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On this episode of The Lead On Podcast, Jeff Iorg, president of the SBC Executive Committee, discusses the "Doctrine of the Crowd"—a concept that describes the unpredictable and often fickle nature of public opinion in ministry leadership. Whether you're leading a congregation or navigating public life, this episode offers timely encouragement to maintain focus, humility, and resilience amid adulation and adversity.
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Ready to hone your leadership skills and unlock your full potential? Tune in to the Lead On Podcast, where Jeff Iorg dives deep into Biblical leadership.
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Welcome to the Lead On Podcast. This is Jeff Iorg, the president of the executive committee of the Southern Baptist Convention, talking with you once again about practical issues related to ministry leadership. Well, since the theme of this podcast is practical issues related to ministry leadership, I don't normally tie the podcast to current events. In fact, I don't actually even record these podcasts week to week. Sometimes I have to do two or three in the same week because of my travel schedule and so we keep them undated and really disconnected from any specific event so that they can be used in any order really that we want to publish them.
Jeff Iorg:But this week, I'm making an exception. We're timing this podcast to be released during the week of the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting in Dallas, Texas. So while you're at home listening to the podcast or perhaps listening to it while you're traveling on your way to Dallas, I'll be in Dallas with about 15,000 of my closest friends getting ready to, be instrumental in leading the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting. Now that drawing together of such a large crowd of people leads me to think about something that, I coined a phrase a few years ago to describe, and that is what I call the doctrine of the crowd. Now, the doctrine of the crowd is one that I invented.
Jeff Iorg:You won't find it in any theology books anywhere. It's not like the doctrine of the church or the doctrine of sin or the doctrine of the Holy Spirit. Nothing quite that serious. But the theme or the subject really is pretty serious, and that is the doctrine of the crowd is based on this conclusion, and that is the same people who call you a god, worship the ground you walk on, give you a standing ovation, those same people will stone you, drag you out of town, and leave you for dead. Well, I base this doctrine on the story of the experience of Paul and Barnabas in Acts chapter 14.
Jeff Iorg:So let's walk through a little bit of that story and make a few applications along the way. And then I wanna end up today with a series of ideas or pointers or thoughts that'll help you to focus on serving the Lord and keeping your focus on him rather than playing to the crowd. Now the temptation, for all of us, since we all have an inescapable audience that we work with, we're leaders. That means we have followers, and that generally means we have an audience of people who are watching what we do. The temptation, since we have this inescapable audience, is to play to the crowd.
Jeff Iorg:That means that we are performing to please people. We're trying to minimize our followers' negative impressions. We're trying to limit the negative comments. Now, succumbing to that temptation can have devastating long range consequences because quite frankly, it ignores this thing I call the doctrine of the crowd. Crowds are fickle, they can't be trusted, and crowds often believe the last voice they hear.
Jeff Iorg:So let's consider, as I've already mentioned, what happened to Paul and
Jeff Iorg:Barnabas on their mission trip to Lystra as they were experiencing this doctrine of the crowd. Now,
Jeff Iorg:the missionary team had had a rough time in Iconium. You can find that in Acts chapter four verses one through seven prior to arriving in Lystra. Their work in the Iconian synagogue was initially fruitful, but ultimately resulted in significant opposition from both Jews and Gentiles. In fact, when Paul and Barnabas learned of a plot to stone them, they fled to Lystra. Now their ministry there in Lystra opened with a remarkable healing of a man lame from birth.
Jeff Iorg:Paul gave the command, and this man jumped up and started to walk around. It was a dramatic example of the power of God confirming Paul's preaching. You can find that in Acts chapter 14 verses eight through 10. The story then continues. The Bible says, when the crowd saw what Paul had done, they raised their voices saying in the Lyconian language, the gods have come down to us in the form of men.
Jeff Iorg:Now, think about that for a minute. Here's Paul and Barnabas. They've performed this miracle and they're preaching the gospel, and the response of the crowds is, the gods have come down to us in the form of men. Now, I've had a few accolades in my life, but I have never had anyone confuse me with the gods. But that's what happened here.
Jeff Iorg:They were just sure that something supernatural and even some beings with supernatural capacity had come upon them. And then the Bible continues and says, they started to call Barnabas Zeus and Paul Hermes because he was the main speaker. Then the priest of Zeus, whose temple was just outside the town, brought oxen and garlands to the gates. He, with the crowds, intended to offer sacrifice. Now think about that.
