“there is a pile of dead bodies behind the Mars Hill bus, and by God’s grace it will be a mountain by the time we’re done. You either get on the bus, or get run over by the bus, those are the options, but the bus ain’t going to stop.”

(State of Emergency episode of The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill)

               Get the right people on the bus

The leadership concept of having the right people on the bus in the right seats, was brought into my awareness by the leadership writer Jim Collins.   Jim said there are four things that need to happen to get the right people on the bus in the right seats.

1. Get the right people on the bus.
2. Get the right people in the right seats.
3. Get the wrong people off the bus.
4. Put who before what. 

Jim Collins said do not go anywhere until you have the right people on the bus. The best executives think about who is on their bus before they think about what their next step is. I enjoyed the book and with other important books on leadership I have read, it is absolutely clear that for an organisation to perform at it’s best it must consider the people that make up the organisation, it must work out how to have a culture that works well, together.  This concept has been widely used in corporate world and in churches. 

The analogy bringing danger to the church was highlighted by the podcast “The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill”.  In it the leader and founder of Mars Hill church Mark Driscoll is quoted as saying “there is a pile of dead bodies behind the Mars Hill bus, and by God’s grace it will be a mountain by the time we’re done. You either get on the bus, or get run over by the bus, those are the options, but the bus ain’t going to stop.” (State of Emergency episode of The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill)   The audio of Driscoll speaking this way is shocking, and I fear for those who don’t find it shocking.  It demonstrates a single mindedness, a focus on achieving the goal that has been established.  The goal in Driscoll’s mind was to make the gospel of Jesus Christ known, to make disciples, a goal that I don’t believe has been determined once the right people were on the bus and put in the right seats, but follows the instructions of Jesus Christ to his followers in Matthew 28, however this cannot be the only goal, numbers cannot be more important than people.  Driscoll’s goal of making the gospel known, so the church can grow, seems to come at the expense of the love of Jesus to the neighbour, the desire to care for those in need, or any concept of the depravity of man, as the bodies that  Driscoll was talking about had been run over by the bus, because they questioned his power, and lack of accountability. 

The people who have been hurt in reaching people for Christ can be viewed as collateral damage rather than, beloved children of God who may be wondering out loud about a strategy that has been accepted because of it’s success.  In practice  a strategy that views numbers as more important than people, is behaviour opposite to that of Jesus, who noticed the unclean woman who just touched his cloak, who asked the Tax collector hiding up a tree to host him for dinner, even after Jesus had risen from the dead, when confronted with a weeping woman, he asks her what’s wrong, what have you lost.  Jesus throughout his ministry allows himself to care for individuals, to love those who are around him (his neighbours), there may have been better strategies, but Jesus chose not to take them up.  If our mission ignores people, and fails to love those in need, I wonder is it Jesus who is leading your mission or yourself?  The bodies behind the bus, need to be loved, need to be cared for and need to be heard.  In Jesus’ eyes those who are run over by the mission, were never expendable, and shouldn’t be from the perspective of Christian leaders, if we are more focussed on numbers than people, perhaps we need to question our own position on the bus rather than those we have just run over. 

The call to mission, to making disciples is real, but if we fail to love those whom God has put in front of us, put on our bus, perhaps we as leaders may need to consider whether we are sitting in the right seat?   A professional supervisor or Ministry Consultant would be a great person to spend time chatting with, to talk through how you are going at leading, loving and serving those whom God has placed on the bus with you. 

To desire to be a leader of God’s people is a noble task so Paul writes to Timothy in his first letter to Timothy, but it is not for everybody, in fact Paul and Peter make very clear in their letters (1 Timothy, Titus and 1 Peter 5) that much is expected of those who would take on the role of Elder or Deacon in the church.  These letters and some passages in the Acts of the Apostle give us some idea of what is required for someone to qualify for these roles. 

There has been much discussion over the years of the three C’s (Character, Competency and Conviction)  and which is most important.  I suspect that we as a Church are in danger of practically favoring Competency over the other two, especially given the number of ‘successful church leaders’ who have spectacularly failed in Character in recent years.  The bible passages however encourage us to consider Character far more than we do the other two. 

