Rethinking the Biblical Guidelines of Rulership by and Submission to Church Leaders / Elders
By Christopher Haun – cthaun[at]hotmail[dot]com
Last update: October 8th, 2010.
Status: still brewing
In
this rethink I hope eventually to attempt to reconsider some seriously abused (even
mistranslated?!?!!) passages like Hebrews 13:7,17
(NKJV: "Remember those who rule over you, who have spoken the word of God
to you. . . Obey those who rule over
you, and be submissive, for they watch out for your souls, as those who must
give account.") and some seriously neglected passages
such as Matthew 20:25-26 (NIV: "You know that the rulers of the Gentiles
lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not
so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your
servant. . .”)
Since
I’m not yet ready to publish my thoughts on the matter, I thought I should at least
leave these links to inspire some good rethinking. I don’t necessarily agree with every point
they make.
http://www.spiritualabuse.org/mywritings/obedience.html
Obedience: Hebrews 13:17 by Lois E. Gibson
http://www.wickedshepherds.com/DoEldersRule.html
DO ELDERS RULE?
http://www.ntrf.org/articles/article_detail.php?PRKey=13
What
About Elders?
Where and how do elders factor into
church government by corporate consensus?
Elders are critical to the long-term survival of a church. Elders guide, model, persuade, teach, feed,
council, protect, warn, advise, rebuke and correct.
The church as a whole may be compared
to a senate, with the authority to make decisions and render judgments that are
binding on its members. A church elder
is just a fellow senator, but one who is on a special senate committee whose
purpose is to study issues, make recommendations, teach, inform, or
prompt. Normally, the elder is not to
make decisions on behalf of the church.
He does not usually preempt the consensus process. All elders are senator-servants to the whole
senate (church). However, the senate
will occasionally find itself in grid-lock, unable to resolve an issue. In such rare cases, the elders serve as
predetermined arbitrators, or tie breakers.
With these unusual instances those in opposition are to “submit” to the
elder’s leadership and wisdom (Heb 13:17).
In Hebrews 13:17, believers are
encouraged to “obey” church leaders. How
does this square with congregational rule?
The common word for obey is used with reference to children obeying
their parents and slaves their masters (Ep 6:1,
5). It is significant that the Greek
behind obey in Hebrews 13:17 is not the usual word. Instead, peitho is
used, which Bauer’s lexicon fundamentally defines as persuade or convince.6 (Other
examples of peitho can be found in Luke 16:31, Acts
17:4, 21:14). Paul McReynolds’ literal
interlinear renders peitho in Hebrews 13:17 as
“persuade.” Used in Hebrews 13:17 in the
middle/passive form, it carries the idea of, “let yourselves be persuaded by”
your leaders. Certainly, when someone is
persuaded of something, he will act on it, or “obey” it (Ro 2:8, Ga 5:7, Ja
3:3). The expositor Vine notes that peitho means, “to persuade, to win
over to, to listen to, to obey. The
obedience suggested is not by submission to authority, but resulting from
persuasion”7 The
point to be observed is that mindless obedience is not what is pictured in
Hebrews 13:17.
This same verse also instructs
believers to “submit” to their church leaders. As with “obey,” the common Greek
word for “submit” is not used. Instead, hupeiko was chosen by the author, a word that still does
mean to give in, to yield, but after a fight.
It was used of combatants. The
idea behind hupeiko is seen in Southern General
Robert E. Lee’s letter to his troops concerning the surrender at Appomadox: “After
four years of arduous service, marked by unsurpassed courage and fortitude, the
Army of Northern Virginia has been compelled to yield to overwhelming numbers
and resources.” The nuance of hupeko is not a structure to which one automatically
submits (like submission to civil government).
Rather, it is submission after a process, struggle, or even a battle,
has occurred. Submission does occur,
but the picture is one of serious discussion and dialog prior to one party
giving way.
Thus, God’s flock is to be open to being
persuaded by (peitho) its shepherds. In the course of on-going discussion and
teaching the flock is to be open to being convinced (peitho)
by its leaders. Mindless slave-like
obedience is not the relationship presented in the New Testament between elders
and the church. However, there will be
those times when someone, or some few, in the flock can’t be persuaded of
something and an impasse will arise.
When necessary to break the grid-lock, dissenters are to give in to, to
yield to (hupeiko), the wisdom of the church leaders.
Thus, in the final analysis, churches
are to be elder led more so than elder ruled.
Consensus congregational rule is the New Testament pattern. The times when a church might be temporarily
elder-ruled is when one or a few within the church become self-willed,
unreasonable, obstinate, divisive, enslaved to sin, or deceived into false
doctrine (Heb 13:17).
Even this submission, however, is to come after dialogue, discussion and
reasoning.
And
this next link seems “over the top” in my opinion. I definitely don’t want to sound like I agree
with this one. But it was useful for helping to untie some of the knots in my
head. It could be useful to others. Sometimes if you’ve been at one unhealthy
side of the authoritarianism-anarchy spectrum a good dose of the total opposite
end of the spectrum can help balance be achieved?
http://www.christinyall.com/articles/laymen.html
By
Gene Edwards