Reading: 5.1—Spiritual Authority

Skill 5: Working with Staff & Leaders

As a pastor or church leader, you will be working with other staff and other leaders, many of whom will be volunteers. To get this conversation started, let me share two principles that I have discovered over the years. I remind myself of these principles frequently. Principle 1: People always act like people, so never be surprised by how people act. Principle 2: People are different, so don’t expect everyone to share your perspective. Keeping these two principles in mind will serve you well in working with people in your ministry life as well as in your personal life.

Success or failure in working with staff and leaders, i.e., working with people, depends on how you treat them. Do you treat them well, do you mistreat them; do you take them for granted, expecting them to follow you obediently because you are in the position of authority? Relationships are complicated, so it might be tempting to see these three options as a false trilemma (I don’t think “trilemma” is actually a word but I’m taking “false dilemma” one step further). Consider this simple evaluation grid as you assess your treatment of people:

Am I treating this person well? How so?

Am I mistreating this person in any way? How so?

Am I taking this person for granted? How so?

Of course, the Golden Rule will be helpful: Whatever you wish that men would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets (Matthew 7:12). However, despite the fact that this is a biblical mandate uttered from the mouth of Jesus Himself, I’m going to suggest that it doesn’t tell the whole story. Remember, people are different and the staff member or leader that you are working with is not you Treating him or her the way that you want to be treated might not be best in a given circumstance. You will need to connect empathetically with your staff and leaders such that you can get inside of what they are thinking and feeling, what they are seeing; walking in their shoes so that you can determine how they want to be treated. If empathy is not a strong suit, you need to decide to become more empathetic and work to develop empathy as a leadership characteristic or even as a skill, not to manipulate, but to understand, relate, and truly care about people. Picture this: when someone is in your office, sitting across from you, what do they see, what do they hear; how do they feel?

5.1 Spiritual Authority: Positional authority and respect for that authority are important, but effective leadership is not gained by pulling rank and leveraging the hierarchy. In the church of Jesus Christ, the weight of spiritual authority is truly where effective leadership is grounded. A Great Commission pastor or leader is disciplined and committed to personal spiritual development and to leading from a posture of spiritual authority.

Several years ago, I was blessed with the opportunity to spend one-year in training with an organization called GiANT Worldwide (www.giantworldwide.com). Tom Nebel, GiANT Worldwide Senior Associate, led our cohort through twenty-four training sessions as we studied GiANT’s approach to leadership development, developing the leader in us while preparing us to develop the leader in others. I will be drawing from GiANT’s rich curriculum throughout this section of X/52, beginning with GiANT’s Support Challenge Matrix:

Working with staff and leaders from a posture of spiritual authority can emerge from a platform of leading with High Support and High Challenge. Jesus, the ultimate spiritual leader, offers very High Support for His disciples as He explains that all authority from God the Father has been given to Him. He is sending them out in that authority. Further, He assures them that He is always with them, through God the Spirit, to the end of the age. At the same time, He issues a daring, High Challenge. He challenges them to go and make disciples, to baptize them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and to teach them to obey all that He has commanded them. Wow! There could be no higher support and there could be no higher challenge.

In framing this discussion, we will be using a leadership construct from GiANT WORLDWIDE, a global enterprise that is dedicated to leadership development, and we will examine these two dynamics in tandem. Since I personally trained with GiANT WORLDWIDE, I gained insight into their tools and permission to use them. This construct, or tool, is the SUPPORT CHALLENGE MATRIX. The four-quadrant matrix is formed by the crossing of a vertical axis with a horizontal axis. The vertical axis ranges bottom to top from Low Support to High Support while the horizontal axis ranges left to right from Low Challenge to High Challenge. This creates four quadrants that indicate four different leadership styles and four different organizational cultures. The issue for us as church leaders is to determine how we should lead, meaning, first, “What leadership style do we want to establish,” and, second, “What congregational culture do we want to nurture?”

In considering leadership styles, here’s a quick overview of the four quadrants:

Quadrant 1 features a leadership style of Protector that provides High Support with Low Challenge.

