I have spent over 40 years in church ministries of different types and have come to some conclusions about church leaders. These may or may not be true about 
your pastor but are mostly true of those who are not clergy such as Elders and Board Members. Here is my incomplete list of seven assumptions we tend to make about church leadership.
Assumption #1: Church leaders are all highly qualified spiritual leaders. You might assume this or wish it were true, but if you were able to examine their lives closely you will likely find that some may have lots of growing to do. Some may be devoted students of the Bible and some may be struggling to have short devotions on a regular basis. Some may be tithers, and others may give only a small portion of their income to the Lord's work. Some will probably even have serious problems in their relationships, including in their marriage and family.
Assumption #2: Church leaders know well the condition of ministries within the church and even the congregation as a whole. As a general rule, church leaders tend to not know much at all about most of the ministries of the church. When people become church leaders, they tend to become isolated from what is really happening in the congregation. Most churches do not have a good reporting system or evaluation system in place to ensure that leaders know how individual ministries are doing.
Assumption #3: Church leaders pray fervently and regularly for the ministries and ministry leaders of the church. If you were to be able to sit in on church leadership meetings and observe how they spend their time, would you see lots of priority time devoted to intercessory prayer? Probably not.
Assumption #4: Church leaders are working hard at communicating to the members what they need to know. I've observed that all churches can do much to improve good, regular communication between leaders and the congregation. I've also seen that many conflict issues in churches have not been managed well or resolved because of a lack of communication between leaders and the congregation.
Assumption #5: Church leaders know what they are supposed to do in leading the congregation. This is also an assumption people make about the leaders of ministries or groups within the church. Does your church or organization have a clear and up-to-date job description or list of expectations that is aligned with the mission, vision, and values of the church for ministry leaders, including the leadership team or board? Is training, mentoring and coaching provided for your church leaders?
Assumption #6: Church leaders possess the biblical qualifications for spiritual leadership in the church found in 1 Timothy 3:1-13 and Titus 1:5-9. There is no one who will score a perfect 10 in each of the characteristics listed in these verses, but is he or she growing in each one, is the candidate for leadership evaluated before being recommended or selected? In general, churches are not known for their vetting process for leadership.
Assumption #7: Church leaders at the top work closely with the Lead Pastor while protecting the Pastor from unjust or unbiblical criticism. Included in this assumption is the practice of evaluating the life and ministry of the Lead Pastor on an annual basis and also holding the Pastor accountable to achieve the determined goals and fulfill the requirements found in a job description. I have seen very few churches do this well.
The good news is that each one of these assumptions can be achieved by the church leadership team IF the team evaluates each assumption on a regular basis and puts structures and plans in place to ensure improvement.
What assumption would you add to this list of seven? And, how is your church doing with each one?
Photo by Black Jiracheep on unspash.com