Jeff Iorg:Paul and Barnabas arrive, perform a miracle, start preaching the gospel, and the pagan religious leaders of the day, the priest of Zeus, the Bible says, came from their temple outside of town, and they brought oxen and garlands. Now, what that means is they they brought an animal to sacrifice and all of the, accoutrements, if you will, all the garlands, all the stuff that goes along with that, they brought all that along with them because they were thinking that the gods had come among them, and it was time to make a sacrifice. Now, with a
Jeff Iorg:little bit of tongue in cheek sarcasm, let me say, now that's more like it. These guys had been stoned,
Jeff Iorg:threatened, object of a almost riot in their previous ministry setting, but now they're getting worshiped. In fact, they're having sacrifices brought before them. They're having significant adulation
Jeff Iorg:and praise and worship be offered to them. Paul and Barnabas, man, they were being called
Jeff Iorg:gods, receiving all kinds of accolades for their ministry, their miracles, their preaching. Now who wouldn't prefer that kind of reception rather than being stoned? I'll go ahead and admit it,
Jeff Iorg:I would. I would much rather have people
Jeff Iorg:praising me and thanking me and saying nice things about me than lining me up for execution.
Jeff Iorg:Be honest, wouldn't you like it just once? If your followers erupted in a
Jeff Iorg:riotous, tumultuous applause celebrating something you had
Jeff Iorg:done for them? Now, oxen and garlands, I'll admit that might be a bit much, but how about a little bonus in the salary paycheck envelope this month? Or how
Jeff Iorg:about a little gift card that maybe send you and your family out for a nice dinner? Or or how about, maybe a a little bit of a gift that makes a weekend away with your wife possible at some bed and breakfast or something like that? Garlands and oxen, well, that might be a bit much, but wouldn't it be nice if the followers erupted in such praise and adoration and respect and appreciation that they came through with something?
Jeff Iorg:You know, we're human. Just because we're leaders doesn't mean we're not human, and something within us longs for approval and recognition from others. We we want the crowd to like us.
Jeff Iorg:We want our followers to appreciate us. Now, I'm gonna talk about how this can become dangerous in just
Jeff Iorg:a moment, but before I do that, let's just acknowledge the truth of it. We we wanna be appreciated. We wanna be liked. We want people to express appreciation and support for us. We're human.
Jeff Iorg:We want these things. But Paul and Barnabas modeled something very important for us. They both had the spiritual sense and the personal discipline to resist being worshiped. In fact, the
Jeff Iorg:Bible says they tore their robes. Now, commentators usually point out that there's at least a couple of things that tearing the robes was meant to signify. In ancient culture, first of all, it signified
Jeff Iorg:an expression of grief. By tearing your robe,
Jeff Iorg:you were in essence showing the tearing of your heart or the rending of your spirit. You were you were revealing by tearing your robes how you felt on the inside. You were all torn up about what was happening to you. So that's one symbolic meaning of the tearing of the robe. But perhaps a second meaning is a little more literal.
Jeff Iorg:Perhaps they tore their robes to reveal their human bodies because then when they tore their robes, they shouted, we are men also, the Bible says. So perhaps their tearing their robes was a sign of grief, of saying, we're brokenhearted over the fact that you're worshiping us or that you're giving us these accolades that are really misplaced. But maybe they were also tearing their robes to say, look at us, we're just old men. Now, when when you when you think about this in a pretty literal form, just think about what those men were exposing. These these weren't buff bodybuilders, these were a couple old guys with gray hairs on their chest and maybe some sag around their middle, and you know what I'm talking about.
Jeff Iorg:They were saying, look at us. We're not gods. Put that oxen away and take away those garlands. Get over this worship thing. We're we're not gonna accept this from you because we are just men.
Jeff Iorg:Now, this is a powerful moment, and it says in the Bible with significant effort, quote, they barely stopped the crowds from sacrificing to them.
Jeff Iorg:So I ask you this, would you have had the discernment and the discipline to short circuit that celebration?
Jeff Iorg:Would you have had
Jeff Iorg:the spiritual insight and the mental fortitude and the character of courage to say to these, stop it. We don't want what you're offering us in this moment.
Jeff Iorg:Now keep in mind, this was early in their missionaries career in their missionary career, but Paul and Barnabas, even though it was early, had already been subject to intense opposition. In Acts chapter 13 verses 44 through 50 and chapter 14 verses four through six, just preceding this story that I'm talking about today, these men had faced intense opposition. Now finally, they had arrived in a city that welcomed them and their message. More than welcoming them, the Lystrans thought Paul and Barnabas were were gods. They were adding them to the pantheon and wanted to worship them.
