Some Thoughts On Interdependency

I recognize that my thoughts on interdependency as being at the core of New Testament leadership concepts are not an easy “pill” to swallow. We have been trained, modeled and enculturated into a way of leadership that gets more from tradition and the world around us than from Scripture. Jesus is emphatic in Mark 10:43 when he says, “But it shall not be so among you.” He is comparing the disciples misunderstanding of their role of leadership, to the world around them. Their ideas were formed by the cultures around them: the Jewish culture and the Roman culture. They were both top down, and rewarded the people at the top with power and all of the accruements that come with it. But leadership as Jesus taught it and lived it was not about personal, worldly power or accruements but about others; their God designed gifts, abilities, and needs along the way in obeying Him. Therefore as the following verses in Mark continue, they were to be servants, slaves, people whom following the model of Jesus, gave themselves in exchange for others. 

 

“But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” Mark 10:43-45

 

I also admit that we have not yet actually seen what this kind of leadership fully looks like in our generation. But, that does not change its Divine design or expectation. But, what does it mean to be interdependent in leadership; facilitating life and maturity in the people of Christ and seeing them come to fullness in life and ministry? I have a few thoughts.

 

What I do not mean

When I talk and teach about interdependency in leadership there are at least two things I do not mean. I do not mean that interdependency is an emotional feeling about the others we work with, that we “like” each other. Indeed it might be possible to not actually “like” the people we work with but choosing the way of love, and accepting the call of God to work with them, to find a rich interdependency. We are a generation much too influenced and swayed by our feelings. Indeed, our generation has taught us to think and act according to feeling rather than mind and fact, or for Christians, according to the word of God. At the moment of encounter recorded in Mark 10, the disciples not only did not necessarily like each other, but, were mad because of the actions of the two sons of thunder. Still, He calls them to look at Him, look at the world around them, and realize that they were called to a different course of response and action.

 

Second, I do not mean that interdependency necessarily has anything to do with relationship. Many would say, “we like each other, and we are in good relationship with each other, therefore we make a good team.” Of course, I am not advocating a lack of relationship while pursing our facilitation of Christ’s people to obedience and ministry. I am simply saying that we don't work together because we are in relationship and therefore that makes us more effective. We are in relationship because each of us is a child of God, and in leadership, are called to the same responsibility in regards to the children of God and their responsibility in His world. 

 

What then is interdependency? 

Realizing that my thoughts are not exhaustive on the issue, what do I mean when I say that an element of Divine design for leadership in the church is interdependency? First, it is the nature of the Godhead. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit lead in interdependency and therefore is our best example. As His children, we are created to bear His image and likeness, and no place holds as much strategic importance in reflecting the Divine design as how we, together with others, lead Christ’s people. The story of the Bible is the story of God the Father, acting unilaterally to restore all of His creation to Himself. He does so with the interdependent actions of the whole Trinity. God the Father wills the restoration, Jesus the Son of God obeys the Father by taking upon Himself human flesh, and God the Spirit implements, applying the death, burial and resurrection of the Son to every child of God.

 

We see this Divine design often through out Scripture that the Triune God acts in interdependency. This same divine design can also be seen in other relationships. The world is built upon just enough physical world interdependence to allow Earth to be the only know planet to sustain human life. Marriage as given by God is an interdependency of man and woman in such a way as to be different from each other, male and female, but also enough alike to allow for the fulfillment of the Divine designs behind this relationship: procreation, intimate relationship, partnership in work, and, a fulfillment through them of the glory of God as they participate in the mercy mission of God together. 

 

Interdependency is the very essence of the relationship of believers in the body. 

