On Elders, Part Two: What they are and are not….
“A life that is not focused on the Gospel is a wasted life.” Loud & clear “Amen!”s came from all over the auditorium. It was obvious that the Lord had done His work in the lives of many people listening to Joel. It is the work of the Lord to break us, and to prune us, and to lead us away from other things into living the Gospel. “This does not mean you cannot be in sports, or be a business man, or have wealth….but it does mean that the PURPOSE of those things & that work & those activities is the Gospel!”
God made us with interests & abilities; He allows us to get satisfaction & enjoyment from hobbies, sports, food, business ventures, clubs. He has given us gifts in the shape of health, wealth, possessions, relationships. But He has also made us with a will to choose Who or What will be our master. To gain joy from something or someone is one thing…..to become depressed, or angry, or dysfunctional when separated from that thing or person is quite another.
The “abundant life” that Jesus discussed in John 10 is directly related to the place of the Gospel in our lives. Everything is vying for the 
central power of our life. Everything is pulling for control, for dominance of our time, money, attention, affection. We’re pulled this way & that with so many voices.
Only the Gospel has the power to deliver on its promises. All other ‘pulls’ are full of lies & deception & vanity. And if we place ourselves under their power, we will end up like driftwood stranded on a beach….powerless, abandoned, bleached out.
And we will wonder: “How did this happen?”
But the person who uses his God-given will to surrender, to serve, to submit to the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the person will know joy, strength, satisfaction, peace, hope, and settledness-of-spirit without limit, without aftertaste, without bitterness & disappointment. The Gospel is a pure sweetness, a wholesome lifestyle, a deep healthy strength that defies description.
Now…..A local church focused on the Gospel will flourish in the same manner as an individual focused on the Gospel. This truth is true at all levels….individual, family, church, nation. The Gospel spans all associations, all relationships, all generations, all situations.
Our Family on the Hill wants to be a healthy church. Health can only exist if the focus of our Family is on the Gospel. Notice, I did not say “a focus”…as though we can have multiple focus points. No, I said “the focus.” There can be only one focus of a life….or a church. As with the human eye, there is only one focus point…all other parts of the picture are “peripheral vision” that set the focus point in perspective.
So, our activities, our communications, our teaching times, our link-ups are all the peripheral things that bring the Gospel in our midst into clear focus.
(By now, you might be wondering, “What on earth does she mean by ‘The Gospel’???!!?” I thought you’d never ask! This website had a page called ‘What is the Gospel’. Instead of taking time here in this article to explain again what is the Gospel, let me just refer you to that page. You’ll find it as one of the tabs on our Home Page.)
So, how do we describe an elder in a healthy, Gospel-focused church? Joel preaches & visits in many churches. He’s seen a lot of different types of elders. Being the good teacher that he is, he said “First, let’s look at what a godly, Bible-directed elder is NOT.”
A Bible-directed Elder is NOT….
…authoritarian
…just a good businessman
…a politician, pursuing position, promoting self
…a “good ‘ole boy” (“Some good ‘ole boys have led the church to good ole’ destruction!”)
…just an older man
Additionally, biblical elders are NOT a group of men who rule over a group of churches; this is commonly done in some large denominations, but you will not find this in the Scriptures. The pattern of the New Testament churches is clear recognition of the unity of the believers in doctrine & in practice, within the context of local fellowship or ‘Body’. Each believer is indwelt by the Holy Spirit. Each believer has direct access to the Throne of God. Each believer is given ministry within the Body. And the authority of the Body is given to the group of believers in that Body, not to a select few who rule over & exercise dominion from the ‘outside’. All of this dynamic is tied up in the truth that the Holy Spirit Himself resides in each true believer. (See I John 2:26-27, I Corinthians 12 and Ephesians1-2 for more on this unity through the Spirit.)