What are the aspects of Character that the letters I listed above talk about?

• Husband of one wife
• Self-Controlled
• Sensible
• Respectable
• Hospitable
• Not addicted to wine
• Not a bully (But Gentle)
• Not quarrelsome
• Not greedy
• Able to manage his own household completely
  • Having his children under control with all dignity.
    • If you can’t manage your house how can you manage the church? 
• Not a new convert
  • Or he may become conceited
• A Good reputation among outsiders
• Loving what is good
• Righteous
• Holy
• Holding to the faithful message as taught. 
• Humble

While there is a call for someone who will be a Christian leader to be able to teach from Paul to Timothy and clearly to teach the faithful message that you have been taught that you are holding fast to, with the goal of equipping the saints for works of Service.  However what is apparent is that Character must be seen before Competency can be tested. 

I don’t want to make out that Conviction isn’t also important, Peter makes clear in his letter (1 Peter 5) that Shepherd’s must not serve out of compulsion but freely according to God’s will, not for money but eagerly. 

Each of the 3 C’s matters but I think the most recent set of spectacular failures in the Church remind us that Character matters when encouraging people to consider a path towards Church leadership.  We need to remember that the biblical qualification for leadership, aren’t what is required when you start and can be left behind from their.  These are qualities that need to be fostered and  encouraged, trained and practiced.  We as Churches need to give time to church leaders to give time to their marriage, to give time to their families.  If we allow them to lead in their families well, that will enhance their ability to lead in the church, if we see their time spent with family as a detraction to the ministry we are more likely to end up with some of the spectacular failures seen recently in the church (If you are not sure what these spectacular failures you could check out Christianity Today’s Podcast on Mars Hill Church or I refer to others in this post: Posts ‹ Ministry Professional Supervision Australia — WordPress.com)  from Feb 2021). 

To be involved in Christian leadership is a noble task, but a difficult one, it will push you hard, and push your family in many cases even harder.  We want people who are competent and are convicted to do this well, but most importantly have the character and are able to maintain the character required to be used by God for his glory.  Character requires support from someone you can be honest with, without fear of getting it wrong or messing things up, A Professional Supervisor has the goal of helping the leader, to be the leader that God needs them to be . 

Simon Elliott

What was really going on for you in this situation? 

For those who don’t know, up until last Month Tim Paine was the Australian Cricket Captain, he took over the Captaincy after the Sandpapergate Scandal (March 2018), where the previous Captain was banned for one year from playing any cricket.  Last month when a sexting scandal from late 2017 involving Tim Paine was about to be exposed in the newspaper, Paine fronted the media (with no Cricket Australia backdrop) wearing a CA Top advertising Dettol (I’m pretty sure they would have preferred him to make a different choice) and explained what had gone on, and fessed up and stood down from the position of Captain of the Australian Test team.  He has subsequently stood down from all cricket sighting Mental Health reasons for this. 

I am not writing about this because I have any reason to Judge Tim Paine, but when I learnt that the text messages were sent on the Morning of the first day of the first test match against England in November 2017, when Paine was getting ready to play his first Test Match since 2011.  He had had many injuries to his fingers during this period and even had made the decision to retire from cricket and take up a job with Kookaburra (a cricket bat and gear company).  He was talked out of that decision, and other injuries and retirements led to his selection and preparation to return to the Test arena in November 2017.  The question in my head was, what were you doing Tim?  Surely you could focus on the game? 

The only answer I could come up with was he was numbing, numbing the anxiety, focusing on something else, anything else than the thing that you have spent your whole life preparing for, and he engaged in the sexting behaviour.  Tim was in a very anxious situation, and when faced with an anxious situation, the options that you are presented with are fight, flight or freeze.  Tim was ready to fight, but it wasn’t time for the game yet, he wasn’t going to run away, so he froze, well at least he looked for some way to numb the anxiety, to think about something else, to move his focus. 