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The Triune God acts interdependently to give each everything necessary to carry out their designed purpose in the body. “Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone.” 1 Corinthians 12:4-6 (ESV)

 

The body itself is intimately interdependent one member with another. “For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body— Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit. For the body does not consist of one member but of many…” 1 Corinthians 12:12-14 (ESV) 

 

This why I say that what we today call a church is more appropriately called a congregation, member of a larger geography called a church. One church in a city or region made up of multiple interdependent congregations. Indeed much of the teaching of the apostles must be seen in this larger, interdependent light or we are caught trying to make New Testament teachings about things like gifts, or offices, or reciprocity of financial stewardship fit into a box much too small to actually hold its application. Moreover, if, as I assert there is an ongoing application of what I call functions listed in Ephesians 4:11, it is only meaningful in this larger idea of church, and not in the what we today call a church, or I call a congregation. 

 

As Ephesians 4:12 and following clearly says, these functions, understandable only through the larger matrix of a broader geography, are given not so much for the practice of their function, or the elevation of any one’s importance. But, the interdependent play of each with the others, and within the concept of the broader church, has the impact of: empowering the saints to do the work of the ministry, and stay tethered to Biblical truth. They grow in obedience to their God ordained design to be His representatives in what they say, and in what they do. The “be” of what they are becoming cannot be separated from what they are doing as reflections of their stewardship representation of their maker and redeemer.

 

As DA Carson in comment on the joy that Jesus gives His followers in John 15:11 says, “What is presupposed is that human joy in a fallen world will at best be ephemeral, shallow, incomplete, until human existence is overtaken by an experience of the love of God in Christ Jesus, the love for which we were created, a mutual love that issues in obedience without reserve. The Son does not give his disciples his joy as a discrete package; he shares his joy insofar as they share his obedience, the obedience that willingly faces death to self- interest.” (Pillar NT commentary)

      

What enhances the operation of interdependency?

Interdependency is much easier to live when we have certain qualities living in the leaders in interdependency. First, interdependency is effective when we start with people with spiritual maturity. These are leaders who have spent enough time in God’s word, with an attentive ear and an obedient heart, are maturing in the ability to fight off the catastrophic urges of the flesh. Chief among these catastrophic urges, especially in regards to leadership is the original sin: thinking that we have a right to be equal with God. Of course, no leader will openly admit that they struggle with this, but, among other things, it is one of the first things that Paul warns Timothy about when he gives him guidance on choosing local leaders. 

 

“The saying is trustworthy: If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task. Therefore an overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, sober- minded, self- controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not a drunkard, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. He must manage his own household well, with all dignity keeping his children submissive, for if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God's church? He must not be a recent convert, or he may become puffed up with conceit and fall into the condemnation of the devil. Moreover, he must be well thought of by outsiders, so that he may not fall into disgrace, into a snare of the devil.” 1 Timothy 3:1-7 (ESV)

 

They should be people who want the responsibility. Yes, but that desire has to be directed by and to God, or it is indeed corruptible. So, Paul goes on to describe their qualities. Qualities you can count on! He should be above reproach. Not perfect, but not under a cloud of suspicion, doubt or accusation. In order to protect the leader, Paul also tells Timothy to entertain an accusation against an elder only with witnesses. Further he should be a one-woman kind of man. Loyalty, faithfulness, care are evident and showered only one. He should be a temperate personality. Not easily angered, even handed in himself and with others. He should be able to control himself, away from some things and into the practice of other things. He should be respected. This doesn't always mean liked. He should be willing to share his home and personal places with others. He should be able to help others understand God's word. Priesthood empowerment is a centerpiece to their responsibility. He should not be one who loses control to alcohol, not a rough person with people but able to be gentle in all circumstances. But, gentleness is not the same thing as indulgence. He should not be argumentative, and one who does not love money: it's prestige, power and self-indulgence. He should be able to manage well his own family as evidenced by children who are responsive to authority.

 

All of this leads to two interesting conclusions: 1. The leader should not be young in the faith.  2. And, should have a good reputation even with those outside the church. Why? Because it takes time to develop the personal spiritual disciplines necessary to look like the qualities above. We need time to see them lest we end up casting our eternal fate to leaders of immaturity and the great potential of error. And, if we are not careful, error with our souls! When these qualities are there and maturing, even outsiders recognize them.

