When it comes to the local church, who's in charge? That's a question that Christians have

wrestled with since the very beginning, with different denominations and traditions coming

to different conclusions. And although it can sometimes seem like an abstract theological

preoccupation, it's actually a centrally important issue that all Christians should seek to understand.

In my interview today, I'm talking with Sam Amadi about the importance of understanding God's design for church leadership.

Sam breaks down the different leadership roles that Scripture outlines, explaining how God designed all of them to strengthen the body and glorify

Christ. Sam serves as the senior pastor of Hunsinger Lane Baptist Church in Louisville,

Kentucky, and as an editor for Nine Marks. He's also the author of Who's in Charge of the Church?

Which is part of Crossway's Church Questions series of booklets. Let's get started.

Well, Sam, thank you so much for joining me today on the Crossway podcast. Thanks,

brother. Happy to be here. So we're going to talk today about leadership, authority in the church

context, in the local church. And so maybe just

to start off, I wonder if you could give us a short, you know, succinct answer. Who is supposed to be in

charge of the church? Yeah, I think the short answer to that question that everybody of every

denominational stripe and every theological tradition, the short answer

that everybody would agree to is that Jesus is in charge of the church.

He's the king of the church, he's our Lord and our Redeemer, and so he sets the rules for

how the church should function.

We belong to his kingdom, and he is the king of that kingdom. So he gets to set the

boundaries for what we do and how we govern ourselves. Jesus is in charge of the church.

So that sounds a little bit. Maybe some people are almost rolling their eyes. Like that's the

Sunday school answer, so to speak. But why do you think it's actually important to start there, to emphasize

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