Church Elders E-Book

Jeramie Rinne

• Herausgeber: Crossway
• Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
• Serie: Building Healthy Churches
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 145

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2014

Beschreibung

Effective leadership is important. Nowhere is this more true than in the church. Jeramie Rinne offers readers a concise overview of the Bible's teaching on spiritual leadership, setting forth an easy-to-understand "job description" for elders that is focused on enabling pastors and church leaders to effectively shepherd their congregations. Giving practical guidance to new elders and helping church members better understand and support their spiritual leaders, this conversational book emphasizes purposeful ministry rather than project management. It will also bolster leaders' confidence by encouraging them to embrace their pastoral calling with grace, wisdom, and a clarity of vision.

Leseprobe

BUILDING HEALTHY CHURCHES

CHURCH ELDERS

JERAMIE RINNE

Church Elders: How to Shepherd God’s People Like Jesus

© 2014 by Jeramie Rinne

Published by Crossway

1300 Crescent Street

Wheaton, Illinois 60187

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher, except as provided for by USA copyright law.

Cover design: Dual Identity inc. Cover image(s): Wayne Brezinka for brezinkadesign.com

First printing 2014

Printed in the United States of America

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from The Holman Christian Standard Bible®. Copyright © 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission.

Scripture quotations marked ESV are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway. 2011 Text Edition. Used by permission. All rights reserved. The ESV text may not be quoted in any publication made available to the public by a Creative Commons license. The ESV may not be translated in whole or in part into any other language.

Scripture quotations marked KJV are from the King James Version of the Bible.

All emphases in Scripture quotations have been added by the author.

Trade paperback ISBN: 978-1-4335-4087-5 ePub ISBN: 978-1-4335-4090-5 PDF ISBN: 978-1-4335-4088-2 Mobipocket ISBN: 978-1-4335-4089-9

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Rinne, Jeramie, 1970–

   Church Elders : how to shepherd God’s people like Jesus / Jeramie Rinne.

        1 online resource.— (9Marks: building healthy churches)

   Includes bibliographical references and index.

   Description based on print version record and CIP data provided by publisher; resource not viewed.

   ISBN 978-1-4335-4088-2 (pdf) – ISBN 978-1-4335-4089-9 (mobi) – ISBN 978-1-4335-4090-5 (epub) – ISBN 978-1-4335-4087-5 (print)

   1. Elders (Church officers)  2. Christian leadership.  I. Title.

BV680

253—dc23           2013036981

Crossway is a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

To the elders of South Shore Baptist Church, my band of brothers

CONTENTS

Series PrefaceIntroduction: “I’m an elder. Now what?” 1 Don’t Assume 2 Smell Like Sheep 3 Serve Up the Word 4 Track Down the Strays 5 Lead without Lording 6 Shepherd Together 7 Model Maturity 8 Plead for the FlockConclusion: The Eternal Weight of ShepherdingNotesGeneral IndexScripture Index

SERIES PREFACE

Do you believe it’s your responsibility to help build a healthy church? If you are a Christian, we believe that it is.

Jesus commands you to make disciples (Matt. 28:18–20). Jude says to build yourselves up in the faith (Jude 20–21). Peter calls you to use your gifts to serve others (1 Pet. 4:10). Paul tells you to speak the truth in love so that your church will become mature (Eph. 4:13, 15). Do you see where we are getting this?

Whether you are a church member or leader, the Building Healthy Churches series of books aims to help you fulfill such biblical commands and so play your part in building a healthy church. Another way to say it might be, we hope these books will help you grow in loving your church like Jesus loves your church.

9Marks plans to produce a short, readable book on each of what Mark has called nine marks of a healthy church, plus one more on sound doctrine. Watch for books on expositional preaching, biblical theology, the gospel, conversion, evangelism, church membership, church discipline, discipleship and growth, and church leadership.

Local churches exist to display God’s glory to the nations. We do that by fixing our eyes on the gospel of Jesus Christ, trusting him for salvation, and then loving one another with God’s own holiness, unity, and love. We pray the book you are holding will help.

With hope, Mark Dever and Jonathan LeemanSeries editors

INTRODUCTION

“I’m an elder. Now what?”

Many pastors could write a book entitled “What They Didn’t Tell Me in Seminary about Pastoral Ministry.” That book would probably have some painful, heavy chapters, such as “How to Survive an Ugly Business Meeting” or “What to Say at the Funeral for a Three-Year-Old.” Pastoral ministry involves forms of suffering, discouragement, and heartbreak for which no school can prepare a man.

But ministry also holds happy surprises. No one in seminary told me that I would fall in love with my congregation or that I would have a front-row seat to watch God’s faithfulness and the gospel’s power at work in people’s lives.

And no one tipped me off about the joy and satisfaction I would receive from working with lay elders.

I love lay elders.1 I am awed by men who, despite demanding work schedules and busy home lives, sacrifice time and money, tears and prayers to lead their local churches. I love watching them wrestle together through challenges, make mistakes, and mature in the process. It is like hanging out with the twelve disciples: ordinary, flawed men fulfilling an extraordinary calling by God’s grace. The elders in my congregation have truly been a band of brothers for me; I cannot imagine ministry without my fellow shepherds.

