Comments on Leadership (in India and Elsewhere)

(We include in our brief discussion below various countries such as Africa, South America, the Far East, etc.)

Over the years, I have received so many comments and requests for help from the grand country of India. This populous land of 1.4 billion people with only some three million professing “Christians” appears to defy our imagination. The numbers of people are huge, compared to our own land of America, with some 350 million people, total.

Like so many other nations on earth, there are numerous professing “Christians” (as we have said above). Generally when someone writes to our location, it is for financial assistance. Obviously, it is difficult if not impossible for us to know whether this aid (if we would be constrained to send it) will be used for the purposes mentioned by those who request it. Or whether this could possibly be fraud.

But let’s just deal with the religious leadership in India as well as many other countries in the world. Whether or not they write for money or to state their work, I’ve noticed that these writers who are also leaders in their religious churches or denominations or sects are often quite misleading and deceptive. They, themselves, must think that the positions that they occupy are Scriptural but, regretfully, they are not. In fact, often if not normally, the positions are very unscriptural!

Without making a major study of this phenomenon, let’s just say that many of these leaders are totally unbiblical. As we read the New Testament, we discover that assemblies or groups of believers were led by overseers (often called “bishops” in some translations). These people were always men or males—and there was no indication that females filled the shoes of these overseers. This is one of the first problem areas for in many cases the leaders are women. Of course, for those who know the Bible, this is very unbiblical for all of the early leaders were male.

Further, besides being called “overseers,” they were also called “elders” (presbuteros) or “shepherds” (poimein). Thus, these men (elders, overseers, shepherds) were the ones who would oversee and lead the assemblies of believers. These three terms were generally used—either overseers (bishops), or elders (presbyters), or shepherds (pastors). Sometimes a term such as “managers” was also used in a secondary way (cf. 1 Timothy 3:4-5).

This single position that had several terms attached to it might be called the “shepherd,” the “elder,” and the “overseer.” Of course, these terms had different meanings and they were used without distinction. The “shepherd” cared for, protected, and spiritually fed those under the shepherd’s care. The “elders” were had spiritual maturity (or even physical maturity) and had to give themselves over to the work of caring for the flock for the Lord. The “overseers” cared for, protected, and fed the flock of God and were examples for the “flock” of the Lord.

The overseers, strangely, cared for the people of God and people looked up to them because of the work that they did. You might be interested in reading key passages such as 1 Timothy 3:1-7 and Titus 1:5-9, but there are a number of other passages as well.

Do you see a problem yet? Many of these leaders from India (and many other world nations) refer to themselves with certain elevated titles. Some may want to call them with certain other terms but so often people choose terms that are very strange and high-sounding. They may be called “bishop overseer” or “senior elder” or “senior pastor.” They may choose “general overseer” or “overseer general.” Or perhaps “pastor-shepherd” or “district overseer.” We might hear “diocese overseer” or “bishop over a diocese.” Or we may hear “chief” overseer” or “leading bishop” or “district supervisor.” I suppose that there could be many dozens or even hundreds of combinations. But the point I wish to communicate is that these men (hopefully not women) are happy to use unbiblical terms and even proudly display their positions before others!

When we see such terms as this, we can automatically know that they are referring to positions that are unknown in the Bible. Whether they do this because of an arrogant attitude or prideful attitude, we don’t know. And whether men might take this upon themselves or whether a church or denomination might choose the title themselves, we just don’t know. All we know is that we need to speak as the utterances of God (1 Peter 4:11).