Relationships with Leaders

Bad relationships within a leadership team can erode the effectiveness of the team. In 2024, there was a very public exchange on the platform between a pastor, John Lindell, and visiting speaker Mark Driscoll over the appropriateness of something that had taken place in a service. The entire situation was quite surreal for what was supposed to be a church. Suffice it to say, there was little if any worship that took place.

As bizarre as the situation was, both seemed to have a point. Driscoll seemed to rightly point out that the service seemed to have little to do with Jesus Christ. Lindell argued that Driscoll should have come to him privately first and kicked him out of the church.

Tensions between the leadership team of a church do not usually reach this level of public dysfunction, but there have been countless instances of leadership dysfunction in churches throughout the ages. Pastor Jolicoeur sets out some ground rules for such leadership tensions.

First, disagreements should take place behind closed doors. A healthy team has open and frank conversations with each other. Conflict in itself is not bad. It’s what we do with the conflict and what comes out of the conflict that can be detrimental. Constructive conflict can sharpen us and our ministry.

More importantly, he indicates that you need to be able to support your senior leadership in public. You need to be a cheerleader for your church leadership when the doors are open. The principle earlier in this lesson applies. If you do not like your leadership, if you are not praying for them, it will find its way from what is not seen in secret to your public interactions.

You need to be able to do everything to serve your leader. If you can’t get over it, you should get out. It is no good to have tension between levels of leadership. All this assumes that these disagreements do not rise to the level of moral failure. In such cases, leadership beyond the local church may need to be consulted.