Jeff Iorg:And and even more, they they gave them names that were equating them to the preeminent members of the pantheon. They called them Zeus and Hermes. Now just think about these men in that context and put yourself in their shoes. If you had recently been rebuked and assaulted, if you had been rejected and humiliated,
Jeff Iorg:doesn't the prospect of being worshiped, even just a little, doesn't that seem like a powerful temptation? But what happened in this story is a sobering reminder, a sobering reminder not to believe what the crowds are saying about you.
Jeff Iorg:The Bible tells the rest of the story. After this incident where they had performed the miracle, been preaching, had these accolades thrown at them and been almost deified and called gods, within a few days, the Bible says this, some Jews came from Antioch and Iconium, and when they had won over the crowds and stoned Paul, they dragged him out of the city
Jeff Iorg:thinking he was dead. That's Acts fourteen nineteen. Get this now. The same crowds that had worshiped Paul and Barnabas, the same crowds were now whipped into a destructive frenzy. They stoned Paul.
Jeff Iorg:Man, think about that. They picked up baseball sized stones and fired them at Paul, pummeling his body. And it says after they stoned him, they dragged him out of the city, dragged him out. That means they had so stunned him with the stoning
Jeff Iorg:that he was perhaps just curled up in the street in a ball, trying to protect his head and his midsection, maybe pulled up in a fetal position trying to preserve what life he had left as those stones were pummeling him.
Jeff Iorg:He may have even lost consciousness. And the Bible says after they stoned him, they dragged him out of the city. Somebody grabbed onto an arm or a leg, maybe caught him by the hair of the head, and pulled him, pulled him through the streets, got him outside the city and just left him there, broken, bleeding, defeated. They left him for dead. This is the doctrine of the crowd.
Jeff Iorg:The same people who call you a god
Jeff Iorg:worship you, offer you adoration and praise, want to
Jeff Iorg:make sacrifices in your name. The same people who are giving you a standing ovation, handing out accolades, giving you gifts, these same people
Jeff Iorg:will stone you, drag you out of town, and leave you for dead. Paul had been praised for his preaching and his miracles. He had won the crowd, won over the day. And yet these same people influenced by outsiders who came in with these destructive words, these same people led the same mob to attack Paul. The last verse they heard carried the day and turned their behavior so negative.
Jeff Iorg:Listen,
Jeff Iorg:brothers and sisters, every one of us that's a leader leads in public. When you lead in public, be careful not to trust the opinion of the crowd, good or bad, positive or negative, nor allow it to control your behavior. Your followers will voice opinions about everything from your wardrobe, to your parenting style, to your car choice, to your speaking ability, to where you go on vacation, and how you what you like to go out to eat. And it's easy to be influenced by what they have
Jeff Iorg:to say about all of this stuff. It's easy to be overly
Jeff Iorg:discouraged by the critics, but listen, it's also easy to be overly confident because of your supporters. Either way, you're giving into what I call the crowd mentality. And one of the significant leadership disciplines that every one of us must develop is the capacity to resist the temptation to go along with the crowd and its opinion of you, good or bad. You have to resist the temptation to develop your security, your inner sense of well-being, your sense of acceptance from the opinion of others. You've got to learn to look to a far better source of security than the fickle whims of your followers.
Jeff Iorg:You got to look to Jesus. We're gonna talk about that more in
Jeff Iorg:just a moment. But let me just simply underscore, the doctrine of the crowd is that the same people who call you a god one day will wanna crucify you the next. The same people who adore you, who offer you praise, who give you accolades, will criticize you, tear you down, speak evil of you.
Jeff Iorg:You simply cannot trust the crowd. Now, that doesn't mean that we're cynical toward all people. We appreciate it when people say nice things about us, and we take it seriously when people say critical things about
Jeff Iorg:us. But we do not base our esteem, our sense of security, our well-being, or our leadership acceptance on what the crowd has to say about us, good or bad.
Jeff Iorg:Now, in trying to develop this discipline for myself, there have been several spiritual affirmations that have helped me and some bible verses along the way. Let me share those with you today to help you develop the spiritual and leadership discipline you need to maintain your focus and not be overly swayed by the doctrine of the crowd. Number one, I remind myself often that God loves me and accepts me just like I am. John three sixteen, for God so loved the world, and
Jeff Iorg:that includes me. It's so easy to forget that God loves us, he accepts us, and
Jeff Iorg:our relationship with him is rooted in that love, not our performance, not our abilities, not our successes. And also, his love is not lost from us in our failures,
Jeff Iorg:in our weaknesses, in our leadership mistakes. God loves us, period. End of story. Nothing else matters like that does when it comes to settling how we relate to God and others. God loves us.
