Introduction
For centuries, the question of spiritual leadership in Christianity has interested humanity. In the Scripture, the very inception of the church as an institution of believers’ unity is described, which implies the importance of referencing the Holy Bible in an attempt to reevaluate the leadership and structural guidelines as presented in the original source. The biblical representation of church structure provides significant clarifications on how believers should be guided. The structural system of church, as well as the general implications of spiritual leadership, are explicitly addressed in several parts of the Bible. In particular, these issues are discussed in the Old Testament’s Exodus 18 in Jethro’s advice to Moses and in the New Testament’s Pastoral Epistles by Paul. The role of Jesus as the head of the church is presented to highlight the hierarchy in the system, where pastors and overseers are given the responsibility of being God’s representatives for people.
The relevance of this research topic is justified by the need to expand the knowledge of leadership strategies and structural division of church for facilitating pastoral workforce. For effective leadership and governance in the church, overseers and believers need to align with the prescriptions of the Holy Bible to maintain the order in the congregation and ensure relevant governance. In this paper, the general insights on the role of the Holy Bible in the formation of leadership and structural organization of church are presented. Jethro’s views on church structure are discussed and analyzed according to their presentation in Exodus. The lessons taught by Jethro to Moses are interpreted from the perspective of their application to the modern-day Christian church. Also, Paul’s perspective on the structure in the Pastoral Epistles is analyzed in order to identify the main ideas that apply to church organization and leadership within the structural hierarchy. Overall, the paper aims at exploring the distinctive features of Jethro’s and Paul’s views on church structure as presented in the Bible and identifying the opportunities for their application to the modern church.
Leadership and Structure
When tackling the question of leadership and structure as presented in Biblical writings, one might identify the generalized applications of the ideas to multiple spheres of human life, beyond church and religion. Indeed, as Jere and Magezi state, Pastoral letters and other leadership-related messages available from the Bible have a significant global impact on regulating “the social, political and economic situations affecting the lives of people.” The organization of vital processes in life, as well as the establishment of a hierarchical system of subordination in governance, allow for effective resolution of problems. Therefore, the Bible provides comprehensive guidelines for the general public when questioning the social and political organization and the role of individuals in it. At the same time, the Bible is an essential source of guidance for leaders and representatives of management occupations.
One of the most important and informative issues pertaining to the execution of occupational duties is the description of qualities a person must have to become an effective leader or overseer. In the Bible, in general, and in Exodus and the Pastoral Epistles in particular, much attention is paid to the personal qualities and moral benchmarks of the leaders. The Pastoral Epistles to Titus exemplify a list of qualities that overseers must have to become effective leaders. Goodrich notes that many characteristics in this list resemble a duty code, which is rather similar to those for such occupations as military generals, dancers, and midwives. The scholar specifies that “this listing of qualities appropriate to a specific office or status is a specific category within the more general genre of lists of virtues and vices.” Thus, the biblical vision of the qualities necessary to carry out leaders’ duties apply to multiple spheres of human life and become an essential model of a societal and professional organization.
Similarly to Paul’s vision of leadership, Jethro’s pieces of advice also reflect the optimal organization of the workforce. The subdivision of duties allows Moses to be more efficient in helping more people and leading more believers at the same time. Reaching beyond the church structure, these implications might be useful in every realm of human work organization, which is vital in the contemporary world. Building relationships by applying supervision is the core of Jethro’s perspective on the pastor’s occupation. Thus, Exodus and the Pastoral Epistles are essential sources of guidance for church structure organizations, leadership qualities development, and the pastor’s conduct as overseers of the supervisee’s actions. At the same time, these biblical ideas apply to a more general field by providing instructions for the representatives of multiple occupations. Having overviewed the general perspectives on leadership and structure as presented in the Bible, it is necessary to provide an in-depth review of the specific insights of Jethro and Paul.
Jethro’s Insights on Church Structure
The figure of Jethro in the Old Testament plays an important role in shaping the structural division of responsibilities in the church. Jethro is a father of seven daughters and a reputable priest of Midian, who helped “Moses escape a crushing administrative nightmare in dealing with the various issues that involve any community of human beings trying to live together in harmony.” In his advice to Moses, Jethro teaches his son-in-law some essential lessons about the principles of supervising the believers. When they meet after Moses successfully led Hebrew people from Egypt, Jethro inquired about the work Moses was doing with the people. Moses replied that “Because the people come to me to inquire of God; when they have a dispute, they come to me and I decide between one person and another, and I make them know the statutes of God and his laws” (Exodus 18:15-16). In response to this, Jethro, who had noticed how hard Moses was working from the early morning till the late evening, he gave Moses a piece of valuable advice.
