The Law of the Lid by Gary Goodell

Without a radical change in leadership, or how we lead in today’s church, we will not likely survive this next revolution. The battle around a new leadership, with new ways of leading is critical to becoming this new millennium church. Some even feel that what happens with leadership will actually be the determining factor as to whether we will even make a true shift to a new church.

Some, like Frank Viola, strongly confronts the way we have led in the church as the ultimate deal-breaker.

“I firmly believe that the taproot of most of the problems that plague the church in modernity is the clergy system. To put a finer point on it, Protestant Christians are addicted to the modern pastoral office. The pastor is the all-purpose religious professional in the modern Protestant church, both evangelical and mainline.

My experience in this country and overseas over the last seventeen years has yielded one immovable conclusion: God's people can engage in high-talk about community life, Body functioning, and Body life, but unless the modern pastoral role is utterly abandoned in a given church, God's people will never be unleashed to function in freedom under the Headship of Jesus Christ. I have had pastors vow to me that they were the exception. However, upon visiting their congregations, it was evident that the people did not know the first thing about functioning as a Body on their own. Neither were they given any practical tools on knowing the Lord intimately and living by His life. The reason is that the flaws of the modern pastoral role are actually built into the role itself.

The pastor, as we have developed his or her office, by his or her mere presence, causes an unhealthy dependence upon that person for ministry, direction, and guidance. Thus, as long as he/she hangs around delivering sermons, the people in the church to which he/she belongs will never be fully set free to function on their own in a church meeting setting. Further, the pastoral office typically destroys those who populate it. Jesus Christ never intended for anyone to shoulder that kind of enormous responsibility and power.

In the first-century church, there was no single pastor. The Protestant pastor (which includes the evangelical pastor, the mainline pastor, and the non-denominational pastor) evolved out of the Catholic priesthood. The pastor is essentially a reformed priest, and his role has no root in the original vision and story of the people of God.

In Century One, some of the churches had elders who played a shepherding role. But they did not dominate the ministry of the church, nor was the direction of the church exclusively placed into their hands (as is the case with many elder-led churches today like Presbyterians and the Plymouth Brethren). I believe that we are in desperate need to return to these first principles.”

The Senior-Pastor-Top-Down-Territorial-Elitest-Leadership-System Must Change!

I agree with most of Frank’s radical assumption. Mainly, that the role of the single-pastor, territorial elite clergy system within a given city or region must change. There is no precedence in Scripture for the pastor-led (only) church. But change it to what? For me, it is not as simple as just removing or even adjusting one role. It is about moving more towards an entire new leadership style, a new leadership modality that looks more like an equipping team, rather than just a super star. With apostles casting vision, prophets releasing revelation, evangelists penetrating the harvest and yes, shepherds nurturing the flock. We must first and foremost return to a team matrix. And then, we must make sure that there is an across the board release of more and more leaders at every different organic level of the church.

Taking a fresh, hard long look at Ephesians 4, and returning to some kind of equipping team mix (i.e., a balance between the apostle, prophet, evangelist and pastor or shepherd), becomes the grid to return to some kind of regional or city church.

But still, the bigger issue is not just who these leaders are, but how these leaders lead, and the potential release of the priesthood of all believers within that region.

It means today’s leaders creating an atmosphere for more people, not less to lead, more people to grow, more people to be released, not just more believers in more meetings, but more people discovering their leadership giftings and leading in all kinds of settings.

Yet, in the midst of our adjusting leadership styles, let’s not forget, that God still does use leaders. Paul begins his writings to young Timothy by saying that if “someone even desires to lead, he actually desires a good thing,” I Timothy 3:1. And where superstardom is not the biblical model, the Scriptures are clear about even the honor that is to be set aside for those who lead.

Peter addresses a key motive behind all leadership when he says in I Peter 5: 2 - 4, “Shepherd the flock of God which is among you, serving as overseers, not by constraint, but willingly, not for dishonest gain but early; nor a being lords over those trusted to you, but by being examples to the flock; and when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that does not fade away.”

So, let’s get the matter straight. God uses leaders. Leadership is a good thing. But, leadership must change, leadership must shift. We can battle over semantics and words and titles, but at the end of the day God still uses leaders. So, whether you believe in a five-fold or four-fold expression, God simply intended that some would lead others, and that they were to do this by following the model of the Good Shepherd. And this is a good thing.

