Essentials of Eldership II

Father, we love you tonight. And Lord, we come before you acknowledging the fact, Father, that we need your guidance on these matters, Lord, that we need your guidance in recognizing leaders. Father, we thank you for the Lord, just the opportunity that you've given us here, Lord, to be a light to this community and to be a witness to this community. Lord, and we pray that tonight that just in this body that. Father that those ends would be furthered, Lord, just through this process. Father, we pray that in the midst of this meeting, Lord, that your Holy Spirit would. Would be here in a special way, Lord, that there would be an anointed discernment tonight, Lord, among the people. Lord and Father, give us ears to just to hear from you tonight, Lord, as we pause to consider who it is that you would raise up in this body as elders, Lord, to shepherd the flock. Lord, we give you this evening and we give you ourselves, Lord, unreservedly to you to be used this night in Jesus precious and holy name. Amen. Let me pick up here in this outline. I spent a lot of time last week talking to you about the responsibility of the elders to the people. That was what came under Roman numeral II to keep right with God to feed and lead the flock. We talk about teaching. We talk about what oversight meant in the Greek to be an administrator or a manager or a construction engineer, kind of literally making decisions that caused the body to go forward, to warn and to watch. And we talked about the whole nature of the elder being one who protected the flock from false teaching, one who had been given by the Holy Spirit the responsibility to discern truth and error and to stand between the flock and the ravenous wolves that would come from within and without. And we talked about how air can creep from within and air can come from without as well. We talked about prayer and study and freedom from self interest and the whole matter of an elder being responsible for himself before the Lord before he could come before the people. Today, this evening, for just a brief period of time, I want to talk to you about the responsibility of the flock of the church to the elders. Now, this isn't a matter of running down through your obligations to a particular individual. And I wanted to lay to rest some of the fears of people who have been involved in situations where elders had usurped authority. I want to address that a little bit tonight and I want to help all of us to see why it's vitally important for us as a congregation not only to support our elders, but literally to do what the Bible says, that is to Honor, appreciate and obey them. And the reason is not just because it makes it easier for them, but because it multiplies the fruit of what it does in your life and the lives of all that are part of Northway. Now let's take a look at these. I want to say first of all that it's important that you see that the reason why we can call for mutual submission in the body of Christ and the reason why I can trust that when I talk about submitting and obeying the elders of the church, that you see that it's not a dictatorial, authoritarian, kind of power grabbing that's going to go on in the hands of a few men. One of the things that has marked our relationship as a community ever since we've begun has been. Our. Invariable commitment to healthy relationships, to communicating. And one of the things that has so caused the servants council, I believe, to be used of the Lord in this establishment process is because we have been committed to one another mutually and equally. And we sought to communicate to one another and to all the people involved all that the Lord was doing among us. We weren't secretive about it. We didn't try to set up a hierarchy, we didn't try to somehow re establish the clergy laity distinction that's been such a pitfall in the evangelical church today. You know, Jesus said some things about the people that followed him. His disciples. He in Hebrews 2:10 called them brothers. In John 15:15, he called them friends. And somehow in my mind I can picture Jesus with his disciples kind of sitting around in the grass and on a sunny day sort of sharing the joy of relationship together, of knowing one another, of being close. And I find it a delight in my heart that I can know many of you, almost all of you by name, and that we can know one another and that we can share a brother, sister relationship, a brother brother relationship that we can share in the intimate things of our hearts. There was one family that's been in the community a while who shared this and I really appreciate their spirit. They said they just had a real difficult time calling me J. Because anyone that they'd ever seen in a spiritual authority, they'd always called father or reverend or whatever. And you know, I didn't have any. I mean, I've been called a lot worse than Jay. And it's a blessing. And you see, that's what elders are, to relate in that fashion. There's not some distinction that sets them off. You know, that Jesus said, you will call no man your father. He said, you'll call no man your rabbi. You know something? Jesus also said in that same passage, you'll call no man your leader. And I believe that that's a significant thing, that we really only have one leader. That's not to decry the whole idea of order and government. I talked about that last week. But it's to say that we have made a terrible mistake in the church by elevating people to positions the Bible never intends for them to hold. And so the reason why I can come tonight and speak to you about obedience and submission to the elders of the fellowship is because I believe that they'll relate to you with the same measure of submission and the same measure of care and the same measure of love. Look at Romans 12:10 with me, would you? Romans 12:10. Let's pick it up at verse 9. Romans 12:9. Let love be genuine. Hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good. Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. Hallelujah. Let's have a competition to see who can honor the other more zealously. That's not a word just to one sheep to another. It's all through the body of Christ. It's elders to sheep, it's sheep to elders, it's deacons, it's ministries, prophets, apostles, and so on. Outdoing one another and showing honor and respect and zeal. You know, Jesus Christ called David the root and the offspring, that he was the root and the offspring of David. Think about that. In Revelation 22:16, he said that David, that he was the offspring and the root, which means to me that without Jesus, David wouldn't have been. But without David, the line of Jesus wouldn't have been. And it speaks to me again of this sense that God, in all of his majesty and all of his awesomeness, wants to be called brother and friend. It's something I don't fully understand, but I know that if God. If Jesus can say that to us, and. And certainly we can say it to. One another. And that's the basis upon which we can call for submission and for obedience to the leadership in the community. An interesting thing. Look at this. In 1 Thessalonians 2, Paul was very vocal about his relationships to the different churches that he established. And he uses these very profound images of his relationship with Thessalonians, beginning in verse seven of chapter two, 1 Thessalonians 2:7. But we were gentle among you, like a nurse taking care of her children. That's literally in the Greek, the picture, the image of a woman nursing a baby at her breast. That's the way in which Paul ministered his apostolic authority in Thessalonica. Also look at this in verse 11. For you know how like a father with his children, we exhorted each one of you and encouraged you and charged you to lead a life worthy of God. So the two images that he plumps down on here are motherhood and fatherhood. That's the kind of love that he demonstrated. And look at this verse 17. But since we were bereft of you brethren for a short time, in other words, they had been separated physically. Do you know that that word literally means in the Greek, the word bereft there orphaned, that Paul not only gave to them a relationship of father and mother, but he felt from him, from the Thessalonicans, that so same love and affection so deeply that when he was separated he felt like an orphan. They not only needed him, he needed them. That's what this is saying, beloved. That's the way leadership is. To function with the body, you need the leaders, but the leaders need you. First Corinthians 12:21 says this very thing. We need each other. Now, what kind of obedience am I talking about? Remember in Hebrews 13:17 at the end of the outline, obey your leaders and submit to them. It's on the very bottom of your qualification sheet. Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls as men will have to give an account. What kind of obedience is it talking about? Doubtless we've been all affected by the atrocities that have been perpetrated on innocent people who blindly give their allegiance to some cultish personality type and end up in terrible circumstances and even death. So we're not talking about blind obedience here. In fact, as I studied the word, it was interesting that it's not the typical word for obedience in the Scriptures. It's the word. In fact, it's only used one time in the New Testament, and it means to be obedient through persuasion. In other words, it has the sense of as you listen to the leaders and you're convinced in your spirit that they are seeking the Lord in these matters, that you willingly yield to them. That's the idea. It's not blind following along with whatever they say kind of deal and the same with the word for submission here. It's a yielding over. It's not hupitassa, which means to be in rigid military form. It's the word that means to give over one's right to prefer another. It's a less rigid kind of a term for submit here. And why would the Bible be so particular in pointing out the need to be submitted and obeying the leaders? It's simple to me. What happened as you think back to the Old Testament, what happened when Israel decided that they didn't really care for Moses and Aaron and their leadership? Turn Back to number 16. Number 16. Now, Korah, the son of Izar, son of Kohath, son of Levi and Dathan and Abraham, the sons of Eliab, and on the son of Peleth, sons of Reuben, took men and they rose up before Moses with a number of the people of Israel, 250 leaders of the congregation chosen from the assembly, well known men. And they assembled themselves together against Moses and against Aaron, and said to them, you've gone too far. For all the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the Lord is among them. Why then