Throughout the history of the Christian church, there has at times been a testy relationship between the church’s congregation and its leadership. In some eras of church history, there has been more of a general respect for leaders, and for some eras, there has been less general respect. Some of that difference is cultural, some is deserved, some not deserved. How should the non-leaders in the church relate to the leaders in the church? What should a church do when its leaders are not behaving in an honorable way?
This coming week, our Philippians series is about leadership in the church.
You may have noticed already that our 1 Thessalonians series has just about made it to the end of the letter. But Paul does something unique in his final verses. He rattles off a bunch of short phrases that are very practical.
We’ve already heard a couple of them. For example, a few weeks ago I blogged on 1 Thessalonians chapter four verses 11 and 12 and chapter 5 verse 14, which were all about work. Molly Stouffer blogged about brotherly love. This coming week, Emily Marks will be blogging about 1 Thessalonians 5, verses 12 and 13, which are all about how Christians should treat the leaders of their church families. And for that reason, I am thrilled that Emily is writing this week and not me. Why?
First, given my role as a church leader, this topic could easily come across as self-serving. Second, Emily has a long family history in church leadership. She has personal first-hand knowledge of the relationship between a church family and its leaders, how it feels, how it can go really well, and how it can be difficult.
Because every church has leaders, I encourage you to check back here on Monday and follow along with Emily’s posts throughout the week.
Photo by Jehyun Sung on Unsplash
Engaging Scripture 