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The Need for Pastoral Accountability: Biblical Polity, pt. 4

This is my fourth post on biblical polity contending for a plurality of elders. I’ve already addressed the arguments from the Bible, health, and responsibility for our church having a plurality of elders. I believe the need for pastoral accountability is a significant reason for embracing a plurality of elders at Wilkesboro Baptist Church. In some ways, this is both the hardest and easiest post to write.

I’ve written previously on accountability being too often missed in the lives of Christians and leaders. In truth, God demands holiness and righteousness from each follower of Jesus. Our sanctification through Jesus and his gospel and our participation in obedience is God’s will for our lives (see 1 Thessalonians 4:3). Part of God’s plan for sanctification in the life of the believer is the community of faith.

We need each other to encourage, inspire, comfort, and call out. We need each other for accountability. I have a great pastor friend of many years. We talk regularly, pray for one another, ask each other hard questions, and confess failings to one another. I’m deeply grateful for him. But he and I have recognized the need for accountability within our own community.

In our current church structure, regular accountability within our structure is a challenge. I had a conversation with a deacon at our church more than five years ago on this very topic. We were working through our staff evaluation process because he was serving as the personnel chairman. As we talked, I acknowledged this question, “Who holds me accountable?” As the supervisor of the staff, I hold the staff accountable. Positionally, it is not viable for my church staff to hold me accountable. Structurally, it is not viable for the deacons to hold me accountable. Truly, it is the congregation’s job to hold the pastor accountable. But accountability to the congregation is final and not personal or pastoral in nature. It would not be beneficial to confess my struggles regularly to the congregation nor expect the congregation I’m supposed to lead to hold me accountable in my job duties or my spiritual walk. In truth, I would expect the congregation at Wilkesboro Baptist to fire me if I failed to preach the Word or failed morally or ethically. The aim of regular accountability for spiritual health and pastoral leadership is to protect our pastors from those kinds of failures.

It is true that we have discipleship groups that provide functional and real accountability for church members. This is part of our mission. I will address the mission argument for a plurality of elders next week. And I lead a discipleship group that does offer some accountability. But the guys that I lead don’t regularly bear the weight of pastoring the church. There are some struggles I have and some stories I live that I cannot share with them.

A plurality of elders functioning biblically would become a mutual group of elders accountable to one another for our spiritual health.

In the model I am proposing for our church, the elders would function as the accountability structure for myself and the other elders. Here’s what that could look like:

  • We would know one another. Elders would meet together formally for prayer and to discuss spiritual and leadership issues. Informal meetings could consist of developing individual accountability partners from within the elder team.
  • We would care for one another. Elders would be responsible for each other’s spiritual health. We would expect to hear how our private devotions are going, about our times of prayer, our spiritual disciplines, our day of rest, our healthy boundaries, and our families.
  • We would question one another. Elders could ask any question at any time of any elder. The beauty of a plurality of elders is the mutual care and accountability shared. Look at any of the major failings of spiritual leaders over the last few years or decades. Most of these leaders were isolated. They did not have people who knew them (their struggles and souls) or who were aware of their temptations and their burdens. Isolation whether out of fear or out of being on a pedestal is unhealthy and unscriptural.
  • We would challenge one another. Elders should not be yes men. They should be prayerful, thoughtful men. An elder team should not set out to be contrarian, but it should set out to be thoughtful and honest. Real accountability cannot occur if there is an unwillingness to speak candidly.
  • We would pray for one another. Elders should care about the health of the church so much that they pray for each other. A church’s health is not singularly tied to its leaders. Thank heavens that the church is ruled by King Jesus, and many churches have overcome significant leadership failures (morally, ethically, or with regard to wisdom). But when a church’s leaders fail in one or other of these areas, the church body is most affected. So we would pray for one another to experience protection from the enemy and direction from the Holy Spirit.
  • We would bear one another’s burdens. Elders who share the responsibility of leadership, ministry, and soul care, will spread out the burden of ministry. This will provide better care for our congregation, but will also provide a true sense of care for one another. An elder team will give each of our elders (pastors) an opportunity to be shepherded as well.

