overview
personal
this is obviously a bit of a personal topic for me.
i've wanted to be a pastor since i was in high school.
jeff read my notes yesterday and commented that they were a bit less passionate that normal; conversely, i think that's a function of the
personal weight that the topic has for me.
also...there's a lot to talk about here. i'm going to try to cover some of the big biblical ideas, but the details go much
further.
anyway. bear with me. i have a lot of scripture, too many thoughts. i'm hoping to kind of take this a bit conversationaly, to expound
on some of these things as we go.
today's structure:
qualifications
responsibilities
and...some miscellanious thoughts.
qualifications
of today's sections, this one is probably the most carefully defined piece biblically.
there are two notable sections, both intimidatingly strict. both sections are in the 'pastoral epistles', so named because
they are letters from paul regarding church leadership (to titus and timothy)
but first...pauline lists:
so...first off, this is a pauline list.
paul has a habit of painting a pretty clear picture by listing a whole lot of qualifiers, clarifiers, and descriptors.
the fruit of the spirit in gal 5. love is...in 1 cor 13.
when you read the lists, you should:
- catch the tone. what's the overall picture? use the details for this...
- don't assume that the list is exhaustive. honestly, if you're going to assume, assume the opposite
- don't make up a significant structure or relationships between the elements.
so...that said, i want to look at this list. there is a bit of a loose relationship here that we'll use as we discuss them,
but let's be careful not to read a cause/effect style to this organization.
titus 1:6-11
6. namely, if any man is above reproach, the husband of one wife, having children who believe, not accused of
dissipation or rebellion.
7. For the overseer must be above reproach as God's steward, not self-willed, not quick-tempered, not addicted to
wine, not pugnacious, not fond of sordid gain,
8. but hospitable, loving what is good, sensible, just, devout, self-controlled,
9. holding fast the faithful word which is in accordance with the teaching, so that he will be able both to exhort
in sound doctrine and to refute those who contradict.
10. For there are many rebellious men, empty talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision,
11. who must be silenced because they are upsetting whole families, teaching things they should not teach
for the sake of sordid gain.
1 tim 3:1-7
1. It is a trustworthy statement: if any man aspires to the office of overseer, it is a fine work he desires to do.
2. An overseer, then, must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, temperate, prudent, respectable, hospitable,
able to teach,
3. not addicted to wine or pugnacious, but gentle, peaceable, free from the love of money.
4. He must be one who manages his own household well, keeping his children under control with all dignity
5. (but if a man does not know how to manage his own household, how will he take care of the church of God?),
6. and not a new convert, so that he will not become conceited and fall into the condemnation incurred by the devil.
7. And he must have a good reputation with those outside the church, so that he will not fall into reproach and
the snare of the devil.
family requirements
titus 1:6 "above reproach, husband of one wife, children who believe (not accused of dissipation or rebellion)"
1 tim 3:2 "above reproach, the husband of one wife"
1 tim 3:4,5 "He must be one who manages his own household well, keeping his children under control with all dignity
(but if a man does not know how to manage his own household, how will he take care of the church of God?),"
husband of one wife
options here...
at minimum, this means you can't be a polygamist.
there is some debate about whether it exludes those who have been divorced.
i'm going to defer on that, as it's not the point of todays teaching. suffice it to say that
good christian kids
kids under control, with all dignity, children who believe
yeah. that means that if jeff, jon, or i end up with kids who aren't believers, who aren't under control with all dignity,
etc...that we will step down as elders and deal with our families.
why is this here?
- can't rule the family, can't rule the church
this is the only one that is explicitly
nature/nurture comment there...
