church’ looks just like them, a few ‘royalty’ at the top, and the impoverished multitude beneath.

Only in a flat structure can each gift be effectively developed. Only in a structure in which leadership submits to those it serves can each gift be empowered. Only in a structure that maintains relationships can this happen, and this is the missing link.

But what about CONTROL?

The pyramid is built so that leadership may maintain control over the people and produces people who are incapable of learning God‘s voice, incapable of governing themselves, and has created generations of people who are hearers only of the Word.

But Jesus built the church that each gift would be recognized in it’s place in the body as a whole, and through the interdependence and relationships within the body, control would be by the body and through the Holy Spirit.

Did you ever notice that not one letter in the NT was written to the elders of the church? Paul wrote ‘to the church at ______’. He didn’t write, "to the leadership at _____". When the Corinthian church had a case of one believer taking another to court, Paul told them to handle it as a body, setting those esteemed least to be judges. When they had a brother who had entered into a sexual relationship with his stepmother, he told them they should have handled it as a body.

Not once in chapters five or six, where these incidents are mentioned, did he ever call upon the elders or other leaders to step in. Paul taught responsible Christianity. Body governed as each person moves in his or her own grace.

We must recognize that God moves through the gifts he gave to the church. Gifts are not something people have, gifts are what makes each person unique, it‘s who they are. You cannot value and empower a gift separate from valuing and empowering the person. To do this you must know them.

The discipleship process is based on knowing each other. Jesus told the disciples to teach ‘them to observe and to do whatsoever I’ve commanded you’. Paul told Timothy to impart these things ‘to faithful men’ (II Tim 2:2), older women to the younger, older men to the younger, parents to children. It’s all relationship based.

Only in relationships can we have the V structure Jesus taught. Someone said that Christianity started as a relationship when God reached out to man; it went to Greece and became a philosophy, to Rome and became a religion, to Europe to become a culture, and to the United States to become an enterprise. I would further add that the church began as a counter culture, and at least in the United States, has become merely a sub-culture. Insulated within itself with it’s own language and customs, irrelevant to the populace as a whole, most Christians go blindly along thinking all is well.

Control is not an issue when people have the freedom to develop their gifts in Christ and are given a place to function. That doesn’t mean there are never any problems, but it means through commitment to each other, maturity is attained.

I was speaking to a man from England who was telling me about how their church valued each other. This particular association has churches in the traditional pyramid structure, but they only allow their churches to get up to 200 in membership before starting another one in the same area. In this way they believe they can maintain the relationships required to facilitate discipleship.

He said they had a worship leader who wasn’t working out, and the decision to replace him was made. In my mind I thought, "Two weeks severance if that and he’s gone". But he told me what they did: "We told him it wasn’t working out, and that we’d relieve him of his duties immediately, but that we’d also pay his salary up to 1 year while he searched for a job. Within 3 months he was able to start a business and to this day he is a member of that church and one of the biggest givers."

That is valuing people and their gifts. We are to work through difficulties with people, not treat them as a disposable tissue or obsolete piece of machinery, to be tossed aside when we no longer need them.

Where are the gifts to be used?

In Ephesians 4: 8 Paul tells us that Jesus, ‘ascended up on high and gave gifts unto men’, followed by a listing of the 5-fold gifts which are for the perfecting of the saints for the work of the ministry.

But Ephesians 4: 8 is a quote from Psalm 68:18. Paul only quoted the first part of this verse and his point was made, however by looking at the rest of this verse we can see the fullness of the Lord’s thought.

Psalm 68:18 says:

"You have ascended up on high, you have led captivity captive: you have received gifts for men; yes, for the rebellious also, that the Lord God might live among them."

"For the rebellious also that the Lord God might live among them" Wow! The gifts were given so that God could live among them, not to be locked away in some building and seen only on a Sunday morning. He wants to live among the rebellious!

The revelation that the gifts Jesus gave to men are so that he might live among the ‘unsaved’ is completely opposite of the way most of us were trained in the faith. When the Lord was teaching me this truth he directed me to Acts 18: 1-3 and the life of Paul as a tent maker.

The Lord asked me what Paul as an apostle, would do to start a church. I replied that he was part evangelist, part teacher, part pastor, part prophet, part government...a little of everything. Then the Lord asked me what Paul had to do to start a tent making business. I knew from study that Corinth held the ‘Isthmian games’ every two years, a smaller version of the Olympics, and that tents and awnings were in demand much like we see today at fairs and festivals.

I knew that tent makers for this culture dealt with wool, dyes for the wool, leather, wood, marketing and sales. Immediately I understood where the Lord was going as he said: "Remember that I am the source for all gifts. The gift of apostle to the church is the gift the world calls entrepreneur. The same gift, but different function and structure to flow through."

Suddenly I realized something in my own life. All my life I have been used of the Lord in the secular realm to start businesses, or to restructure and rebuild them. In the ministry I have been used to restructure, start, or rebuild churches and church related programs. It is the same gift of apostle, but different structures it flows through.

I began to understand that God was living among the heathen through the gifts he had given to his body and the church world had been missing it for years. For too long I‘d talked to men and women who truly loved their jobs and felt called to be in business, but felt they had to leave it and go to Bible school to ‘go into the ministry‘. I realized how this was wrong thinking for most people.

I began to see striking similarities in the gifts. I asked a class full of adults how many were called to be pastors. Of those who raised their hands I found out that most were managers in business and that they loved those they worked with. Their employees came to them for advice and help. They were operating in the gift of pastor right there at work, even though their title was ‘manager’. Same gift of pastor, but a different title.

I asked for a show of hands of those called to evangelism. Of those, I asked what kinds of jobs they had. Nearly every one answered, sales, marketing, recruiting. Same gift of evangelist, but different title.

Next I asked for those called to be teachers. A few hands went up and I asked what they did for a living. Job training, career counseling, teaching, and the like were the majority. Same gift, different title in the secular world.

I asked about those who felt a prophetic call. The answers to what they did for a living included accounting, human resources, jobs involving making policy, jobs involving ethics and legal issues. I realized the that same gift that allowed that accountant to tell the CEO where his company would be in 1 year was the same insightful gift God uses as the prophetic.

As I’ve taught this I’ve had business owners come up to me and tell me that for the first time in their lives they are at peace with being in business. One man told me he knew he was called to his business, and felt he was an apostle, but had only heard the traditional church line his whole life, making him feel ‘less called’ and ‘not as holy’ as the pastor.

For further confirmation let’s look to the life of Jesus as our example. Consider where Jesus did his miracles: With a few exceptions they were in the homes, fields, work places (Peter’s fishing boat for example), at their parties (Cana), during their grieving, and by the roadside. Jesus’ miracles were done by and large in daily life, not in the synagogues.

He is the greatest gift with all other gifts flowing from him, so they will all flow in this vein. The gifts are to be seen among the unsaved.

In fact, most of Jesus’ miracles were interruptions to his life. Whether it be his first, minding his own business at a wedding party, or the women with the issue of blood touching him on the way to raise Jairus’s daughter (another interruption), Jesus performed his signs and wonders among the people. He took the gift to the people rather than hiding it away.

So it is today. He’s never changed. He is still going into homes and work places manifesting himself through his people, we’ve just misunderstood and at times, worked against him in His efforts.

Please see part III of this teaching on the main articles page.