From a raw, organic point of view I believe it starts with the Ephesians 4 equippers pouring themselves into the natural, elders within a region to help them facilitate the growth and development of the saints within that region.

As the Acts model seems to reveal, it is apostolic teams, either local or trans-local and local elders. In fact, even if I adhered to the current view of the single-pastor led group, and even if we had an excess of these highly-communicative pastors just waiting to be called up to their post, there would still be insufficient numbers of them to meet the demands and needs for rapid church planting in our culture.

We want to create a paradigm or mentality for “every house a house church, every Christian a house church leader, and every regional network a equipping/sending base for rapid church planting.” All along the way creating and nurturing an atmosphere so that every true leader will be given the permission to lead, and the Law of the Lid will be released to help us define the leaders among us.

Leaders Must Lead

All of my life has been based upon the protocol of Proverbs 18:16, “A man’s gift makes room for him, and brings him before men.” This has been a watershed way of looking at leadership for as long as I can remember.

Behind this verse is this idea that all leadership comes out of God’s design for you. It is not something you just strive for, just train for, just pray for, or even hope for. It is initiated in Him and is lived out in you. And because there is no such thing as a second-class priesthood, it is not about your identity being worked out through some man-made pecking order, it is what the Father has set in you. And if He has set it in you, it will make room for you.

This shows up again and again in what has been called in leadership circles, the Law of the Lid. In other words, who you lead, how many you lead, how often you lead, what you lead, where you lead, or even whether you lead at all, is based upon the ingenuity and design of God. With that in mind let’s look at three specific scenarios as it relates to this Law of the Lid:

1. There are people who are leaders and they lead
2. There are people who think they are leaders and won't lead
3. There are people who think they are leaders and can't lead

ONE: There are people who are leaders and they lead

Please, no one panic here, we are not reverting back to some old performance orientation where we always count and quantify your gifting. No, it is more about the reality of your destiny. If God has called you to lead, then there will be followers. Like the ancient proverb, “He who thinks he is a leader and has no followers is merely taking a walk.”

Some of this comes down to the principle of passion. It is important that you “do what you like, like what you do.” But, also there is a reciprocity that we also adhere and enjoy what you do. Natural leaders are simply that, natural. It is almost as though they lead without trying. They can be empowered more, equipped more, and even taught to be more efficient. But, this is not about learning to be a good one-minute manager. It is whether or not you have been designed by God to lead, and if you have been designed to lead, you simply lead.

Eugene Peterson’s Message Bible shares this out of the chapter on gifting in Romans 12. “Each of us finds our meaning and function as part of his body (vs. 5).” If you are a leader, then leading is what gives you meaning, it is what motivates you, it is who you are. Again, we are not returning to the old “head count” mentality of another era. But it is simple. Leadership is recognizable. Leadership is readable. People who are leaders, lead.

TWO: There are people who think they are leaders but won't lead

This one is a little more difficult to navigate, as it manifests itself in the internal warfare of the heart and mind. Here, someone thinks, even dreams that they are a leader, but for some reason they won’t try to lead. It could be that they are in unsafe atmosphere where the current leadership are too threatened to allows others the luxury of experimental leadership, or maybe even that the individual feels just way too fearful, or way too broken to try to lead.

I guess the best thing we can do here is to make sure we are helping people by being dream-sensitive as opposed to outcomes oriented. Create a place, a fail-safe place, where people can find out who they are by finding out who they are not. This is all a part of this move we are in towards relational, organic smaller groups of believers, where everyone gets to participate. It may mean even creating the dynamic in the smaller group so that experimental leadership intentionally rotates, to help see what leadership gifts are in the individuals within the group. All of this as we stir the priesthood of all believers to help people discover their giftings. Even if that means going through some challenging times as we help people discover what they may not be.

THREE: There are people who think they are leaders but can't lead

In the economy of God this is really not a bad thing. It is a good process whereby a situation or scenario is created to allow someone to spread their leadership wings. In this process they can find out several revealing things that they may have not know unless they actually tried to lead.

1. They may find out, no matter how hard they try, people will not consistently follow. 2.They may find out that only a certain number of people will follow and no more. 3. They may find out that their style of leadership is a bad match for the specific group they are trying to lead.