do you exalt yourselves above the assembly of the Lord? You see, there was blatant rebellion against the divinely appointed authority of the living God in the lives of Moses and Aaron. And these people said, hey, we're all equal in this thing. And yet, you see, beloved, the truth is we are all equal in it. And yet God has appointed his authority. It's as simple as that. And he's done it for our well being. And so these people rose up against Moses and Aaron. Without reading the gruesome details, you can just scan through number 16, look at verse 20. And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, separate yourselves from among this congregation, that I may consume them. In a moment they fell on their faces and said, O God, the God of the spirits of all flesh shall one man sin, and wilt thou be angry with all the. And literally they were pleading that the Lord would spare them. And then this is where the ground, verse 31 finished speaking all these words, the ground under them split asunder and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up. Korah's rebellion, their households and all the men that belonged to Korah and all their goods, you see. And this was the culmination of all that complaining and all the murmuring against the leaders. And then number 17 again, the people, that wasn't enough for them, they continued to complain. 17, 4. This is where God causes Aaron's bud or Aaron's rod to bud as a symbol of his divine authority upon Aaron's life. Now, easily we could make an interesting study out of those passages. But what I want to just point out to you is that you know that one of the main reasons why the Israelites wandered in the wilderness for 40 years was what they complained and murmured against God and Moses. And the reason why I believe the New Testament is clear in exhorting submission and obedience to the leadership is because otherwise chaos, confusion and ultimately a wandering in the wilderness will result for the people of God. And so you see, we come back to it's for your health, it's for the well being of the entire community that God's ordained this form of leadership and calls us to walk in it. It's not because you're afraid that the people will get out of control. It's not because you want to exercise some hammering kind of discipline on the people of God. It's because that's how God's established the body to function. Now. Obedience, submission, recognition and honor. I will just briefly say about this, that one Thessalonians 5:12 I want you to take a quick look at that. These are scriptures that most of us, when we read, they don't make much of an impact because we've never really dealt with the application of them. First. Thessalonians 5:12 but we beseech you brethren, to respect those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you and to esteem them very highly in love because of their work. Be at peace among yourselves. Very simply, there is a sense in which because the elder is put in such a responsible position that it's to your advantage to honor them in it. Hebrews tells us that basically it says, don't make it difficult for the ones who are responsible for you, but honor them and show respect. And again, if we flash back to our experiences in other denominational churches and so on, I don't think we had this sense of what God is saying in terms of honoring the elders. I think it was an esteemed position socially and to some degree in the church. It was a big deal. But it's not the sense of honoring that we see here, which is sort of a divine appreciation, a deep appreciation. I praise the Lord. I always sense that from you all. But it's something that probably is better said by someone outside of the fellowship. But I felt like I needed to see say it for the sake of all of us who are praying through this now. The other part of it, very honestly, is the whole matter of honoring with finances. There's some who would teach that really a true leader or true man of God would never accept money and that he would be taking advantage of the people of God if for his preaching or Whatever, he would accept money. And I don't think I need to convince you that that's an error. But let me give you a couple of scriptures. First Timothy 5:17. The word for honor that is there Timae t I m e same as we spell the word for time literally. Means. To give financially, to give to honor financially. And so the elders who rule will be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching. And it's talking simply about the fact that when a man is called and the people recognize the call in his life, that they support that man in his ministry of preaching and teaching. He shall not muzzle an ox when it's treading out the grain. Laborer deserves his wages. Very frankly, it's spoken of directly in 1st Corinthians 9:14. If you want to cross reference it, the exact same thing. Now does that mean that somebody say, for example in our situation here, when others would teach Grant, for example, who has a full time job and basically supports his own ministry that way, is he right and I'm wrong? No, there's room for both. And I honestly believe that in the providence of God he would move other men such as Grant into a capacity to be able on a full time basis, minister the word. Every man has to find his own call and discern that. But I believe that that's what God would do. It would be