Elder Position Paper - Lesson 3

I. The Importance of Leadership Commitment

Having talked about the importance of the position of leadership, I want to move on to a related topic, and that is the level of commitment. How much commitment should we expect from our leaders in the church? If I’m thinking about moving into leadership, what’s it going to cost me? I overheard an uncomfortable discussion once. This man was trying to get this other man to apply to be an elder. He said, “Oh, it’s not hard. You just meet once a month and make a couple of decisions.” Well, there’s an elder board doomed to failure. You meet once a month to make decisions? That’s kind of crazy. Why would you say that about leadership in God’s church? I don’t know.

Because the leadership is so important, the level of commitment is significant, and part of the challenge here is balancing. Some churches require their leadership to be so committed to the church, they neglect their family, they neglect their kids. When I was pastoring, there were people that were unhappy with me because I wouldn’t come to every meeting, every night in the church. I said, “I have three teenagers at home. I’m not going to go to this meeting and that meeting I’m not directly connected to.” “Well, you’re the pastor,” they said. What does the pastor will say? Does he say a pastor has to go to every single meeting every time the doors open in the church? I wasn’t going to neglect my kids. I’m really glad I didn’t. I got three great kids. There’s this balancing act when it comes to commitment between you meet once a week, once a month, and make decisions. Or you’re so overcommitted that when you’re done, you don’t have a family or marriage. 

What does that balancing act look like? Well, here are the verses: in 1 Thessalonians 5:12-13 it says, “We ask you, brothers, to respect those who labor”—and it is a labor, “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.” Yes, it’s a labor. This is not an easy task. It’s a hard task.

In Hebrews 13:17 it says, “Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you.” If I had to go to every single meeting in the church, that verse would not apply to me. I’ll guarantee you that. 

Romans 12:8 says the one who leads should do so with zeal. What’s ‘zeal’? Where’s that balance between a casual and overcommitment? That’s what this whole lesson is about. 

The best word I know is labor, labor of love. In fact, the Greek word that’s often translated ‘labor’ refers to digging ditches, physical labor. It’s hard work, and you have to be willing to commit yourself to doing hard, hard work. And if you do that, what you’ll find is that most of the people will respect you. You will find that they will trust your decisions. They will treat you with grace and patience, but you have to make that decision. What’s it going to be? 

II. Three Levels of Commitment for Elders

I’ve got to hear that an elder has to have three levels of commitment. The first commitment has to be to his own spiritual growth. Please do not get so involved in church that you neglect yourself, okay? Don’t neglect your spouse if you’re married. Don’t neglect your kids if you have a family. But don’t neglect yourself, because if you are not being built up in your own spiritual growth, then you will become dry and empty and unable to lead. So, you have to seriously take your own spiritual growth into account. 

Secondly, I think in terms of level of commitment, a person needs to have a visible presence in the church. I see some churches that’ll put up pictures of their elders. I go, “Okay, I guess that’s okay.” But if they were real elders who were really involved in the lives of their people, you wouldn’t need to have pictures, because people would know them. Now, if you have a massive church, not everybody can know every elder. But if an elder is really involved with the people, they won’t need pictures, because people will know who you are. This doesn’t mean you have to be in church every time the door is open. But it means you need to have a visible, active presence. 

I often think if you have two services in your church, where are your elders between services? Next time you’re here on Sunday, go check it out. Go see where they are. Hopefully, they’re mingling. They’re talking to people, or maybe they’ve been teaching Sunday school, and they have been held up a little, and they haven’t been able to get out to the foyer.

But that’s where your elders should be, all right? Where are your elders? Or are they huddled off in a corner, talking with each other about who knows what? You have to have a visible presence. 

The third thing—and I wouldn’t mandate this, but I think it’s a good policy—I think it’s a good thing for every elder to be responsible for one major ministry. The elders have to stay in touch with their church.

So, have an elder—even if you have staff—have an elder who works with the youth pastor. Have an elder who works with a worship pastor. Have an elder who works with a counseling pastor. Have an elder who works with the administrator. You see what I’m saying? They need to be involved in the running of the church. They’re not a power group sitting off in a corner, exercising power in isolation from everything else. They need to be involved in church, and getting them involved in ministry is one good way to do that.

III. Practical Reflections & Questions

Here are a couple of reflection questions; it’s a short lesson. How do you reward your leadership? How do you help your leadership be involved in people’s lives? And how do you thank them? How do you recognize them? 

Something as simple as having your elders do the Bible reading on Sunday morning. Of course, make sure they’re reading out of the same version that you’re preaching out of. I had one elder who would read a passage and say, “Well, if I could add…” No, you can’t add to God’s Word. There’s some training needed here. I went to a church in north of Boston when I was at Gorin-Conwell Theological Seminary, and the gal that read the Bible did a masterful job. She practiced. She knew how to read, and she had kind of a gravelly voice. I can still remember this like eight-inch thick Bible, probably came from the Reformation or something, I don’t know. And she would shut it and go, “the Word of the Lord.” But she had worked at it. That’s a great thing for elders to do. 

Have elders pray. I mean, there’s ways to get elders up in front other than just saying they’re over some ministry. Get them up there where people can see them, get to know who they are. 

You may reflect on the whole question of how do you protect your leadership from unrealistic requirements and burnout? When I was at Gorin-Conwell, the statistic was that only 1 out of 10 seminary graduates is still in ministry 10 years after graduation. You got to let that soak in. Only one graduate from seminaries in general, not just Gorin-Conwell—only one graduate was still in ministry within 10 years. I also heard the number that only 1 out of 100 makes it to retirement in ministry. It is a brutal job. And if you don’t think it’s brutal, then you’re not aware of what’s going on in your church. It is a brutal—how are you going to protect them? How are you going to find that balance between kind of a laissez-faire approach to running the church and burnout? That’d be a good thing to work on.

How do you train your church? How do you train your church to get them to see, this is where we want our staff. This is where we want our elders. It’s an important job. It takes real commitment, but we’re not going to burn them out. We’re not going to have unrealistic expectations. You know, in some churches, especially in different parts of the United States, pastors are expected to visit every single person in the church twice a year. Anytime anyone’s in the hospital, for whatever the purpose, they’re expected to go visit. I mean, forget that the deacons—that’s, I think, a deacon task. But do you know, how do you find that balance? 

Then, how do you educate the church so the church doesn’t have an unrealistic expectation of what the leaders will and will not do? I’ll say, what do you think of point three? Do you think leaders should be—not necessarily in charge of every major ministry—but does every major part, every member in your ministry have a direct line to an elder? Now you got to be careful because then they can bypass the pastor, which then it gets another set of complications there.

But does the head of every major ministry know that there’s an elder praying for them, available to help, available to step in when needed? What do you think of that?