Spiritual Authority? Hoodabada (TM) I say!

It’s over ten years ago now that I accidentally became the pastor of a church. Nearly the month I took over the area overseer in our network of churches resigned. It was only a few months after that, it seems, that someone decided that I should be the "acting" area pastoral coordinator. First I was an accidental pastor, now an accidental overseer, "Yikes!"

Over the years I have read a lot of books about leadership and management. I have heard experts expound on "positional authority" and "relational authority." I am not sure where I first heard the adage that all good working relationships are based on trust, and that trust is composed of many relational interactions over time. Leadership gurus talk about a "relational bank account" where one makes "deposits."

Now here’s the thing, you don’t get very far faking relationships. It’s kind of like depositing counterfeit money in a bank account. That might work for a while but eventually someone is going to find out and the jig will be up.

So, I find myself in a kind of "denominational" planning meeting. Somehow it comes up, well if we have trouble with a church, we can just "kick them out" of our network. I guess, because I am a lawyer, I pointed out that there was no legal basis for "kicking anyone out" of the network, since they were all independent churches. In other words, there was no legal authority for such an action. One of the other "leaders" in the meeting said, "Well, we’ll just use our Spiritual authority."

Well, I thought then, and I think I even voiced my opinion in the meeting, uh, "What Spiritual Authority?" The only authority we have is based on relationship and trust, if it is to have any meaning at all. The exercise of any kind of authority that exceeds the relational authority between people is abuse. It is the source of much Hoodabada™ in all kinds of organizations. The real source of all of it is the unwillingness of leaders to take the time to know those who they work with. If you say, "There is no way that I can know all of the people who I work with," then my answer is, "You are working with way too many people." Jesus called twelve, and was very close to three. Think about that carefully the next time you are addressing your 75 person "staff," or your 30 person "leadership community." Have you really taken the time to know the people you are talking to?