The Church as an Automobile: A Philosophy of Leadership

A Holy Vehicle

The church is a lot like an automobile. It is composed of parts that work together to carry passengers down the road. Similarly, the church as a body is made up of parts. The Apostle Paul tells Christians that the church is “joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love” (Eph. 4:16).¹ The church cannot succeed if the body’s parts do not work. Like the car, it cannot carry the passenger to their destination if some of its essential parts are missing or broken. Leaders and administrators of Christian churches and ministries know this to be true. In order to facilitate a ministry that is pleasing to the Lord and biblically based, the body must be unified and at peace with each other (Mark 9:50; Eph. 4:3-4; Col. 3:15). When this happens, the church can grow into glorifying the Lord at an exponential rate. The church will speed down the highway towards heaven. In all of its parts and in its unity, it will never cease to praise the Almighty.

A Holy Map and Manual

The Bible has been given as a guide for the gatherings of the church. It provides everything that the church needs to worship God in their services and meetings. If the church is a holy vehicle, then the Bible is the map and manual that guides it in its journey through eternity. The Word of God does not serve as a guide to leaders and administrators only, but it is preached to the congregation or passengers every Sunday and at most meetings. No matter if it is regular Sunday church, Sunday school, discipleship groups, or prayer meetings, Christians can count on hearing the Word of God and the Gospel of Jesus because it is “inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work” (2 Tim. 3:16). Moreover, they hear the Word often because it is “living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart” (Heb. 4:12). The Word of God also guides and gives administrators prescriptions on how to lead and how to conduct these services where the Bible is preached. Some of these prescriptions will be covered in the following sections.

Church Offices

As previously stated, the church is made up of parts. Ephesians 4:11-12 tells Christians of the different roles and gifts that Jesus gave his church. It states that He “gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ.” It is through Christ’s administration of the gifts that the church has received the offices and their purpose is to build up Christ’s body and equip them for ministry. The pastoral epistles, 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus, explain how to do this and they give qualifications, characteristics, and functions of the roles of elders and deacons. It is helpful to examine these offices as parts of the holy vehicle in light of the holy map and manual.

Elders

Elders are like engines. They power and oversee the church. They are the administrators of the church body and lead it in all of its ways. Of course, they do this under the authority of Scripture as they are “ruled by [God’s] Word.”² After all, one of their qualifications, according to 1 Timothy 3:2, is to be “able to teach.” How are they to teach truth if they do not submit to it and understand it themselves? Rinne summarizes the other qualifications as the desire to be an elder, an exemplification of Godly character, leading the family well, of the male gender, and the establishment as a believer.³ Because of the qualifications of eldership, elders have many jobs. One of them, of course, is teaching the Word, but elders also have to shepherd. They do this through caring for the congregant’s individual needs as well as building unity within the flock as a whole (Eph. 4:12-13). However, the chief of all of their roles is to deliver the Word of God to the congregation through preaching and teaching.

Pastors

Pastors are really the same as elders. In Ephesians 4:11, “the words pastor and teacher go together… ‘pastors and teachers’ does not refer to two roles but to one, that of a ‘pastor-teacher.’”⁴ Therefore, pastors are fundamentally no different than elders. The only difference is that a pastor is usually both commissioned and hired while lay-elders are only commissioned. Despite this minutia, the pastor is simply the lead of all the elders, and his qualifications and roles are the same as the other overseers. Because the pastor is an elder, his chief job is to preach the Word from the church pulpit. Pastor Jared Wilson quotes Moby Dick by Herman Melville: “The world is a ship… and the pulpit is its prow.”⁵ However, Wilson claims that while the quote may be outdated for the world, it is still especially relevant for the local church.⁶ In other words, the church is a car, and the pulpit is its steering wheel. If the pastor’s pulpit steers the church, then who steers the pulpit? It is certainly not the pastor, as he is but a sheep like all of the congregants and other officers.⁷

The Greek word for pastor or shepherd, poimēn, is almost used exclusively for Jesus in the New Testament.⁸ Therefore, the driver of the vehicle is not just any shepherd but the Good Shepherd (John 10:11). Christ is proclaimed from the pulpit and steers the vehicle towards His will through the preaching of His Word. That is why Christocentric preaching is so necessary. Without it, Christians assume the role of the driver over Him who is truly worthy and able to steer perfectly. When pastors preach the Gospel, they “proclaim and exult in the revealing of God’s glory in Christ.”⁹ Pastors ought to have Christ in the driver’s seat for every sermon and sermon preparation. When they do, Christ will be magnified and the glory of the Lord will be made visible to the congregation.