I don’t know Tim Paine, I am not sure whether this is what has taken place, but I am sure if the behaviour that he displayed on that morning in 2017 was normal for him, we would have heard from some if not all of the other people that he had engaged in sexting behaviour with.  It appears that Tim numbed the pain.  Numbing is a commonly understood behaviour, we can do it in order to avoid feeling strong emotions, to avoid the feelings, and the appearance of being over the top.  Sexting is a pretty extreme behaviour in order to avoid the feelings that someone is going through, far more common and socially acceptable behaviour would be scrolling on your phone, playing games, watching hours of television, getting lost down youtube or internet rabbit holes, drinking slightly more alcohol than you should.  There are all sort of things we can do in order to freeze and not really deal with what is going on around you.   

How do you cope with reality?  How do you deal with the need to be a leader who is able to cope with everything that comes at you without being over the top, to be measured, to be clear, to be strategic and optimistic?  When it is often seen as unacceptable as a conservative leader to feel the weight of emotions, how do you cope?  Do you freeze when neither fight nor flight are viewed as acceptable? 

I know the frustration of numbing behaviour because I can’t cope with ‘all the feels’, for my years in ministry there are many occasions when I numbed rather than talking about what I was feeling, because I didn’t know who I could talk to, I wish I had a supervisor at that time, to listen to what I was going through to spit ball possible solutions when there was too much to feel. 

I hope that Tim Paine is able to get through this period of his life, and in the next phase (I presume he won’t make it back as a player) he will be a man who is able to cope with the feels and love his wife and family and know forgiveness from a sporting nation who appreciated his service in a very difficult period of his life. 

Simon Elliott (Professional Supervisor and Pastor)

It feels like an arrogant thing to think to call yourself or even believe that you are God’s gift, but it’s a truth every member of God’s church is a gift to his church, every part of the body is there to serve the body. As Paul writes to the Corinthians he says in 1 Corinthians 12: “God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose.” God chose to put you in the body and to put you in the role that he put you. You are God’s gift to your church, to play the role that he has put you in, he has gifted you uniquely and made you the person you are to play your role, to serve the church in the way that he has made you, to love them, to grow them, to love him and to show them the love that he has for them.

Supervision I believe is a gift to the church and it’s leader, as it helps the leader or church worker to consider themselves, to consider the gifts that they have, to consider the situation that God has placed them in, and think about how you can better use the unique person that God has made you to be, that you are today to love the body that you are a part of. Supervision is designed around you, around the situation you find yourself in, it is not a program that is set up to give you the information to help you to be someone else, or do something else, it is about you being the best you, you can be, in the situation that God has placed you.

As we head out of lockdown and back to meeting in a face to face manner, there will be a great push perhaps even from ourselves to return to the normality of 2019, where we were finishing off the work that was put in the years before to fulfill our 2020 vision (I think we probably had it wrong, although perhaps we were looking forward to a stronger online foot print).  I think one of the dangers in getting back to church is that we discount the impact the past two years has had on us as leaders and on our congregations, the basic reality is that we are not the church we were in February, 2020.  So it is worth investing some time in considering who are we now, what are our strengths, our desires, as leaders?  Before we even consider what is the community looking for from us? 

How will you do that?  How will you take the time to consider your strengths, not the needs, not the things that people want from you, but how has God gifted you, it is worth acknowledging that he has gifted you the congregation and community he has put you in.  However he has put you in the place you are, what are the natural strengths and weaknesses that he has given you, what are the things that he has made you to be drawn to? 

A supervisor could be helpful in acknowledging who you are, supervision is about you, about helping you to best serve the true and living God in the place he has put you, why not get in contact with Simon from MPSA, and consider meeting regularly with him so he can do what God has set him up to do to best do what God wants you to do. 

In a recent podcast discussing his life Emmanuel Acho (NFL Commentator and former player) used the phrase Denial D E N I A L Don’t even know I am lying.  This provides such a good definition of what is happening for us when we deny what is actually going on in our lives, and what is going on around us.  The  prophet Jeremiah  provides us with an even better understanding of this experience:

Jeremiah 17:9 “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?”

