Theology Thursday: What Are Elders For?

Welcome to Theology Thursday! Theology is the study of God, his relation to the world, and our relation to him. I hope these newsletters help enhance your faith and deepen your love for God and his people, the church.

Today's question:
Today is the first in a series of three TT's looking at a biblical understanding of eldership. First up: What are church elders for?

Pastor Brady's thoughts:
After God founded his church during the Pentecost event in Acts 2, most of the rest of the New Testament is the working out of what it should look like. What do Christians believe? How should Christians live? How should Christians gather and worship together? Who is a Christian and who is not? How should Christians lead themselves in the way of faithful followership of Christ? 

It’s this last question that helps us answer all the preceding ones. 

Jesus didn’t leave us to govern ourselves personally and declare ourselves his people individually, without guidance and accountability. He established an institution that both affirms us as believers and then helps form us in that belief. The church is the authority on earth that Jesus has instituted to give shape to the Christian life, and eldership is the authoritative leadership structure the God-breathed New Testament writers provided (1st Timothy 3:1-7; Titus 1:5-9) the church to realize that vision. 

It’s important to note here that “authoritative” doesn’t mean infallible, and it doesn’t mean perfect. In most of protestant Christianity, elders have an elevated responsibility to know God and make him known - and are thus humbly imbued with authority to lead the church to which God has called them - but they are not sinless or incapable of shortcomings regarding biblical interpretation, relational health, temperament, or any other area of our lives affected by the fall. 

An old evangelist once said that Christians are not superior to anyone else, we are just “beggars telling other beggars where to find bread.” And so it is too with Christian leaders. Authority, yes, but not ultimate authority. That lies with the word of God alone. 

Still, the New Testament books do indicate that local churches are not to devolve into anarchy, but they are to be led by those qualified and called (a combination of their competency and sense of the Spirit’s prodding) to do so. More on qualifications below, but first let’s establish that the division of labor within the church is a biblical idea. Here’s Acts 6:2-4: 

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 and sisters, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom [so that we can] give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the word.”

In other words, the Spirit gifts Christians differently. And praise God for that! What a blessing it is that we all have different and complementary skills and abilities (see also Ephesians 4:11-16). Some are wonderful hosts and practice remarkable hospitality, some are especially wise or compassionate, some excel at teaching or music, some relate well to young people. Of course, there is much overlap in these and other areas, and we are all called to serve our brothers and sisters in Christ sacrificially. Just because you’re the best preacher or cook doesn’t mean you shouldn’t also step in to help carry chairs or lead a Bible study if that’s what the church body needs. 

But as the original disciples modeled for us, God did not create a kingdom where we all gravitate toward the same types of service. One of his gifts to the church is the variety of gifting he bestows upon Christians. Every local church body needs its people to lean into their spiritual gifts to push forward in its mission of discipleship and evangelism. That includes those with the ability to lead, what Paul calls a “noble task.” 

Another thing we learn from this passage in Acts is that the leaders are selected from the body at large. The church’s leaders don’t appoint themselves, and they don’t assume leadership just because they’re the most aggressive or ambitious. They are chosen by the “brothers and sisters” due to being “full of the Spirit and wisdom.” This provides the foundation for church polity - systems such as MCCs - that solicits nominations and affirmation of elders by the whole membership. When the people choose and elevate who will lead them, the people voluntarily recognize the leaders’ authority, and the leaders exercise that authority over the people but for the people, and at the people’s ongoing discernment regarding the leaders’ character and qualifications. Ultimately, the shepherds lead the flock, but shepherds and their sheep all move in the same direction, together. 

Later in Acts, Luke quotes Paul introducing the metaphor of shepherd and sheep to describe how elders should view their role: 

Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood. - Acts 20:28

In Psalm 23, David writes of the Lord-shepherd guiding him with both a “rod and staff” (v. 4). These are the instruments of a shepherd: a rod to gently (and, at times, firmly) prod his sheep in the proper direction; a hooked staff to rescue them from crevices and cliffs.

And so these are also the tools of the elders, who are charged to guide Christ’s church toward Christ by word and deed both proactively (“It’s this way! Follow me!) and reactively (“No, stop. Not that way!”).  

Healthy, faithful churches always have a team of qualified, faithful leaders.

TO KNOW GOD AND TO MAKE HIM KNOWN!
- Pastor Brady

Have a question for Theology Thursday? Send an email to office@minierchristian.org and we'll respond, or we'll include in a future Theology Thursday Buffet.