Throughout history, Christian leaders have found themselves in the midst of a major crisis which forced them to take charge of far more than they ever expected: having to govern a community in a time of emergency, rebuilding from a disaster. Most of the time, they have done well enough, but made huge mistakes due to false assumptions. While the nature of their errors were not obvious to them at the time, future generations in what they built paid a high price for the unwise initial choices. Can we establish a theology, a biblical wisdom, of how to carry the community through the initial phases of rebuilding?
Were I not convinced of an apocalyptic future bearing down on us, I might not bother with this. In a modern Western civilization, there's little room for discussing building a community from the ground up. All the little enclaves seeking to avoid the sin of the world, to create their paradise on earth, are completely contrary to Scripture. We are not of this world, but we are surely in it as salt and light. It's hard to evangelize those you avoid. Rather, we consider here a situation which may be thrust upon us, where the world we know is radically changed. Consider this otherwise an academic exercise.
Imagine you have built a community of faith on the Word. You are the elder of this body of faith. The situation comes in which you are required to build also a community in the other sense. That is, there is no civil government in effect offering more than a bare emergency response, if that. Frankly, that is the ideal, for in human history the only reason to hand wide-ranging powers to any man is for defense against a very real and looming threat. People threatened will obey instinctively a command structure, but in peace it has little use. This is so well established, we see every government throughout history, wishing to expand power, has manufactured a threat environment if one does not exist. In our imaginary situation, we find no government able to play this game, and holding no real control over daily affairs of life.
Such a power vacuum is an invitation to all manner of evil, but you have a church, a community of faith in the midst of this chaos. It would be hard not to bring order from chaos. As elder, all eyes will turn to you. What will you do? There is a biblical model, but it has limits. Wise is the elder who realizes, "This, too, shall pass." Yours is the task of redemption, and some limited governing is merely a by-product, a service provided for so long as it is needed. In prayer, study, and preparation of the heart, a Christian elder will know when to act.
The primary element of organization remains the family, clan and tribe. As before, this is not about blood ties and DNA, but about function. Further, it is wholly unlikely you will deal only with fellow Christians. Even as you know before it happens, believers will fail and fall, even so you must expect and allow some fallen behavior among sinners. Nor is it simply a matter of reacting only to real harm, for believers are burdened with a responsibility to absorb some harm in the sense of material loss, emotional tension and even physical injury. Concrete example today: Imagine a semi-rural setting, and my neighbor gets married, celebrating far into the night with loud music. I can afford to give one sleepless night as a wedding gift to my neighbor, but I am rightly less tolerant if he does it every week. He is my brother, and there must be some giving on each side. Calling him "brother" is not just a label of convenience, but a marker of the flavor of all dealings. Of all the various models dreamed up and used by mankind, this is the very best.
The wise and loving elder, as community leader, cannot simply dismiss the difference between believer and sinner. We do not throw all the pearls of Christian wisdom to swine, but we must seek exemplary honesty. Were your church witness fairly consistent in times past, this would be no great hurdle. Otherwise, there will be a struggle to remove the impression of unreasonable favoritism. It requires a strong hand and consistent teaching for your congregation to recognize this is not about robotic rules, but a living growing thing. We are dealing with people, and in Western society, the word "fairness" is often used as a crowbar to force an entry to privileges rightly denied. It's easy for the fallen to assume familial Christian love equates to material advantage; this is not precisely true, but it may look that way to them. There will likely be no simple answer to the questions sure to arise.
That there must, indeed, be a difference in treatment is obvious from the Bible. Surprising to most people is the demands we should place on each other are stricter. There is a higher expectation, and the presence of the Holy Spirit drives the soul to seek it. This is the mark of who is a member of the Heavenly Family, for people do not seek such discipline in the flesh. That is, they do not seek a discipline of the soul, which results in changed conduct; they seek a discipline of conduct alone. The appeal to a believer for changed conduct is through the soul. The appeal to the lost is some other thing: civility, fairness, common peace, nobility, etc. It is entirely possible some will have a mere pretense to regeneration. Many will merely believe they are born again, as we find filling the pews in all Evangelical churches today where Decision Theology is preached. These are mere psychological conversions. Many will fake it because they hope to gain something. Most outside the Kingdom will deny the difference, or downplay it as mere choice. The flavors of trouble will run the gamut.
The primary area of contention is community discipline. Keeping peace is the main challenge, as people will naturally tend to work at all the basic necessities of life, but in doing so may disregard things which make for peace. In Scripture, there is an assumption basic human needs are separate from defense needs. Keeping peace externally and internally is a job for the troops, for civil government. That is their primary function, and in this they rightly command full authority. Thus, wherever the military rules, one finds the implied threat of harm for those considering resistance. All else is under the purview of the community leadership, little of which requires exercising coercion. The very real danger is when community leadership so quickly turns to the troops for enforcement, instead of working in the hearts and minds of the people. The former is convenient, requiring little effort, and is typical of civil leaders who are fallen. It breeds the coercive welfare state so repugnant to everyone who isn't in the driver's seat. Wise Christian elders will use the troops after all else has failed.
The proper means of offering assistance for survival is voluntary gifts. There is no exception, and no excuse for compelling charity at the point of a sword. The sword is for collecting taxes to support the troops and the defense mission; no other use for taxes is permitted in Scripture. You would hardly be surprised if the military demands become lavish, but forced contribution cannot flow to any other purpose. Believers will inevitably give voluntarily to community need, as will many decent lost people.
Folks who have absorbed civilization tend to let it go only reluctantly. There are predators, and they make the best troops, with encouragement to take plunder from outside predators. Keeping them under the iron discipline of a noble-minded commander is the standard. Given the typical distribution of human personalities in a community of at least one hundred persons, there will always be a few comparatively eager to fight. Take care of the defenders, but keep them busy on the battlements, lest they prey on those who feed them. In a real emergency, even believers are permitted to shed blood, but they should avoid the task in favor of those lacking Christian sensibilities. The Elect are better conditioned by the Holy Spirit to extend resources for help and healing.
It's worth noting what has come before is primarily theology, with examples thrown in to demonstrate. Actually doing leadership requires first a calling, then a bit of study, at two levels. One is the psychology level, and you can learn some of that in places offering Christian Leadership training. Two, you need to understand from the objective level using statistical data, as in the Social Sciences (History, Political Science, Economics, Geography, Psychology and Anthropology). Good instructors and authors will warn you, there are no hard fast rules, because they understand there are exceptions. That is, as with anything in the field of Social Sciences, what is generally true on a broad scale is never precisely accurate.
Without some understanding of the Social Sciences, leadership is a heavy load of stumbling and correcting. The larger the responsibility, the greater your need for knowledge. However, God can and will use anyone who answers the call. He will cover a multitude of sins, and you should ever trust Him for everything He doesn't place in your hand. At the same time, you shall not fling a challenge in the face of God (Luke 4:12), seeking to force His hand to bail you out of a mess you created. If you know now you are called to lead, you should have already been studying.
The balance point is counting the cost. Know what you are committing to God, what it might cost you and those you lead. Every decision made as leader costs the group something; the objective under God's hand is to gain the greatest return for those costs.
Thus, we return to the point we began. It is by the study of Social Sciences we know things could be very rough, very soon. Preparing the mind to understand the facts and psychology is an offering to God. He is the answer in all cases.
By Ed Hurst
revised 27 February 2007
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