Amelia Church of Christ - Christian Church in Amelia, OH near Cincinnati in Clermont County

This is the second installment in a series of messages called Church 101. We’re spending four weeks digging deep into the New Testament book of 1 Timothy. This book is a letter that the Apostle Paul wrote to a young church leader named Timothy. The book is jam packed with God’s dreams and vision for his church. It really is a blueprint for how the church is designed to function.

Paul told Timothy, “I am writing you these instructions so that…you will know how people ought to conduct themselves in God's household, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth.” (1 Timothy 3:14b-15, NIV)

The premise of this series is simple. The hope of the world is the local church. The church is God’s household, God’s family. Jesus died for the church. His message is delivered through the church. He is coming back for the church.

And if the church is that important to God, we’d better be sure we’re getting this church thing right. So we’re walking through this book to learn how we’re supposed to conduct ourselves as the church, as Paul said. We’re cutting through all of our preconceived thoughts and ideas and simply looking at what the Bible says about the church. We’re getting back to the basics of church.

Let’s pray and we’ll get into our second message.

Today, God is calling his church to lead on. As we get back to the basics of church, God has a lot to say about church leadership. Without quality, godly leadership, the church is destined to struggle and fail. But with bold, God-honoring leadership, the church will continually kick Satan in the teeth. We will dismantle his kingdom as we continually build the Kingdom of God. That’s what we aspire to be here at Amelia. Kingdom builders. I want our church to be Satan’s worst nightmare. And it begins with leadership.

The New Testament has a lot to say about church leadership. The shear amount of Biblical teaching on leadership under girds how important it is.

Today, we’re going to talk about the burdens and blessings of church leadership. Initially, that might sound boring. That might sound like it doesn’t apply to you. But hang with me. God’s going to do something in our church today.

First, we’re going to explore the burdens of leadership. The simple truth is that leading a church is not easy to do. It’s hard. It can be painful. It can cause sleepless nights. It can take a tremendous toll on the leader.

This is evidenced by the number of people who used to be in church leadership, but they chucked it because they couldn’t take it anymore. I can’t tell you how many guys I went to college with who aren’t in the ministry anymore. Talented, gifted guys who left the ministry because they simply couldn’t handle the burden anymore.

I have seen men who were asked to take on leadership roles, such as elders and deacons turn it down, simply because they know the burden that comes with the position.

Let’s talk about some of the burdens of leadership. First of all, the benchmark of leadership is high. There is a very high standard for leaders laid out in the New Testament. Paul tells us some of the qualities of church leaders in 1 Timothy 3.

“Here is a trustworthy saying: If anyone sets his heart on being an overseer, he desires a noble task. Now the overseer must be above reproach, the husband of but one wife, temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not given to drunkenness,

not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. He must manage his own family well and see that his children obey him with proper respect. (If anyone does not know how to manage his own family, how can he take care of God's church?)

He must not be a recent convert, or he may become conceited and fall under the same judgment as the devil. He must also have a good reputation with outsiders, so that he will not fall into disgrace and into the devil's trap. (1 Timothy 3:1-7, NIV)

This is the list of qualifications that Paul gives for an overseer or an elder. He goes on to give a similar list for deacons later in the chapter. These incredibly detailed lists exhibit a very high standard for church leaders.

God has high expectations of those who lead in his church. That’s because he knows that, without quality, godly leadership, his church will never accomplish its mission.

But I’ve never met a church leader yet who fulfilled every qualification on this list with absolute perfection. In fact, there is only one leader who ever fulfilled every one of these qualifications with perfection. His name is Jesus Christ.

Every leader in God’s church who is worth anything knows that he doesn’t measure up to the standard because the standard is Christ. He reads lists like the one in 1 Timothy and he feels an enormous burden because he finds flaws and shortcomings in his life.

For example, one of the qualifications for leadership that Paul lists is self-control. Anybody here today who has this self-control thing down pat? Please don’t raise your hand, because you don’t have self-control mastered. And if you claimed that you did, that would be pride, which is another sin, which would just compound your problems.