Jeff Iorg:Second,
Jeff Iorg:I remind myself often that God's plans for me are positive. Jeremiah twenty nine eleven, you know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope. You know the plans I have for you. They are for your welfare. They are for your well-being.
Jeff Iorg:They are for the best.
Jeff Iorg:You know, many years ago, many years ago, a wise older Christian man told me this, the safest place in your life is the center of God's will. Later on, another person added to that and said, the most satisfying circumstances
Jeff Iorg:in your life are always found in the center of God's will. God has a plan for our lives, and that plan is for our welfare,
Jeff Iorg:not for calamity. It's to give us a future and a hope.
Jeff Iorg:Now I will admit that I've been leading long enough to to admit clearly that I have been in some circumstances that did not seem for my welfare, that seemed rather calamitous, if you know what I mean. And yet, even in those contexts, I'm faced with a spiritual discipline choice to have to make. Do I believe what I feel about what I'm experiencing, or do I believe the truth of what God has said about my circumstances? And that is that God has a plan for me, and that plan is for my welfare and not for calamity. That God is always about giving me a future and giving me a hope.
Jeff Iorg:And I will tell you that there are days, there are definitely days when people all around me in the crowd are telling me how bad things are, that I wanna believe them and lose confidence that God has a plan for my welfare. You know, the crowd can constantly harp on the negative, and it can become so easy to believe that and to forget that somewhere in the midst of even the negativity that we have to deal with as leaders, somewhere even in the midst of that, God has a plan that's good and positive and right and for our well-being and for our welfare. So Jeremiah twenty nine eleven helps me quite a lot at this point to remember that God's plans for me are positive. And that even though his plans for me as a leader often include dealing with the negative and the negative aspects of so much that goes on in ministry, even in that context, I have to believe that God has a plan and that his plan is good, and it's for my welfare. Another thing that really helps me to control the doctrine my response to the doctrine of the crowd is this affirmation.
Jeff Iorg:God expects effort from me, but he controls outcomes. You know, I really had to focus a lot on this when I was a baseball chapel leader a number
Jeff Iorg:of years ago. One of
Jeff Iorg:the things that I spent a lot of time helping players with was this issue of
Jeff Iorg:the doctrine of the crowd. Now in their case, these
Jeff Iorg:Major League Baseball players went on to a field every day in front of twenty, thirty, 40 thousand people plus millions that might be watching them, on television or through other broadcast media. They did everything about their work in front of
Jeff Iorg:the crowd, and the crowd was fairly responsive, cheering one minute, booing the next. One of
Jeff Iorg:the things that we spent a lot of time talking about with professional athletes was Proverbs twenty one thirty one, which says, the horse is prepared for the day of battle, but victory belongs to the Lord. The horse is prepared for the day of battle, but victory belongs to the Lord. And so I would spend a lot of time with athletes talking about the fact that what they must focus on is what they can control, and they can control preparing the horse for the day of battle. But they cannot control what happens necessarily in the battle because victory belongs to the Lord. And so, for example, I would say to athletes, this proverb means that you do everything that you can control in your situation to do your job as best you can.
Jeff Iorg:That means that you sleep appropriately, you eat appropriately, you work out appropriately, you practice appropriately, and you do your study and preparation work appropriately. You saddle your horse. But when you step on the field, even though you may have prepared the horse for the day of battle and done everything you can in the moment, you cannot always control the outcome. I remember one time that, one of the star relief pitchers for the San Francisco Giants was pitching. He was also a very committed Christian.
Jeff Iorg:One of the batters for the Los Angeles Dodgers was hitting. He was also a very committed Christian. I've had both these players in bible study in the off season together. Their friends, their families know each other, but they're competing against each other that day on the field. The pitcher threw a pitch, and the batter hit it into the stands for a three run home run.
Jeff Iorg:Afterwards, reporter stuck the microphone in the pitcher's face and said, what went wrong on the pitch? Did you throw the wrong pitch? Did you throw it in the wrong location? What went wrong on the pitch? And the pitcher cocked his head to the side and said, nothing.