In modern language, we call this “Congregational-type” church government. The authority of the local church rests in the Body of Jesus Christ at that locality. In other words, each person in the congregation has “authority”, as an extension of the person of Jesus and the indwelling Spirit thru the Word.
Also, the group of elders is NOT a self-governing body. These men cannot be a law unto themselves, to do this or that as they “feel led.” No, these men are accountable to the Body of Jesus meeting in this locality on the Hill. The Body (individuals representing Jesus’ church) is “higher” on the “organizational ladder” than the elders.
Finally, the group of elders is NOT the final authority of matters of the church. Again, they are accountable to the Body of the church, not the other way around.
That’s a lot of “NOT”s…..not authoritarian, not simply business-y, not politician/self-promoting, not ‘good ole’ boy’, not just older, not corporate/regional in operation, not self-determining, not final authority. Knowing what our elders are NOT is only the starting point. Because of the many centuries of distorted church organization and our own traditions & histories, we must start with what they are NOT. Now it’s time to move to what the elders ARE…according to the Scriptures.
So….with this long list of “not”s, what ARE elders??? (And as we move into this discussion, let’s not forget our focus: The Gospel. “Everything is about the Gospel, from the leaders to the sweepers, “ Joel reminded us. Paul himself said the same thing to the believers in Corinth: “I didn’t come to you with fancy preaching, or startling thoughts. No, I determined by my will that I would have only one basis for our relationship: the crucified Jesus Christ. I lost my own weakness, fear, anxieties, preachings in the power of the Spirit. Why? So that your faith would not be anchored in a man, but in the power of God.” See I Corinthians 2:2-5 for the whole story.)
This complete abandonment to the power of God in the Gospel is the basis for understanding what elders ARE. And we must never lose sight of that here on the Hill.
With this anchor in the Gospel, what exactly are the elders of our Body?
1. Elders are spiritual overseers appointed by the Holy Spirit (Acts 20:28). Now, we don’t use that word “overseer” much any more, but in the good old days this word meant a person who looked over the whole project, who understood big picture and who knew how all the little pieces fit into the big picture. The big picture belonged to the Owner of the project; the over-seer guided all the little parts so that the big picture was developed. (Sometimes we use the word “supervisor”, but that word has more of an authoritarian twist than Scriptural word “overseer.”)
In the case of elders, they are *spiritual* overseers. They look to the little pieces of spiritual activity that are going on in the Body and they make sure that the little pieces are bringing about the big picture. “The Holy Spirit lifts a man to where he is respected as a spiritual leader,” Joel explained. Somehow, all the “little pieces” of the congregation find a way of looking to someone to help guide them into the big picture.
This could involve any spiritual matter…doctrinal clarification, repentance from sin, relational guidance in applying the spiritual relationship that binds us, etc. Anything of a spiritual nature in the congregation of believers should be under the oversight of an elder.
Joel gave an example of elders dealing with the issue of doctrinal purity. In Acts 15, a church was confused about the nature & requirements of salvation. So the elders were sent to the “mother church” in Jerusalem to get the matter clarified. It was their responsibility as elders to safeguard the spiritual life of the believers, to oversee their personal spiritual growth, bringing it into pattern with the big picture as presented in the Scriptures.
2. Elders are ministerial overseers (Acts 11:27-30). “Ministerial” means the practical logistics of spiritual work. In the example of Acts 11, the elders took practical responsibility for the removal of the designated offering from the church in Antioch to the church in Judea. This offering was spear-headed by the Spirit through the prophecy of a man named Agabus. The elders stepped up to do the practical work of the spiritual ministry of the believers to their brethren.