Quadrant 2 features a leadership style of Liberator that provides High Support with High Challenge.

Quadrant 3 features a leadership style of Abdicator that provides Low Support with Low Challenge.

Quadrant 4 features a leadership style of Dominator that provides Low Support with High Challenge.

I’m sure you’re already beginning to see where this is headed and which quadrant is the optimum quadrant. So, let’s move in closer. 

In considering the distinctions among these leadership styles, and the culture that each engenders, let’s begin by zooming into Quadrant 3. This leadership style is tagged with the descriptive title, Abdicator. The Abdicator style, of course, is tied to the behavior of abdication, failing to provide either High Support or High Challenge. Key leaders simply tend to allow ministry to happen on its own, going in whatever direction casual leaders permit. There is no sense of unity or alignment among ministries as each ministry is its own universe or silo. The culture is one of apathy, complacency, resignation, low expectations, and/or ambivalence. Leaders have no sense of making a dynamic future happen but are content to wait for the future to happen and see what arrives.

Denial is often present, either the denial of not recognizing problems or refusing to take ownership of the problems. Whatever has gone wrong is viewed as coming from external sources. These problems are not seen as the product of anything that leaders or the congregation have done, but as the result of outside forces. As such, there is often a victim mentality that pervades. For such a church to begin to forge a productive future, leaders must intentionally begin to establish a new leadership style and intentionally begin to establish a new culture. This requires more than improvement of the status quo. It requires transformation.

Quadrant 4 features a leadership style that carries the descriptive title, Dominator. The Dominator style, then, is tied to the behavior of domination, characterized by High Challenge but Low Support. In local church ministry, this dynamic typically emanates from a domineering senior pastor, but occasionally from another highly influencing leader. Even in denominational contexts where polity mitigates against such practices, domineering leaders tend to isolate from such checks and balances, maintaining a firm personal control on ministry at the local level. This dominance creates a culture of fear and manipulation as people are afraid to say “no” to a challenge or are afraid of not performing well and being chastised or humiliated. They often feel manipulated as they are held hostage because of that fear. 

Dominators tend to see their agendas or visions as paramount, and everyone else in the sphere of that agenda or vision is viewed as a servant. The Dominators are the generals and all others are foot soldiers. Ironically, churches of this type often generate impressive statistics that, when viewed from afar, don’t portray the dysfunctional inner workings of the church. This is the result of strong alignment in a singular direction, the direction that the Dominator has established. This pseudo-unity can seemingly be very productive for a season, but, inevitably, there will be a collapse. For such a church to forge a productive future, leaders must overcome the Dominator leadership style, which often means overcoming a dominating senior pastor or other highly influential leader. Needless to say, this is a rough road that, in the case of a Pastor Dominator, will typically require that pastor’s exit.

Quadrant 1 features a leadership style that carries the descriptive title, Protector. The Protector style protects or guards or shields, and is characterized by High Support but Low Challenge. In the case of local church ministry, from what is the congregation being protected? Folks are being protected, guarded, or shielded from High Challenge, in other words, from responsibility. There is a concern among protective leaders that expecting too much of their congregations will result in decreased attendance as well as slowing the pace of newcomers plugging in. So, a small core of the truly committed take on all the responsibility, all the challenge, and provide stellar support for everyone else. Initially, this creates a culture of entitlement, as rank and file attendees get the benefit of High Support without the responsibility of High Challenge.

As the church grows, however, it becomes more and more difficult for that small core to carry the load of high support. To achieve a better balance by moving away from this 95/5 application of the 80/20 principle, high support beneficiaries begin to be challenged to step up and carry their fair share. Culture can begin to shift at this point from entitlement to mistrust. Entitlement is now being violated by the challenge to serve. This can be perceived as a classic bait and switch scenario. Benefits that used to be there with no apparent strings attached are seen to have strings after all. For such a church to forge a sustainable future, it must intentionally make the journey from Low Challenge to High Challenge while maintaining High Support, a formidable challenge in and of itself.