Since Jethro was an experienced priest, he knew that Moses would not be able to deal with all the people’s problems and disputes on his own. While in Exodus 18:13-15, the problem is defined, Exodus 18:16-23 depict the solution to Moses’ problem. Jethro’s argument is complete and well-organized. He starts with the identification of Moses’ style of helping people as wrong and proceeds to instructing him on how to manage other people in representing God. Jethro explains what Moses “can do to empower other potential leaders (“look for able men […] and let them judge the people at all times, every great matter they shall bring to you but any small matter they shall decide themselves.” Importantly, Jethro advises finding able men who fear God, “trustworthy, and hate a bribe,” and place them as Moses’s subordinates (Exodus 18:21). These words demonstrate the importance of personal qualities of people who are expected to be leaders, or overseers, and judge believers on Moses’ behalf.
The very relationship between Jethro and Moses implies the pattern of communication based on some essential moral codes and personality qualities. Indeed, in Exodus 18:7, the following lines describe the meeting of Moses and Jethro: “Moses went out to meet his father-in-law and bowed down and kissed him. And they asked each other of their welfare and went into the tent.” The loving and respectful climate of communication between Moses and Jethro contributed to the occurrence of “meaningful confrontation,” the result of which was Moses’ learning. The obedience, humility, and respect that Moses manifests in his actions demonstrate the subordinative relationship between the two characters, implying that this example is essential for building respectful connections between individuals. In this regard, Jethro becomes a shepherd for Moses by correcting his style of leadership and ultimately shaping the whole Christian paradigm of supervision in ministry. Therefore, the model of relationships, in which Jethro expects Moses to obey the father-in-law’s word, and Moses respects his opinion and obeys is an example of effective structural relationships for the church.
In the first place, Moses’s model of servant leadership included his primary role as a shepherd and was limited to his duty as the only leader. According to Sanders, such a style of leadership was influenced by the status of Moses as a humble man who made a noble decision to lead the Hebrew people from Egypt and save them. Because Moses relied only on himself in his work of judging people, he perceived his responsibility to spread God’s will among the rest of the Hebrew people by his own means. In a certain way, this style of leadership is marked by autocratic features since the teaching and managing of believers was originated from one person. Indeed, “the leadership style of Moses tended toward one of hierarchical leadership which did not allow others to lead or be developed as leaders.” Also, it is ineffective due to the limited resources one individual possesses. Thus, Jethro had reasonable ground for claiming the Moses’ approach was not right.
As for Jethro’s perspective, it contains implications for the complexity of the organization of numerous constituents of the church and provides valuable insights into the effectiveness of supervision in ministry. Veen argues that the theological practice described in the passage about Jethro and Moses in Exodus 18 “contains three core elements for effective supervised ministry: relationships, reflection, and re-action.” Relationships refer to the circle of connections a supervisor has, which establish the realm of influence and allows for creating a learning space. Reflection pertains to the observation of the actions and meanings “the said actions give to that ministry.” And re-action allows for a supervisor to give space to his supervisees for trying new approaches to ministry while leading them toward the same goals.
Thus, the main lessons learned from Jethro’s servant leadership theory resemble the ideas concerning the ineffectiveness of bearing responsibility by only one leader. Indeed, as Shirley identifies, Jethro teaches Moses not to “carry the burden of ministry alone” and to delegate the responsibilities to other able men, which creates the space for relationship building. Also, an important issue is finding the right individuals who have the necessary qualities and true faith, which allows for the reflection of a leader on the performance of his subordinates. Finally, when re-acting, according to God’s will, a leader will be able to “have the capacity to endure and serve faithfully, and there will be peace among the followers.” The importance of Jethro’s contribution to structuring the church organization and managing ministry in terms of effective leadership through delegation and supervision is difficult to overestimate. However, the Bible contains other implications for structure and leadership, which are expressed in Paul’s ideas, as presented in the Pastoral Epistles.
Paul’s Perspective on Structure in the Pastoral Epistles
In the circles of theology, as well as among Christians, Paul is commonly recognized as a renowned leader. His activity as an Apostle has brought multiple important leadership and church structure lessons to the Scripture. Mainly postulated in the Pastoral Epistles, namely, the First Epistle to Timothy, the Second Epistle to Timothy, and the Epistle to Titus, Paul’s leadership and structure views are organized around the personality of a leader and the supervisees. Indeed, in Timothy 3:1-16, Paul says the following:
“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?”