If we have a biblical understanding of our sinful nature, we will know that we are very good at seeing the good in ourselves and the evil in others, we are very good at seeking out what is best for ourselves.  We are very good at spin, spinning the experience of life so that what we do is the right thing and what things have done to us is the wrong thing.  Even if we somewhat reluctantly believe that this could be true, we have to acknowledge that there could be times in life when our actions though justified to ourselves could be harmful to others?  It is reasonable to consider that most people who find themselves in Christian leadership are there because their goal is to do a good thing for God, for those they serve, for the broader community they find themselves in. 

If someone makes a complaint against us and we have already decided that what we did was the right thing to do, and then it happens again.  When do we ask the question, do I have a problem here?  Have I surrounded myself with a group of people who think the way I think, and are content with my leadership, do we shut down anyone who thnks there might be a problem with the way that I do things? 

When do I consider the possibility that there is a problem, and who would we ask the question of anyway, how do I remain a strong leader while speaking to those under me about my flaws, and if I speak to those above me in the chain of command (Bishop, Elder) what will that do for my position in the hierarchy if it is true? 

Over the past two years, we have seen some Christian Giants fall from grace as their repeated sins have been exposed, and seen some very different responses to their falls.  The Acts 29 leader Steve Timmis was removed in 2020, following accusations of abusive leadership, unfortunately accusations had been being made for years before hand and ignored, or at least some accusers had been fired and placed under Non-Disclosure Agreements.  So the story was not told and the behaviour continued, people continued to be hurt by the leadership, and ultimately the keeping it quiet has led to far greater damage done to the world view of Christianity than if it had been dealt with earlier. 

In recent weeks we have read of Ravi Zacharias’ repeated sexual abuse of a number of women over a long period of time up until his death in 2020.  Zacharias was world renowned as an evangelist, and wrote many best selling books.  When allegations of sexual abuse were first brought Zacharias  completely rejected the allegations, and then only following his death has the truly horrific behaviour been exposed.  Ravi Zacharias International Ministries have repented and sought to care for the abused, in a very ‘Christian’ response to sin, while also acknowledging their previous actions in rejecting allegations had done further damage to abused parties. 

There are more cases and there will be more, so what do we learn from these situations, for those who are every day Christian leaders who want to glorify God, how do you make sure that you continue to glorify God?  Well one of the obvious ways is find someone to talk to about your ministry.  Find someone to share your ministry life with, to share the struggles, to talk about the relationships you are finding difficult.  If there is behaviour that you need to repent of, why not talk to someone who can help you to deal with it before the situation is beyond repair. 

Engaging an independent Professional Supervisor provides the opportunity, to share what is going on, to consider whether you are behaving in a way that goes against your ethical framework when no one else will call you on it.  A professional supervisor is on your side but will help you to be the best you in the role that God has given you.  A professional supervisor can listen to the issues and help you to find what is really going on and what possible solutions might be. 

Simon Elliott

Professional supervision has been something which has been normal, in caring professions for a long time, but has not been the case for ministry workers until recently. It has been recommended by the Royal Commission into institutional responses into child sexual abuse that “each religious institution should ensure that all people in religious or pastoral ministry, including religious leaders, have professional supervision with a trained professional or pastoral supervisor who has a degree of independence from the institution within which the person is in ministry.” (Recommendation 16.45 https://www.childabuseroyalcommission.gov.au/recommendations)

Supervision at it’s most basic is an opportunity to talk about what is going on for you in your ministry situation, there are a number of analogies used to describe it, one is that described as pit head time, where Miners fought for the right to wash off the coal dust before they went home. Ministry is often dirty, you deal with real people and real hardships, it is good to have someone to talk about what is going on rather than allowing what you are going through at church to impact your home and family life.

A second analogy is that of the three legged stool, with three functions restorative, formative and normative:

Restorative: The goal is that the supervisee feel supported, and remember how to be themselves.

Formative: helping the supervisee to grow, to fill in the gaps of their knowledge of how to do their job, especially with those things that others might deem you “should know”.

Normative: deals with ethical, managerial and boundary issues, helping the supervisee to work within his own code of ethics, and consider when they might be or in danger of being outside that framework, while speaking to someone outside of the hierarchy of your system.

The idea is that the supervisor provides the supervisee with a listening ear and a focus on them, I like to think that my role as supervisor is to help the supervisee to be best able to use their gifts to serve their church and their family.