At last, we come to Quadrant 2 that features a leadership style that carries the descriptive title, Liberator. Obviously, this is the quadrant we need to live in, providing people with both High Support and High Challenge. GiANT WORLDWIDE promotes the phrase, “Become a leader worth following; become a liberating leader.” Of course, people need and want High Support, but the truth is, people also need and want High Challenge, even if they don’t know it. They want to have a role in something important, something bigger than themselves. The church can provide that, joining Jesus in His mission to seek and save the lost and developing true worshipers. The local church is in the perfect position to offer High Support with High Challenge in an enterprise that stretches into eternity.

The culture that emanates from leaders that liberate is a culture of empowerment where people have the opportunity to level up to their maximum potential while being fully supported in their efforts. This is a culture of true unity and alignment with an ALL-IN mindset. The objective for a church that currently operates in Quadrant 2 is to work intentionally to sustain the ministry of the Liberator. Over time, both internal and external forces will surface that could derail such sustainability and move the church toward a different quadrant. It’s up to Liberating leaders to tend and nurture High Support with High Challenge to maintain a healthy ministry edge.

Another relevant construct in the GiANT playbook is called the POWER TEST. The GiANT formula is POWER X HUMILITY = TRUE INFLUENCE. In the ministry setting, I prefer to use the concept of AUTHORITY in place of POWER. So, the formula would be AUTHORITY X HUMILITY = TRUE INFLUENCE. When a staff member or a ministry leader is looking toward the pastor, he or she is wondering, “Are you for me? Are you against me? Are you for yourself?” Sure, we’d all like to think that the dynamics of human frailty are not at work in the case of church staff or leaders, and that everyone is always loving, kind, forgiving, humble, responsible, and honest. But remember, people always act like people, and it doesn’t take long after interacting with staff or leaders up close for the first time that chinks in the armor start to become visible. This is not an indictment but an observation. Staff and leaders should give pastors their trust and the benefit of the doubt, but there will always be some wariness, and the wise pastor understands that dynamic.

Pastors and other senior church leaders must prove themselves in terms of how they leverage their authority. Connecting the dots, here, one way to gain godly influence is by serving as a Liberator, a leader that provides both high support and high challenge. Combining the leadership style of the Liberator with proper leveraging of Authority X Humility will, indeed, foster true influence. Note that in the church, the intent of a pastor or leader who wields such influence is to be a godly leader, a biblical leader who properly represents God’s interests.

Types of Authority: There are four fundamental types of authority. A well-rounded pastor or leader will operate in two or more of these types, and I suggest that each be considered an area to be developed to its maximum capacity in a given pastor or leader.

1. Positional Authority is authority based on the hierarchy of an organization or a church.

Authority is held by virtue of the placement of a given position on the organizational chart. The most extreme form of positional authority would be a coercive enterprise such as the military with its chain of command. The major has more authority than the captain who has more authority that the lieutenant and so on. The assumption is that experience and expertise accompany the rise to higher and higher levels of positional authority, but, often, that assumption is faulty. However, experienced or not, expert or not, when someone holds positional authority that authority will be respected.

In the evangelical church, we understand that Jesus Christ is the head of the church and rightly so, but, in terms of mere mortals, the senior or solo pastor holds a position of authority, as do officers such as elders or deacons, and, perhaps, department or ministry heads, etc. It’s reasonable and appropriate for a positional leader to leverage positional authority, but note that, of the four types of authority we will consider, positional authority, by itself, is the weakest form of authority in terms of effectiveness with those who serve under that authority.

2. Expert Authority is authority based on a person’s expertise in a certain discipline. Such people are known in the marketplace as SMEs (Subject Matter Experts). Sometimes SMEs work or serve inside of a church or organization on staff or under contract, while other times SMEs are brought in from outside, usually in the form of consultants or, perhaps, as speakers or trainers at conferences. There is, of course, a certain degree of subject matter expertise that any positional leader is expected to possess. He or she would not have been selected for a given position otherwise. Generally speaking, inside positional leaders have to operate in multiple fields, though most will have a specialty area or two where they possess high level expertise and might qualify as SMEs.

