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Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers (Ephesians 4:11, NLT).
Let’s consider one of the most misread passages of Scripture in the New Testament.
In Ephesians 4:11, Paul rolls out what some consider the “quarterback” gifts of the Spirit. I’ve read many books, commentaries, and speakers who call them The Leadership Gifts of the Spirit. With this understanding, these five gifts — apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers — become the prominent gifts among the 22 spiritual gifts mentioned in the New Testament.
Those claiming these gifts get the most attention, stand behind pulpits, come up with new ideas, write books, and lead the church with vision, strategy, and building campaigns. The “leadership gifts” become “follow me” and too often deteriorate into control and manipulation.
However, the word “leadership” isn’t mentioned in Ephesians 4, and understanding this, the interpretive tone of explaining these gifts as leaders in charge seems contextually misapplied.
Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ. This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ (Ephesians 4:12-13, emphasis added).
The Apostle Paul writes, “Their responsibility is to equip God’s people.” Ephesians 4 isn’t a CEO textbook for leadership, but a guide for servants who equip, release, and allow others to get the glory. The Leadership Gifts aren’t a cattle prod of apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor, and teacher, but a cross upon which true leaders die to self, enabling others to follow their God-given calling.
There is a gift of “leadership” mentioned by Paul in 1 Corinthians 12:28b, “Those who have the gift of leadership,” but interestingly the Greek word translated as “leadership” is often translated as “administration” in many versions of the Bible, with the original Greek word meaning “presiding over, caring for, and giving aid.
Nowhere in the Bible do we find the corporate CEO approach attached to leadership found in the New Testament. I’m not promoting a church without leadership, but placing the gifts into the perspective of this instruction…
In fact, some parts of the body that seem weakest and least important are actually the most necessary. And the parts we regard as less honorable are those we clothe with the greatest care. So we carefully protect those parts that should not be seen, while the more honorable parts do not require this special care (1 Corinthians 12:22-24a).
In 1970, business leader Robert Greenleaf wrote a book titled The Servant as Leader, explaining what he considered the best principle of leadership for the corporate world. Many Christian leaders have taken this concept and applied it to the church, as Ken Blanchard writes in his book Lead Like Jesus…
For us, lead like Jesus means turning the organizational pyramid upside down. The traditional pyramid has the leader at the top, telling everyone else what to do… In a servant-leadership model, the leader serves the people, removing obstacles so they can succeed.
I believe that we should strike The Leadership Gifts while following the path of Jesus as Servant Leaders.