- family reflects and shows things
1 sam 2, eli comes to mind
- like it or not, it does demand enormous things of your family
e.g. the requirement to be hospitable
negatives...or disqualifiers
titus 1:7. For the overseer must be above reproach as God's steward, not self-willed, not quick-tempered, not addicted to
wine, not pugnacious, not fond of sordid gain,
1 tim 3:3. not addicted to wine or pugnacious
1 tim 3:6. and not a new convert, so that he will not become conceited and fall into the condemnation incurred by the devil.
again...the danger of breaking up pauline lists here...
please note that paul may choose to express some things as negatives and some as positives, but we have to be careful not to
over do the distinction between "free from the love of money" and "not addicted to sordid gain".
ok...the details.
pugnacious? uh, yeah. looking for a fight. given to hostility.
basically, these negatives are all marks of immaturity. spiritual, but also worldly.
quick-tempered and pugnacious?
a drunk?
self-willed and fond of sordid gain?
the kind of stuff that you look at and see immaturity.
also, note 1 tim 3:6. not a new convert
make sure that they aren't a new convert. it's too much an opportunity for pride, which will kill them and their ministry.
this is not the sort of position that should allow you to shuffle raw talent up the ladder.
the church is looking for stability, proven history, and the humility demonstrated by service without position.
it's a bit easier to give when you are getting responsibility, status, some title.
and that's exactly not what you should want in the position of eldership.
positives, or markers.
titus 1:8,9 but hospitable, loving what is good, sensible, just, devout, self-controlled,
holding fast the faithful word which is in accordance with the teaching, so that he will be able both to exhort
in sound doctrine and to refute those who contradict.
1 tim 3:2,3 An overseer, then, must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, temperate, prudent, respectable, hospitable,
able to teach, not addicted to wine or pugnacious, but gentle, peaceable, free from the love of money.
1 tim 3:7. And he must have a good reputation with those outside the church, so that he will not fall into reproach and
the snare of the devil.
hospitable
this is not exactly a value of our culture. but somehow, within our culture, it needs to be expressed.
loving what is good, sensible, just, devout, self-controlled
this plays up on the role of the elder as a sort of judge.
gentle, peacable
super valuable, as elders have to deal with confrontation over sin.
able to teach, holding fast the faithful word which is in accordance with the teaching, so that he will be able both to exhort and refute
we're going to talk more about this in a bit
having a good reputation with those outside the church
ok - that makes sense.
what doesn't make sense is the 'so that'. it's not super clear why the good reputation keeps him from falling into reproach
and the snare of the devil. you can guess, and there are lots of good guesses, but it's hard to establish exactly what paul meant
specifically.
responsibilities:
character, to act as an example
this pulls heavily off of the requirements...
honestly, as we've already hit this pretty heavily, i'm not going to dwell on it.
but...i'd like to hit one significant point that's elsewhere...mat 20:25-27, and the character requirement to lead as a servants.
"You know that the rulers of the
Gentiles lord it over them, and their great men exercise authority
over them."
"It is not this way among you, but whoever wishes to become great
among you shall be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among
you shall be your slave;"
this is significant because of the huge contrast to how leadership is normally done.
normally, those in charge are the big dogs, the important, the ones who get the best spots.
that's human nature.
in the church, leadership is supposed to be done by those most willing to serve.
which is good. churches aren't run for profit. they're run to give, and that means that the 'leaders' need to
take abuse and ingratitude, need to work without reward, to give up fun time to serve.
knowledge, to act as a teacher
titus 1:10,11
10. For there are many rebellious men, empty talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision,
11. who must be silenced because they are upsetting whole families, teaching things they should not teach
for the sake of sordid gain.
1 tim 3:2 = "able to teach"
2. An overseer, then, must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, temperate, prudent, respectable, hospitable,
able to teach,
that teaching thing is actually kind of central to the pastoral epistles. it's rather the core job you get out of the books.
this isn't meant to be a study on those, but a token example:
1 tim 4:13 devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to preaching and to teaching.
the ultimate example is in acts 6, and actually refers to the apostles (functioning as elders) and the origin of the deacon role.
acts 6:1-4 In those days when the number of disciples was increasing, the Grecian Jews among them complained against
the Hebraic Jews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food.
So the Twelve gathered all the disciples together and said, "It would not be right for us to neglect the ministry
of the word of God in order to wait on tables.
