CONFRONTING FALSE LEADERS BIBLICALLY

Landon Schott

@landonschott

When the crowd, mob, or “the people” try to lead spiritual authority—it is almost always outside the will of God. There is no biblical precedent where the crowd initiated correction or redirection of spiritual leadership—and it resulted in righteousness. Every time the people try to lead without God’s voice and order, it leads to rebellion, idolatry, or judgment.

6:09 AM · May 9, 2025

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The above was posted by Landon Schott, who is co-pastor or Mercy Culture, a church near Fort Worth, Texas, on May 9, 2025. I am not completely certain about the underlying intention of the post, but it clearly is saying that the membership of a church has no place in confronting church leaders who are engaging in wrongdoing. It should be very frightening to anyone who has read the Bible when church leaders make statements like this. It is my hope that Schott simply misspoke when he posted this, but it certainly makes for a good Bible study on the leadership of man in God’s church. No, I did not make a mistake when typing that. The church is neither mine nor yours and is also does not belong to any pastor or elder. The church belongs to God.

THE PLAN WAS NOT TO HAVE A KING

In 1 Samuel 8, the prophet and judge, Samuel, was getting along in years and he appointed his sons to be the judges of Israel. The problem with his sons is that they did not follow God as their father had done. They profited personally from their position, took bribes and perverted justice.

The elders of Israel then approached Samuel and pointed out the fact that his sons were not leading Israel as they should and asked Samuel to appoint a king over them like all the other nations have. Samuel considered this request to be wrong, and he did what any true Godly leader would do: He prayed. What happened next was amazing in that God clearly and quickly answered Samuel’s prayer. It appears that Samuel was feeling rejected because the people were unsatisfied with his appointment of his sons as the judges of Israel and he was feeling personally rejected by the “crowd, mob or ‘the people,’” as Paster Schott would call them.

God’s answer took great care of Samuel’s insecurity as he pointed out that the people were not rejecting Samuel but rather were rejecting God himself. God had Samuel point out to the people that the king would charge them taxes and basically take them as slaves. The king would take their land and their women as his servants. The king would do all of this because of his own ego and to obtain glory for himself.

You see, the plan of God from the very beginning was to choose a family through which to bless the world. He would make this family prosperous in numbers and in other ways and would give them laws to follow on how to treat one another. The law planned for the people to have judges who would assist them when there were disagreements, but the people would always be aware that they were different from all the people groups around them and one of those differences is that they had no human king. No one in the community would be outside or above God’s law and anyone could be brought up on charges of having violated the law if there was sufficient evidence as set forth in the law.

THE NEW TESTAMENT VERSION OF GOD’S PEOPLE

In Genesis 15, God made his covenant with Abram. However, this covenant was made in a way that was different from the other covenants in the ancient world. This covenant was confirmed on both sides by God. If God broke the covenant, man could kill him. If man broke the covenant, man could kill him. This is clearly the most amazing story of mercy and grace that has ever been told. This is because both God and man knew that God would never break the covenant, but that man undoubtedly would.

This covenant was fulfilled in the person of Jesus who was killed by man on a cross in the early first century. He was Emmanuel, God with us, and he allowed himself to be killed by man as the complete fulfillment of the Abrahamic covenant so that man could be restored to the kingdom of God. Thus begins the new covenant predicted in Jeremiah 31, in which God would follow through with the blessing of the world through the family of Abraham. This was the advent of the church.

LEADERSHIP IN THE CHURCH

With the formation of the church, came the necessity of certain types of leadership that is not unlike that set forth in the Mosaic law. However, instead of judges being appointed in the church, there are certain leadership offices which are set forth in the New Testament, those being variously called, pastors, elders, shepherds, overseers, bishops, and deacons. This writing will not go into any discussion of the denominational differences in these offices but rather will only acknowledge the mention of these named offices in the Bible. I would also suggest that the New Testament sets forth requirements for teachers, but, generally, teachers are not considered formal church leadership in the Western Church.

The clearest list of qualifications for the people filling these offices is set forth in 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1. Individuals in church leadership should first be people of integrity and high moral standards. They should not have to tell you with words that they are Christians, but they will anyway. Church leaders should be willing and able to share the Gospel and should be well versed in scripture. These persons should have a spirit of servanthood as this is the only title that the Bible tells us that we should seek. Mark 10:43-45, Matthew 23:11. The leader should also be capable of teaching well, display compassion and empathy, and be willing to teach others and encourage them to grow into Biblical leaders themselves. It should be noted that all these qualifications would be inclusive of other Biblical requirements for living out one’s faith in a manner that brings others to Jesus that are set forth throughout the Bible.

