Church Leadership 1

   OK, finally, here is the long promised (I am not sure I could say long awaited) look at church leadership in the New Testament.  I say “look” because this will not be a very in-depth study.  It will really only be a surface look at a few Scripture passages and what they suggest about church leadership style. 
   I was motivated to look at this as I considered that someday in the future I may want to (be led to?) step from my current role in military leadership to a more extensive role in church leadership.  I wondered what, if anything, may have to change in my leadership mode and style. 
   The military is obviously a fairly authoritarian leadership environment.  The rank and hierarchy sets it up so that one can order something done and those subordinate must obey.  Within that environment one can have different styles.  I have a fairly cooperative style:  I invite input for decisions from my staff and subordinate commanders.  However, once I make a decision that is the end of discussion and my decision must be carried out.  My concept for church leadership (how it generally is, not necessarily how it should be) is much more egalitarian.  In other words, the leadership (specifically elders/pastors) do not hold much, if any, inherent leadership over members of the congregation.  They must lead by persuasion and encouraging cooperation. 
   So, this line of thought led to wanting to see what the church leadership environment looked like in the New Testament.  Now that this post has turned into a background/context post, I will save the first actual look for next post.  In that next post I intend to look at leadership environment and style as modeled by actual leaders.  Then, in the next post, I will look at any commands given to leaders as to their behavior/style.