Brothers, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will turn this
responsibility over to them and will give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the word."
note: a big part of this teaching is refuting bad teachings. you saw that in the titus requirements (silencing the rebellious),
you see it all over timothy too.
the continuation of the church depends on beliefs, which is a nice way of saying holding to knowledge.
knowledge is a big deal for us. it's easy to think otherwise, but that is baloney.
see 2/3 john, jude, etc if you struggle with this.
wisdom, to act as a judge
the judge piece is...more of a biblical judge than a modern one.
first...ot history and elder.
the term elder is very evocative of the jewish sense of elder - the community leaders who would serve
as the local government of a city. see ruth 4:2, where boaz goes to the gate and handles some legal matters with
the elders of the city.
the expectation is that the church will function this way as well.
a few specifics
matt 18
matt 18, regarding church discipline places the elders as the arbiters of discipline in the church - if their warnings
about sin are ignored, the elders are supposed to kick the sinner out of the church.
james 5:13-15
13. Is anyone among you suffering? Then he must pray. Is anyone cheerful? He is to sing praises.
14. Is anyone among you sick? Then he must call for the elders of the church and they are to pray over him,
anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord;
15. and the prayer offered in faith will restore the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up, and if he has
committed sins, they will be forgiven him.
i'm including this within the context of wisdom and the role of the judge, because there seems to be a link
between sin/guilt and sickness...here. thus the role of the elder is to act as judge - hearing the confession and
praying for restoration.
very catholic sounding eh?
finally, 1 tim 3:4,5 again
4. He must be one who manages his own household well, keeping his children under control with all dignity
5. (but if a man does not know how to manage his own household, how will he take care of the church of God?),
this pretty clearly gives the broad sense of leadership. guiding, managing, caring - and having the wisdom to
do so well.
families are great illustrations. i can say that since paul says so.
what skills and wisdom does it take to be a great dad? per paul, the same stuff it takes to be a great elder.
ok...how does that break down?
- elders are supposed to be models of maturity
lots of character requirements. this becomes important as it seems that, to some extent, elders are supposed to be examples.
at least...this is true if you apply paul's patterns to elders. it also seems to be practically true.
paul frequently calls on others to imitate him. he's a bit of a better example than any elder you'll meet, so be sure
to read his stuff.
- elders need to be devoted to prayer and teaching. they guard belief.
again, this is technically what the apostles say, but...they are the overseers for the church at that point. and they
set up elders to be the overseers...so you see how this works.
- elders are supposed to manage and judge
well...they're supposed to be able to manage their families, so they can manage the church. makes sense.
what does that not mean?
- other people should hopefully be models of maturity as well.
do elders have a monopoly on christlikeness? no.
do elders have a monopoly on church service? absolutely not.
really, they just have a role that makes them responsible for certain things.
- it does mean that the church is not managed by democracy
we are an elder rule church. we feel strongly that the bible teaches this.
other churches differ; they would argue that the church members get to make decisions.
as an american, i'm sympathetic to this view, but i don't buy it biblically.
corollary: decisions...
that said...i'd like to emphasize the clear direction of this.
the bible doesn't ever say something like, "all decisions need to be made by elders without input."
instead, we get stuff like, "protect doctrine" and the like. we see practical decisions coming to them,
but in the clearest example there (acts 6) you see them delegating.
primarily, we have to make sure that we as a church have good doctrine and practice (orthodoxy and orthopraxy).
- outreach, service, do this do this do this
the church has lots of things it can and should do.
elders should not do all of them.
a token illustration: part of the teaching function is the preparing of other people to become elders.
this is all over the pastoral epistles.
but easier is the life of christ. christ spent buckets of his time with the 12...even more the 3 right?
he could have been out doing more healing, giving more evangelistic sermons, confronting the pharisees, visiting the
sick and the poor.
but...he didn't meet every need.
