Are You Qualified? – Pt 2

In yesterday’s discussion we talked of qualifiers for spiritual leadership, Servants Heart, without public sin, and a redeemed soul.

Today we are going to look at some rejoinders from scripture on what NOT to do. What makes any spiritual leader unqualified? What are the characteristics that have the potential to trip up a church board or a Pastor when he is considering whom he wants on his leadership team?

I could give several personal life examples of the wrongheaded installation of leaders who were unqualified. Worse than that I have examples of where a Pastor or Leader put in place a person who was unqualified but did it anyway. I have one example that actually killed off a whole church. This is serious business and should be taken seriously. I will restrain myself to describe these unqualifiers from Biblical examples alone.

The principle is; many churches, pastors and denominations are too quick to lay hands on someone without first measuring well whether or if they fit according to the word of God. Paul instructed Timothy as he was leading the churches he Pastored NOT to lay hands on anyone quickly. Test them, watch them.

After you read this list of disqualifiers you might ask, “who is qualified”? That will have to wait until tomorrow. There are some core qualifications. They are NOT what you think. In fact most of what the world of denominational doctrinal decision making in this area is completely at odds with God’s word. To put it bluntly, if a denomination puts someone in leadership by a vote or thru some program question it twice and then once more. Sometimes a blind sow does find an acorn. They might be qualified, but it’s usually an accident.

The early church struggled with all kinds of messy things and it seems that much writing back and forth had to do with what made up a good versus bad leader. In reviewing carefully the writings of various authors in the New Testament I have come to the conclusion that most of the warnings were NOT about Church Members but were about leaders. The warnings are too specific and besides if it simply were a Church member it would be about how to get them back to the mercy and grace of Christ. Paul wrote about some of those in First Corinthians. These warnings are more specific and more direct. It’s about bad leaders.

Here are warnings about unqualified kinds of people NEVER to put in leadership:

1. Good Givers simply because they are good givers. This in my opinion is the single biggest reason churches struggle. It’s about the money. When I was a pastor I never wanted to know what anyone gave. I wanted to assume everyone gave everything. I wanted to create leadership based on more biblical evidence than the balance sheet on their giving statement. Yet, MOST churches elder boards and leadership are comprised of the biggest givers or potential givers. In Acts Chapter 4:36-37 is the story of Barnabas who sold his land and laid all the proceeds at the foot of the disciples. Apocryphally the story is told that Barnabas was in fact the Rich Young Ruler in Luke 18:18-23. That he repented after the crucifixion and resurrection and was in the upper room at Pentecost. There is no evidence for that but I hope it’s true. It makes the story so much better. That big gift of sacrifice didn’t automatically elevate Barnabas church leadership. It did reveal his heart. He later did become a church leader but more about that later and why it happened.

Watching this were Annanias and Sapphirah, People of some means evidently. They too sold land as Barnabas had; they brought money and laid it at the disciple’s feet. They told the Disciples it was everything they had come into. It wasn’t. They died because of the lie. This happened at the beginning of Acts 5.

What was the motivation? Status, leadership, elevation, position. Their ambition killed them.

When someone touts what they give, how they give, when they give I get suspicious. I like the old Black Baptist idea of giving with the right hand and keeping the left hand behind your back. The idea being, don’t let your right hand know what your left hand is doing. Sure, it’s silly in the natural but the idea it conveys is valid.

A person who is a big giver should never be put in a position of leadership unless they qualify in other ways and even better. Money can be a deciever. Look at Barnabas; Big giver but better qualified otherwise as time bore out.

I wouldn’t also place into leadership someone who has the means to give but thru selfishness or lack of understanding doesn’t give.

They have to work together. Money does not make one qualified and it can lead to being Unqualified.

2. An unteachable person who is talented but wrongheaded. Apollos could have been such a man. A really good man: Eloquent, mighty in knowledge of the scripture, fervent, well taught in the basics, what he taught was accurate, he was bold when in the Synagogue but he was short of the mark. He needed to be taught a more excellent way. This story ends well. You can read about it in Acts 18:24-28. If you have led ministries very long you have met some Apollos people. They are charming, charismatic and effective. They are also shallow and lacking in understanding. It would have been a shipwreck to put Apollos in leadership of a ministry. It would have been terrible to put Apollos on the church board. He would have been leading and contesting the whole board with great persuasion based on inch deep understanding.

The person you have in your midst with great talent but short in understanding has potential if he or she is teachable. That doesn’t mean they have to agree with you all the time. It does mean that they hear you, will wrestle with you, will prove out what they teach so you can deal with it. Sometimes the Apollos comes to bring a new level of what God has for you. Many times the young and fired up Apollos is exactly what the church needs to get you off dead center. But an unteachable Apollos no matter how talented he or she is: unqualified.

3. Tradition Bound Leaders: The board that was there when you came to Pastor the Church or take over the ministry. There is a comfort in leaving in place all the board members, elders or staff, leaders that were there when you came. It is less disruptive. It is far less painful. Besides you might lose some and some may even be good tithers.

If you do you will be leading with a mindset that says, “I was here before you came, I put you in, I can take you out”.

Paul the Apostle came to Ephesus in what is today Turkey. There was a “Church” of sorts in place. They were disciples of John the Baptist; They had been baptized by John. They had all his books and tapes. You can read about this in Chapter 19 of the book of Acts. They met together for training in the doctrines they had. Paul meets up with them.

Now the story could have gone either way; In many traditional churches the story would go as follows:

• Paul: How’s it going? How's the Church doing? What do you believe?
  
• Disciples: We are disciples of John here. We're doing great.
  
• Paul: What about Jesus?
• Disciples: Heard of him. Think he’s good but we have been a John Church, we've got all the John Tapes. My daddy was a John Church member. I was born into the John Church. We think it’s OK if others want to believe in the Jesus Church and all that. But we are John People. We were born John Church, Baptised John Church, will live and die as John Church Members.
• Paul: But, Have you received the Holy Ghost since you believed?
• Disciples: We don’t know about that and we don’t want to. We are happy the way things are. You must think we are all supposed to speak in tongues or get the Holy Ghost or something. We have the Baptism of John and that’s enough for us. We’re just fine.
• Paul: OK, then, Bye
• Disciples: Glad that guy’s gone, he might have caused division among us.

Unity in falsehood will ultimately lead to disunity without the Spirit of God in His fullness.

And then there would be no letter to the Church at Ephesus (Ephesians) or a letter to them by Jesus in Revelation. They would have died in whatever religious tradition they had stagnated in. The good news is it didn’t happen that way. The church at Ephesus became a powerful church. In fact the whole chapter of Ephesians Chapter 4 addresses the very leaders he encounters in Acts 19 and who Paul leaves in charge of the Ephesian Church in Acts 20:1.

Pastors who come into a church of religious people who were there before he came and plan to be there after he leaves MUST start over. Must evaluate those elders and leaders based on a theologically sound basis and not on the fact that they have long history in leadership. Simply having historical placement as a leader can mean they are still Unqualified.

Tomorrow: Warnings against the kinds of toxic people who clamor for leadership and who destroy ministries and churches. They were all over the place in the first hundred years. They still are!