 

And, equally important we are careful about how we choose, because leadership holds special dangers from and with Satan. There is easy risk of the original and most deadly sin: pride, wanting to be like God. Or more clearly, wanting to be God. The best way for Satan to wreak havoc and destroy is to destroy the reputation of faith, especially in those who most represent it.

 

The second thing to look for in interdependency is people who can be loyal and focused on the outcome therefore able to better appreciate and embrace diversity of gifts and functions in others. By loyalty I do not mean blind loyalty, and more importantly loyalty to a person, other than Christ. But, a loyalty that has come from understanding God’s design for His Church to be His incarnation in the world, and therefore clearly and consistently focused upon releasing all of the genius of God in His people into the world. This kind of loyalty understands that “leading” people is more than one man, one set of gifts, or centered upon one function. Indeed, the broader the geographical scope, the more all of the functions will be necessary to fully mobilize the existing bodies into becoming like Jesus, doing the work of evangelization, and multiplying new congregations. 

 

The third thing to look for in interdependency is people who understand that the missio dei in the world through the Church is the most important outcome of their interdependency. All other outcomes confuse, pollute or impede the Church from becoming Christ’s incarnation, and finishing the task for which God created the world. 

 

My life has been formed by Scripture and the Spirit, in the midst of parents, Christian community, experience and a few very important godly, evangelization committed mentors, who spent their lives thinking and acting on behalf of seeking to complete the last words of Jesus: in your going, make disciples of all of the peoples of the world. (Matthew 28:19). These things and people consistently pointed me to Scripture as my foundation and motivation. These mentors were leaders who understood that the evangelization actions of today are rooted in the beginning of the Biblical story.

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The story line of the Bible is really quite simple. God creates men and women in His own image, designed to relate to and represent Him by active stewardship of the world He created, and in which He placed them. From their failure onward, He takes their restoration into His own hands, and so the story line unfolds across the pages of Scripture. In simple terms, mercy is the centrality of that unfolding. Because of mercy, and the unilateral action of God, in Jesus, through the Spirit, grace is given. The goal of this was the restoration of God’s original creation and designs. The end, of this world, will be the restoration of righteousness, not just in a few, but in the whole of a new world, in which righteousness reigns and redeemed men and women grow and mature in God’s design for them: relationship and representation.

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The greatest majority of people in the church today, through our leadership, have been allowed to entrench in expectations based upon an erroneous idea of the church and their involvement in it's purpose. They do not expect much of anything that defines the early church. They have come to expect that we will do anything and everything to make it possible/desirable for them to be in our church. Through the parking, the building, the programs, etc. we have taught them that it is indeed all about them. We have cooperated with, and many cases exacerbated, the inherent narcissism of Man, and the growing self-centeredness of our culture. We must now call them to act in light of the words of Jesus, and expect them to act. It will be a long road of: 1. Reevangelizing many of them who are not just nominal, they are not believers; 2, Reeducating many of them that the faith as they understood it was wrong; and, 3. Reshaping all of them to put their daily relationship with God at the center of their lives. 

 

The fourth thing to look for in interdependency is people who understand that spiritual pragmatics is at its core. Friendship and relationship are important. But, ultimately we have been called to a divine purpose and have been given responsibility in the midst of people who belong to God. Our task is about getting something done, first, with God’s people, and second; with the world He gave us to live in. 

 

We are to nurture His people into His original design, relationship with Him, and second, representation of Him. In Jesus Christ, this original design has been as fully restored, as it will be until He brings in the New World. His people have the residency of the Holy Spirit in them, and are able to cooperate with Him in growing fully into the people He wants them to be. In short, they can follow the path of their Savior Jesus Christ, and live a life of sacrifice and service. The task of leadership is much like a midwife, seeing life and faith come to be and grow. Our effectiveness is in their faithfulness, maturity and reproduction. God the Spirit uses this on the smaller level of individual lives, and the larger level of congregations and churches to multiply His mercy message, bringing others to Himself, and ultimately to the whole of the world. 