The point is that good leaders know the standard that they are called to live up to. And they know that they sometimes fall short of it. And that creates in them this spiritual tension that can be very difficult to live with.

I’ve gotta tell you, it’s not always easy for me to get up here and preach. There are some Sundays where I reflect on the previous week, and I see so many times that I failed that week that I don’t feel like I have any right to preach. I have no right to be a leader in God’s church because of my shortcomings and sins. It’s a tension that is hard to explain, but it is constantly one that a leader lives with. Knowing that the benchmark of leadership is high and that they often fall short of the mark, it’s a heavy burden of church leadership.

Another burden of leadership is that leaders lead. I know that sounds weird and pretty redundant. But it’s a burden that comes with church leadership.

Leadership in the church has nothing to do with titles or positions or prestige. It has everything to do with action. Taking the church where God wants it to go. Leaders can’t just discuss. They can’t just hold meetings. They can’t take polls. Leaders are called to lead.

And because they are called to take action in moving God’s church forward, that makes them prime targets for Satan.

Paul reminds Timothy that the leader has to watch his life closely, “so that he will not fall into disgrace and into the devil's trap.” (1 Timothy 3:7b, NIV)

ACC family, I want you to hear this. Satan has a trap set for every one of our leaders. He does. Every elder. Every staff member. Every deacon. Everyone who leads in any capacity. He has a trap set for them. He is targeting them. He is attacking them. He is attacking their families. He is attacking their mission of leadership in our church.

If the devil can undermine the leadership of a church, then his mission is accomplished. The church will go nowhere. It will not advance the Kingdom of God. Satan knows that if he can knock the legs out from under the leaders, the church will crumble. The burden of leadership comes from knowing that you are walking through life with an extra special, neon, glow-in-the-dark target pasted to your back. Satan is going to take any shot at you that he can.

But in spite of the attacks, in spite of being specifically targeted by Satan, leaders lead.

I am humbled and honored to work with the best leadership team I’ve ever seen in my life here at Amelia. I’d take a bullet for these guys and I know they’d do the same for me. These guys understand the risks. They understand the burdens. And yet, they lead.

They lead by taking on unpleasant tasks. Earlier this year, we made a very nasty discovery in our basement here at church. We had a big-time plumbing backup, and when we opened the door to a back closet in the basement, we found that it was filled with…um…it was a plumbing back up, so you can take a guess at what we found.

A plumber came the next day and fixed the issue with the plumbing, but that still left a very big, nasty, smelly problem. Somebody had to clean up this mess and sanitize everything. You know who volunteered to do it? Our elders.

Late one Wednesday evening, Jim Luginbuhl, John Bach, and Yance Pyle came and shoveled up the…stuff. They didn’t tell anybody. They didn’t want anybody to know, but I want you to know. I want you to know that our church has an eldership of this caliber.

They don’t view their position as something prestigious. They didn’t say, “Well, as an elder, I can’t be bothered with this kind of job.” They knew that leaders lead, which means that leaders serve. Leaders take on the unpleasant tasks ahead of anybody else.

It also means that leaders have to make hard, unpopular decisions. When you look at leadership in the Bible, every time a leader made a visionary move toward what God wanted them to do, that decision was met with criticism and attacks.

In the Old Testament, Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt and yet some of the people thought that life was better back when they were Egyptian slaves.

Nehemiah was rebuilding the walls around the city of Jerusalem, and yet he received grumbling, discouragement, and attacks from inside and outside the city.

In the New Testament, Stephen was preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ, telling people how to be saved. What did he get in return for his efforts? He was stoned to death.

You can go on and on. Peter was imprisoned. Paul was beaten. John was marooned on a deserted island.

Any time a leader in Scripture followed what God was calling them to do, they were attacked for it. And nothing has changed.

But in spite of that sad truth, leaders lead. God has called leaders to make hard, unpopular decisions, and then endure the kickback that follows. I’ve watched our leaders do that. I’ve seen them make tough calls and then take a lot of shots for it. But even when it’s a tough decision, leaders lead. It is a burden of leadership.

A third burden of leadership is that leaders love. Again, that sounds strange. How could love be a burden? Actually, a better question is how could love NOT be a burden?