Jeff Iorg:And then he smiled and said, that player, and he called his name and said, that guy, he gets paid $18,000,000 a year
Jeff Iorg:to hit that pitch, and every now and then, he's gonna do it. And I thought, what
Jeff Iorg:a great answer based on what I was just teaching about the horses prepared for the day of battle. This pitcher was prepared. He had rested. He had eaten. He had studied.
Jeff Iorg:He had developed his craft,
Jeff Iorg:and he threw the pitch he wanted to throw. And the hitter, he was also prepared. He had also slept and eaten and worked out and prepared. And when he saw that pitch, he headed out of the ballpark.
Jeff Iorg:Both men did all they could in the moment, but the outcome was really positive for one, not so much for the other. But what I was so proud of in the answer this player gave that threw the pitch was that he did not succumb to what this reporter was trying to do, and that is to make him a victim of the doctrine of the crowd. Hey, what was wrong with you? What did you do wrong? What would you have done differently next time?
Jeff Iorg:What was your mistake? And he said, nah, well, there wasn't one. I did everything I could in the moment, but sometimes that guy gets paid a lot of money
Jeff Iorg:to hit that pitch, and sometimes he does. Listen, this
Jeff Iorg:has helped me so much over the years. I'm responsible for controlling what I can control, which means I saddle the horse. I get the education I need. I do the study I'm required to do. I get the sleep that I need to get to be ready
Jeff Iorg:to go in the moment. I do everything
Jeff Iorg:I can to prepare, to speak, or to lead, or to teach, or to do whatever it is in the moment that's being called up from me, and I deliver it as best I can.
Jeff Iorg:And in that moment, I have done all I can do. And if the crowd doesn't respond favorably or if the
Jeff Iorg:results don't turn out like I hoped they would and people are somewhat disappointed in the results, I can take that in stride because I know the horse is prepared for the day of battle, but victory belongs to the Lord.
Jeff Iorg:I've done my part in the moment. Then number four,
Jeff Iorg:it helps me to remember that God is in control no matter what happens and will accomplish good in my life. Romans eight twenty eight twenty nine, you know that verse. All things work together for good, that means all. That means no matter what's happening around me and what's happening in my ministry context or in my leadership setting, God is somehow at work through that and will bring about good in my life. Now sometimes the good is the production of ministry and leadership that I'm trying to accomplish, and sometimes the good is the growth of my character by going through what might be a difficult experience or going through even a failure moment.
Jeff Iorg:But God is at work to accomplish good. And even in those moments, I can have confidence in him, that he's gonna bring about something good out of what's going on no matter what the crowd may be saying about it in the moment. And then finally, it helps me to remember that God's opinion is the only opinion of me that really
Jeff Iorg:matters. You know, Exodus 20 has in it the 10 commandments, and the first couple of those say, they'll you should have no other god before me, and you should not make any idols or anything else you worship instead of me. You know, that is pretty potent stuff to think about in this context of the doctrine of the crowd.
Jeff Iorg:Because when you believe that the crowd's opinion of you matters the most and you start shaping your emotions, your behaviors, your attitudes based on what the crowd is saying, you no longer are worshiping God. You're worshiping the crowd, and you have idolized the crowd and its input and let it have control over you.
Jeff Iorg:Serving God and having no idols
Jeff Iorg:means nothing else controls you. Nothing controls your attitude. Nothing controls your behavior. Nothing controls your responses except God and God alone. So it helps me to stay focused and recognize he's the only one who really matters, and his opinion of me is the only one that I'm really measuring my success by.
Jeff Iorg:Well, today, I've been talking about the doctrine of the crowd. It's not a doctrine you're gonna find in any theology book. I made it up. But I made it up based on that story in acts chapter 14 where our friends Paul and Barnabas, they were missionaries doing a great work. People wanted to deify them, turn them into gods and then turn around just a few weeks later and try to take their lives.
Jeff Iorg:The doctrine of the crowd tells us that the same people who call us a god one day, worship the ground we walk on, give us all kinds of accolades and praise, the same people We'll stone us, drag us out of town, and leave us for dead. Maybe not literally in this case, but certainly figuratively and I think you know what I mean. So the temptation is to succumb to the siren song of what the crowd says about us. But the spiritual discipline of leadership is keeping our focus on what God says about us and making sure that that is the only voice that really matters. We work among crowds, we don't play to the crowd.
Jeff Iorg:We hear the crowds, but we don't listen to the crowds. We have the spiritual discipline to know that we must reject the temptation to succumb to basing our lives and our leadership on what people say about us and instead strive for the opinion of the only one who really matters. Put it into practice this week as you lead on. Hi.