Are the elders or leadership team a “board of directors” making decisions, or is it a team of shepherds caring for the flock?

What is the next logical question? “How do you shepherd those members who are not in small groups?” This usually results in a blank stare or even a statement such as, “People who want to be shepherded come to small groups.” Doesn’t this put the burden in the wrong place?

Unless properly understood in the context of the Scriptures, the authority of church leadership can deteriorate into cult-like control.

“In our day of diversity and tolerance, where God the Creator has been dethroned, denouncing error has become the ultimate unpardonable sin. Principial opposition to anything that others hold dear makes you a bigot and a hate monger.”[94]

The deterioration of respect for authority in culture has its root in a failure to respect the sovereign lordship of the ultimate authority, the living God who is the Shepherd and authority of all of life.

“Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood” (Acts 20:28 NIV).

“Well, the overwhelming majority of people (93 percent) said that they—and nobody else—determine what is and what isn’t moral in their lives.

It is fascinating to note that, in the discussion of the emerging movement, the expression “emerging leaders” is used without pause. How do these individuals become recognized as leaders? Who authorized them to speak for the movement? Is it because they are ones who have the most influence? As the saying goes, “if everyone is the leader, then no on

GOES (Guardian, Overseer, Example, and Shepherd).[123]