Reflections on Humility and the Senior Pastor

Mark Dever Loses Votes in Our Elders’ Meetings

“14-2,” said the chairman. I was on the losing end of a vote. But so was my boss.

My (now former) boss, Mark Dever, serves as the senior pastor at Capitol Hill Baptist Church (Washington, D.C.). The fact that I lost a vote was inconsequential. But he’s the senior pastor. Doesn’t it matter that he got voted down? Shouldn’t he care?

I served on staff at Capitol Hill Baptist Church for almost 20 years before taking a senior pastorate in Delaware. From a front row seat, I watched Mark’s ministry up close, as one of his associate pastors. I can give you a myriad of reasons why I stayed on staff for so long. One that ranks high on the list is Mark’s genuine humility. He fears God, loves Jesus, and as you’d hope, models humility in how he leads the church.

Mark demonstrated humility when he lost votes in our elders’ meetings. A senior pastor should be willing to lose votes. If he’s not, there’s something wrong.

Three reasons why a pastor should lose votes

Let’s pull back the curtain and figure out what’s behind this. Why lose votes?

1. The Bible Teaches All of Us (Including Senior Pastors) to be Humble

Read through your Bible and you’ll run into a slew of verses on humility. To pick a sample:

“Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive” (Colossians 3:12-13).

“Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you” (1Peter 5:7).

God asks his followers to pursue humility. Paul tells us to “put on” humility and meekness, much like you put on a jacket, and Peter says we should “humble ourselves” before God. Then James tells us:

“But he gives more grace. Therefore, it says, ‘God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.’ Submit yourselves therefore to God” (James 4:6–7).

The scariest part of James’ verse: If you are prideful, the Almighty God of the universe opposes you. That should strike fear in you. The hopeful part: God shows grace — unmerited favor — to the humble. Your humility is a magnet for God’s grace. He has an affection for your humility, and so, he pours out grace on you when he sees your humility.

The prototype of humility is Jesus, of course.

“And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Philippians 2:8).

Christ humbled himself by leaving heaven, becoming a man, and “becoming obedient to the point of death” on a cross. In this paramount act of humility, Christ gave up his life for sinners.

Jesus humbled himself, so we should too. But we don’t act humble out of the mere strength of our will. Christ’s humility makes our humility possible. By his death, we’re given spiritual life (John 6:63). One sign of spiritual life is a growing and genuine humility. It’s a mark of the Spirit’s work.

If you’re a pastor, you might think: “I’ve got church members who need to hear this lesson on humility!” Be warned, pastor: You (and I) aren’t exempt. Christ requires this same humility from us. We should expect a senior pastor to lose votes and have a good attitude about it. It models humility to the other people around him. It models Jesus.

2. A pastor must love, respect, and trust the godly leaders in the church.

A godly shepherd has great love and respect for the other godly leaders in his church. A high degree of love and respect ensures considerable trust. When you’re at war, you must trust the men sitting in the trench to the right and left of you. You’ve got a common enemy (Romans 16:20), and need a united front to win the war.

3. God’s Word establishes a governing structure for the church.

A good leader trusts God to work through a biblical governing structure. God isn’t vague. He’s clear in his Word about what he sees as important for us to know. That includes polity — how a church operates and governs itself.

That’s why a good leader can say: “I trust these men, so if they want to go this way rather than that way, I’ll submit to them even if I disagree.” He trusts God’s wisdom in setting up a biblical leadership structure. A humble leader trusts God to work through it!

Two More Examples of Humility.

Let me grab the curtain and pull it back a little further. Here are two more instances of humility that I’ve seen.

1. Humble leaders apologize when he is wrong (even to lowly interns!)

Mark often employs the gift of humorous sarcasm. But occasionally, his sarcasm crosses over an unhelpful line. One time, he made a funny and sarcastic comment to an intern. In his quiet time the next day, Mark felt convicted that he had been careless and so he immediately called up the intern and apologized. Later that day, when all the interns were gathered, Mark let us all know that he had apologized to John, my fellow intern. Mark did that because the sarcastic comment was made in front of all of us.

It didn’t matter that Mark was the senior pastor and John was an intern. They were both Christians and members of the same church. The Bible is clear that if we’ve harmed another brother or sister, we should confess our sin and seek forgiveness (Ephesians 5:1-2; James 5:16).

2. Good leaders welcome constructive criticism on his public teaching.

Before Mark preaches, he reads through the first draft of his sermon to a group of church members and staff. Ten to fifteen people attend these sessions most weeks. He’ll read each section of his sermon and then he’ll pause and work his way around the room. Chloe tells Mark he should factor in how singles would be affected. Eric might offer better wording on his final sentence, since it’s not as clear as it could be. Betsy will press Mark to address the unbeliever. And on and on it goes, until Mark works his way around the entire room.

Does Mark make every change people suggest? No. But he makes use of plenty of the comments to improve his sermon.

Every Sunday night the entire pastoral staff meets in Mark’s study to review the day, including providing Mark with feedback on his sermon. One time, a visiting pastor asked Mark: “Why do you let your interns give feedback?” His response: “Because if I don’t model receiving feedback, how are they ever going to learn to do this?”

All God’s People Must Be Humble

As I step into my own pulpit, I’ll attempt to model what I learned in DC. As the senior pastor, I’ll lose votes in our elders’ meetings. Before I preach, I’ll read my sermon draft to a group of staff and members to get feedback. After I’m done, I’ll receive feedback on my sermon from staff and members.

Pastors need real life examples. To see a senior pastor model such humility is striking — but it shouldn’t be. Because Jesus was humble, his under shepherds and his peopleshould live humbly. Humility should be normal for senior pastors and expected of church members.

May God show us grace as we each pursue humility in and through Christ (James 4:6).

©2025 Focus on the Family. All rights reserved. Used with permission.