Church Leadership: Authority, Power, & Influence  🔗 **Source:** [Church Leadership: Authority, Power, & Influence](https://sacramentalcharismatic.substack.com/p/church-leadership-authority-power) > [!note]+ Document Notes > --- > tags: [charismatic-theology, new-apostolic-reformation, spiritual-authority, church-leadership, continuationism, seven-mountain-mandate, spiritual-abuse, faith-deconstruction, biblical-theology, vineyard-movement, sabbatical] > author: Luke Geraty > source: sacramentalcharismatic.substack.com > reference: https://sacramentalcharismatic.substack.com/p/church-leadership-authority-power > date created: 2026-09-02 09:40 > --- > > [!info] Generated analysis — not the author's words. Sections below are machine-written > > from the captured source. Only text inside `> [!quote]` blocks is verbatim from the author. > > Do not quote or attribute any other line to the named author. > > [!warning] Thin source — read the caveats first > > **1. Length.** 814 words, 16 paragraphs, one three-item list, one heading ("Influence for the Mission."). It's a returning-from-sabbatical reflection, not an argument paper. Several sections below are one or two lines and say so. > > **2. No books, no sources.** The post says the author spent seven weeks doing "a fair amount of reading" but names no title. Of the 12 outbound links, 10 are the author's own social accounts (YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, Twitter — several linked twice), and 2 are Wikipedia (Seven Mountain Mandate; Cessationism versus continuationism). Zero links to the leaders named, the incidents alluded to, or any scholarship. The only cited material is Scripture (12 references). > > **3. Named people, unnamed incidents.** Mike Bickle, Rick Joyner, Bethel Church, and Benny Hinn are named as examples of "abuses" and "Word of Faith theology" with no specifics. Context supplied in Notes is mine, marked as such, not the author's. > > **4. Reader metadata.** Author field was the domain; set to Luke Geraty from the post's own "About the Author" paragraph. Reader's summary field is a JavaScript-required error string — ignore it. `site_name` shows substack.com. > # 🏷️ Title: Church Leadership: Authority, Power, & Influence > ## 🧭 Table of Contents > - [📝 Summary](#-summary) > - [📖 Main Content](#-main-content) > - [🗒️ Notes](#️-notes) > - [📚 References](#-references) > - [🗣️ Paraphrase](#️-paraphrase) > - [📰 Newsletter](#-newsletter) > - [✅ Action Items](#-action-items) > - [🧪 Hypotheses](#-hypotheses) > - [📊 Methodology](#-methodology) > - [❓ Questions](#-questions) > - [🔮 Future Research](#-future-research) > - [💡 Implications](#-implications) > - [🧠 Learning Styles Assessment](#-learning-styles-assessment) > - [📊 Accessibility Assessment](#-accessibility-assessment) > - [🌍 DEIB Assessment](#-deib-assessment) > - [✅ Logical Validity](#-logical-validity) > - [🛡️ DARVO Analysis](#-darvo-analysis) > - [🎯 Conclusion](#-conclusion) > ### 🔗 References > - Source: https://sacramentalcharismatic.substack.com/p/church-leadership-authority-power (published 2026-09-02) > - Linked from the post: Wikipedia — Seven Mountain Mandate · Wikipedia — Cessationism versus continuationism · the author's YouTube (@sacramentalcharismatic), Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, Twitter (@lukegeraty) > - Scripture cited (author's citations, not links): 1 Cor 12:31; 14:1, 5, 39; 1 Tim 4:12; Titus 2:7; 1 Thess 1:7; 1 Cor 11:1; Eph 5:1; Phil 3:17; 2 Cor 5:11; 2 Cor 2:15 > ## 📝 Summary > **What this is.** Luke Geraty — a northern California pastor-theologian, back from a seven-week sabbatical — sets out a three-line New Testament framework for how Christians should think about *authority*, *power*, and *influence*, and offers it as a filter for hearing leaders who emphasize their own. > **The setup.** He says his concerns "stem from my observations about some of the dangers within the Global Apostolic & Prophetic Movement / NAR world": self-proclaimed apostles who stress their apostolic authority, claim Pentecostal power, and pursue cultural influence through the Seven Mountain Mandate. He names Mike Bickle, Rick Joyner, Bethel Church, and Benny Hinn as sources of the abuses and theology that push people toward functional cessationism — a reaction he calls "understandable" while refusing to join it, because 1 Corinthians tells believers to "earnestly desire" the gifts. > **The framework (the post's three bolded lines).** > 1. God is the ultimate source of authority (*exousia*); "our authority is in Christ." > 2. God is the source of all power (*dynamis*), "manifested largely through the work of the Holy Spirit." > 3. Followers of Jesus "are called to use their influence for the glory of God and the sake of Christ's mission." > **The one move he actually argues.