Why Lead Pastor?

by Dave Harvey

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INTRODUCTION Sojourn Network exists to see healthy pastors planting, growing, and multiplying
healthy churches. Embedded in that mission is a core value that pastors matter, and
that God has given to the church elders1 to lead, care for, and feed their sheep with
the truth of God's Word.

However, to truly be effective, elders need guidance. Furthermore, to create

ministries that last, elders need care. For these reasons, and others we will explore
below, Sojourn Network advocates for a polity that includes Lead Pastors.

THE “Jesus Christ gave the church a plurality of leadership.”2

FOUNDATION Thus we begin with an assumption that grounds and guides our polity assumptions:
Church leadership in the New Testament was a shared endeavor. 3 The broad
OF PLURALITY pattern in the New Testament was simple: churches were planted and leaders were
appointed to the offices of elder or deacon. These local church leaders, however,
rarely stood alone or independently, but were
formed into teams of two or more. Thus, it is
“Jesus Christ gave the
said that the New Testament leadership,
particularly eldership, was not singular, but
plural.
church a plurality of
Plurality, therefore, is simply a way to describe
the scriptural evidence that churches were led leadership.”
by more than one leader. This means the entire
eldership, not simply a Lead Pastor, is vested
with the authority to govern and lead a church.4 In other words, responsibility
inheres in the group, not the man. The Lead Pastor derives his warrant to lead, not
from a divine mandate but from the support and glad followership of the plurality.

1 The New Testament usage of “elder” and “pastor” in 1 Timothy 3:1-7, 5:17, Titus 1:5-9, 1 Peter 5:1-2, and Acts
20:17 demonstrates that the terms are interchangeable. Consequently, Sojourn Network will use these terms
interchangeably.

2Alexander Strauch, Biblical Eldership: An Urgent Call to Restore Biblical Church Leadership (Littleton: Lewis & Roth,
1995), 36.

3 See Addendum 2: Biblical Evidence for Plurality.

4 “Today, whatever form of church government a church may have, the officers who have the highest governing
authority in the local church (whether they are called elders, pastors, deacons, the vestry, the church board, the governing
council, or any other name) are the ones who most closely correspond to the office of elder at the time of the New
Testament. They do in fact have governing authority (of varying degrees) in their churches.” John Piper and Wayne
Grudem, eds. Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood: A Response to Evangelical Feminism (Wheaton: Crossway,
1991), 256.
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THE LEAD There is no killer verse that “locks down” the biblical apologetic for the Lead Pastor.
On the contrary, it is a role derived from a broad pattern of order resonant in God
PASTOR and Scripture.

Leaders have always been essential players on the stage of redemptive history. In fact,
one could view Scripture as the story of God’s activity, often through the agency of
human leadership. For reasons wholly unknown to us, when God chose to move on
earth — to reveal his heart, to free his people, to announce judgement, or to
mobilize mission — he most often began with a leader. Not “leaders” in the plural
form, but leader.

The Old Testament offers a gallery of names

that remind us of God’s practice of using one “…biblical leadership,
to influence many — Noah, Abraham, Moses,
David, Nehemiah, Jeremiah — the list could though shared, is
fill many pages. In the Gospels, we are
informed that Christ chose the Twelve (Luke
6:12-16), but ordained Peter to fill a uniquely
frequently organized
and facilitated by a
prominent role.5

In New Testament times, the Jewish

synagogues were ruled by a council of elders, central figure.”
but each council had a chairperson or "ruler of
the synagogue."6 The early church enjoyed a
plurality of leadership, yet it appears that James exerted a unique role and influence. 7
In the Trinity there is a head, and in the home there is a "head.”8 These examples,
and many others, illustrate the notion that biblical leadership, though shared, is
frequently organized and facilitated by a central figure.

