Two Major Categories of Leaders In the New Testament Church
In the article “The Right Reasons for Training Christian Leaders”, we learnt that we should train our leaders with the vision of church planting – to fulfil the Great Commission. We need leaders to continue church planting movements.
Talking about leadership further, we, at least in India, very prominently only think of pastors being the leaders of our churches. In some churches, the committee forms the leadership of the church.
Categories of Church Leaders Now
When you think of leaders in the church, what comes to your mind?
Surely you have pastors and elders. Then you have worship band leaders, Sunday School leaders, and cell leaders. ‘Bhajan’ team leaders, prayer group leaders, those who lead social works or social wings of our ministries, and so on. But we never hear of leadership in the above ‘terms’ in New Testament churches. Why is that so?
Eph. 4:11 tells us that God has given apostles, evangelists, prophets, pastors, and teachers to the church. They are a gift to the church and the leaders for the church. And many people may categorize these leaders differently.
Paul’s Categories of Church Leaders Then
However, we clearly see at least two major categories of leadership in the New Testament, especially from the life of Apostle Paul.
First, Paul had his own team who, along with him, continued the apostolic ministry which went beyond a local church. And secondly, he appointed elders in the local churches he planted, who primarily served inside the local church. These are the two clear categories in the Scriptures.
So those who led in the local churches were mainly elders. The leaders who served beyond local church or globally, like Paul and his team, were called apostles, also known as apostolic team or missionary bands.
Ralph Winter, a missionary, a Professor of missions, and the founder of the U.S. Center for World Mission in his article The Two Structures of God’s Redemptive Mission, takes us through history to see how these two types of leaders, in the sovereignty of God, have always been there in the history of the church and missions. Though they took different forms, yet they did exist in history.
Winter uses two terms for these two categories.
He uses the term ‘Modal leaders’ for those who serve in a local church. And he uses the term ‘Sodal leaders’ for the apostolic teams who serve beyond a particular local church. The coordinated efforts of both types of leaders help perpetuate the church planting movement.
The Categories of Church Leaders Hereafter
As we train leaders in our churches today, we should think of them in these two categories that are obvious in the Scriptures that have always existed in the history of the church throughout. Church leaders need to be sensitive to see who God is calling to be “Modal Leaders” and who are to be the “Sodal Leaders.”
With this understanding, we can invest in leadership training appropriately as per their calling and thus train them for either Sodal or Modal leadership. We will not do the mistake of placing them in an unsuitable sphere of service.
So, who are your Sodal leaders and Modal leaders, and how are you helping them in their God-given roles?