While all of the above should be character traits of the church leader, perhaps the primary trait of the Christian, and especially of the leader of the Christian church, should be humility. Colossians 3:12 says to “put on compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.” Zechariah 9 tells us that the king was to come to the people “humble and mounted on a donkey.” Philippians 2:8, says that Jesus left the glory of heaven and humbled himself to become human and die on a cross. The Greek word that appears in Colossians 3:12 is the word tapeinophosyne. This word can be defined as having a deep sense of one’s moral littleness or modesty, humility, and lowliness of mind. Strong’s G5012. Philippians 2:3 translates the same word when it says, “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility consider others as more important than yourself.”

Thus, we have now established the Biblical model for church leadership. Let’s now look at the application of this to church life.

WHAT IF THEY DON’T

Romans 12:1-2 in the NIV says, “Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God – this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” I cannot remember where I heard it, but someone much smarter than I once said that the problem with a living sacrifice is that it keeps crawling off the altar. While speaking for myself, I can attest to the truth of this statement, I believe the same is true for most human beings. When we believe that we are finally getting it all together is when we are the closest to the precipice and about to fall. The same can be true of church leadership.

If you have never been in a position of true authority, one in which people are required to listen to your words and follow them for fear of punishment if they do not, I can tell you personally that it can be intoxicating. I have seen many “good” people fall under the weight of being placed in authority. In order to guard against this type of intoxication, it is necessary to remain grounded in something, preferably scripture, and to surround oneself by those who are willing to speak truth even when that truth is uncomfortable. When I found myself having been placed in a true authoritative position, I literally found a few people whom I trusted and told them that they had permission to come to me and correct me if they ever felt that I was getting too big for my britches. More on this later.

The person in a position of authority that also happens to be their means of personal income is under an entirely different stress situation. When that person fails, the reporting and repenting can quickly lead to the loss of income and place them and their family in precarious circumstances. This is extremely hard and requires more faith than most of us, in reality, possess. However, this is the first guardrail against the church leader who finds themselves for any reason disqualified from service in this position. 2 Corinthians 13:5 tells us to “Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith. Examine yourselves. Or do you yourselves not recognize that Jesus Christ is in you? – unless you fail the test.”

Acts 5:1-10 tells the story of Ananias and Sapphira. This married couple sold a piece of property and brought the proceeds from the sale as an offering to the church. However, they told Peter that they were bringing the entirety of the sale proceeds as an offering when in fact they had kept some for themselves. One at a time, the two of them attested to Peter that this was the case and one at a time they dropped dead at his feet. Peter informs the two of them that they had not only lied to him and to the church, but that they had lied to God. The sad part of it is that there is nothing in the scripture that says that there was any obligation on the part of the couple to give the entirety of the sale proceeds to the church. They simply claimed to have done so for purposes that are not overtly stated. Obviously, it was a serious offense.

The same can be said for the church leader who has placed himself or herself in a position where they no longer meet the requirements for service in the position that they hold. To continue in this position is an offense to God more than to man. If the person examines themselves as required by scripture, there will be recognition that they are no longer qualified to serve in the leadership position. Whether they can be qualified to do so later is outside the scope of this writing and is a question for the local church based upon the scriptures, but clearly that person should leave the leadership position and have faith that God will supply their needs and that of their family, not according to their faithfulness, but according to his.

Now while it would be wonderful if the failures of church leaders could be handled as described above as the regular examination of oneself would go a long way toward preventing failures that do harm and damage to others in the church, this is not the way it generally occurs. Too many times, we hear of church leaders who have continued in their positions during or after they have fallen to the extent that they begin doing serious damage to others, usually those who are vulnerable, in the church. To add insult to injury, and due to fear of harming the reputation of the church, those that learn about these failures cover them up and create a sense of invulnerability in the church leader. This is when the church ceases to be a church and should be recognized as nothing more than a cult. Persons who are not Biblically qualified to serve as church leaders can create a following and can even share some truth, but they cannot serve a truly Biblical church. It is at this point that not only I, but the Bible itself, have a great disagreement with Mr. Schott’s post.

There is nothing in the Bible that exempts any church leader from church discipline and any assembly of people that claims to be a church must follow the scripture or they have ceased being a church. Hebrews 3:13 says that we are to encourage each other every day so that we are not hardened by the deception of sin. Proverbs 27:5-6 tells us “Better is an open reprimand than concealed love. The wounds of a friend are trustworthy, but the kisses of an enemy are excessive.” There is nothing about loving someone Biblically that says that you always tell someone that it is going to be okay. If we truly love someone, we will approach the person that we love in order to help them avoid the pitfalls of life.