Historically, the concept of a "leader leading leaders" has been captured by the Latin
phrase primus inter pares, “first among equals.”9 Eleazer Savage offers us a Baptist
perspective from the mid-nineteenth century:

The want of united action among the different presbyters [elders] of the
same church when they were all of equal authority, and the order of public
deliberations requiring that there should be someone ‘invested at least with
the authority of collecting the sentiments and executing the resolutions’ of
the church, led to the appointment of one of their number a permanent

5 Peter is listed first in all four lists of the apostles names: Matthew 10:2-4; Mark 3:16-19; Luke 6:14-16; Acts 1:13.
Peter also possessed a unique charge to “strengthen his brothers” in Luke 22:32 and appears to be a chief spokesperson
throughout the early part of Acts 1:15; 2:14; 3:1; 4:8; 5:3, 15, 29; 8:14-24.

6 Luke 8: 41; Acts 18: 8, 17.

7 Acts 15:13; 21:18; 1 Corinthians 15:7; Galatians 1:19; 2:12.

8 1 Corinthians 11:3; Ephesians 5:23.

9James T. Bretzke, Consecrated Phrases: A Latin Theological Dictionary: Latin Expressions Commonly Found in Theological
Writings (Collegeville: The Liturgical Press, 1998), 96.
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president or moderator. The title bishop, which was applied to all the
elders, came after a while to be applied exclusively to the president — elder,
as Justin in the middle of the second century still calls him — merely to
distinguish him from his equal co-elders. He was not superior to them, but
only ‘first among equals’.10

LEADING A If elders share equal authority, on what basis does a Lead Pastor lead the plurality?

PLURALITY Elders within a local church are offered an extraordinary opportunity by God. This
opportunity comes humbly through the act of subordination, modeled by the
person of Jesus Christ. In Philippians 2: 3–7 Paul says:

Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more

significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own
interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among
yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form
of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made
himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of
men (ESV).

Theologians use this passage to describe the

functional subordination of Christ, a term that “…not a subordination
“sees the role of the Son . . . as temporarily
subordinated to the Father during a period of
ministry.” In other words, though Christ was
of equality, but of
function.”
co-equal with the Father (v. 6), he did not
grasp at this prerogative, but submitted and
subordinated himself to the Father. It was not
a subordination of equality, but of function.
The Father did not seize headship, the Son chose servanthood (v. 7). In the same
way, Lead Pastors do not assert authority or demand recognition as ‘head’ of the
plurality. Rather, members of the eldership choose to subordinate themselves to him
in recognition of his character, gifts, and capacity. While remaining co-equal, they
empty themselves of an equivalent role and submit themselves to his leadership. In
so doing, the Lead Pastor becomes ‘first among equals.’

PRACTICAL Over time we have observed that a plurality of men with no Lead Pastor usually —
though not always — experiences certain difficulties:
REASONS
1) A plurality with no Lead Pastor may inevitably key off of the most vocal
or gifted elder. In turn, this elder ends up possessing the influence
without the title.

10William Williams, Apostolical Church Polity (Philadelphia: American Baptist Publication Society, 1874) quoted in ed.
Mark E. Dever ed., Polity: A Collection of Historic Baptist Documents (Washington, D.C.: Center for Church Reform,
2001), 532.
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2) A plurality with no Lead Pastor can deny a legitimate avenue of service

to those elders with a distinct gift to preach and lead.
3) A plurality with no Lead Pastor can be a difficult model to sustain and
transfer. It may work well in the early years but strains under the
bracing challenges of crisis or succession.
4) A plurality with no Lead Pastor can create a vacuum of care for the
elders because it seems inconsistent to entrust this charge to any one
elder in an interdependent eldership.

Lead Pastors exist because plurality needs leadership.

To place it in a more positive light, we have observed that a Lead Pastor can
fruitfully serve a plurality in the following ways:

1) By developing the eldership into a unified leadership team.

2) By providing pastoral care for the eldership.
3) By facilitating decision-making and exercising the prerogative of a tie-
breaking vote.
4) By identifying and deploying spiritual gifts among the elders.
5) By encouraging efficiency.
6) By coordinating the eldership training.
7) By acting as a spokesman for the elders.

