Episode 249: Church Roundtable—Biblical Models for Church Leadership—Jeff Weima & Chad Workhoven (Part 1)

“…Leaders [are] to be as innocent as an infant, to be as loving and caring as a breastfeeding mother, and, in an appropriate way, to exercise authority—not in a “domineering dominee” kind of way, but in a way…that helps people…recognize or come into the kingdom of God and his glory. That’s the ultimate use of our leadership role…” —Jeff Weima

Summary of This Episode

This week on the Messy Reformation, Jason and Willy are hosting our second roundtable with Dr. Jeff Weima and Rev. Chad Werkhoven to discuss equipping officebearers. Dr. Weima has served as a Professor of New Testament for over 30 years at Calvin Theological Seminary. Prior to that, he had done apprenticeships and interim ministry in several Canadian congregations. He also preaches most weeks, and continues to have strong connections to what’s happening in the local church both in the classroom and in the field. Rev. Chad Werkhoven is the pastor of Worthington CRC in Minnesota. He was a guest on the podcast earlier this year (episodes 214-215). He founded Unfading Truth, a daily Bible reading plan with devotions connected to the Confessions, and created Promote and Defend, a training course for elders and deacons in the CRCNA.

Jason kicks off the conversation by asking why equipping officebearers is an important issue that we’re facing today? Why do we need to talk about it? Jeff sees it as obvious, “Leadership is crucial…Ideally, it’d be great if not so much depended on the pastor…elders, and… deacons.” Speaking of vacant churches, “It would be ideal if all the…members would use their gifts in such a perfect way that the church would hum along until the next pastor comes…or the next crop of [officebearers], but that’s just not the way it works. We do need gifted leaders—people who have responsibility to equip and to motivate the saints for the work of ministry.” He has seen a decline in general knowledgeable of the Bible, Reformed theology, and confessions among the average member and officebearer in his lifetime. Chad approaches it from the member side—there are people looking to be led and wanting to see their churches strengthened but don’t know how to do it.

Not wanting to just name the problem, Jason follows up by asking how we got here. Jeff reiterates the decline in knowledge, but also relational factors. On the one hand, he has experienced not-so-diplomatic conflict, but also the “West Michigan (or more generally Midwest)-nice” value, where people are averse to conflict and worried about being accused of judging or causing trouble. It does seem some churches and officebearers have lost “communal discipline” that can be positive. Chad adds in the evangelical/seeker-sensitive movements, theology got set up as a barrier along with the idea that doctrine divides—so these were avoided. That was helped in CRC congregations by past generations having a bad taste about what and how they were taught rather than a love for our tradition’s teachings.

For the rest of this episode, Jason invites Dr. Weima to share what God calls officebearers to be in his Word. He brings us to 1 Thessalonians 2:1-12, where he sees the apostle Paul defending his character and integrity. It’s not for his own vanity, but because there is a link between the reception of the gospel message and the character and integrity of the messenger. Here Paul uses the imagery of an infant, a mother, and a father. It’s well worth listening to Jeff’s exposition as he compares the difference in the Greek words νήπιοι (nēpioi) and ἤπιοι (ēpioi), what a wet nurse is, and the pitfalls of authoritarian leadership in the church. Here’s the summary, though: “…Leaders [are] to be as innocent as an infant, to be as loving and caring as a breastfeeding mother, and, in an appropriate way, to exercise authority—not in a “domineering dominee” kind of way, but in a way…that helps people…recognize or come into the kingdom of God and his glory. That’s the ultimate use of our leadership role…”

Come back next time as we explore practical steps for helping to equip leaders in the CRC!