to move others into a full time capacity in ministry. And. To be released into that by the support of the people. All right, that's the end of that section. What are your questions or comments? I really was kind of straightforward with this and just kind of let it out. I hope you all receive it in the spirit that I gave it. I just wanted to let you know what the scripture said. John, Are you talking about elders to the people or people to the elders? I think that. The scope of that, It would be very difficult for me to draw a line and say up to this point is where you will submit and from then on you don't. I think okay, Well. It doesn't really. No, I can't help you with that. I understand your question. And see now I couldn't say to you that an elder wouldn't have the authority to something into your personal life. In fact, I would expect that he would. But that in every case that an elder would have that responsibility and privilege, you would have the responsibility and privilege to check it and never would be called to just. Well, he said that I can't go on vacation until July, you know, that kind of thing. But I just couldn't. I don't think there's a parameter in which we can draw and say, well beyond this or whatever. It's too personal. That's a good point. Okay. Yeah, but see, I personally feel that that's more the beginning point. That's not a means to an end. I really think that one reason why I don't believe that we're going to have a big starting number of elders for that one at that very point is that elders need to be known before they are really set in that position. And it by necessity will start small because it just isn't. We're not able to know one another that well in a brief period of time. See, really, when you get down to it, eldership is recognized. It's not commissioned. Yeah, right, right. So it would be far better if there's only two men that you really firmly trust and know at this point to the level that we've talked about here, then those are the two men that you should recognize. Or if it's five or eight or whatever it is now, it's not to say that anyone's going to reach up and get all those qualifications. We've already dealt with that. What I'm saying to you is the door will always be open into eldership. And as other men come on in the Lord and they begin to be recognized as moving in a trusted fashion and caring for other lives and, and demonstrating the qualities of shepherding that we've talked about, then they will be moved right into eldership. We're not going to do it every three years or whatever. As the Holy Spirit leads and as men come forth, then they'll be recognized and instituted. But it isn't the purpose to get them there and then have them go out and do what they're supposed to be doing. Any other comments? All right, there'll be more room for questions here. Briefly, this last section is very nuts and bolty, and Grant's going to elaborate some on it. Let me just say. We haven't talked about deacons at all. But as I understand the Scripture, it's really more implied. But I get a sense that deacons in effect were elders in training and that deacons were the ones that the Lord called, that the church called rather to. To function in the administration of the body and to flesh out the things that the Holy Spirit was calling forth. And those men, first, Timothy 3:13 says that when they function well in that office that they are pleasing to the Lord. I see it as being something that. That God will raise up in our midst, as it were, in preparation for many other men to be moving into eldership and deaconesses. Phoebe was a deaconess, and there was other deaconesses mentioned in Scripture. And women who function in that whole area of caring for the needs of the body. Very vital and important area, Training up other women and ministering life in the body that way. Now, keeping that in mind, the office versus the life. Do you want to jump in here or do you want to wait and come in later? Are you ready? Jump in. Good. Jump in. Any kind of precision talk as it is, Just to make a couple comments on these things. I think, Joan, that part of, if I heard your question right, the whole idea of what is it that an elder does? There's a connection between the office of the elder and the life of the elder. And it's not by accident that there are all these qualifications. It isn't that God sort of invented a strainer and said, anybody who fits through this strainer can be an elder, sort of as a way to make the procedure easy. Rather, these are characteristics of a life. Last week on Sunday, we were talking about elders being leaders in kingdom living or in kingdom life. And it seems to me that it's terrifically important that we recognize that as we look for who our elders are, we say, here's a person who is fleshing out what a life with God is or what life in the kingdom is, and there's a modeling going on. The reason for the qualifications is, and we mentioned this last week just briefly, but the reason for the qualifications is so that the teaching of scripture in terms of what Christian life is all about will have a demonstration in the local body, and that that will be recognized in certain individuals that the body sees that in and says, yes, here, I sense, is an expression of what maturity in the Christian life is. And so what does an elder do? He does whatever needs to be done to