OUR Sojourn Network plants and supports churches with Lead Pastors. Any church
approaching the network for partnership must understand that this role is a part of
POSITION our history and a strategic focus for our service. There are times, however, where we
may consider adopting a church where leadership is strong but absent the Lead
Pastor role. This may be due to a leadership transition in the Lead Pastor role, the
harm that might be inflicted upon the church if it adopted a Lead Pastor model, or
the interdependent leadership model within the church is time-tested, plurality-
supported, and fruitful for gospel mission. Sojourn Network’s adoption of a church
with no Lead Pastor would be contingent upon their understanding that Sojourn
Network supports and reproduces a different polity model and they would not be
free to proselytize on behalf of their polity.

CONCLUSION Let’s draw some final, hopefully even profitable, conclusions from the discussion
above:

1) New Testament leadership within the church was always a shared

endeavor. Thus, the custom of a plurality of elders is well documented
and a sound biblical practice.
2) As ‘first among equals’, Lead Pastors carry on the biblical legacy of
order flowing through defined responsibility and gifts.
3) Lead Pastors derive their warrant to lead from the plurality who gladly
and humbly submit to their leadership.
4) While there may be conditions under which Sojourn Network would
partner with churches having no Lead Pastor, our polity and
programming largely assume this model.
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Sojourn Network continues to discuss and wrestle through matters of church polity.
Still we enjoy the humble, yet exhilarating, satisfaction of knowing that our
methods, though flawed, are drawn from Scripture and substantiated by fruitfulness.
But our polity will never be our passion — such affection is reserved for the person
and work of Jesus Christ. May he be exalted through our attempts to help pastors
plant, grow and multiply healthy churches!
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ADDENDUM 1: This short paper makes the case for a Lead Pastor within a plurality of other
qualified men — a first among equals approach to church leadership. An important
LEAD addendum seems necessary, however, in light of the fairly recent church growth and
PASTORS & multiplication strategy commonly known as “multi-site churches”. While arguments
have been made elsewhere on the biblical support, theological rationale, and
MULTI-SITE practical benefits to multi-site churches, an oft-neglected aspect of that discussion is
the necessary shift in the role of the Lead Pastor — the first among equals — once a
church decides to move to a multi-site model. In this short addendum, we will seek
to answer just two questions that arise with regard to the lead in a multi-site church
model.11

KEY QUESTION

How might the Lead Pastor role change if a church decides to move to a multi-site
or multi-congregational model?

ASSUMPTIONS

Before we begin a few assumptions are in order. First, the clarifications included in
this paper assume a teaching-team rather than a video model of multi-site. 12 Second,
the clarifications included assume that the multi-site model is primarily employed as
a response to growth in a local church, but does not assume that it should replace
church planting. Third, the clarifications included here affirms the church leadership
model of a Lead Pastor within a plurality.

KEY PRINCIPLE

The key principle for a lead pastor in a multi site context is this:

Fixed responsibility / fluid application.

In other words, the lead pastor has a fixed and essential responsibility for the spiritual
health of the eldership, just as he would if he were the Lead Pastor in a single-site
existing church. However the growth of the team and the dynamic nature of a
maturing church may change the group who enjoy his direct care. This means that
while a Lead Pastor can never truly divest himself of the responsibility for the
spiritual health of the elders, the application of his care becomes more fluid and
multi-layered.


11 Gregg Allison, Sojourners and Strangers: The Doctrine of the Church (Wheaton: Crossway, 2012), 310-314.

12 For a fuller treatment of this model, see ibid., 310-311.

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ADDENDUM 2: EVIDENCE OF PLURALITY AMONG PASTORS/ELDERS/SHEPHERDS

BIBLICAL A) Where Elder/Pastor/Overseer/Shepherd are mentioned in the New Testament,

EVIDENCE it is overwhelmingly referenced in the plural form.

