Over the years I have known people who believe that home based churches should NOT have leaders. I don't know where people get this idea from. Its certainly not to be found in the Bible. Even in the New Testament, there were all kinds of leaders - apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, teachers, elders, deacons. What these words mean may be explored later, but for now, lets observe that these kind of roles, as well as other ministry gifts, did exist in the church.
In the book of Romans, chapter 12, the Bible acknowledges that there are gifted leaders. The Word says, "he who leads, with diligence" (Romans 12:8).
Perhaps in the desire to get away from the kind of leaders who shut down the people of God and leave them little scope for Spirit-filled ministry in church life, some have proposed that "the only leader we need is the Holy Spirit". They believe if we all just show up and do whatever we believe that God is leading us to do, everything will be wonderful. "Those who are led by the Spirit of God [not the pastor, they say], these are the sons of God" would be one of their favourite verses. While it is true that we are to be led by the Holy Spirit, we are also called to obey human leaders in matters of local church life.
Heb 13:17 "Obey those who rule over you, and be submissive, for they watch out for your souls, as those who must give account. Let them do so with joy and not with grief, for that would be unprofitable for you."
I believe the Spirit of God will lead us to co-operate with local church leadership. To attempt to dispense with leadership altogether is a dangerous over-reaction to the problem of controlling, traditional, insecure, ungifted or abusive leadership.
The Spirit of God does not contradict what He has already inspired in the Bible. Its very clear that there are people called "Elders" and "Deacons" in God-ordained churches, and the Spirit of God will raise up such people in any growing church. It is not nearly as important that we call them "elders" and "deacons" as that they actually FUNCTION as elders and deacons.
Elders and deacons are leadership roles God appoints in the local churches. The terms may not mean exactly what some use them to mean. Traditionally, elders are seen as senior people in the local church, godly men who stand by and support the "senior pastor" but are rarely preaching and teaching themselves. Deacons are seen generally as people who assist in the practical running of church business. I think the latter description is pretty accurate, but it could be extended to include ministers and leaders who are in training to lead small groups under the oversight of the "elders", or "overseers".
You might be wondering about the "five fold" ministry mentioned in Ephesians 4:11-13. For now I will say this much: do not be too concerned about being in the "five fold ministry" and having it run in your home church. Concentrate on being a fruitful disciple of Jesus Christ, and finding godly leaders who can take people further with God than their "flesh" or "natural inclinations" want to go.
I want to get back to the issue of whether we need leaders in healthy house churches. Clearly the answer is "Yes" if we want to conform to the Scriptures. If we want to have home groups which are uncommitted gatherings of Christians that meet on a casual basis, then the answer would be "No" - but then we should not really call these home groups "churches" - because they don't conform to the kind of thing that God's Word declares that Jesus wants to build.
You don't need a leader if your group is just about Christians playing tennis together or going boating together - but if you are going to spend time fighting Satan's organised army of spirits, you are going to need some leadership which is led by the Spirit of God.
Charismatic Anarchy vs Spirit-Led Empowering Leadership
It is good to practice and use the spiritual gifts. If it is a church that conforms to the Bible description, you must have spiritual gifts in operation. Jesus said, "My sheep hear my voice" and Paul taught:
"How is it then, brethren? Whenever you come together, each of you has a psalm, has a teaching, has a tongue, has a revelation, has an interpretation. Let all things be done for edification." (1 Corinthians 14:26)
I think it is also HIGH TIME for a lot of churches that claim to respect the authority of the Bible to take the whole chapter of 1 Corinthians 12 seriously, which talks about the kind of supernatural things the Spirit of God will do in a church when He is truly present and people are actually listening to Him and obeying Him.
But having said that, we don't want "charismatic anarchy". By this I mean, we don't want a situation where anyone can say or do anything in church meetings that they "feel led" to do, without any kind of accountability and submission to a recognised leader within the group. WHY? Because it is a proven fact that this kind of thing, while it might start off well, inevitably degenerates badly into something very unhealthy and dangerous for many of the participants.
A case in point is the use of personal prophecy. Without discernment, without proper evaluation, personal prophecy can cause severe havoc and enduring problems in the lives of those who receive them and act on them. Does that mean we should just stifle all personal prophecies as leaders? NO. That would be an easy way out. Its a way out for the lazy man who does not want to face the challenge of knowing God's voice correctly in church life.