The ideas behind the letters of Paul to Titus and Timothy include those concerning the role of a leader in the organization of the believers’ paths. In essence, in Paul’s opinion, the task of a theological leader is to teach, care, and set an example for his followers.15 Since Paul pays much attention to the personal characteristics of a leader, Floor states that the Apostle’s insights are marked by charismatic leadership perspectives, although they also have institutional features.
As shown in the passage from Timothy 3, the Apostle Paul uses the word, which is translated as bishop or overseer many times. The character qualities attributed to an overseer resemble a noble person, who is a reliable constituent in the church structure. As Gregory puts it, “a pastor is an overseer of the affairs of God, a steward of the local church where he or she has been called to serve and oversee the affairs thereof.” Thus, the church should be structured according to the responsibilities of overseers to supervise their subordinates and lead them by their example.
When reviewing Paul’s ideas against the church structure, one should state that the overseer bears responsibility for the church’s functions. Since a pastor, or an overseer, is a “manager of God’s house, which is the local church,” he needs to be connected with all the people who attend the church and ensure their well-being and the functions of the church. Importantly, a pastor does not take responsibility for any separate function of the church, but its overall organization. His primary role is in teaching the believers about the word of God, which is why he must know the Scripture and have an ability to explain it to the others. Another important role of a pastor is the caring for the followers and supervisees and reproving those who have contradictory views. The care for the well-being and souls of the individuals, their families, and communities is carried out by pastors through their articulation and popularization of the truth of the Scripture. Finally, overseers functioning in the structure of a church must behave in a way that sets an example for the followers.
Paul’s letter to Titus also has implications for organizing the work of a church in assembling a system of overseers. In Titus 1:6-8, Paul says: “If anyone is above reproach, the husband of one wife and his children are believers and not open to the charge of debauchery or insubordination. For an overseer, as God’s steward, must be above reproach. He must not be arrogant or quick-tempered or a drunkard or violent or greedy for gain, but hospitable, a lover of good, self-controlled, upright, holy, and disciplined.” According to Wilson, Paul’s intention was to instruct Titus “how to clarify roles and priorities through the guidance of Christian leader and follower behaviors.” These insights demonstrate the high level of importance of authentic leadership in the structuring of church and shaping the responsibilities of supervisors. The authenticity of office, in this regard, is resembled through high moral standards of the leaders and their devotion to their duties.
Moreover, the pastors bear responsibility for their followers and must maintain their influential role throughout their performance within the church structure. Continuous improvement of qualities and striving for leaving to the standards of the Scripture are the priorities of the overseers as the role models for the congregants. In such a manner, the followers will “have a clear understanding of the leaders’ values and direction, and through positive psychological influence, feel that they reflect similar beliefs and goals of their leader.” The perspectives of Paul on the importance of personality qualities and the distribution of responsibilities among the overseers are similar to those of Jethro to Moses. Thus, both Old and New Testaments provide a clear vision of the structure of a church as a multifaceted system of pastors who help people and the role of leadership in maintaining the church’s functions.
Conclusion
In summary, the church structure and leadership insights represented in the Old and New Testaments of the Holy Bible provide explicit instructions on how to organize, oversee, and supervise the pastors in their ministry experiences. These issues are viewed from the perspective of the importance of leadership issues in the contemporary religious circles since pastors require in-depth insights into their roles within the church organization and the opportunities for the leadership they might consider to retain believers in the church. The views of Jethro and Paul presented in the Bible provide strong theoretical and practical guidelines for organizing ministry and choosing and allocating proper individuals to the positions of overseers. Both perspectives entail personality qualities and responsibility distribution and delegation as the stepping stones of effective leadership.
Moses’ approach to individual leadership allocating all the responsibility for judging Hebrews and spreading the teachings of God among them was limited in resources and did not allow for leadership opportunities for others. Jethro taught Moses about the importance of delegating most of the work to able men who possess noble traits and deal only with big problems, while minor ones leave to the supervisees. Similarly, Paul, in his letters to Titus and Timothy, elaborates on the responsibilities of overseers as those who teach, care, and set examples for the followers. In such a manner, it is obligatory for pastors as overseers to live according to the Scripture and be able to explain the word of God to both the believers and those who contradict the teaching s of the Bible. Thus, despite minor differences in the directions of Jethro’s and Paul’s perspectives, they both cultivate the idea of structuring the house of God (church) in an organized way where the ministry responsibilities are distributed among a group of subordinated pastors who behave in a noble way. The explored structural insights allow for practical implementation in the church to facilitate the pastoral workforce and expand the positive experiences of Christians.
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