There is a scriptural basis for this type of accountability. Paul tells Timothy in one of my favorite verses in all the Bible:

Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers.

1 Timothy 4:16

Pastors and elders need to be attentive to what they believe and how the behave. Pastors and elders need to be attentive to their disciplines and to their doctrines. While I do my best to remember this verse, a team of elders holding each another mutually accountable is the most biblical model for being attentive one’s words and walk.

There is an experiential basis for this type of accountability. I wrote in the first post on this topic:

Too many churches crumble because of internal wars of preference and power. Too many churches falter because of an unwillingness to hold onto theological fidelity. Too many churches are crushed because of leadership failure rooted in pride, a desire for power, or immorality.

Biblical Polity, pt. 1

I could relate story after story of church difficulty. Some are caused by the power struggles and lack of spiritual maturity in the church. But many are caused by the lack of holiness in the life of the pastor.

  • There are the stories of pastors who have committed adultery, fraud, or abuse.
  • There are the pastors who have too much authority and give themselves a pay raise.
  • There are the pastors who are unwilling to address difficult issues in the church leaving the church in a mess for the next pastor.
  • There are the workaholic pastors who are married to the church leaving their congregation with a poor model to follow as husbands and fathers.
  • There are the pastors who are hiding closeted sins that eventually burst into familial chaos and church hurt.
  • There are the pastors whose stress and anger damage family and church.
  • There are the megachurch pastors whose stories of failure are known by many.
  • There are the smaller church pastors whose stories are only known locally.

In any of these cases, if elder accountability could have prevented the spiritual and church damage done, the cost of accountability would have been worth it.

It is my prayer and desire that a healthy and biblical model of church leadership will aid Wilkesboro Baptist Church in creating a structure of accountability for pastors and elders. For the health of the church and my own soul, this is the structure that I’m leading us to embrace.

Photo by Nick Fewings on Unsplash

The Weight of Shepherding: Biblical Polity, pt. 3

A number of weeks ago, I preached a sermon at Wilkesboro Baptist Church regarding biblical polity. In that sermon, I argued that the biblical evidence for a church’s polity and structure is a plurality of elders/pastors. Each of the last two weeks, I’ve continued that theme through a post on what the Bible says about a plurality of elders and how Wilkesboro Baptist Church can be healthier with a model that is more biblical.

In today’s post, I’m going to reflect on the weight of shepherding a congregation and why that weight is best shared with a plurality of elders.

For me the process of discerning biblical polity has been a long one. I’ve read about biblical ecclesiology (doctrine of the church) for more than a decade. I understand the practices and polity of baptist churches as a member, staff member, and as a senior pastor. And during the pandemic, pastoral leadership and ministry changed in dramatic ways leading me to reconsider our church’s polity. This process of change in my own understanding of the church has had many factors (as you have read and are reading).

But the single most important verse that has impacted my view on this subject comes from the book of Hebrews.

Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you.

Hebrews 13:17

Here is what struck me. I will give an account for those who are under my ministry and leadership at Wilkesboro Baptist Church. As overseer, I am responsible to “watch over the souls” of those in our congregation.

Practically, here are some of the member care (soul care) situations I have been responsible for in the last month or so:

  • Spending time with a teenager helping him understand the gospel and salvation.
  • Visiting with someone who has a terminal illness.
  • Counseling a spouse whose partner committed adultery.
  • Interviewing a number of prospective members to hear their conversion stories and answering questions about Wilkesboro Baptist Church.
  • Visiting with a family who has been dealing chronic health challenges.
  • Calling and praying with numerous members regarding health challenges, surgeries, and grief.
  • Helping a friend navigate addiction and how to overcome it.
  • Meeting with deacons and church members to better care for the isolated and shut ins in our church.
  • Visiting a member in the hospital who had a health emergency.
  • Talking with teenagers and adults about baptism and following Jesus.
  • Meeting with church leaders about leadership and polity issues.