- balancing service with delegation
(talk about it if there's time)
wrap: 1 pet 5:1-4
i'm going to wrap this section on 'responsibilities ' with the charge in 1 pet 5:1-4
1. Therefore, I exhort the elders among you, as your fellow elder and witness of the sufferings of
Christ, and a partaker also of the glory that is to be revealed,
2. shepherd the flock of God among you, exercising oversight not under compulsion, but voluntarily,
according to the will of God; and not for sordid gain, but with eagerness;
3. nor yet as lording it over those allotted to your charge, but proving to be examples to the flock.
4. And when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory.
what's in a name? or call me overseer, elder, pastor, bishop, reverend, vicar, etc
ok...minor stuff now.
we salina folks feel pretty strongly that there are two church offices. elder, and deacon.
the role of pastor or preacher or minister or reverend or whatever is performed by the elder.
that's a bit of a contrast to most churches, as you probably know. honestly, i've had this conversation a few times,
and i usually struggle to have people take it seriously.
the corollary is that this means that the office of elder is a peer office.
there are multiple elders, sharing responsibility.
no ceo office.
we work hard for this to be true here.
don't get too happy, or...some warnings.
1 tim 5:17-22
17. The elders who rule well are to be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who work hard
at preaching and teaching.
18. For the Scripture says, "YOU SHALL NOT MUZZLE THE OX WHILE HE IS THRESHING," and "The laborer is worthy of his wages."
19. Do not receive an accusation against an elder except on the basis of two or three witnesses.
20. Those who continue in sin, rebuke in the presence of all, so that the rest also will be fearful of sinning.
21. I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus and of His chosen angels, to maintain
these principles without bias, doing nothing in a spirit of partiality.
22. Do not lay hands upon anyone too hastily and thereby share responsibility for the sins of others;
keep yourself free from sin.
james 3:1
Let not many of you become teachers, my brethren, knowing that as such we will incur a stricter judgment.
the long and short of it:
- it's a good thing to desire the office of elder, 1 tim 3:1
so long as it is out of desire to serve the church, not for personal gain.
- you have to consider yourself qualified to take the office
there are some high requirements for the office.
anyone who is an elder needs to be able to say that they are worthy of the job.
- you need to have fear
the warnings are serious enough that elders should be nervous about mucking it up.
leaders are in general held to a higher standard in the bible.
plus. subjectively. it's hard.
eldership is a bit of a high pressure office.
people have a lot of expectations.
people are often upset with you about things that you care about.
people have expectations for what you should do that may not be what you think you should do.
but worse... when you screw up, you are damaging christ's body.
closer: my personal goal
paul speaks about his personal ministry in 1 thess in a way that shows huge things about his heart, and which
also gives some details about his heart - his motives, his emotions, and how that plays out in his actions.
for me personally, it's significant emotionally - it sums up my personal feelings, it speaks to the things that
i want to hold fast to, and it's encouraging to hear it in paul's words.
1 thess 2:1-12
1. For you yourselves know, brethren, that our coming to you was not in vain,
2. but after we had already suffered and been mistreated in Philippi, as you know, we had the boldness
in our God to speak to you the gospel of God amid much opposition.
3. For our exhortation does not come from error or impurity or by way of deceit;
4. but just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak, not as pleasing men, but
God who examines our hearts.
5. For we never came with flattering speech, as you know, nor with a pretext for greed--God is witness--
6. nor did we seek glory from men, either from you or from others, even though as apostles of Christ we might have asserted our authority.
7. But we proved to be gentle among you, as a nursing mother tenderly cares for her own children.
8. Having so fond an affection for you, we were well-pleased to impart to you not only the gospel of God but also
our own lives, because you had become very dear to us.
9. For you recall, brethren, our labor and hardship, how working night and day so as not to be a burden to any
of you, we proclaimed to you the gospel of God.
10. You are witnesses, and so is God, how devoutly and uprightly and blamelessly we behaved toward you believers;
11. just as you know how we were exhorting and encouraging and imploring each one of you as a father would his own children,
12. so that you would walk in a manner worthy of the God who calls you into His own kingdom and glory.