Leadership Teams in Xenos

A plurality of untrained, ignorant, and immature leaders is no more reliable than a single leader. Only if the leaders on a team are all trained and mature Christian workers can we assume that a group will be more reliable than an individual.

We don't consider a husband and wife to be a true plurality. Couples tend to "think together" and need an outside perspective. Besides, disagreement in leadership could contradict roles in the marriage.

We usually require three singles, or a couple and a single as minimum for plurality. But most of our home churches are led by a team of four or five leaders.

We used to view our leaders as coequal within a team. Now we prefer to have a senior leader. Having a senior leader allows some insignificant decision to be made without a meeting, which is easier for everyone. Also, recognizing a senior leader authorizes that person to take initiative in leading the group, and in leading the leadership team. This counters the paralysis that may result from "leadership by committee." However, a majority of the team can overrule a senior leader, so accountability is preserved.

Group size is the most important factor to consider when deciding whether to require plurality of leadership. To require plurality with even very small groups would unreasonably retard their ability to multiply. Also, the ratio of leaders to members would be unnecessarily low if small groups had to have plural leadership. Since most of our groups are house churches, with attendance between 15 and 60, we require true plurality in each one. Our smaller groups, on the other hand, may be led by an individual or a couple.

Medium sized groups, like home churches, are large enough to have an identity as a group or a community, and may develop loyalty to their own home church, more than to the larger church. On the positive side, this makes home churches very hardy—nearly indestructible. On the other hand, many churches are reluctant to establish medium sized groups because of their history of divisiveness. We think plurality of leadership is the answer to this negative tendency found in some medium-sized groups. While plural leadership may decide to divide from the rest of the church, it seems much less likely that an entire well-trained team would decide to take this unrighteous direction. During over 30 years of ministry, Xenos has experienced very little divisiveness from home churches. On the other hand, sometimes churches' efforts to prevent division cause more harm than division itself. We would rather have one of two home churches leave if they want to than have all our groups suffer based on the fear of division.

The size of the group suggests that teaching is more appropriate than mere sharing. Many churches worry this could lead to doctrinal aberrations. Again, plural leadership and good training is the best safeguard against doctrinal error. We find very suspicious the thought (sometimes openly expressed by pastors) that to prevent doctrinal error we should keep leaders ignorant and teach groups not to study the Bible together.

Requiring plurality of leadership in home groups significantly slows the rate of group duplication. Again and again, Xenos home churches have reached maximum attendance without having plural leadership ready for both sides of a proposed church plant. Leaders in this situation will feel a strong temptation to cheat—either going to a larger venue than a house, or planting without plurality. But we believe that God can use such a situation to stress balance in the ministry of a given group. The group may be stressing evangelism, but not equipping and growth. If continued, such a trend would lead to a very shallow group indeed. If the group relieves pressure on itself by going to a larger venue, they may lose their incentive to raise up leaders as well as their ability to go back into homes. We prefer to let the pressure of being full serve to emphasize the need to finish the job of raising up qualified leaders. We think God uses this to promote what is lacking in a group. Thus by using an underground approach, we believe the church will be regulated between overemphasizing evangelism or training. The quandary of reduced growth for the sake of plurality also raises important questions for the central leadership of the church. Are we willing to temporarily forfeit numeric growth for the sake of quality in the church? In the case of Xenos, our elders have answered unambiguously: "Yes!"

Another potential negative for leadership teams is disagreement within the leadership team. Corporate leadership requires a willingness to accept limitations on autonomy and decision making that the immature find irksome if not unacceptable. Leaders must develop skills of negotiation and patient communication in order to form a successful team. Certain self-willed and dominating individuals are weeded out by their inability to function as team players, and this is all to the good. Any individual who is too self-willed to work with colleagues on a team is not welcome to lead in our church.

In Xenos, home church leaders are not empowered to remove other home church leaders from leadership. Only the elders can remove a home church leader. This prevents a majority from overrunning a minority in a team without outside confirmation. Sometimes, the lone dissenting leader is in the right!

Whether to require plurality is determined not only by the size of a group, but by the scope of ministry delegated to home group leaders. Since so many pastoral issues involve sensitive judgment calls, elders may find themselves wondering whether to trust the judgment of single leaders at times. But when a team of trained leaders concur in a judgment call, we have a good basis for trusting their view. Perhaps lack of plurality accounts for why many churches are reluctant to delegate important areas of ministry (like church discipline, or counseling) to home group leaders.

Not only the elders' minds are eased by plurality, but home church leaders find their own minds eased by the opportunity to bounce ministry questions off other leaders who are actually involved in their ministry with them. A lot of potential leaders are more willing to consider being part of a leadership team who would not feel comfortable taking on leadership by themselves.

Spouses who are not inclined to be leaders, either by gifting or temperament, find themselves willing to join in a leadership team with one or two other couples. We believe having couples lead together is healthy for marriages, and we strongly resist people leading without their spouses.

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