The above list just represents a number of appointments on my calendar. Appointments like these require discernment, prayer, focus, and dependence on the Lord.

Each week I consider the folks connected to Wilkesboro Baptist from a variety of perspectives.

I’m grateful for the new people God has sent our way, and I’m trying to make time to get to know them. Nearly a 1/4 of our attenders have begun worshiping with us since the pandemic.

I’m burdened for the folks who have disconnected from the church over the past couple of years, wondering about them and praying for them.

I’m concerned for the folks who have become permanently shut-in during the pandemic.

I’m frustrated at the number of children and grandchildren of church members who have fallen away from the faith.

I’m blessed by the number of church attenders and leaders who are engaging in worship and leadership in the life of our church.

I’m excited for the number of children, teenagers, and adults who are meeting and following Christ and becoming engaged in the life of our church.

Each of these categories (new people, disconnected people, shut ins, those who have fallen away, those who remain engaged, those who are near following Christ) represent persons who need time, conversation, prayer, and relationship from the church and its leaders.

These concerns are weekly weights because as an overseer I am responsible to “watch over these souls.” I realize that the salvation of these folks is not up to me. It is between them and the Lord. But I’m responsible to preach clearly, articulate the gospel regularly, and know the members of our congregation well enough to affirm their faith in Jesus Christ.

Unlike any of the other posts on this topic, this post has the potential to come across as a complaint. I don’t mean it that way at all. God called me to be a pastor and to oversee the souls at Wilkesboro Baptist Church. As best as I can, I embrace this responsibility. In fact, I enjoy in many ways all the weights of responsibilities mentioned above. But it is a weight that I believe God intended the church to share among overseers.

What a plurality of elders/pastors would mean for Wilkesboro Baptist is sharing the weight of the care for the congregation. Having more elders/pastors who know and care for congregation members means that our congregation will get better soul care and pastoral care.

There is also the weight of congregational oversight. In our current structure, deacons have functioned as the business managers for the church with relationship to various committees (finance, personnel, properties, membership, spiritual emphasis, and missions). This structure is not altogether inconsistent with the role of deacon as described in Scripture (see Acts 6 and 1 Timothy 3). The lean in our deacons meetings has been toward business: budgets and buildings. And while the business of the church is vital, it is not primary. The church (those called out from the world) is primarily a spiritual organization of Jesus followers.

During the pandemic, many decisions had to be made quickly. Our congregation trusted our pastoral staff as well as our deacons and followed the direction of the church’s leaders. But the types of decisions were unique for our leaders (shutting down and restarting, cleaning, spreading out, having multiple services, adjusting musical worship, online worship, etc.). The deacons and staff at Wilkesboro Baptist have been immeasurably helpful during this time. We would not be healthy and growing were it not for their service and involvement. Yet there have been decisions that have finally rested with me over and over again. And I’m realistic enough to admit that I made decisions about the church and its ministries related to health, pandemic response, and reopening that I was not trained for. At times, I felt like I was on a bit of an island. I’m not alone in this sense. Several other pastor friends of mine expressed similar experiences during the past several years.

What a plurality of elders would mean with regard to congregational oversight would be sharing the weight of decisions that affect the church body.

Over the next couple of weeks, I’ll continue this polity series by writing on two more reasons for a plurality of elders: accountability and mission.

Let me leave my Wilkesboro Baptist Church readers with two reminders. First, I believe that the final decisions of our church rest with our congregation. A plurality of elders would not change much (if anything at all) about the types of decisions the church congregation would make (budgets, affirmation of pastors/elders and deacons, etc.). Second, a plurality of elders does not automatically mean that we will have to add staff (vocational pastors). Some pastors/elders in the New Testament churches were compensated for their ministry (see 1 Timothy 5:17). But many (if not most) of the elders/pastors in the New Testament churches served the church without being paid vocationally. Our pattern of the office of deacon should inform what we are to think about a non-staff elder. There are some men in the church qualified to serve as an elder that would do so in a non-staff capacity.

Photo by sterlinglanier Lanier on Unsplash