Church Leaders vs. Church-Goers: A Big Part Of The 'Problem'

What then is Apollos? And what is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, even as the Lord gave opportunity to each one.  I planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth.  So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but God who causes the growth.  Now he who plants and he who waters are one; but each will receive his own reward according to his own labor.  For we are God's fellow workers; you are God's field, God's building. (1 Corinthians 3:5-9 NASB)

From the inception of gathered followers of Jesus, that group has had 'personality issues'.   Many of  these issues have stemmed from difficulties between the leaders and the followers.  This is a huge and hotly debated area of theology called 'Ecclesiology'.  There are all sorts of interpretations of roles and responsibilities of various terms for church leaders used in Scripture.  But one element that seems consistent regardless of term used, description of role, or limits of responsibility is the character of 'servant'.

One problem in the church in Corinth was their view of church leaders.  The people were polarizing around various leaders who had been there, were there, or were known.  And these polarized groups within the church were causing strife among all those gathered to worship.  Paul's point from the very outset of this letter (possibly his second, but the first we have) to this church is to correct this view.

Digging his way through 'wisdom' versus 'foolishness' and their schisms and 'spiritual versus human', Paul now pulls all these previous discussions down to the core of their problem; the one from which others originate:  The foundation on which the church is founded.  These believers have pulled the church away from their origins in heaven and instead grounded it in the human temporal experiences of their 'world'.  For Paul, this actually destroys the church.

His answer to this problem is to, once again, tie them back to God.  Rather than separate groups (I am of whomever), they are to be one group under God.  They are God's building, God's field.  This makes the church leaders builders and field workers (not the landowner).  The picture Paul draws here is really more of a sketch, and other passages are needed to really flesh out his view of church leadership.  But in this sketch, the leaders are actually not that far removed from the people themselves.  In fact a good case can be made that Paul's criticism of the church at this point almost completely blurs the lines between leaders and lay people.

Here's where I believe Paul 'blurs the lines': "Neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but God who causes the growth."  I once referred to myself in a church I was pastoring as a 'bell-sheep'.  That really frustrated my people.  I said that they were to follow me as I followed Jesus, but that we were all supposed to be following Jesus.  I believe they wanted a 'priest' who would intercede for them before God so they wouldn't have to; they wanted someone to be righteous for them so they didn't have to carry such a burden.  I don't know that for a fact, but it sure seemed like I was caught in the middle between very frustrating people and my Master.  I kept trying to get them to look past me to my Master, and they couldn't see anything but me (and that's not a pretty view, let me tell you).

So the lines between leaders and followers in the church is blurry, but it's not without definition.  Paul is not working through roles and responsibilities here except to say that those roles and responsibilities differ from each leader to the next, and that they all are part of God's calling on the leader.  In other passages Paul relates roles and responsibilities (some in this letter).  But here he does point to the very close relationship between leaders and those following in that both belong to God, both are answerable to the same Person.  This is a very powerful and sobering reality.

For those following church leaders, they will answer to the Creator of the universe for how they do so.  For those leading those following, they will answer to the Creator of the universe for how they do so.  In other words, those leading and those following will both stand before the same God to answer for their respective roles and responsibilities (and yes, followers have responsibilities).

In my limited understanding, this places the 'context' for church leadership within the same context of 'spiritual gifts', perhaps even within that category (see verse 10).  This would place church leadership alongside everyone else in the church using their own gifting from the Spirit to fulfill the purpose and design of the same Master.  So, for me, it's a very intertwined, enmeshed relationship between leaders and followers.  In many ways, this is both frustrating for those following, and terrifying for those leading.  And this I know from experience on both sides.