Deacons

Another office of the church is that of the diaconate. Ephesians 4 does not mention this office because deacons do not communicate God’s Word in an official sense like the roles that Jesus gave. They do not teach or preach. Rather, deacons are shock-absorbers.¹⁰ They handle service matters. Indeed, the word deacon means servant.¹¹ The original deacons were established because the elders were needing some relief in taking care of the congregation, so they elected the deacons to serve, care, and walk aside the struggling people (Acts 6). The qualifications of deacons are similar to the qualifications of elders without the teaching necessity. This is because the character of deacons matters much more than their administrative skills.¹² Their specific jobs often include serving on committees, benevolence to those in need, day-to-day finance, ushering, and handling the logistics of the church.¹³ Their biggest responsibility is to lighten the load of the elders and free them up to shepherd the spiritual needs of the congregation.¹⁴

Budgeting Principles

While deacons are able to tend to financial responsibilities, they do not oversee them. The elders take care of the church budget, which is a lot like the value of a car. Elders are responsible for the task because church budgeting requires spiritual maturity and wisdom, something that the elders should have according to their qualifications (Titus 1:9).¹⁵ When they oversee the budget, they do so in the best interest of the entire congregation, all while submitting to the authority of the Bible and their calling. The goal for the church budget should be obvious: to meet the financial needs of the church. However, this is not the case. The goal of church budgeting is rather facilitating and establishing faithfulness in the congregation. Jamie Dunlop says, “if the congregation is faithful in their giving but [they] still miss the budget… [they] will figure out how to adjust accordingly. But… if the congregation is faithless in their giving and [they] still make the budget, [they have] failed—no matter how many good things [they] did with that money.”¹⁶ In other words, income or the amount of money in church budgets does not matter as much as the heart behind the giving and hoping in the promises of God. Like the value of a car, the church budget is not always appreciated because of its monetary value but because of its significance to the owner.

Programming and Operations of the Church

Programs and operations are features of the car. They are the specific ministries within the context of a particular church. They can include children’s ministries, youth ministries, gender-focused ministries, outreach, missions, and many more. The church should be faithful in these operations according to the need for them in their congregation. More importantly, they should strive to promote the faith of all the participants of the various programs. The purpose behind programs is to build up and make disciples that are providers rather than only consumers of the ministries.¹⁷ This is because “the Bible treats Christians not as consumers but as providers: ‘[Christians] love because [God] first loved [them].’”¹⁸ A church should strive to be faithful to Scripture in their various programs because “Biblical commitment to a local church is rooted not in what [participants] can get but in what [they have] been given in Christ… when commitment goes deeper than self-interest, it points to the supernatural power of the Gospel.”¹⁹

Abuse Prevention and Response

Child abuse prevention and abuse prevention in general are safety measures. A car is equipped with both preventative measures and measures that protect passengers if an accident occurs. The blinkers, headlights, hazard lights, and even semi-autonomous driving in some vehicles are measures that can lower the chance of an accident occurring. However, drivers are aware that accidents happen all the time, so cars are also equipped with seatbelts, airbags, and crumple zones that can keep injuries to a minimum if things go wrong. Like the safety measures of a car, the church ought to have both preventive measures and protective measures if the unfortunate event of abuse comes to pass. Preventative measures include applications, interviews, background checks, cameras, visible areas, and ruling that no child should be left alone with a single adult. Another measure that should be incorporated should be a written child protection policy. When things do go wrong, the case must be reported, the victim responded to caringly and wisely, and the abuser dealt with rightly. Because Christians should be good stewards, they must “protect the children whom God has entrusted to [them]… children are a heritage and reward from God (Psalm 127).”²⁰ Churches must incorporate these safety measures to protect the children from harm.