Jesus in Matthew 18 gives the ultimate outline of how to deal with the brother or sister who is falling into sin. Jesus tells us that if the brother sins against you that you should speak to them directly one on one. If he will not listen, take one or two others with you so that the facts may be established. If the brother still does not pay attention, it should be taken to the church. If the individual does not pay attention to even the church, they should be treated as a tax collector or a pagan. Let us unpackage this in the context of church leadership.

If an individual believes that the church leader has done something or is doing something to disqualify them from leadership, the individual should approach the leader. Based upon the scriptural references above, this is probably the most difficult of conversations as both the church leader and the individual should take care to approach one another in humility and love. The attitude of the confronting individual should not be of someone who is coming on behalf of Jesus telling the other person what to do, but rather as someone who is themselves flawed seeking to walk beside another flawed person to better seek Jesus. If a resolution is not reached, the church leader should be confronted in the same way by the two or three, and then by the church.

Finally, we need to look at the context of this scripture to fully understand the final meaning. In the end, the unrepentant person is to be treated as a tax collector or sinner. Several weeks ago, a friend of mine preached a sermon on Matthew 18 and pointed out that this story has no parallel reference and is written by Matthew, a former tax collector. Now while Jesus did not call Matthew away from the tax collector’s booth and put him in an immediate position of authority over others, he did spend time with him, love him, and eventually Matthew would have the distinct privilege of writing one of the four Gospels. This is the goal of restorative discipline in the church. Jesus took Matthew away from the life of the tax collector and after following Jesus for several years, Matthew was given a great responsibility in service to God and others. In much the same way, the church leader who no longer qualifies Biblically for the position of church leadership cannot continue in that position. It is difficult enough for a church to be functional considering it is filled with people who are all going to fail to some extent on a daily basis.

MY PERSONAL EXPERIENCE

At one point in time I had taught in church for over 20 years in classes that numbered anywhere from 5 to 40. At times it was like having a small congregation that I was leading inside of a larger congregation. There were many times that I struggled with a perception of ownership of this group and God found ways to humble me from this feeling. However, at one point in time I became pretty arrogant in my position and began acting in ways that clearly should have led me to step away from this leadership position. I didn’t. Later, I found myself not only without a teaching position, but in circumstances that almost caused me to take my own life. All of this because of issues that were primarily and almost exclusively of my own making.

Ten years passed before God allowed me to once more stand in front of a congregation and teach, although church leadership at the new church that I attended had placed me in a teaching position with a small group some time before that. It was not lost on me that God had restored me to be able to share my experiences and what I had learned with a larger group of people, but only after he had shown me what a responsibility and privilege it is to be able to share from his scriptures. I am still a very flawed person, but have learned much better to appreciate the opportunity to teach others.

When I chose the name for my website, notapreacher, it was very intentional. First, it is to point out that those without a formal theological education can study the scripture and share with others what they are learning. However, there was an underlying reason also. I believe that my past experiences do not allow for me to become a pastor. When I teach, I do so from below the pulpit as a reminder to myself of this. However, the God that I serve is so big that he can allow even me to share what I am learning from his scripture combined with my life experiences with others. I once heard Beth Moore say that there is nothing in your life that disqualifies you from serving God. She is right. It may disqualify you from serving in certain formal positions, but not from serving him.

THE INTEGRITY OF THE CHURCH

The world is looking at the church and is judging the God we serve by our actions. That may not be right, but it is true. In the last several years we have had too many church leaders caught in scandals in which they were harming others while apparently serving as leaders of congregations. We cannot excuse or cover this up. We are supposed to be salt and light in the world and when we allow circumstances such as these to fester in the dark, we do harm to the witness of God.

As members of congregations, we should run from those leaders who claim immunity from being called out for their misconduct. Church leadership should welcome members coming to them with questions about things that they say or do as this is what the scripture commands. 1 Thessalonians 5:16-23 says, “Rejoice always, pray constantly, give thanks in everything; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. Don’t stifle the spirit. Don’t despise prophecies but test all things. Hold on to what is good. Stay away from every kind of evil. Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely. And may your whole spirit, soul and body be kept sound and blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

How can I test all things and stay away from what is evil without being able to confront questions that arise within the church? The church leader who cannot lead in a way that allows for such questions is failing to equip their membership for the works to which they are called. Ephesians 4:11-12. The prayer of every leader and teacher should be that those around them should love them so much that when the seeds of sin appear to be planted, they immediately are dug up and cast away. When those of us within the church are willing to confront our own sinfulness and walk with and help our brothers and sisters as they are trying to confront theirs, maybe then we will truly be the light that we are called to be.