Today, our elders still do practical work associated with our spiritual ministry through oversight of the financial issues of the church, through sending out of ministry teams for mission work, etc. But the practical ministry workload can be overwhelming, so that the spiritual work is neglected. This happened in the early church in Jerusalem. So instructions were given to separate additional men to assist the elders in the practical demands of the Body’s ministry. These men are called Deacons. Their role is to focus on the practical work of the Body, so that the elders can give themselves more to the spiritual work. We all work together, focused on the Gospel…but so that we are able to meet all the needs (especially with larger churches or in difficult times), we divide the work into Elders and Deacons. (An interesting aside: in addition to having ‘deacons’, the early church had ‘deaconesses’….women who relieved the elders of some of the practical ministry issues. Phoebe is an example of a woman assisting the elders in practical work; see Romans 16:1-2. Also, in a real sense, every believer is a “deacon/ness”, because every believer is a servant & active participant in the practical working out of the ministry.)
Spiritual work is never disconnected from practical work….and the elders are overseers of the practical work as well as the spiritual work, and the deacon/nesses assist the elders in the logistics of the Body.
3. Elders are biblical teachers. Look at Acts 20:32. Paul is commending the elders to….”the word of His grace, which is able to build you up…” It is the power of the Scriptures that builds the Body. And that power is unleashed by elders who are preaching & teaching the Word to the Body. (As opposed to Deacons who serve so that teaching won’t be neglected. See Acts 6:1-6 to discover when & why Deacons were introduced to the church. Deacons and Elders have different roles in the Body.)
Towards the end of his life, the Apostle Paul gave very clear, pointed instructions about elders to his young protégé’ Titus. In Titus 1:9, he states clearly that these elders must know the Word and be able to do two things with that knowledge: 1) exhort, encourage, spur on those in the Body and 2) reason, debate, discuss spiritual things with those outside the Body.
Many people think “Oh, an elder must have gone to seminary. How else can he know the Word well enough to teach it!”
This is a great misconception!!! Where were the seminaries in Paul’s day? Did he say to Titus….”Hold everything, Titus! Don’t do anything until we get our Bible School & Seminary up & running! The keys to understanding the Scriptures are in the Seminary….if we don’t get those keys, the church is locked out of Bible knowledge!”
No, no, no! Any person anywhere can know the Scriptures. In southern Ethiopia exists a young man named Shoko. He is totally (& I mean TOTALLY) blind. Yet, he has memorized most of the New Testament, just by listening to cassette tapes of the Scriptures. And he is fast becoming known for his wisdom and teaching skill…..yet he probably has no more than 6 or 7 grades of formal education. So why is he so full of spiritual wisdom? Because he is in the Word! Not because he went to seminary or Bible School! The Holy Spirit of God is the One who makes us to understand the wisdom of God….and He does this through the written/spoken Word of God. No seminary or Bible school has that power!
Many men & women holding pieces of paper from accredited institutions of higher learning know very little about the heart of God, and often do not have the ability to teach the truths of God. So the paper itself, the coursework required for that paper, the professors teaching the courses, do not guarantee a man who meets the qualifications of Scripture for an elder. Let us be careful not to replace the requirements of Scripture with our own ‘Churchianity’ requirements.
Let us focus on the end result, not the means. The end result is a person who knows the Word….how he learned that Word can happen in many different ways….as long as there is a teachable spirit (humility), the Spirit of God (to open eyes), and the Word of God (which never changes).
4. Elders are under-shepherds. (There’s another one of those old-timey words!) An under-shepherd is somewhat the opposite of an over-seer. Instead of viewing the project from overhead like an over-seer, the under-shepherd is working in the project from underneath.
Underneath what/who? Underneath the Chief Shepherd…who is the Lord Jesus, of course! (It is not with flippancy that we refer to Bethel Hill Baptist Church as The Lord’s Church!)
In other words, the elders are to be having their eye on the Chief Shepherd and are following His lead in the management of the “sheep”. In a way, they are the “employees” of the Chief Shepherd. On our farm we have several Shelties. Their official name is “Shetland Sheep Dog”. They are bred for guiding sheep according to the wishes of the shepherd-owner. So as they are running around the hillsides with the sheep, they have one eye on the sheep & the other eye on the shepherd-owner. In this way, they can guide/direct the sheep according to the wishes of the shepherd-owner.
