Good Authority Passes Out Power

Moses: God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” (Gen. 1:28)

Paul: If we endure, we will also reign with him. (2 Tim. 2:12)

John: . . . by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth. (Rev. 5:9b–10; see also Rev. 22:5)

Authority Creates Life

God created Adam and Eve to be a king and a queen. To rule. That’s what the first verse above says.

As it turned out, however, they didn’t rule on God’s behalf like they were supposed to. But fast-forward to the end of the Bible and we discover that, somewhere in between the bad beginning and the good end, God makes sure his people turn into the right kind of kings and queens. That’s what the second and third passages above say.

The Greek word translated as “reign” in those latter two passages is the verb form of the word for “king.” A slightly more formal translation of these verses would be, “we will also be kings with him” and “they shall be kings on the earth.”

These latter two verses are talking about Christians. Christians in the new heavens and the new earth will be kings and queens together with Christ.

If you’re a Christian, this is your destiny. Amazing, no?

The principle to observe here is that good authority doesn’t steal life, it creates it. It’s a principle we learn by looking at God himself and how he uses his authority with us. He created us to be kings, yet even when we failed God spent thousands of years preparing our coronation ceremony anyway. And then he wrote a book about it.

Authority

Jonathan Leeman

Through Scripture and engaging stories, Jonathan Leeman shows that godly authority is essential to human flourishing and presents 5 attributes of biblical authority.

Passages like 2 Samuel 23:3–4 and Psalm 72 articulate this chapter’s principle even more explicitly. Good authority, said David, is like the sun and the rain that cause grass to grow. It lifts up the needy and crushes the oppressor, said Solomon. The apostle Paul, too, referred to “the authority that the Lord has given me for building up and not for tearing down” (2 Cor. 13:10). And the psalmist says that God “is the one who gives power and strength to his people” (Ps. 68:35).

Yet it’s hard to think of a better illustration of this principle at work than by peering into the structure of human creation (he created us kings!) and the goal of redemption (he will re-crown us as kings!). The life-giving goodness of good authority is hardwired into our existence, our ontology, which in turn exposes how intrinsically and bounteously generous God is.

Not only that, but the very first command in the Bible is a command to use our kingly authority to create life: “Be fruitful and multiply,” says the Lord. People today might bemoan parenting. Yet the Bible presents bearing and raising children as a paradigmatic picture of being a king like God.

In all this, God’s generosity is difficult to fathom. God would have done a far better job of ruling over creation by himself in the first place. He never would have made mistakes. He never would have misstepped. He never would have exploited or abused people. We often wonder why bad things happen in this world. The answer, in part, is that God decided not to do the whole job of ruling the world himself. Instead, he delegated. He shared. And he continually trains us in the work amid all our failures.

Staring ahead into eternity shows the same thing: a God who will share his rule with his people, world without end, forever and ever.

God is a giver, and his authority is for giving. He says: I want to share my glory. So I will create a people, love them, and share my rule with them so that they can enjoy the pleasures of my glory. So create. Build. Plant and grow. Manufacture. Compose. Design. Govern.

We give God nothing he doesn’t already have. Instead he gives to us. His authority is life-giving.

Authority Authorizes Others to Lead

It’s not enough, however, to simply say that good authority gives life. The more precise point is that good authority aspires to authorize others to exercise authority, even if it takes years. It works to pass out power.

“Good authority always generates liberty,” said my friend Stu, by which he meant the liberty to lead. “A good authority,” he continued, “creates room for new leaders to execute on the authority they’ve been given, not prescriptively tell them how to do it.” Before he retired, Stu served as managing director for Accenture, then the largest consulting firm in the world by revenue. During his tenure as managing director, the region led by Stu grew from 2,300 employees to more than 6,000. Apparently, he knows a little something about raising up leaders.

Stu knows, for instance, that it’s not enough to place people in positions of authority. You have to supply them with the resources and tools and training they need to succeed. He observed,

To put someone in a position of authority without the support and equipping needed to perform the duties is—in a business-world sense—sinful. You’re setting the person up to fail, and you’re going to create downstream issues. Whoever grants the authority has an accountability to make sure that it’s being appropriately granted. You can lose before you start by granting a person authority that they’re not equipped to handle.

It’s laziness and selfishness that puts people in positions of authority and then leaves them to fend for themselves. Good leaders teach and resource other leaders.

The lessons here apply to every domain. More than a decade ago I wrote an article called “How Pastor Mark Passes Out Power.” What prompted the piece was watching a gifted pastor, Mark Dever, do the opposite of Chavez—not hoard power but pass it out. I listed twenty ways, over a decade, that I had watched him do this:

establish a plurality of staff and non-staff elders, each of whom possessed one vote on the board, just like he does;
limit the number of times a year he’s the main preacher in the church’s main service, giving other men the opportunity to preach;
create more venues or opportunities for men to preach or teach, like a vigorous Sunday school program, Sunday night sermons, or small groups;
give young teachers the chance to make mistakes;
let others steal his ideas;
be willing to lose elder meeting votes;
be slow to speak, and speak sparingly in elder meetings;
ask other men to be the chairman in elder meetings and church member meetings;
ask other elders to lead the congregation through tough cases in member meetings;
use an “invitations committee” for his outside speaking requests, letting it turn down invitations if members of the committee see fit;
be devoted to only one or two things in the church (like preaching) and give freedom elsewhere;
avoid micromanaging;
create a weekly service review, where he will give feedback to others involved in preaching or leading a service;
invite input into his sermons and invite criticism;
pray for other churches and denominations;
be quick to forgive;
rejoice in the victory of others;
work to build the church on the gospel, not his large personality.

God is a giver, and his authority is for giving.

When the leader “on top” is characterized by generously giving authority to his lay elders and others in the church, he shapes the church’s culture in wonderful ways. It helps to keep the gospel uppermost, focusing the church members’ eyes on gospel purposes rather than on the leader.

Passing out power promotes “real” relationships. In an environment where authority is jealously guarded, relationships are characterized by politics and strategy. Guards remain up, vulnerabilities are not exposed, and transparency diminishes. But when people feel empowered, they are more likely to be transparent and honest. It keeps a church from being tribalistic. A man who continually gives away authority teaches those around him that he is most interested in the success of the gospel, regardless of who’s leading (see Phil. 1:12ff.).

It encourages church members to share resources. When I see the leader is not out for himself, I too become inclined to give to others.

It destroys natural social hierarchies. Members interact as equals. Why? Because the gospel is kept in the center. We’re all sinners saved by grace.

It cultivates trust. When I see the leader is not out for himself, it’s easier to trust his motives, even when he is asking me to make a sacrifice.

It cultivates teachability and the willingness to receive criticism. Again, if I trust the man, I become more willing to listen to his criticisms of me. I trust they are rooted in love rather than one-upmanship.

It promotes a willingness to forgive. When the leader is quick to forgive the faults of others, he will be more willing to entrust others with authority. That in turn will help others to do the same.

It encourages the church to be training-minded. A church that sees a pastor continually work to train and empower others will have a hard time not catching the vision and sharing it. They will see all the fruit. It helps a church to be outward focused.

The take-away for all readers: analogous lessons apply to every group and organization.

This article is adapted from Authority: How Godly Rule Protects the Vulnerable, Strengthens Communities, and Promotes Human Flourishing by Jonathan Leeman.

Jonathan Leeman (PhD, University of Wales) is the president of 9Marks and cohost of the Pastors Talk podcast. He is the author or editor of over a dozen books and teaches at several seminaries. Jonathan lives with his wife and four daughters in suburban Washington, DC, and serves as an elder at Cheverly Baptist Church.

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