 

Merrill Tenney observes about faith in the book of John this powerful insight about the delicate interwoven dance between faith and life. “"The underlying Greek word, pisteuo, is used no less than ninety-eight times in the Gospel and is customarily translated believe, though in a few instances it is rendered trust or commit. Never does it mean a mere assent to a proposition. It usually means acknowledgment of some personal claim or even a complete personal commitment to some ideal or person. John sought to lead his readers to a settled faith on the basis of actual signs which were historic episodes, and which connoted the spiritual reality behind them as well." Pg. 32

 

“This end is expressed in the word life. Life, Zoe, in the fourth Gospel, means more than animal vitality or the course of human existence. It was carefully defined by Jesus in John 17:3" pg. 32……."Life, so defined, possess various elements. It implies consciousness: for there is no knowledge without conscious existence. Further, it signifies contact: for one cannot apprehend those things with which one has neither direct nor indirect contact. Again, it involves continuity, or duration, because knowledge of God presupposes coexistence with Him. And finally, it assumes development, since the knowledge of God must be a growing, not a static thing. Eternal life, man's full destiny, is the object of the teaching of this Gospel." (The Gospel of Belief, Merrill Tenney, Eerdmans 1948 Pg 32)

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Interdependent leadership clearly sees this mandate, and moves pragmatically to do whatever is necessary to get it done. Money, property, people, opportunities and more are all spent according to this outcome, and under the daily direction of the Holy Spirit who designs our involvement. Fame, being liked, happy people, inordinate property acquisition are all disconcertions from the most important task: fulfilling the divine design of God, and the last mandate of our Savior.

 

The fifth thing to look for in interdependency is realizing that the Spirit builds these teams. This is not a staff we look for to help in “our” vision, or worse, to lead our program. These are people who have captured the divine genius of God from Genesis to Revelation and “must” be obedient to Him.  Even while we realize that God the Spirit will bring them together, we must be on the look out for those who belong and embrace them. The Church has not been good about building leadership, and much more so with these kinds of people. But, they are scattered all over the world, waiting for others to identify, envision, train and release them. Ours is to let the Spirit lead them to us!

 

Sixth and finally, when we talk about interdependency it is important not to confuse the functions of Ephesians 4:11, found only in a relative few, with the gifts of the Spirit, given to all of the Christ’s people. Both are to work in interdependency. The focus of the Ephesians 4:11 holds three concepts in tension and in contrast to the gifts given by the Spirit to all of the Christ’s people, including the Ephesians 4:11 functions.  The Ephesians 4:11 functions are people given by Christ to His Church to carry out certain leadership functions necessary to empower the Church to the work of ministry and rooted in a growing awareness and life in Christ and His word. 

 

“And 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, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.” (ESV)

 

Further, the Spirit also gifts to these people given by Christ to His Church, because they are first Christians, filled with the Holy Spirit. Their gifts are just as in all Christians, a mosaic of unique blend designed, imparted and fitted by the Spirit in the body and place the world that best accomplishes the will of the Father. We might say that the gifts are the engine that fills their function. And, because their mosaic of gifts is unique and diverse, the way in which each of them carry out their function, is different, even while fulfilling the basic design of each function. 

 

The apostolic function drives the constant extension of the Gospel, especially in new places and resulting in new churches planted. The prophetic function drives the need for danger awareness and correction in the body using the completed canon as the tool to call the body to obedience. The evangelistic function keeps the very nature of the Gospel moving in and through the body, leading out in seeing new people one to Christ, and equally important, the body itself aware and urgent about each individual’s witness. The pastoral function drives the care of people in both awareness and action by, through and for individual body members. The teaching function drives the need to keep Biblical truth as both the foundation and boundaries to which each member is tethered and in which they live. 

