Lessons in Toxic Leadership from Corinth

Toxic leadership in Corinth: Paul and Corinth's leadership scandal by Dr. Kirsten Mackerras

Over at Tyndale House, my former student, Dr. Kirsten Mackerras has written a great article on: Toxic leadership in Corinth: Paul and Corinth's leadership scandal.

Me in Corinth, though I try not to be a toxic leader

Mackerras asks an important question and draws lessons from 2 Corinthians:

How do leaders–by which I mean anyone with authority or influence withi!n a ministry–end up like this? Often, their churches treat them as celebrities. A brand develops around the giftings and personality of the pastor, who becomes unchallengeable because the movement’s success depends on them. Such leaders evade accountability and normalise dysfunction within their teams. The brand becomes more important than the people. This breeds a culture of fear: the team members serve the celebrity pastor’s whims lest they be bullied, ostracised, or fired. Congregation members become expendable. They are reduced to becoming fans and donors, or ‘bodies behind the church’s bus’.

In the evangelical Christian world, problematic leaders often present themselves as ‘more biblical than thou’, telling hard truths which others soften. Yet a closer look at the Bible reveals a different story. In particular, when we compare the apostle Paul to the predominent picture of leadership in his culture, a surprising criterion for ministry emerges: weakness.

Paul boasts in shameful things to show that his opponents’ self-promotion is contrary to the gospel. He chooses to degrade his own image to enhance Christ’s. He magnifies the ways that being like Jesus brings him social shame, to force the Corinthians to choose between their culture and their God. He sees his reputation as unimportant, but Christ’s reputation as everything. So when today’s Christians seek leaders who embody the celebrity our culture respects, Paul would tell them to turn their expectations upside down. Like the Corinthians, the church in the west is discovering that its leadership preferences haven’t yet been fully converted. The gospel should generate leaders who are faithful servants, not self-seeking celebrities. Unhealthy leaders build a movement around their personality and a show of strength, but Paul knows that the most Christlike platform he could have is his weakness.

Worth a read!