I love elders for another reason: they are God’s plan for leading his churches. God has always provided shepherds for his people. He gave Moses, Samuel, and the judges to Israel. He raised up Israel’s shepherd par excellence, King David. And yet, all these men, including David, failed in one way or another. The kings after David increasingly led God’s flock into idolatry and injustice. And so the prophets began to speak of a coming shepherd, a new “David” (for example, Isa. 9:1–7; Ezek. 34:20–24).

God made good on his promise by sending Jesus, the Son of David, the Good Shepherd who laid down his life for the sheep and rose again. But it did not stop there. Jesus gave apostles and then elders to tend his flock as under-shepherds until he returns (Eph. 4:7–13; 1 Pet. 5:1–4). Elders are Jesus’s assistants for shepherding his churches.

GODLY, WELL-INTENTIONED, AND . . . CONFUSED

As much as I love elders for these reasons, I have noticed a recurring problem. Though elders are typically godly and well-intentioned, they are often confused about what being an elder entails. They don’t always have a complete grasp of what they are supposed to do. And, to be honest, we paid pastors often share their confusion.

Consequently, elders tend to import other leadership paradigms into church oversight, typically drawing from their own experiences and careers. Without a clear, biblical job description for elders, these men naturally fall back on what they know. They assume eldering is like:

Administering a schoolRunning a companyCommanding a warshipManaging a projectDirecting operationsOverseeing subcontractorsServing on a board of trustees

Aspects of these life experiences always prove useful in elder leadership. Yet overseeing a church is a unique task.

“I’M AN ELDER. NOW WHAT?”

This book is intended to provide a concise, biblical job description for elders. I wanted to create an easy-to-read, inspiring summary of the elder task that could be given to a new or potential elder who needs to know what an elder is and does. I hope the book will answer a godly, well-intentioned man who asks: “I’m an elder. Now what?”

But this book is not just for current or aspiring elders. It’s also for church members. The whole congregation needs to understand God’s plan for the local church, including his plan for leadership. Church members can be just as confused about an elder’s job description as the elders are.

So I pray that this book will bring health to congregations as members and leaders unify around a biblical vision for ministry and leadership in the local church. I hope that spiritually lethargic, pew-warming Christian men might read this book and experience an awakening desire to shepherd their families and churches. Finally, I’m praying God will use this little book to change the course of a few men’s lives by calling them into pastoral ministry as a vocation.

ELDERS, OVERSEERS, AND PASTORS

A quick word about vocabulary: I will be using the terms elder and overseer interchangeably because the New Testament uses them interchangeably.2 The eldership is one job with two titles.

Well, actually there are three titles. I will argue in chapter 2 that the term pastor (i.e., “shepherd”) refers to the same church position as elder and overseer. Biblically speaking, elders are pastors, who are overseers. The person in a church we typically call a “pastor” is a paid elder, and the person in a church we typically call an “elder” or “overseer” is an unpaid, lay pastor.

Elder or shepherd, overseer or pastor, paid or volunteer. It’s all the same job. But what is that job? What are elders supposed to do in a local church? What are Jesus’s marching orders for his under-shepherds? How do they know if they are completing the mission?

Before we answer those questions, we must do something more basic. We need to understand the biblical qualifications for being an elder. If you are considering taking on the office of elder, your first task is to discern whether you are ready!

1

DON’T ASSUME

I became a disciple of Jesus as a preteen through the faithful gospel ministry of a little elder-led Baptist church outside of Las Vegas, Nevada. At age twenty-six, I became the senior pastor (or senior elder, you could say) of a little Baptist church in the suburbs of Boston, Massachusetts. So you might assume I understood what elders are all about. But believe it or not, it was only after I became an elder that I started really studying what the Bible says about elders.

When I did, two things surprised me. First, I was amazed at how much the Bible has to say. Almost all of the New Testament authors address elders. There are more than a dozen texts. It became clear to me that Christlike elders are not an optional church feature; they are central to God’s plan for shepherding his churches. How had I missed it?

Second, I was startled by how different both the biblical job description and the qualifications for elders are from what I had assumed. I had thought I was qualified to be a pastor and elder because I loved Jesus, had a seminary degree, and could preach decently. What more does it take?

Maybe you assume you should be an elder too, but for different reasons. Perhaps you believe the time has come for you to join the elder board because you have been a faithful church member. You have served two terms on the missions committee, hosted a home Bible study, and even taught second-grade Sunday school when they couldn’t find a teacher. You have paid your dues, and now it is your turn to lead.

Or maybe you assume you are elder board-bound because you make large donations. The church would not have ended the fiscal year in the black without the check you wrote. Big donors deserve to have a big say and sit on the big boards. Those are the rules. Besides, your church could use a leader with a little business sense.

