Are We Drunk on the Wrong Type of Authority?

What kind of authority did God leave us with in the Church?

August 7, 2025 / Rick McNally

Yesterday, I got waylaid and found myself sitting in a restaurant downtown alone. I pulled out my tablet and started scribbling thoughts down that I’ve had in my head for a few weeks. I was reading a book called PIVOT and it has a fascinating chapter on AUTHORITY and POWER. They categorize in the book four times of power; one bad, four good. These are ways we can use our power to influence and control. Jesus had much to say about this. Here’s what the book states in a graphic I made on my tablet while eating a cheeseburger.

We love authority as Americans (probably everybody does). We are drunk on it. When you take a few minutes to examine the NT’s usage of exousia (authority), you will find that human authority in the church setting makes up the smallest portion of these passages.

Authority is the power to rule — and it should be no surprise that that power to rule in a Christian worldview belongs to God alone. It is God who is ruler, and he is a good ruler. Such power has been given unto Jesus Christ — and he is, like his father, also good.

Only in one passage is the idea of “power” over people in any human leadership context mentioned; and that is the Apostle Paul. Who is likely a special case. None of us have apostolic authority. He brings up this authority in two places and stipulates the parameters God has given him.

2 Corinthians 10:8 / For even if I boast a little too much of our authority, which the Lord gave for building you up and not for destroying you, I will not be ashamed.

2 Corinthians 13:10 / For this reason I write these things while I am away from you, that when I come I may not have to be severe in my use of the authority that the Lord has given me for building up and not for tearing down.

The Lord gave the apostles “authority” (the ability to have power over others) for a specific reason; to be used in a particular way.

For the building up / “to increase the potential of someone or something — to strengthen, to make more able, to build up.”

This power that the Apostle said he had was a positive one, one that was designed for the other person’s benefits and not the benefits of the one who wields the power. It is selfless. It is designed for the other person’s rising and becoming more than they were.

The negative aspects of the parameters were also given:

Not destroying (2 Cor 10:8) / kathairesis / to cause someone to become less able, or to lose capacity.
Not frightening (2 Cor 10:9) / to terrify, to cause to be intimidated.
Not destroying (2 Cor 13:10) / katharesis / same word as above, mentioned twice in these passages.

Taking these together, we see the authority of the Apostles. The only authority that was truly given in word was one of building people up and, along the way, not destroying them.

We need to let that sink in a bit.

If we are doing anything to and for others that tends to tear them down, we are out of our God-given authority. If we are not “building people up,” we are also outside of that authority.

People are the only asset that really matters. Not buildings, not budgets, not ministries in and for themselves. People. Are we building or tearing people down?

If we are tearing people down, we are outside of our parameters of ministry — we are ignoring the only authority we have been given and using power and position very, very poorly.

Look at the attached handwritten notes from the Pivot book that I wrote above. Compare this to those ideas.

Those ideas in the graphic come from the book Pivot / McKnight, Scot, and Laura Barringer. Pivot: The Priorities, Practices, and Powers That Can Transform Your Church into a Tov Culture. Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale, 2023. Print.

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It’s About Jesus’ Authority / Not Ours.

Authority in the Gospels

The biggest discussion in the NT about authority was from the religious leaders asking Jesus where did he get his authority. They questioned what he did and what he said. Jesus was hesitant to tell them.
God had given Jesus authority over all things. Jesus even had the authority to stop Pilate but did not, as this was his Father’s will.
Jesus taught with authority.
Jesus gave his disciples “authority” over demons.

Authority in the Epistles

Jesus is our greatest authority; he is the one who was given it by his Father. This is the focus of authority in the New Testament: Jesus’ authority.
In one book only does Paul talk about his own authority, an authority of building up and not destroying” and later in the sense of being harsh but with no desire to “tear down.”
There is discussion of Jesus tearing down authorities through his death.
We are told to submit (relax our freedoms and obey when possible) to authorities; as long as those authorities do not contradict the Lord.