When you truly love someone, it is a burden. You hurt when they hurt. When they are in pain, you are in pain. Love really is a burden.

Parents, how many of you have felt your own heart break when your child was hurting? Any good parent is going to feel their child’s pain in a deep and profound way. It’s the burden of love.

Good leaders in God’s church love the church deeply, and that love is a burden they carry.

In 2 Corinthians 11, Paul writes about all the hardships and persecution that he faced in his ministry. He said that he was flogged five times, beaten with rods three times, and stoned once. He had been shipwrecked three times. He had often gone without food, without clothes, and without sleep. All for the sake of the gospel of Christ. It’s an incredible list of horrible things that happened to Paul during his ministry. But then, he ends this list of suffering with some pretty incredible words.

“Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches. Who is weak, and I do not feel weak? Who is led into sin, and I do not inwardly burn?” (2 Corinthians 11:28-29, NIV)

Paul has just written about all the times when he had been beaten and flogged and stoned and shipwrecked. And what burden does he save as the climactic end to his list? The burden he feels for the churches. I used to think that this was kind of weird. It sounded a little melodramatic for Paul to suggest that his burden for churches was on the same level of suffering as enduring a beating. But that was before I came to understand this leadership principle in a very personal way. A leaders love for the church is a huge burden.

Paul said his love for these churches was a constant burden to him. He said, “Who is weak, and I do not feel weak? Who is led into sin, and I do not inwardly burn?” That’s what a leader feels. He feels the pain of those in the church deeply. When someone in the church falls into sin, he feels the weight of that sin in his own heart.

There are times when a leader sees pain and hurt in the church and he feels like he’s dying inside. His love for the church produces anxiety and stress and sadness and hurt and grief. Leaders love. It’s a burden of leadership.

And one more burden that leaders carry: leaders will give an account. Ultimately, a church leader will answer to God for his leadership.

Paul writes in 1 Timothy 3 that a leader has to keep their attitude in check, or they will “fall under the same judgment as the devil.” (1 Timothy 3:6b, NIV)

When you look elsewhere in the New Testament, you find more of the same.

James 3 says, “Not many of you should presume to be teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly.” (James 3:1, NIV)

Hebrews 13 says, “Obey your leaders and submit to their authority. They keep watch over you as men who must give an account.” (Hebrews 13:17b, NIV)

Leaders know that they will stand before God and answer for how they led his church. That is the heaviest leadership burden of them all.

I know it’s been kind of a downer message so far, but this is a sober truth that we all have to understand. Leadership in God’s church can be an incredibly heavy burden.

It can also be an incredibly awesome blessing. The burdens of leadership are many, but so are the blessings that come with leading God’s church.

Paul told Timothy, “It is true that if a man wants to be a church leader, he wants to do a good work.” (1 Timothy 3:1, New Life Version)

Leading in God’s church is ultimately good. It’s a good work because it’s a God work. And if a leader leads God’s church well, there are special blessings awaiting him.

First of all, good leaders will be rewarded by God. God recognizes the challenges and burdens of church leadership, and he offsets those burdens by promising greater blessings in the future.

Paul wrote to Timothy that, “Those who have served well gain an excellent standing and great assurance in their faith in Christ Jesus.” (1 Timothy 3:13, NIV)

Leaders who serve well gain an excellent standing with God. And even though they will never be perfect in their life or their leadership, they can have great assurance that God knows how hard they tried, how much they loved, and how desperately they wanted to please him.

Those who led well in the past can take great comfort in this truth. Those who lead well in the present and in the future can aspire to lead by this truth. Good leaders will be rewarded by God.

A second blessing of leadership: good leaders are honored by the church.

The virtue of honor has largely been discarded by our culture. It started with my parents’ generation and it has gained speed in mine, to the point where the concept of honor could be completely foreign to the next generation. But I want to buck the trend. Part of what I want to do in ministry is to be a part of restoring honor in the church.

People used to honor the position of pastor. It used to be among the top vocations that young people would aspire to. Not anymore. It’s partly due to our culture’s movement away from the virtue of honor, and it’s partly due to the fact that so many pastors have not lived honorable lives. I want my ministry to help in reversing the trend.