 

Finally, these functions, as the book of Ephesians indicates, are given not to local expressions of the local church, but to a much broader life of Church. We see this in the New Testament among the original Apostles. There are clear indications that Paul, John, Peter, and James, had groups of others working with them at any one time, and apparently never in one place all at the same time. For more on this thought, take a look at two books by FF Bruce, The Pauline Circle, and Men and Movements. Of course, these first Apostles were sent by Christ directly and were of a different nature than today. The Ephesians 4:11 functions of today are not sent or chosen directly by Christ but by Him through the Church. 

 

Care therefore needs to be taken not to confuse people given by Christ to carry on these greater geographical domain functions with leadership in what we today call local churches. The exegetical understanding of Ephesians and more specifically Ephesians 4, mitigates against a localized understanding of these as intended for localized church leadership. As we see with Paul, Barnabas, Peter, etc. they can be rooted or tethered to one local for a time, but their ministry is much broader geographically in scope. They are focused and active upon the whole of the Roman Empire, and through others such as Thomas in India, upon the whole world. My guess is that there are far fewer of these people than many would think. The facilitative and broad geographical nature of their role, teamed with others in concert with them, would not demand many to cover the whole globe. 

 

Because the people with these functions also possess gifts given by the Spirit, just like all of Christ’s people, many of their functions, at the local level, can be played out by people with gifts, but without the call to greater geographical domain. For example, a person with a correct and strong understanding of the apostolic nature of the church could carry out an extension type ministry in a tighter geographical sphere and see new churches planted. A person with a gift of evangelism could do the same in the tighter geographical sphere and see people won to Christ, and the body made a aware of its witness mandate. And, so! 

 

One of the great complicating factors of a better understanding and practice of the Ephesians 4:11 functions, especially for the Protestant Church is its fragmentation. We largely view local churches as full and independent expressions of the body of Christ. And, so, the first place of needed interdependency, the local context is lost, and we are divided into a million pieces. As a result Biblical concepts meant to fit seamlessly into a greater context of interdependency are lost, or we attempt to “fit” them the wrong way and wonder why they do not “work.” 

 

I think that the New Testament shows this interdependency of Church. The Epistles were not written to what we today call a church. But, they were written to collections of what we would be better to recognize as congregations of a greater church, of the city, or region. My guess is that these congregations were served by elders and deacons, with maybe a few of them working a bit broader. Into this context the movement of the teams of people working with the apostles, mostly in a strategic apostolic extension of the gospel in the broader geographic sphere, would come and go from the many localities where the gospel had or needed to be planted. Into those places they back filed all that was necessary for the church in that place to: 1. Increase its understanding of the word of God and life of Jesus into which they had been called. 2. Help these local expressions understand the boundaries necessary to protect the body from heresy and heretics. 3. Continue the ongoing advance of the Gospel through the lives and witness of the people in the congregation. 

 

Time, history, denominationalism, over structured church life, and human egos has separated us from this. Will we ever see it reestablished? I don't know but understanding it better, invites us to believe God and try.

 

Interdependency then is the leadership of church acting in the nature of God the Trinity, each with a different role function but united in outcome. Asking which is in charge, or more important, or even more strategic, as a first order of business, is a Biblical non-sense question. Their importance as a gift by God to His church is what defines their importance. And, as such defines their role, and most importantly their outcome. God has placed them in the middle of His people to birth and grow faith in His children. They do not produce salvation, God does. But they are instruments God uses to help others understand, accept and grow in faith. The ultimate outcome, mercy extended across the whole world, is most effective when people, in the market place, in marriages, in families, and in congregations, are learning to mature in their relationship to God, and growing in their effectiveness in representing Him. Little wonder that Jesus uses such emphatic language with His disciples, not so among you!

 

September, 2014