Authority not authoritarianism
by Stephen Kneale, Building Jerusalem:
[…] Katharine Birbalsingh is the headteacher at Michaela Community School in Wembley. She is something of a marmite figure. People either seem to love her approach to education or hate it with the heat of a thousand suns. She came to prominence having given a speech at the Conservative Party conference in 2010 and praised their then education policies.
Whatever one personally thinks about her, or her approach to education, I thought her tweet was worth considering. It rings true not just for education in general, but in deprived and working class communities like mine. Ours are not a people known for their regard for authority structures.
This is equally true in the church. Many of us naturally baulk at the idea of submission to authority. But it is hard to avoid the idea in scripture. Everyone is to submit to Christ, who submitted himself to the Father. Wives are to submit to their husbands leadership whilst husbands are to submit themselves to the needs of their wives. Children are to submit to their parents’ authority. Church members are to submit to the authority of their elders whilst the elders submit themselves to rule by the wider church. The church is called to be subject to the governing authorities who, themselves, are to be subject to God. Employees are to submit to their bosses, slaves are to joyfully submit to their masters. Everybody, somewhere or other, is expected to submit to someone.
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