try and help the body to move in that direction and to grow in that. And that involves, as Rose says, getting to know the people in the body. It involves, as Jay was mentioning, that capacity to address a person sometimes very directly, perhaps about some area of life that in our society we might consider. Well, that's a personal area that has to do with my finances or that has to do with my job or my car or how I relate to my wife. Well, it isn't that we're trying to everybody be naked and exposed to everybody else, but there is a kind of transparency that is implied in walking in the truth of God. And we're dealing on that level in terms of that level of ministry. So the men that are recognized to this office need to be men in whose lives it is recognized that God is at work and that maturity is happening. And that doesn't mean that they don't have any growing to do. That's why it needs to be a two way relationship with the body because the elders are still in the process of growth. One thing that we thought it would be good to share with you, we have a set of bylaws at Northway. It is thrust upon us as a responsibility, just in a sheer legal sense that we have bylaws. And we had a choice. We could. For a minute, because it was thrust on us without a choice. We had to have some bylaws in order to be a legal entity, in order to be a church and be recognized as a church, if for nothing else, to be able to issue receipts for your donations. But we had a choice. We could have just sort of done some minimum kind of boilerplate that would legally allow us to be a corporation. Or on the other hand, we could give it some thought, which we tried to do. And I'm very grateful to Jay Dawson and to Blaine for a lot of work on drafting a lot of the bylaws. And we went over it a lot and tried to make this be as close as we could. And we know that it's going to be subject to growth and change and so on. But we wanted to try and be an expression of the way we really are trying to function together. So I'd like to just quickly go over some of these statements that are in the bylaws governing elders so that you know what it says in terms of this statement. Anyway, unless otherwise determined, an Elder shall serve on the Council of Elders for life unless he is removed from the Council pursuant to paragraph six of this article. Get to that in a second. Or voluntarily resigns pursuant to Article 9. You can tell Jay Dawson had his professional hand in him, we never would have thought of a word like pursuant. Notwithstanding the foregoing, every Elder shall be subject to a review and reaffirmation in a manner to be determined by the Council of Elders every three years after the date of his ordination as an Elder. If an Elder is not reaffirmed upon his three year review, that Elder shall then leave his position on the Council of Elders. What we're trying to grapple with here is the distinction or the reality of the interrelation between a man's life and the office. And if a man's life is recognized by the body, that he is an elder and he is then appointed by the body to that role in the body, then it doesn't seem to make sense to us that that should be a sign for a three year period and then it's all over. Or a one year period and then it's all over. But if he's an elder and if he's growing in that life with God, then he's an elder whether you call him one or not, in that sense. But on the other hand, we didn't want to set for ourselves a situation where you could conceivably get a group of men in a position of authority with no opportunity for the body to reassess that or for that group of elders to reassess that. So we're saying that every three years there would be this time of review and reaffirmation. Is this man in fact filling his responsibility as an Elder? Any questions on that point before we go on? Maybe we'll just start taking one at a time. Yes. Does that not work both ways? I mean, a man may be an Elder and three years from now, while still wanting to serve, may find himself unfaithful too. It just sounds like if he's not reaffirmed, he won't be on the council. Maybe he won't want to be reaffirmed because of the third. Okay, I think, I think, I think there's another statement in here that deals with his desire. An Elder shall be appointed by unanimous agreement of the Council of Elders and duly ordained before a meeting of the members. That's what we're up to in these weeks. And that appointment by the Council of Elders at this point in time, it's the Servants Council. And one other thing that the bylaw says is that when the Council of Elders is in place, the Servants Council disappears as a body. But we want that appointment to be in the context of the expression of the body as well. So that's why we're asking that those slips would be turned in expressing from your point of view those that you recognize as elders. Okay. The removal of an Elder shall be by vote of the remaining elders as part of Christian discipline or due to an Elder's absence without good and sufficient reason for three consecutive meeting of the Council of Elders. This is the. You know, we would trust that this sort of thing would never happen, but we have to allow for it in statement of the bylaws. Meetings of the Council of Elders shall be held no less frequently than once a month on a date selected by them and the council shall earnestly strive to