What God wants is leadership that can be sensitive to what the Spirit of God is doing in every meeting, and can give people freedom to share, testify or minister in accordance with certain boundaries that the leader perceives to be according to the will of God at that time.
When something is shared in the name of Jesus that is unhelpful or of doubtful origin, the leader must be strong enough to gently but firmly speak up. And here is why you need such a leader. Lets just suppose, for example, that a strong-willed, domineering and manipulative woman comes in and tries to impose her "prophetic gift" on the people in a group where there is no strong or recognised leader. Well, in such a case, you will end up with a "leader" alright, but that de-facto leader will be one that will be very dangerous to the spiritual health of everyone. "Jezebel" will have taken over. When there is no leadership in a meeting, usually the devil takes the chair.
The other major problem with attempting to have church life without leadership, is that in reality, the people just don't go anywhere. They just stay at a very low unproductive level. You can't build a church on complaining about abuses by leaders in other churches. We have to forgive, get delivered of hurts, move on, and get on with life in the Spirit. God DOES raise up leaders to take us a bit further than we would normally go. A leader who doesn't stretch people and provoke them to growth isn't really worth his salt, in my opinion. Leadership is supposed to perceive what God wants for the group, and under God's direction, get people moving towards the goal in a way that pleases God.
Multiple Eldership
Some get hung up on the idea that in every group there should be more than one human leader, because the early church had multiple elders. The answer to this one is really simple actually. In the early church, there was considered to be ONE church in the city - but obviously they were not all meeting in one person's home. There were too many believers for that. Its pretty clear to me that each small group, wherever it was meeting, would have had one responsible elder or deacon in charge.
Please don't get hung up on the idea of multiple leadership within a small home church. If people have the biblical qualifications for an elder, mentioned in 1 Timothy 3:1-7 and Titus 1:1-5, and have been trained properly by a disciple of Jesus, they should be able to lead a small group somewhere. And hopefully, finding followers should not be a problem. If it is, they should find an evangelist to help them get started. Elders themselves should be qualified and empowered by God to win souls and make disciples. If they are not, how are they going to help the ones they lead to obey the commandments of Jesus? How can you teach people to do something you yourself are unwilling or unable to do?
Multiple eldership really comes in because the many small groups and congregations in a city should be led by godly elders, who love one another and model the kinds of relationships that Christians are called to.
The Elders' Attitude to Fellow Leaders in Christ's Body
Elders should learn to submit to one another as well as to Christ. This means, that no one individual, unless he is a truly God-ordained apostle sent into a totally backslidden or heathen situation, should be unaffected by the counsel of fellow elders in the city in which he ministers. Even a true apostle after some time should submit to the elders in the city in which he plants churches. This is because one of the functions of a true apostle is to appoint elders in every place he establishes churches. Eventually, the apostle becomes a fellow elder with these men. Listen to the meek spirit and attitude of the apostle Peter in the following words:
The elders who are among you I exhort, I who am a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that will be revealed:
Shepherd the flock of God which is among you, serving as overseers, not by compulsion but willingly, not for dishonest gain but eagerly;
nor as being lords over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock;
and when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that does not fade away. (1 Peter 5:1-4)
This passages tells us many things about church leadership.
1. Apostles can be fellow elders. They do not command elders so much as exhort them.
2. Elders are shepherds (pastors).
3. The flock is AMONG the elders (not beneath their feet).
4. Elders must SERVE as overseers - that is, they have to keep their eyes open and observe the needs of the people and the needs of the work.
5. Its not something you do because you have to, but because you WANT to, because you love Jesus. The job is tough sometimes, but it is love that motivates you to do it.
6. You should never get into ministry to make money out of the people.
7. Pastors / elders / overseers are not called to lord it over the flock, or to try to be big-shot CEOs that are unreachable and demand obedience.
8. Instead they should be EXAMPLES to the flock. If you are an elder, and you want people to pray, evangelise and live holy - do all these things YOURSELF first.
9. The real reward for eldership is not in perks in this life, but in the reward that Jesus Christ will give true shepherds when he returns.
I think it is clear that house churches should recognise and honour leadership in their midst. And leaders must guard their hearts carefully lest they fall short of the requirements of biblical leadership and possibly even become the kind of abusive tyrants that Jesus has promised to throw into HELL (see Luke 12:45-46).