** Lines 1 and 2 he calls "fairly standard Christian theology." Line 3 gets the only exegesis: three Greek words — *typos* (example/pattern, 1 Tim 4:12), *mimētēs* (imitator, 1 Cor 11:1), *peithō* (persuade, 2 Cor 5:11) — which he reads as the New Testament's picture of influence: relational, by example and persuasion, aimed at God's mission. > **Where it lands.** He concedes the framework "doesn't particularly address the abuses or concerning methodology" but says it gives "pause when hearing statements that certain leaders make that tend to emphasize *their* authority, power, and influence." Closing lines: "The leader shouldn't be the hero of the story… God is the hero of the story," and the leader "shouldn't *force* his influence on others." Then: "What do you think?" > **Bottom line.** A continuationist insider's reframe, not a critique. He keeps all three NAR categories and relocates their source (God, not the apostle) and their mode (example and persuasion, not institutional capture). He does not engage covering, alignment, apostolic governance, or any specific abuse — the framework is offered as a heuristic for listening, and he says so. > ## 📖 Main Content > **Genre and stance.** This is a pastor writing to his own stream. The publication is titled *The Sacramental Charismatic*, its site navigation carries a "John Wimber" section (Wimber founded the Vineyard movement in 1982), and the post's own vocabulary — "functional Cessationists," "earnestly desire," "Third Wave"-adjacent language about the Spirit's work — marks the author as continuationist by conviction. He opens by admitting he finds himself "either… in agreement with proposed ideas or [in] deep concern over the *implications* of certain teachings." The post is the "deep concern" half, written by someone who wants to stay inside the tent. > **The diagnosis.** Paragraphs 2–3 name the problem: the "Global Apostolic & Prophetic Movement / NAR world," whose "self-proclaimed 'Apostles'… emphasize their apostolic authority, claim to have significant Pentecostal *power*, and are attempting to have cultural *influence* via their Seven Mountain Mandate." Then the casualty list: "abuses we have seen from Mike Bickle, Rick Joyner, Bethel Church, and throughout the Charismatic world." His pastoral worry isn't only the abuse but the reaction to it — people "become functional Cessationists," and he says he understands why, having once felt the same about Benny Hinn and Word of Faith. > **The pivot.** Paragraph 5 is a single sentence: "Yet I cannot deny that the Scriptures provide a rich biblical theology" of the Spirit's work, including healings and miracles, and "we are taught to 'earnestly desire' miraculous spiritual gifts" (1 Cor 12:31; 14:1, 39), with Paul wanting all the Corinthians to speak in tongues and prophesy (14:5). This is the load-bearing claim of the post: the categories are biblical, so the response to their abuse can't be to discard them. > **The framework.** The three bulleted lines assign each term a source. Authority → God, held "in Christ." Power → God, delivered by the Spirit. Influence → the believer's task, aimed at God's glory and mission. Note what the arrangement does: the first two terms are things God *has* and Christians *receive*; the third is the only one Christians *do*. That's why he spends his exegesis there. > **The exegesis of influence.** Three word-studies, each with a primary text and cross-references: > - *typos*, "set an example for the believers" (1 Tim 4:12; cf. Titus 2:7; 1 Thess 1:7) — a life as "an impression or pattern for others to imitate." > - *mimētēs*, "Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ" (1 Cor 11:1; cf. Eph 5:1; Phil 3:17) — "relational influence because [](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!jGKM!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F09a71a0c-3b02-4393-a304-a8a831f4fca2_1280x720.jpeg) Within various parts of Christianity, much emphasis is placed on the Christian’s *authority*, operating in spiritual *power*, and using our *influence* for the mission of God. To be honest, like most things, I either find myself in agreement with proposed ideas or deep concern over the *implications* of certain teachings… but that’s what being thoughtful in our theology tends to draw out, right? Well for the past seven weeks, I’ve been on sabbatical. No preaching, no leading, no counseling, no writing… but a fair amount of reading. This is why I’ve been ghost on here, the Sacramental Charismatic [YouTube channel](https://www.youtube.com/@sacramentalcharismatic), [Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/sacramentalcharismatic), [TikTok](https://www.tiktok.com/@sacramentalcharismatic), and [Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/sacramentalcharismatic) (go subscribe or give a follow, ha ha). Most of my concerns related