jjI agree that those in leadership, whether ordained leadership or as the acknowledged lay leaders, do have to really struggle with pride and feeling superior. It is not possible to truly love, truly value, truly understand, or truly minister the gospel to anyone to whom you inwardly or outwardly condescend. The Bible says all are equal because we all alike fall short of the glory for which we were created. That has to be held onto minute by minute or pride will creep in and destroy the ministry in any one of its myriad myriad ways. Any church leader who loses that perspective has made him or herself the enemy's plaything until they again choose right thinking on the subject.
God has had to deal with me by freeing me from seeing church leaders as somehow better than me. He has had to teach me what he taught Martin Luther from the Epistle to the Hebrews, that Christ's death completely tore apart the curtain separating the individual believer from personal access to God and made every individual believing Christian a priest, a member of His royal priesthood, and no office that the church can confer on some members is as great an honour as what God has conferred on each and every member.
Realising this has had an incredibly transforming effect on my life. I am to act on his behalf not just as a consumer / recipient of the Christian faith but as a priest offering my own sacrifice for my sins and the sins of the world. This has humbled, emboldened, heartened and challenged me more and more every day. Every one of us is a leader of the church. None of us should be watching from the sidelines what "the leaders" or "the clergy" are doing on our behalf. Each of us needs to grow into the full stature of the role that Christ has reclaimed for us in the moment of His own sacrifice for our sins. Each of us needs to be a church leader, not just those on whom the church has bestowed that designation.
