Don’t Be Called Leaders

This recent (2023) book by Jon Zens is another short power packed read. Jon specifically discusses how current church leadership is harmful to both leaders and the congregation. An excerpt from the book is included below. For more information about Jon Zens, click here.

Because the blatant, brazen, and pervasive practice of one person ministry is so far from the Lord’s mind, it is no surprise that hosts of men, women, and children are deeply damaged by their tenure in it. At this time, the average pastorate lasts just over two years. “It’s lonely at the top of any organization,” said a 1998 bulletin of Denver Seminary. In 2016, John L. Thomas wrote, “burnout in the first three to five years has become so prevalent” (Encounter, 76:1, p. 68). One pastor confessed, “On the surface it looks like I have dozens of friends, but the truth is that I’m the loneliest man in town” (Aubrey Malphurs, “You Can Count On Me,” Moody Monthly). The effects of attaching the notion of divinity to the Pharaohs was noted by Barrows Dunham, “He became remote as gods are, unapproachable except by a few consecrated persons, mostly of his own family. A stifling etiquette surrounded him. He knew, in dreadful perfection, the loneliness with which power curses the powerful” (Heroes & Heretics: A Social History of Dissent, Alfred A. Knopf, 1964, p. 7). As Henri Nouwen observed, “The paradox indeed is that those who want to be there for ‘everyone’ find themselves often unable to be close to anyone” (The Wounded Healer, 1972).

Max Lucado observed, “We all lug loads we were never intended to carry” (Traveling Light, 2001). Pastors wear many hats and carry out numerous duties that the Lord never intended for one person to bear. Is it any wonder that so many collapse under burdens imposed by a job description nowhere to be found in the Lord’s heart?

I am not going to supply a list of statistics that reveal how much damage has been done by the one-person leadership model. But here are two that should break our hearts: “The majority of pastors’ spouses surveyed said that the most destructive event occurring in their marriage and family was the day the pastor entered the ministry…80% of adult children of pastors surveyed have had to seek professional help for depression” (The data was collected by Richard A. Murphy; cited by Ivan C. Blake, “Pastor for Life,” Ministry, July/August, 2010, p. 6).

The clergy-centered magazine, Men of Action, freely admitted, “Pastors are worn out, discouraged, and in need of affirmation. In fact, poll after poll reveals that most pastors are battling isolation, depression and loneliness. They are so beaten up by the ministry” (November, 1995, p. 4).

The history of the pastoral institution reveals a trail of devastation, burnout, broken families, mental illness, and suicide. The list of church leaders who have gone astray morally and financially is miles long (see The Roys Report, JulieRoys.com for a detailed sampling of pastoral failures). And what most often happens to those who fall? They go through various sorts of restorative rehabilitation and are sent back into the very same system that brought about their downfall. That’s the definition of insanity: doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.

But here’s the real point to be made: the whole system that showcases one-person primacy is corrupt to the core. The essence of its agenda puts Christ on the periphery and exalts those behind pulpits. This system fulfills Christ’s words: when you look to and depend on leaders, the leadership of Christ is minimized, or possibly eliminated. So how can we expect good fruit from a method that has no roots in the Lord’s mind?

We have built a hydra-headed infrastructure without any revelation from the Lord Jesus. Look at all the books, conferences, and seminars on pastoral leadership, better preaching, church administration, training leaders, and church growth. They are all pretty much built around the one-person model, which cannot be found in the New Testament (anywhere).

Roman Catholic theologian, Hans Kung, freely admitted that the bulk of religious traditions are not of divine origin.

Those who so far have not been seriously confronted with the facts of history will sometimes be shocked at how human the course of events was everywhere, indeed how many of the institutions and constitutions of the church-especially the Roman Catholic institution of the Papacy-are man-made (The Catholic Church: A Short History, p. xxv).

In light of so many human traditions being turned into laws, Kung asks, “Is it possible to imagine Jesus of Nazareth at a Papal mass in St. Peter’s, Rome?” (The Catholic Church, p. 6).

Are we willing to admit that the long-standing practice of one-person leadership is strictly a human tradition, not having any foundation in the New Covenant revelation? And yet we have put all our eggs in the one-leader basket, and we have built church buildings and ministries around this false assumption. Are we concerned that the one-leader idea has hindered the ekklesia’s true mission in Father’s eternal purpose?

Jack Deere gives a great illustration that we can use to think about “church.” “If you were to lock a brand-new Christian in a room with a Bible and tell him to study what the Scripture has to say about healing and miracles, he would never come out of the room a cessationist” [a person who believes that certain Spirit-gifts ceased with the closing of the New Testament canon] (Surprised by the Power of the Spirit, Zondervan, 1993, p. 54). I would reframe Jack’s illustration like this: if you were to lock a brand-new Christian in a room with a New Testament and tell him to study all it says about ekklesia, would he ever come out of the room with any revelation about one person being the key to church-life, and who would preach a sermon every Sunday morning? Yet we have constructed our key notions about church upon a foundation that is nowhere to be found in the New Testament. Isn’t this cause for alarm and re-evaluation?

We have in place a system centering on the leadership of one person. This way of doing church has hurt both the leaders and those in the pews because it is not the Lord’s heart-it is not in line with His eternal purpose in Christ. Are we going to continue the insanity of doing religious things over and over, expecting a different result, or are we going to wake up and stop focusing on leaders and pursue our true Leader, Christ?