Spring 2025 · Vol. 54 No. 1 · pp. 116–121
Ministry Compass
Gifts and Complexities of Shared Leadership in Anabaptist Contexts
In the past year, a recently retired couple began attending our church. He had been clergy in another denomination, and together they had lived the pastoral lifestyle for over forty years. They were intentionally seeking an Anabaptist congregation to worship with as they entered a new chapter of their lives, and we were delighted to welcome them into our community.
As Anabaptists, I believe talking about power in our congregational contexts is emerging as one of the critical conversations for our churches as we seek to be faithful in our time.
After about a month of regular attendance, they said to me, “If we didn’t already know that you were the pastor, it wouldn’t be obvious from the Sunday worship service.” What a striking observation! I thought back over the past month of services and did a quick inventory. Was there anything unusual about the past month? I had preached a couple of times, led a children’s message, celebrated communion, and generally run around in the background making sure the details of Sunday morning came together. All of this was business as usual.
At the same time, I knew that many other people had also been visible at the front and busy behind the scenes—reading Scripture, leading singing, preaching, praying, serving, and generally being attentive to our congregational gatherings each Sunday. I don’t wear any special robes or a clerical collar that set me apart visually. I don’t customarily introduce myself as “the p. 117 pastor” when I lead from the front or meet folks in the foyer for the first time. I realized that it was true: if you didn’t already know, it might take a while to identify me as the pastor. In our congregation, a wide variety of people share their gifts and offer leadership on any given Sunday morning. If we widen the focus, the same phenomenon reaches out beyond Sunday morning into the rest of the week as well.
Shared Ministry in Community
I believe this sense of shared ministry is one notable distinctive when it comes to pastoral ministry in an Anabaptist context. There is a specific role and often an employment relationship between pastor and congregation, but at the same time Anabaptist Christians tend to hold a high view of community. Those who gather in Anabaptist churches expect that on some level decision making and spiritual leadership will be shared among God’s people. This view elevates the presence of the Holy Spirit in every believer and prioritizes the collective contributions of many voices. The pastor holds a particular role, yes, but the pastor is not particularly special.
This diversity has the potential to be a tremendous gift. A few years ago I partnered with a family in our congregation to plan Advent worship services. They were creative, out-of-the-box thinkers, and they included elements in our services that wouldn’t have crossed my mind. Our congregation was so blessed by what they had to offer. I supported them by attending to details, looking after communications week to week, and ensuring the ideas came together on time. During a different year, I took on the responsibility myself of crafting a season of services around a central theme that included writing prayers and creating a worship arts display to encourage personal reflection, and I was supported by a small team who joined me in phoning around to confirm willing participants to take on various roles to bring it all together. I have similar sorts of stories related to event planning, after-school clubs, visitation, small groups, policy writing, church governance, and more.
Depending on the year and the project, as the pastor I might be taking the lead or I might be offering support. I might be visioning, creating content, or setting up snacks. The dance of working with different groups of people, with different skills and gifts to share, creates nuance and variety in the life of the community. It requires me, as the pastor, to resist the urge to become a specialist in any one area but rather to nurture flexibility in my role and my care for my congregation by using my energy and attention to encourage them to grow. p. 118
Possible Complications
This active engagement of the congregation in all aspects of church life is a great gift, but not surprisingly it can also be complicated. Sometimes church members take on roles that require more energy or capacity than they expected. Sometimes things get disorganized or scattered because it feels like there are “too many cooks in the kitchen.” Sometimes projects get launched, but then they get dropped before completion because the file passes from one passionate member to a less passionate one (or maybe it doesn’t get passed on at all). And sometimes there is confusion, even friction, about the role of the pastor. How much pastoral influence and participation is too much or too little? How much is just right?
There is a joke that goes something like, “If you have a hundred people in your congregation, you’ll have a hundred opinions about what the pastor’s job description should be.” It’s true in every church but perhaps especially so in contexts where congregational leadership in the life of the community is valued, even expected. A pastor is not a priest, so are visits from the pastor more significant, less significant, or just different than those offered by fellow congregants? What role does the pastor play in setting the vision or articulating priorities? How many sermons should the pastor preach every year if we have an open pulpit? How many committees should the pastor sit on? How involved should the pastor get in matters of church governance? Should a pastor be kept from the financial decisions and vision of the church, or is money part of the spiritual and theological life of the church? Different communities will have different sets of questions that will bubble up when trying to weigh the balance of pastoral leadership and congregational leadership, but rest assured, questions will bubble up.
A consequence of the Anabaptist value of congregational leadership and participation is that the role of the pastor risks being underdeveloped or, at the very least, obscured. In more than one context, I have heard pastors of Anabaptist congregations say, “My congregation doesn’t think it needs a pastor,” or “My congregation doesn’t know what to do with a pastor.” This is curious, and troubling. It is not uncommon for churches to hire and employ people with specialized training to serve as pastors among them, and yet there can be a lack of clarity about what exactly that person is supposed to be doing.