to topics of authority, power, and influence stem from my observations about some of the dangers within the Global Apostolic & Prophetic Movement / NAR world. Many of these self-proclaimed “Apostles” tend to emphasize their apostolic authority, claim to have significant Pentecostal *power*, and are attempting to have cultural *influence* via their [Seven Mountain Mandate](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_Mountain_Mandate). However, many of the abuses we have seen from Mike Bickle, Rick Joyner, Bethel Church, and throughout the Charismatic world have caused a lot of people to not only hold *valid* concerns but, unfortunately, also become functional [Cessationists](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cessationism_versus_continuationism). And to be clear… this is understandable. In the same way that Benny Hinn and many of the Word of Faith theology and methodology used to make me sick, much within the NAR world leaves me frustrated, worried, and deeply concerned. **Yet I cannot deny that the Scriptures provide a rich biblical theology that not only tells us incredible stories of the Holy Spirit’s work through humans**, including supernatural healings and other miracles, and **we are taught to “earnestly desire” miraculous spiritual gifts** (1 Cor. 12:31; 14:1, 39), including Paul’s statement that he desired for all of the Corinthians to speak in tongues and prophecy (1 Cor. 14:5). So how should we think of *authority, power,* and *influence?* As I was thinking about this the other day, I made a mental note on how I think the New Testament best summarizes how we should approach these three areas: * **God is the ultimate source of authority (Gk.** ***exousia*****)****and our authority is in Christ.** * **God is the source of all** ***power*** **(Gk.** ***dynamis*****) and is manifested largely through the work of the Holy Spirit.** * **Followers of Jesus are called to use their influence for the glory of God and the sake of Christ’s mission.** The first two ideas are fairly standard Christian theology. When it comes to the third issue, that of *influence*, we actually need to do a bit more *thinking,* though I don’t think it’s very difficult to see the stream of application. ### **Influence for the Mission.** The Apostle Paul tells Timothy to “set an example (Gk. *typos*) for the believers” (1 Tim. 4:12; cf. Titus 2:7; 1 Thess. 1:7) and this communicates the idea is that our lives provide an impression or pattern for others to imitate. Moreover, Paul tells the Corinthians, “Be imitators (Gk. *mimētēs*) of me, as I am of Christ” (1 Cor. 11:1; cf. Eph. 5:1; Phil. 3:17), which captures the effectiveness of relational influence because people observe someone and begin reproducing what they see that other person doing (and being!). Finally, Paul also told the Corinthians that his ministry included *persuading* (Gk. *peithō***)** others (2 Cor. 5:11), describing his activity of trying to convince others by winning them for the cause of Christ. All of these New Testament concepts, as far as I can see, are connected to the idea of *influencing others* and are related to the Mission of God. So our *authority* is rooted in Christ, *power* comes via the Holy Spirit’s presence and activity, and we should *influence* others as a part of God’s mission, which is the mission of the Church. **These basics don’t particularly address the abuses or concerning methodology found within certain streams of Christianity… but they can help give us pause when hearing statements that certain leaders make that tend to emphasize** ***their*** **authority, power, and influence.** The leader shouldn’t be the hero of the story… God is the hero of the story. The leader shouldn’t *force* his influence on others… as “our lives are a Christ-like fragrance” for the world to see (2 Cor. 2:15). **What do you think?** ##### **About the Author** Luke Geraty is a pastor-theologian in northern California. With a few theology degrees and nearly twenty-eight years of church leadership experience, Luke loves the Bible, theology, fly fishing, coffee, and books. All opinions are his own and not the views of any other organizations he’s affiliated with. You can follow us on [Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/sacramentalcharismatic), [Twitter](https://twitter.com/lukegeraty), [TikTok](https://www.tiktok.com/@sacramentalcharismatic), [Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/sacramentalcharismatic), and subscribe to his [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/@sacramentalcharismatic). ##### After a 7 week sabbatical, here are some thoughts on authority, power, & influence. How should we reflect upon and live out what the Bible teaches?, Church Leadership: Authority, Power, & Influence, Luke Geraty, 01m1hvb1zmq3z3a4ddntpk6adr.