FOR 1) Jerusalem Church

PLURALITY OF Acts 11:30 — And they did so, sending it to the elders by the hand
of Barnabas and Saul.
LEADERSHIP
Acts 15:2 — And after Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension
and debate with them, Paul and Barnabas and some of the others
were appointed to go up to Jerusalem to the apostles and the elders
about this question.

Acts 15:4 — When they came to Jerusalem, they were welcomed

by the church and the apostles and the elders, and they declared all
that God had done with them.

Acts 15:6 — The apostles and the elders were gathered together to
consider this matter.

Acts 15:22 — Then it seemed good to the apostles and the elders,
with the whole church, to choose men from among them and send
them to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas. They sent Judas called
Barsabbas, and Silas, leading men among the brothers,

Acts 16:4 — As they went on their way through the cities, they
delivered to them for observance the decisions that had been
reached by the apostles and elders who were in Jerusalem.

Acts 21:18 — On the following day Paul went in with us to James,

and all the elders were present.

2) Lystra, Iconium and Antioch Churches

Acts 14:23 — And when they had appointed elders for them in
every church, with prayer and fasting they committed them to the
Lord in whom they had believed.

1 Timothy 4:14 — Do not neglect the gift you have, which was
given you by prophecy when the council of elders laid their hands
on you.

3) Ephesian Church
Acts 20:17 — Now from Miletus he sent to Ephesus and called the
elders of the church to come to him.

Acts 20:28 — Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the

flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for
the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood.
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1 Timothy 5:17 — Let the elders who rule well be considered

worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching
and teaching.

4) Philippian Church
Philippians 1:1 — Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, to
all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi, with the overseers
and deacons:

5) Cretan Churches
Titus 1:5 — This is why I left you in Crete, so that you might put
what remained into order, and appoint elders in every town as I
directed you—

6) Other Churches
James 5:14 — Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the
elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him
with oil in the name of the Lord.

1 Peter 5:1-3 — So I exhort the elders among you, as a fellow elder

and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, as well as a partaker in the
glory that is going to be revealed: shepherd the flock of God that is
among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but
willingly, as God would have you; not for shameful gain, but
eagerly; not domineering over those in your charge, but being
examples to the flock.

B) All singular references to Elder/Pastor/Overseer/Shepherd are fully compatible

with plurality.

1) 1 Timothy 3:1-2 — 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,

2) 1 Timothy 5:19 — Do not admit a charge against an elder except on

the evidence of two or three witnesses.

3) Titus 1:6-7 — 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,

4) 1 Peter 5:1 — So I exhort the elders among you, as a fellow elder and a
witness of the sufferings of Christ, as well as a partaker in the glory that
is going to be revealed.
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EVIDENCE OF PLURALITY AMONG DEACONS

A) Where deacon(s) are mentioned in the New Testament, it is overwhelmingly

referenced in the plural form.

1) Acts 6:1-7 — Now in these days when the disciples were increasing in
number, a complaint by the Hellenists arose against the Hebrews
because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution.
And the twelve summoned the full number of the disciples and said, “It
is not right that we should give up preaching the word of God to serve
tables. Therefore, brothers, pick out from among you seven men of
good repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we will appoint to
this duty. But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of
the word.” And what they said pleased the whole gathering, and they
chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, and Philip,
and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicolaus,
a proselyte of Antioch. These they set before the apostles, and they
prayed and laid their hands on them. And the word of God continued
to increase, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in
Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith.

2) Philippians 1:1 — Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, to all the
saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi, with the overseers and
deacons:

3) 1 Timothy 3:8 — Deacons likewise must be dignified, not double-

tongued, not addicted to much wine, not greedy for dishonest gain.

4) 1 Timothy 3:10 — And let them also be tested first; then let them serve
as deacons if they prove themselves blameless.

B) The one reference to Deacon (singular) is fully compatible with plurality.

1) 1 Timothy 3:12 — Let deacons each be the husband of one wife,

managing their children and their own households well.
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ADDENDUM 3: Anyabwile, Thabiti M. Finding Faithful Elders and Deacons. Wheaton: Crossway,
2012.
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