Assessment and Leading Through Change

Assessing the church is a tune up. Leading through change is modifying the car. These two procedures that the car must go through are connected. Assessment must come first, then it can be decided what needs to be fixed. Likewise, the church must regularly assess its faithfulness and practices with the Word of God as a lens and guide. Once it is decided by the church what needs to be done, action can be taken. As discussed earlier, the pulpit is the steering wheel of the church, so when a change must be made the pulpit is the most effective means. This is because, “aside from the preliminary work of research and an assessment of the congregation, the first and quickest thing [leadership] can change in [the] church is the preaching.”²¹ An important help in facilitating change in the church is the recognition that “the only message that changes hearts is the good news of Jesus’s life, death, and resurrection.”²² Without the Gospel, no eternal changes are possible.

Conclusion

The owner of the holy vehicle is Christ, who purchased the vehicle with his own blood and made it holy. Because of the many parts of the church, administration is guiding, promoting, and encouraging the parts into a unified whole under the headship and ownership of Christ. The church would not be able to accomplish anything nor be unified without Christ who purchased it. They would not have the power to do ministry apart from the Holy Spirit who fuels the holy vehicle. Moreover, the Holy Spirit empowers and fuels the church to go about its mission: the making of disciples and reaching the nations according to the Great Commission. In a way, the mission is like a road trip. Christians get into the vehicle, learn their way, and hit the road. Along the highways, they come across new friends that they share the Gospel with. At the end of the mission, is the holy vehicle’s destination—the complete and perfect will of the Lord on earth as it is in heaven.

Bibliography

Dunlop, Jamie. Budgeting for a Healthy Church: Aligning Finances with Biblical Priorities for Ministry. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2019.

Reju, Deepak. On Guard: Preventing and Responding to Child Abuse at Church. Greensboro, NC: New Growth Press, 2014.

Rinne, Jeramie. Church Elders: How to Shepherd God’s People Like Jesus. Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2014.

Wilson, Jared C. The Gospel-Driven Church: Uniting Church Growth Dreams with the Metrics of Grace. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2019.

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Footnotes

1. Unless otherwise specified, all Bible references in this paper are to the New American Standard Bible (NASB) (La Habra: Foundation Publication, 1995). ↩

2. Jeramie Rinne, Church Elders: How to Shepherd God’s People Like Jesus (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2014), 46. ↩

3. Rinne, 19-28. ↩

4. Ibid., 46. ↩

5. Jared Wilson, The Gospel-Driven Church: Uniting Church-Growth Dreams with the Metrics of Grace (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2019), 91. ↩

6. Ibid. ↩

7. Rinne, 14. ↩

8. Ibid., 32-33. ↩

9. Wilson, 97. ↩

10. Dunlop, Jamie. “Deacons: Shock-Absorbers and Servants.” 9marks.org. March 31, 2010. https://www.9marks.org/article/deacons-shock-absorbers-and-servants ↩

11. Ibid. ↩

12. Dunlop, Jamie. “Deacons: Shock-Absorbers and Servants.” ↩

13. Merkle, Benjamin. “The Biblical Qualifications and Responsibilities of Deacons.” 9Marks.org. March 31, 2010. https://www.9marks.org/article/biblical-qualifications-and-responsibilities-deacons/ ↩

14. Ibid. ↩

15. Jamie Dunlop, Budgeting for a Healthy Church: Aligning Finances with Biblical Priorities for Ministry (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2019), 37. ↩

16. Ibid., 53-54. ↩

17. Jamie Dunlop, Budgeting for a Healthy Church: Aligning Finances with Biblical Priorities for Ministry, 90-92. ↩

18. Ibid. ↩

19. Ibid. ↩

20. Deepak Reju, On Guard: Preventing and Responding to Child Abuse at Church (Greensboro, NC: New Growth Press, 2014), p. ↩

21. Wilson, 102-103. ↩

22. Wilson, 201. ↩