SO often in leading and shepherding we begin to gravitate towards a singularity which is detrimental to our gospel family. This singularity is an emphasis on the self. We do not identify our selves as a thread in the fabric of a team of leaders but rather as the captain of the football team. This idea is entirely unbiblical. Christ had the holy spirit (John 1:33), he sent out his disciples two by two (mark 6:7, even in church leadership we see that there is a plurality of leaders (Titus 1:5, Acts 20:17, Hebrews 13:17, 1 Peter 5:2-3) . Now, given, there is a senior Pastor but his name is Jesus (Hebrews 5:1-7, Matthew 16:18).
We begin to see our selves as the final authority instead of submitting to one another's gifting. This works because we have varying gifts. The prophetic preacher and teacher must submit to the priestly pastor shepherd lest the body be dominated by his particular personality, gifting, ideas, and more negatively sins, baggage and shortcomings to the extent that the rest of the body is frantic and un-shepherded. Conversely, the priestly shepherd must differ to the organized and driven king so that the church doesn't become intrspectic and inclusive. Lastly the king must default again to the prophet for mission, vision, and truth keeping, lest the church become an event where we attend, (rather than) not a people on mission redeemed for the glory of God.
If we do not do this, two things will happen among a myriad of other potential dangers: The first is that the stride of Christ's body will be found limping. The body of believers will reflect you, because they are receiving all their direction from you alone and as a result your mission and vision will be under realized biblically speaking. Your single perspective is not adequate because you do not have all of the gifts of the Church, you do not even have all the leadership gifts of the Church. In doing this, you are setting yourself up in a presidential role which is unbiblical and rests in your unbelief in the gospel.
The second is that what the world sees as Christ will be jeopardized. The Church is the extension of Christ here on earth (John 17, 1 Cor. 12:27). When we shy away from the biblical plurality model of church we shy away from Christs character. When we begin to remove essentials from scripture, Gods glory is cheapened temporarily by our sin. Let us run our race well!
These commands however are not ends in and of themselves but rather expressions leaping out implicitly from the gospel changing our hearts. They are the elaborate blossomings the crosses implications. They are the power of God incarnated in our lives. We must never pursue these aims as rules to be followed but rather signs to look for as we believe further in the gospel. In this way we migrate away from the "default of the human heart"- religion. If we do these things we are no more perfect in Christ then we were before. Gods righteousness is no more righteous after we obey his word. Rather, we are simply bringing the gospel to bear more on our lives and these things are mere echoes of the cacophony instigated in our heart through the death burial and resurection of Jesus the Son of God.
This is the audio page from soma communities GC leadership training. It speaks much more on this subject. listen to the "Leading a missional community" clip.
http://www.somacommunities.org/learners/audio--discussions/training/
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