The Priest and Church Leadership
The Priest and Church Leadership
We can summarize this topic in three points:
Preparing and forming leaders – Caring for leaders – Dealing with leaders.
Preparing Leaders
This is what they call “preparing the second line in the Church,” because the priest cannot do everything alone. He must need people to assist him in the ministry, whether with him or under his supervision. An elderly priest may need “a helper like himself,” meaning another priest who supports him. It is best if he is one of the servants trained in church service, who knows the people and is known by them… Therefore, leaders must be prepared.
And it is not proper for the priest to view them as competitors!
But rather as partners in carrying out pastoral work… It is known that with the increase of workers within the sphere of ministry, the ministry succeeds more. The priest who works alone will inevitably grow tired and exhausted, and the lack of time and effort may lead him to shortcomings in service…
The faithful priest appoints assistants in all branches of ministry.
In each activity he has more than one servant helping him, so if one is absent, another replaces him, and the service does not stop. The Lord Christ sent the servants two by two (Luke 10:1).
Preparing for service includes two things: knowledge and practical training.
Alongside the knowledge the Lord gave His disciples, He also brought them into practical training as mentioned in Matthew 10 and Luke 10. He corrected their mistakes—for example, in Luke 10, when they returned rejoicing that the demons were subject to them, He said: “Do not rejoice in this… but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven” (Luke 10:20).
Likewise, in practical training He taught them the qualities they must have in ministry: “Provide neither gold nor silver nor copper in your belts, nor bag for the journey, nor two tunics, nor sandals, nor staff, for a worker is worthy of his food” (Matt. 10:9–10). And He said to them: “Whatever house you enter, first say: Peace to this house” (Luke 10:5)… along with many other instructions.
Preparing servants in all branches of ministry requires a specific system.
For example, there is a special preparation for deacons, another for Sunday School servants, a third for those who carry out visitations, and those who organize church membership; and preparation for those supervising the library, the youth center, medical services, social ministry and care for the poor, those serving in the church sewing workshop, those overseeing cleanliness, and those responsible for security.
Many churches appoint people to ministry who were never prepared, and the result is that some of them fall into mistakes that are subject to reproach!
How each servant is prepared within his area of responsibility requires special study…
Sometimes part of training is that the person preparing for service begins alongside an experienced servant, absorbing from him the correct method, as well as the spirit of service. Sometimes the preparation of servants follows studied written curricula.
In the Bishopric of Services and in the Bishopric of Youth, there are training courses with their lectures, studies, and practical training.
Preparing servants does not mean preparing a faction that supports the priest.
Sometimes a priest trains people to be his personal followers who stand by him when needed, fighting his opponents or resisters if such exist! This is not preparing servants but preparing forces…!
The Church required, in preparing servants, specific spiritual qualities.
Regarding the seven deacons in the apostolic era, the apostles said:
“Therefore, brethren, seek out from among you seven men of good reputation, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business” (Acts 6:3). This good choice was the reason for the success of their ministry.
Saint Paul also says to his disciple Timothy:
“And the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also” (2 Tim. 2:2).
Here he required that they be faithful and competent, capable of teaching, and that they receive the same apostolic teaching Timothy received from Saint Paul.
If the servants are only good-hearted but lack knowledge and wisdom, their preparation is not sound…
They may fall into mistakes that trouble the ministry later on…
Preparing leaders is not easy; it may require gifts—
either natural gifts or divine gifts. Natural gifts may be that the person is intelligent and perceptive by nature, and only needs knowledge and awareness, to work in ministries requiring wisdom and good judgment. Or the person may be naturally kind-hearted and compassionate, to work in ministries requiring tenderness and kindness.
For example, the people of Israel, described as stubborn and stiff-necked, were given by God a man who could bear them—Moses the prophet—of whom it is said:
“Now the man Moses was very humble, more than all men who were on the face of the earth” (Num. 12:3).
And when this people fell into idol worship, God chose for them a firm and strong man—Elijah the prophet—to rebuke them.
Choosing unsuitable people may later become a burden upon the priest and upon the ministry. And it may be difficult to remove them.
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