A question to ask is, “How does one become a Subject Matter Expert, a SME?” Many years ago, when I was in seminary working toward a Master of Divinity degree, I had the joy and privilege to study under Dr. Roger Nicole, noted French theologian and professor. He was a man of great faith and brilliance who could run with the world’s top theologians, but he was also a very warm and practical man. I distinctly remember one class session when he advised us that, as pastors, we would be similar to General Practitioners in the medical field. We’d work with all kinds of people in all kinds of circumstances, so we would need to be able to do a little bit of everything. However, he encouraged us, perhaps even exhorted us, to find one particular ministry area of strong interest and calling to pursue deeply and, in essence, become a Subject Matter Expert in that particular ministry area. For me, that has become the field of church revitalization.

The development of SME capability incorporates many elements. On the nature side, there are personal wiring and natural tendencies that guide or lean someone in a particular direction. To some degree, there are circumstances that one is placed in that can tip toward one discipline or another. On the nurture side, there is study and application that begins to develop experience. Experience leads to more study and application that develops more experience. Dr. Steven Childers introduced me to the term Reflective Practitioner during my years of study toward a Doctor of Ministry degree. He encouraged us to become Reflective Practitioners, meaning that we would be active on the field of ministry as practitioners, but that we would stop to think through all that we experience in reflection. I would say that the Subject Matter Expert is, indeed, a Reflective Practitioner, up to the elbows in real ministry, but deep in study and reflection in order to understand fully why things work or turn out the way they do. There is no substitute for experience and there is no better complement to experience than study and reflection.

3. Relational Authority is authority based on personal relationships. Perhaps you’ve heard the expression, “People won’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.” Effectively exercising authority with a person or a group of people is greatly enhanced when that person or those people know that this authoritative person in their lives really cares about them. To be candid, I struggle in this area. It’s not that I don’t care about people; it’s that I tend to be rather undemonstrative and I can give off the impression of being aloof or disinterested. Over the years I’ve had occasion to complete the D.I.S.C. Profile as well as Myers-Briggs and other assessments, and the findings always indicate that, among other attributes or characteristics, my wiring is results oriented. As such, I have to work hard with people so that they know I care about them and not just the project objective.

GiANT Worldwide has a shorthand construct that captures this dynamic – INTERESTED before INTERESTING. You must show that you are interested in people before they are going to be interested in what you have to offer. In other words, build solid relationships with people, based upon their needs and interests, and you will find that they are much more responsive to your authority in their lives. Having authority over them positionally will not get you nearly as far with them as having authority with them relationally. Add your subject matter expertise to the mix where appropriate, and you really have something to build on.

4. Spiritual Authority is based on the perception that others have of you in terms of your being a true man or woman of God, a person of strong conviction, well-versed in Scripture and theology, reflecting the fruit of the Spirit. The list could go on and on but, perhaps, a bottom line could be that you are a person of faith who truly lives that faith and is completely safe and trustworthy. As such, your authoritative interplay with them is first and foremost as a brother or sister in Christ, and you have their best interests at heart even as you work with them toward larger objectives.

How is spiritual authority developed and established? An entire book could be written in answer to this question, but I’m going to make it simple. First, a leader that exhibits true spiritual authority is a person of the Word. Second, a leader that exhibits true spiritual authority is a person of prayer. Third, a leader that exhibits true spiritual authority is a person who provides high support for the people he or she leads. Fourth, a leader that exhibits true spiritual authority is a person who provides high challenge for those people. I refer to these four mandates as Four Leadership Dynamics for Greater Church Vitality in my church revitalization curriculum – the Ministry of the Word & Prayer plus the Ministry of Leading with High Support & High Challenge. They form a foundation for spiritual authority. 

Working with staff and leaders effectively requires establishing a foundation of positional authority, expert authority, relational authority, and spiritual authority. No one person will possess high levels of all four, but some level in each of the four coupled with steady improvement will create greater effectiveness. All four in combination create a best-case scenario.