As a follower of Christ and a leader in his church, I want to live an honorable life. I will keep my word, keep my hands off of church money, and keep myself connected and committed to my wife. I know that’s not everything, but those are some areas where a lot of ministers have taken pretty spectacular falls.

And not only do I want to live honorably, but I want to extend honor to others. I want to honor men of God who are leading the church well. That is a biblical concept that is getting lost more and more often in the contemporary church.

We’ve already explored this verse, but let’s look at 1 Timothy 3:1 in a different translation to help clear this up in our minds. “If someone aspires to be an elder, he desires an honorable position.” (1 Timothy 3:1, NLT)

The eldership is an honorable position in God’s church. It is honored by God. It is to be conducted honorably by the elders. And it is to be honored by those of us in the church.

A little later in the chapter, Paul says, “Deacons, likewise, are to be men worthy of respect…” (1 Timothy 3:8a, NIV)

Deacons are to serve honorably, and they in turn receive our respect, our honor.

The Bible is consistent in its call to the church to honor its leaders.

Hebrews 13 reminds us to, “Obey your leaders and submit to their authority. They keep watch over you as men who must give an account. Obey them so that their work will be a joy, not a burden, for that would be of no advantage to you.” (Hebrews 13:17, NIV)

The blessing of leading God’s church comes when the people of the church honor their leaders. The Bible doesn’t mince words. The church is to obey and submit to its leaders.

The writer of Hebrews tells us that our leaders are already carrying a heavy burden, knowing that they are accountable to God for their leadership. And the reason he reminds us that our leaders are already carrying a heavy burden is so that we won’t pile on even more.

Their leadership is supposed to be marked with joy, not grief. The people in the church get to decide which one it is going to be.

This verse tells us to, “Obey them so that their work will be a joy, not a burden, for that would be of no advantage to you.” If you pile extra burdens and difficulties on an already burdened leader, what’s it going to do for you? Nothing.

But if you add joy to the life of a burdened leader, what does it gain you? Everything. They will be even more committed to following God’s call. The church will be blessed and will flourish even more.

In my own life, I’ve spoken plenty of critical words that I deeply regret. But I’ve never spoken one word of encouragement that I regret. Whenever I encourage someone, the blessing always comes back double to me.

The question is this: Will I be a burden or a blessing? Concerning the leaders in my church, will I be a burden or a blessing? Because, Biblically speaking, you are already one or the other. If you are part of God’s church, then you are either a burden or a blessing to her leaders.

How can you be a burden? Constantly complain and criticize. Disrespect and dishonor them. Being a burden to a leader really needs no explanation.

But how can you be a blessing to a leader. That is worthy of our attention.

First of all, pray for them.

This is a great verse about leaders. Hebrews 13:18, “Pray for us. We are sure that we have a clear conscience and desire to live honorably in every way.” (Hebrews 13:18, NIV)

The leaders at Amelia desperately want to lead honorably and in a God-pleasing, God-directed way. Your prayers are more valuable than you could ever know.

Secondly, encourage them.

1 Thessalonians 5 gives us a simple but critical reminder for life in the body of Christ. “Encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.” (1 Thessalonians 5:11, NIV)

Your leaders are carrying heavy burdens, most of which you will never know about. They need your encouragement. Seek them out today. Hug them. Thank them. Send them an encouragement note this week.

Finally, you can be a blessing to your leaders when you honor them.

“Dear brothers and sisters, honor those who are your leaders in the Lord’s work. They work hard among you and give you spiritual guidance. Show them great respect and wholehearted love because of their work. And live peacefully with each other. (1 Thessalonians 5:12-13, NLT)

There’s really nothing I can add to that. God has said it clearly. Honor your leaders, because when you do, you are ultimately honoring God because you are obeying his Word.

Our church is moving forward to an amazingly bright future. God is blessing us in an unprecedented way and those blessings will continue when we are obedient to God. And when we are a blessing to those who are leading us into the future.

Mike Edmisten

Tags: Church 101, 1 Timothy 3, church leadership, deacons, elders, Hebrews 13, honor, leadership