It is also possible you think you should lead in the church because you lead outside the church. Maybe you manage a successful company, sit on the board of a nonprofit, chair a department, command a battalion, or coach a team. It’s safe to assume your leadership skills, experience, and gifting make you an ideal elder candidate.

Right?

As I noted in the introduction, your first elder-related duty is to investigate whether you should in fact be an elder, based on the Bible’s qualifications. Don’t assume. Even if you have served as an elder before, allow God’s Word to vet your candidacy.

Below are six elder qualifications gathered from the New Testament. Read through them prayerfully. Stop and reflect often. Invite others into the conversation. Show this section to your wife, some friends, or an elder, and ask, “Do these qualifications describe me?”

YOU KNOW YOU’RE QUALIFIED TO SERVE AS AN ELDER IF . . .

1. You Want to Be an Elder

In one of the New Testament’s longest teachings about elders, the apostle Paul began by saying, “This saying is trustworthy: ‘If anyone aspires to be an overseer, he desires a noble work’” (1 Tim. 3:1). Peter put it this way: “Shepherd God’s flock among you, not overseeing out of compulsion but freely, according to God’s will” (1 Pet. 5:2).

Aspiration. Desire. Freedom. You’ve got to want it. Faithful shepherding demands much of you. If you don’t have an inner hunger for the role, you can burn out. Of course, that doesn’t mean that everyone who wants to be an elder is qualified. But it does mean a lack of desire is a problem.

There is a man in my church who is solid elder material. Our nominating team asked him to serve as an elder. In fact, we asked him three times. Apparently the third time was the charm because he finally consented. But as I talked with him more, it became apparent he lacked a strong desire to be an elder. He had agreed to serve in part because he had turned the offer down twice before. Finally, a sense of duty to his church compelled him to agree to serve—the very thing Peter warned against.

He also told me about his desire to free up time in his schedule in order to engage his neighbors and town with the gospel. I could only imagine his likely frustration if he invested himself in shepherding the flock when he longed to be out adding to the flock. So after further prayer, he changed his mind and courageously declined the nomination a third time. We had almost confused an evangelist for an elder.

While not all motivations are godly, you must have an inner desire to be an elder. Has the Holy Spirit placed a godly yearning in your heart to shepherd the local church? What is motivating you?

2. You Exemplify Godly Character

You might assume that the most important characteristic for an elder would be skill in running an organization. While management ability is a part of being a church overseer, the New Testament writers put far greater emphasis on holy character. Jesus’s under-shepherds must reflect Jesus’s character. Better a godly elder with mediocre leadership gifts than a charismatic leader with glaring moral flaws.

Read over these portions of two overseer qualification lists from Paul. These virtues should fit an elder like a custom-tailored suit:

An overseer, therefore, must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, self-controlled, sensible, respectable, hospitable, an able teacher, not addicted to wine, not a bully but gentle, not quarrelsome, not greedy. (1 Tim. 3:2–3)

For an overseer, as God’s administrator, must be blameless, not arrogant, not hot-tempered, not addicted to wine, not a bully, not greedy for money, but hospitable, loving what is good, sensible, righteous, holy, self-controlled. (Titus 1:7–8)

Given the importance of Christlike character, let’s slow down and consider a few of these qualities in more detail.

Above reproach. Paul began his virtue lists with “above reproach” and “blameless.” These descriptions don’t mean an elder has transcended sin and leads a morally impeccable life. If that were the case, churches would need to fire their elders—all of them. Rather, a man who is above reproach displays an exemplary degree of Christlikeness, free from conspicuous sin. Being “above reproach” is akin to being “respectable” (1 Tim. 3:2), “righteous,” and “holy” (Titus 1:8).

In his book on elder qualifications, Thabiti Anyabwile puts it well: “Being above reproach means that an elder is to be the kind of man whom no one suspects of wrong-doing or immorality. People would be shocked to hear this kind of man charged with such acts.”1

Nominating men who are above reproach to be elders stokes the congregation’s trust in its leaders. Further, church leaders who are above reproach safeguard the church’s witness to the community, for as Paul said, “He must have a good reputation among outsiders, so that he does not fall into disgrace and the Devil’s trap” (1 Tim. 3:7).

Self-controlled. According to Paul’s profiles, elders must be self-controlled, sober-minded, temperate, and disciplined. Self-control is a fruit of the Holy Spirit (Gal. 5:23) and a mark of the Christian life. In short, a Spirit-filled man is a self-controlled man.

Interestingly, in both lists, Paul warned against a particular manifestation of lack of self-control: addiction to wine. Drunkenness destroys lives and sucks people into further sin. I know a man who gave up drinking when he became an elder. He wanted to be above reproach when it came to drinking and a model for church members who battled alcoholism. While Scripture does not require elders to abstain from alcohol, they must possess the capacity for self-denial that this brother displayed.

Do you conceal a secret addiction to alcohol, drugs, pornography, or gambling? Do you lose control with anger, spending, swearing, or gossiping? Do you need to postpone eldership for a season in order to devote yourself to crucifying some habitual sin and cultivating self-control?

Gentle.