Again, none of these things are bad, but are simply part of the Law of the Lid. These experiences may be discouraging, at least for the moment, but in the end, this information is critical if we are going to embrace the laws of leadership.

One of the elements of this is what Paul refers to in His writings as an apostle when he talks about his sphere. C. Peter Wagner, in his book, Apostles and Prophets, says that even apostolic spheres can manifest themselves as ecclesiastical spheres, like a certain number of churches or ministries; as functional spheres, with a leader having greater influence in a certain area or type of ministry; and obviously geographical or territorial spheres, where someone has specific authority in a specific territory or region. This too is part of the Law of the Lid.

Why do some groups stop growing or simply stop?

Sometimes the Law of the Lid is as simple as a leader overstaying his or her time of leadership within a certain group. When that happens, when a leaders doesn’t know when to step down, step out of the way, or leave, the group can tragically plateau, level, stagnate, or even shut down. Often when this happens the person himself becomes the lid, so if and when he gets out of the way and releases the next leader, the lid is shifted and the group can start to mature again.

Now when we say stagnate or the group levels off, we are not just speaking of numbers. The ultimate Measure of a Church as Gene Getz noted in his classic book is not nickels and noses, but the quality of Christ’s life released in His body. Watchman Nee in the landmark book The Natural Christian Church Life says that the litmus test for leadership is often in simply knowing when it is time to leave. We are not building monuments or models to men. This is about the organic church, the living body of believers, Christ’s church. And many times the organic health and flow of the body happens best when leadership changes, rotates and shifts in its own life cycle.

So whether it is the grace or anointing to lead connected in God’s scheme to a specific territory, or area, a certain time or season, and maybe even a certain number. This is all the law of the Lid. I remember a friend who always felt he was called to lead by teaching. After experiencing several set backs, he finally discovered that he was in fact called to lead through teaching, but that his leadership-gift-mix actually fit best in a certain sized group, and around a certain format. Granted, in the early days of his discovery he became painfully discouraged, even considering himself a failure and/or that he simply missed God for God’s specific call on his life. But when he got to the right size, right situation and the correct sphere he blossomed.

This approach to leadership directly confronts the Western mentality that “bigger is better.” In our culture, if you are really successful at something, it will grow and get larger. But, what if, in fact, your sphere of influence is best felt within a certain setting, and even certain sized group?

Years ago I was confronted by a dear friend alongside a small group of leaders. We were asked by my friend to note our success. He knew that we were already thinking along certain lines; sizes of crowds, buildings, budgets, number of services. And then he said, “If the success you are thinking of does not include a first and last time and the time each week you meet with that young person, don’t bother saying a thing.” We were busted! You see, true leaders lead, they don’t gather or collect. A true leader is only as strong as his or her current Timothy. We must rethink this whole thing of leadership.

So, the Law of the Lid is not bad, it is more about God’s good stewardship of His church and how He wants to affect it in many different creative ways. And it even gets more creative when you begin to examine all of the possible ways of leading. In the simplest context the test of the teacher is that others learn, and in the simplest context the test of the leader is that others follow.

If you feel you are a leader, ask God to reveal to you how that gifting works. Even give yourself to times of seeing that gift tested by stepping into leadership situations or trying to lead new groups of people. In the long run, if we keep facilitating an atmosphere where people can learn by leadership discovery, we will be able to ultimately equip others in what they are called to do and help them discern what they are not called to do.

Having just been with a simple church group for a year it is now time to see other leaders lead among the group. It reminds me of High School and of the importance of knowing when to pass the baton. I ran the 440 relay in High School. My coach often said, sometimes the entire race comes down to the hand-off. As fast and as steady as a particular runner can run, if the baton isn’t passed, it is not a relay. The timing for raising up and releasing the next generation of leaders to lead is critical to the life of the group.

There is just way too much wasted energy given to ill-directed leadership and management courses, seminars or conferences, if we continue to ignore the Law of the Lid. Sometimes the law deals with seasons of leadership, sometimes with sizes of groups that are led, other times it is about the subject matter or life-message that is being taught, and then at other times about the very existence or lack of leadership gifting.

This is all good. This is about an infinite God with a plethora of purpose(s) for His people and what He has designed them for and called them to do.