It is interesting in I Peter 5:1-4, the Scriptures warn that these elders are to do their work as under-shepherds willingly…not by compulsion, not by coercion, not for payment, not with a view to gain in any sense. These elders are men who are working amongst the “sheep”, leading by submitting, leading by example. Their personal lives are modeling the Way of Christ. There is an integrity about them personally that inspires the sheep to trust & follow their example.”This wonderful way of leading makes it easier to note the elder in a congregation,” Joel summarizes.
As an under-shepherd, the elder must be willing to ‘wound’ the sheep for the sake of the Gospel; his goal is to save the sheep from hurt; to correct him for his own good. Also, the elder (under-shepherd) is willing to heal for the Gospel; his desire is to apply a balm to the spiritual pain of the sheep in his care, and to ‘carry’ him if necessary until the healing is complete.
What a wonderful picture of the Lord Jesus with His people! And in biblical elders, we have a sort of personification of this picture!
5. Lastly, Elders are servants. They live out the life of Christ in the Body. As Jesus Christ Himself was a servant, so the elders are servants. As the Lord of the Church laid aside His own agenda, His own comfort, His own ego to serve His people…..so the biblical elder will lay aside his agenda, his comfort, his ego to serve the Body of Christ that is placed in his care. Joel referred to this role as a sort of ‘summary’ of the other roles.
Sadly, there are men who say they want to be an elder & serve the church, but they are really focused on income, retirement plan, insurance, and all the perks that go with the position. Take away those benefits, and these men fade into the background.
In Conclusion…..
Look at these words that has been used to describe the biblical elder: willing, humble, eager to serve, spirit-focused, hard-working, healing, protecting……………….all of these words describe the faithful servant of the Lord Jesus.
As Joel concluded his thoughts on the Scriptural teaching about the kind of men who are biblical elders, my mind wandered over the list he had given, and I found myself forming a pyramid. You remember those Food Pyramids produced by the FDA for public education. The bottom layer is the largest layer, and it forms the foundation for healthy diet: grains. And at the top of the pyramid is a small little triangle, and it shows the little piece of the diet that is not so critical to health: sugars.
In my mind’s eye, I formed an Elder Pyramid. The foundational level was “Servant: to Body & to Savior” The next level was “Under-shepherd: Caring for the Sheep & Accountable to the Chief Shepherd”. The next level was “Spiritual Over-seer”, for the spiritual protection of the Body. The next level up was slightly smaller, “Bible Teacher….Discipler”. And the small top section was “Ministerial Over-seer: Logistics Coordinator”. (Please note: this pyramid is my absorption & processing of the truth Joel was teaching; you won’t find this pyramid, per se, in the Scriptures.)
Here’s another skematic. All skematics have limitations, but this second one emphasizes the role of Servant as a summary, encasing the other roles.
The tendency in our American church culture is to give lip service to spiritual issues of leadership within our churches, and to give practical priority to those men who smooth operations….the ‘good ole’boys’ and those men who are gifted in practical matters (construction workers, financers, businessmen, etc.) We don’t highly esteem servants, or those brave enough to do the hard work of spiritual oversight. We love Bible teachers if they make us feel good, but we really don’t want those who are serious about discipling us into followers of Jesus. In other words, we often flip the pyramid to accommodate our own comfort & agenda.
So….think about it. What kind of elder do you want at Bethel Hill? What kind of elder are you willing to be before the Lord? We cannot have a healthy church without biblical elders.
AUTHORITARIAN SERVANT SPIRITUAL OVER-SEER/PROTECTOR
POLITICIAN JUST AN OLDER MAN JUST A BUSINESS MAN Good Ole Boy
UNDER-SHEPHERD BIBLICALLY LITERATE/ABLE TO EXPLAIN, ENCOURAGE, DEFEND
MINISTERIAL OVER-SEER