The Cost of Leadership

           Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s The Cost of Discipleship rocked my world when I first read it nearly ten years ago. Now older, wiser, and seasoned in the trench warfare that is church leadership, I am reading the book again with a fresh set of eyes. More than simply a general call to disicipleship, Bonhoeffer is submitting a razor-sharp call to leadership, providing a picture of what leadership involves, and what leaders must sacrifice for the sake of the kingdom of God.

            A call to leadership in the church can oftentimes be approached like so many other things in life and faith: “Just tell me what to do so I can get on with life.” Feebly acquiescing, many pastors and elders pull out the Book of Church Order and a few passages of Scripture to determine expectations and get the formula for what church leadership ostensibly demands: “Do this…” (study, pray, etc.) “Don’t do this…” (get drunk, take more than one wife, etc.). It is no wonder that the call to lead in so many congregations is met by a resigned sigh (at best) or downright disgust. So often in the church we fail to capture the imagination of God’s people as we fail to communicate the magnitude and audacity of God’s call to leadership. Bonhoeffer sets us right.

            Over the next several months, I hope to lead a conversation on leadership with Bonhoeffer as our guide. You, dear reader, are not expected to read the books (though I highly recommend them); rather, my hope is that this bi-weekly communiqué might engage us in a deeper conversation around God’s call on our lives as overseers of Christ’s church. Suffice to say, I truly desire your feedback!

            One of the many things that attracted me to First Reformed Church is its commitment to being a praying church. This may seem like a given, but it is striking the number of churches (and Christians) for whom prayer is a bonus; an add-on relegated to “super-Christians” (as the Apostle Paul might say) but not to common followers of Jesus Christ. This is baffling to me! In fact, I would go so far to say that if we are not a praying church, we are not the church! Particularly as leaders, if we are not prayerfully listening to the Spirit we are merely blind guides.

            So, it was my great joy to find that our newly restructured care elder group will be spending most of its time praying for God’s people, for our community, and for our world. As we were praying last week, I had a very genuine sense of the Spirit’s presence—the very Spirit of God who intercedes for us (Rom. 8:26)—joining us together in a shared groaning for all of creation as it waits for redemption. If a stranger had happened upon our prayer gathering, they would have found themselves in sacred space. Spirit-saturated space.

            The sighs, tears, and pleas of our prayers gave evidence that when we pray in the Spirit, we enter into the suffering of the ones prayed for—for Jim Sjaarda, Melvin Schuiteman, Norm & Tweila Van Voorst, and so many others. We feel their pain and the pain of their loved ones. Praying is suffering. Suffering is surely a tough sell in this age of comfort and security. But the call of discipleship and leadership involves nothing less than suffering. And in suffering (through prayer and otherwise) we find that we have good company in our Lord Jesus Christ!

            In Mark 8:31-38, Jesus tells his disciples that he “must suffer many things and be rejected…and that he must be killed and after three days rise again” (italics mine). Suffering, rejection, and death. Resurrection is surely coming, but not before suffering, rejection, and death. Cheap grace does away with suffering, rejection, and death, as it makes no demands on our lives in any way. The true costly grace of the Gospel, however, makes enormous demands—our very death—that we might actually say, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me” (Gal. 2:20a).

            I like the part of the Gospel that involves glory. I’m not so sure about the death part. This is the offense of the Gospel, isn’t it? And has not the suffering, rejection, and death of the Messiah been the offense of the Gospel for 2,000 years? Bonhoeffer writes it this way:

“That is not the kind of Lord it wants, and as the Church of Christ it does not like to have the law of suffering imposed upon it by its Lord. Peter’s protest [in Mark 8:31ff] displays his own unwillingness to suffer, and that means that Satan has gained entry into the Church, and is trying to tear it away from the cross of its Lord…Just as Christ is Christ only in virtue of his suffering and rejection, so the disciple is a disciple only in so far as he shares his Lord’s suffering and rejection and crucifixion” (87).

To be a disciple of Jesus Christ is to suffer, primarily as it involves the death of self. The death of self is not an abrogation of self, but rather the denial of self in pursuit of Jesus Christ. We are called, after all, to pick up our cross and follow him, finding in Jesus our true humanity.

            As we are joined to him, and as we are conformed into his likeness, we soon find that we are further called to suffer for the sake of the kingdom, and particularly for those who are suffering the harsh and ultimately deadly affects of the Fall. We don’t need to suffer and die for the redemption of others (no Messiah-complex is necessary, and we cannot accomplish this anyway; only Christ does and has). But we are called to suffer with others. This is what we are called to in our daily fight against sin and death.

            Our calling occurs in baptism, when we are “sealed by the Holy Spirit and marked as Christ’s own forever” (Worship the Lord: The Liturgy of the Reformed Church in America). This calling involves death and life for ourselves:

“[Setting] the Christian in the middle of the daily arena against sin and the devil. Every day he encounters new temptations, and every day he must suffer anew for Jesus Christ’s sake. The wounds and scars he receives in the fray are living tokens of this participation in the cross of his Lord” (90).

As leaders, we are further called to fight against sin and death for the sake of others, as well. The wounds and scars we will receive in the fray exponentially increase.

This might lead us to despair if not for the reality of the One who calls us, and what he ultimately calls us into. Jesus Christ is the One who calls, and the call is to true and abundant life—for ourselves and for others. In dying to sin, self, and the devil, we actually find life! In praying against sin, self, and the devil, we seek life for others. And, seeing Christ’s church and the world through the spectacles of the Holy Spirit, we find in taking up our cross and the crosses of others that Jesus actually bears the weight of it! For Jesus tells us, “My yoke is easy and my burden is light” (Matt. 11:30).

All of this is to say that in our unique calling as elders and pastors, we are daily stepping into the arena, suffering in prayer and leadership for the sake of Christ and his kingdom…and then finding that this is the highest calling and greatest joy! We have the honor and privilege of being Christ’s under-shepherds and servants in his Church (1 Cor. 4:1). In our praying and leading we are participating in the work and life of Christ by the power of the Spirit! If you are reading this and thinking, “Well, that’s not me…I’m not really qualified for this,” you are missing a fundamental truth about your call: the call is not from me, and not even from the congregation (though they act as agents); the call is from Jesus Christ himself! He has called you to this, and just as surely as he calls you he will equip and empower you. He is at work in you even now! Oh, that together we might be so bold and faithful to take up our cross and follow Jesus!

It is happening now, and you, care elders, are participants in it.  We are going to lead as Christ’s called and chosen ones, praying and suffering for the sake of God’s people and for the sake of his kingdom. And we will…

Listen to the Spirit.

Follow the Son.

Exalt the Father.

PS--All page citations are from The Cost of Discipleship unless otherwise noted.

PPS--I have not deviated from Bonhoeffer's text, and thus beg the pardon of those who recoil at the use of masculine-only pronouns. Please accept my apologies and earnest hopefulness that the spirit of the text is gender neutral.