reach unanimity in their decisions. But the agreement of no less than 2/3 of all elders shall be necessary to constitute an act of the council of elders with regard to any matter decided at such meeting. Any acts that require an approval of counsel may also be taken upon obtaining consent of all the elders. Trying to guard against two things here, Trying to guard against. Our hearts say to us, and we grappled with this for quite a while, our hearts say to us we yearn for unanimity in anything that we do. And God has given that to us. We set that as a goal of the very beginning. God has given that to the servants council. But we felt a check against making it a legal part of the bylaws that there would be required unanimity because that sets it up for one brother who could for whatever reason become obstreperous and defeat the possibility of the council making any moves at all. So you have to allow for that. So we tried to, in that statement and then the last sentence there is, that's a guard against. If someone wasn't at a meeting and some action needed to be taken, you could pull the brothers. Or if some action needed to be taken before there was a meeting, you could poll the brothers and still move ahead on something. The council may appoint at any time such permanent or temporary committees, deacons, deaconesses or other such offices of service to the community as they deem necessary or convenient and may delegate to such offices the power to perform such acts and duties as otherwise would require an act or resolution of the council of elders. One example of this occurs to me at another church at the Church of the Savior in Washington. And I'm not saying that this is what we would do, but it's the same kind of thing. Two women came to the leadership of that church and said, we feel God has called us into a retreat ministry. And that vision of a retreat ministry for that church was confirmed in the hearts of the leadership. And they said to those two women, in a bold move of delegation, they said, all right, if you feel God is leading you in this, you go and find a place and we give you the authority to be buy it. And they did. And that was how the Church of the Savior started into the retreat ministry, which is now known as Wellspring Marvelous facility outside of Washington D.C. i'm not saying that's something that we would do, but we want that kind of latitude so that if there is a call of God on people within this Body to move in ministry. They can be. They can be. Given that. I think I touched on duration of call as we were talking about in the bylaws. Any questions or discussion on that? Anybody not understand the spirit of that? Okay, general concerns. That's your yes. Do I understand then that this will be the only time that we, as a congregation, we'll have input as far as selection from now on. It'll be. Well, this time. This time is by appointment two, but it's by affirmation of the body. And I would expect that that would be the continuing process that we would have. It's a. It would be a. I would be concerned if we would say that this is the only time the body can express itself in five years from now. It's your tough luck. Whoever's on the curve, council is doing the picking. You know, it isn't. It isn't. That's not the tone. And I would say that anytime there would be consideration of appointing a new brother to the office of elder, there would be opportunity for the body to express that. So the intent there is for an open channel of communication from the body. Always you come. Just to add to that. In Acts 6, I think it was really ordained in terms of procedurally, this is when the first deacons were appointed. And it says, therefore, brethren, pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the Holy Spirit and of wisdom, whom we may appoint to this duty. And so you see the twofold dynamic there. The people recognize the ones in their own midst who are functioning in the Holy Spirit with wisdom, but the elders appointed them. And that's exactly how we see it happening on a continuing basis. I would expect that every so often we'll be receiving names of people, that kind of thing, as opposed to just randomly showing up with someone new. It would seem to me to be. It could be a very likely thing that from the body there would be expressions coming to the elders saying, you know, I just. I just sense that so and so is moving in ministry and he should be recognized as an elder. Or. I sense that there is need for more elders. There's more pastoral care, there's more shepherding that needs to be done than can be done by the number. And it would be a healthy thing to me if that expression would come, that initiation would come from the body. Roy, you had a question or a comment? I would say the thought is not to create. See, we haven't conceived. Nobody has conceived in their minds. The number of. There's not a number of slots to be filled in the first place. Okay. Our desire before the Lord is that there be that number of elders that, that the body needs and that God calls to be here. And I would expect that the number of elders would grow with the same healthy kind of growth that we expect the body at large to grow so that it's not a closed, you know, if you say there's eight elders period, then if you have eight, then you got to wait for somebody to move away or resign or whatever, which doesn