In situations like this, pastors may struggle to find their place in the community. They may run into powerful congregational members who set the vision and chart the path based on their own values, leaving little room for the pastor’s voice. When saddled with too much responsibility but not enough authority, pastors may experience frustration and failure. It can be extremely challenging to get the balance right. I’ve heard it said, “Pastors are p. 119 here to teach, preach, and care,” but does this really describe the breadth of what people expect of their pastors? What happens when a pastor takes on responsibilities outside those areas? Is that pastoral overreach? What happens when a pastor refuses to pick up something outside this stated purview? Is that pastoral laziness or entitlement, a servant who thinks serving is beneath them?
The Matter of Power
These questions begin to shine a light on an underlying issue named in passing above: power. Who has it, in what contexts, and how do they use it? In flat governance structures, power is to be shared evenly with everyone. This is an amazing ideal. In practice, however, it is untenable to have a congregational meeting every single time a decision needs to be made. Instead, larger groups entrust smaller groups with decision-making authority, and sometimes smaller groups entrust individuals; this only makes sense.
So, where does the power of the pastor fit in? And how does it relate to the power of the congregation, smaller groups of congregants, or a single congregant? Are pastors on the “same level” as everyone else—one voice among many voices? Should they exert more influence because of their position? Should they exert less because of the community’s commonly held leadership? What happens when either clergy or congregants are unreflective or reckless about the power they do hold? Stories abound related to the dangers of unexamined power in church contexts—on the part of both pastors and church members. Boundary crossing and bullying go unchecked when power is not clearly and carefully named and defined.
In my experience, Anabaptists tend to shrink back from discussions of power in communal contexts. On the one hand, lack of education and analysis leads people to assume that power couldn’t possibly be at play in their particular congregation. “That’s just the way he does things.” “That’s just the way she talks.” “That’s just the way things are around here.” Churches, especially Anabaptist churches that prioritize community, are relational places, and it is very, very difficult to name a behavior that has been going on for decades as inappropriate. It is nearly impossible to name it plainly for what it is—an improper use of power.
On the other hand, those who wield power in harmful ways are emboldened when power dynamics are ignored. Refusing to acknowledge and take responsibility for power—whether it is power by virtue of church position or social status—is irresponsible and risks hurting people in the process. Add to this the multiple and overlapping complexities of pastoral power, especially p. 120 in contexts where the role and function of the pastor are poorly defined, and things can get really messy really fast.
Addressing the Issue
So, where does this leave us? As Anabaptists, I believe talking about power in our congregational contexts is emerging as one of the critical conversations for our churches as we seek to be faithful in our time. We might begin by acknowledging that our expectations of the roles and responsibilities of pastors and congregants are not the same as they are for our siblings in other parts of the Christian tradition. They are also not the same as they were in previous generations. We cannot look to the mainline or the evangelical church and say, “Power is a problem for ‘top-down’ churches only.” We cannot look to the past and say, “This has always worked before, so it’ll probably work now.” Power is at work in flat structures just as much as in top-down hierarchical structures, and people get hurt when it goes unacknowledged and unexamined.
What resources are available to us as we examine issues of power in our communities? Perhaps the best place for us to begin is with the Bible. In 1 Corinthians 12, the apostle Paul discusses spiritual giftings and gives us the powerful metaphor of one body made up of many members. This teaching has been central to understanding the life of the church and has particular wisdom to offer to congregations that seek to share ministry between pastors and lay-people. As Paul draws this discussion to a close, we read this in verses 27-31:
Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers; then deeds of power, then gifts of healing, forms of assistance, forms of leadership, various kinds of tongues. Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? Do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret? But strive for the greater gifts. And I will show you a still more excellent way. (NRSV)
What comes next is a poetic meditation on love in 1 Corinthians 13, describing for the church in Corinth “a still more excellent way” to follow Christ and live out their faith together. Paul encourages the believers to recognize the giftings that are present in their community and to consider these with intention. Different people will be empowered by the Spirit to bring different skills and abilities to the body for the common good. He also reminds them that love must be at the heart of all they do, both in the giving and the receiving of these gifts. I believe this recognition of many gifts, p. 121 steeped in a commitment to love, is what will also help us in our churches as we do the challenging work of discerning the dynamics of power and figuring out what it means to worship and work together.
A high view of community and congregational participation has allowed Anabaptist Christians to explore and experience God’s goodness in remarkably beautiful ways for five hundred years. Whether we recognize it or not, a high view of congregational leadership is a gift that has influenced all of us who worship in Anabaptist communities, and I believe it is a gift we must share with our brothers and sisters in Christ from other traditions. However, as we seek to share leadership between pastors and congregants in Anabaptist contexts, we must also learn to attend to questions of power and how it shapes our communities.
