Elder Position Paper - Lesson 2

I. Introduction

In our previous lesson, we looked at the reason for having an elder position paper and the history behind the process of me writing an elder position paper. I covered some of the general concerns, mostly about the ad hoc nature of the lists in 1 Timothy 3. Make sure you have started with lesson one before you come to this lesson. But we’re actually going to get to the paper now.

I’m primarily drawing from 1 Timothy 3:1-7, 5:17-23, and Titus 1:5-9. There are other verses on leadership that I’ve included, but those would be the main ones we’re going to be looking at. 

II. Three Core Qualifications

When you take all of these different verses and kind of put similar ones together, they fall into three really nice categories.

One category is a person’s character. Are they above reproach? The vast majority of the requirements for leadership in the church are character requirements. Unfortunately, this is one of those things that is simply never touched on in seminary, at least in every seminary I’ve ever known. We teach people how to parse Greek and Hebrew, we teach them theology, all really important things. But issues of character are often left aside. You can’t really teach them in a classroom, but that’s the fault of our way we’ve designed seminary education. But enough about that some other time. Character is the main thing we’re looking for in elders. What is their character? Are they spiritually mature? And are they above reproach? 

For the second category, just to keep the ‘C’s going, I use the word ‘content.’ Here I’m primarily referring to whether they know the Bible. Are they able to teach it? That’s the one thing that separates an elder from a deacon. Are you able to teach the truth? Are you able to refute error? That is an interesting thing we’ll look at.

Number three is ‘calling.’ Is the person called into management? Does he have proven managerial ability with the people? Not with things, not with employees, but with the people. People in the church, people in their homes. We’ll talk about that. But the verses all kind of fall into one of those three categories. You’ll find as we work through that the requirements for leadership are actually higher than they are for a regular Christian.

III. Importance of Leadership

Gene A. Getz’s great book, The Measure of a Man: Twenty Attributes of a Godly Man, takes the principles in 1 Timothy 3 and applies them to all people. They can be applied to all people. It’s a very good book, a very legitimate thing to do. But when it gets right down to it, the requirements that Paul has for elders are higher than they are for people in general. That’s one reason the church, I think, really needs to err on the side of caution. It is much better to leave an elder position vacant than to get the wrong person in. It’s relatively easy for someone to move into leadership. It’s almost impossible to get them out of leadership. It’s a slow, deliberate process, and you have to be very careful. After all, leadership is not a right. Some people may think, “Well, I have a right to lead.” No, you don’t. It’s a gift. It’s a calling. It’s an enablement from God that’s recognized by the elders and by the church. No one has a right to lead. If someone starts saying they have a right to lead, you need to have a real down-to-earth, come-to-Jesus talk with the person. 

A couple of other introductory things: many of the qualities that we’re going to mention in these series of lessons are covered in more detail in our class, The Biblical Basis for Leadership. So, if you want to go deeper, you can. The biblical homework I’ve done in my commentary on the pastorals in The Word Biblical Commentary series has a lot of information. Also, I wrote an article in a book called Biblical Leadership: Theology for Everyday Leaders. I think it’s a good article, but the book as a whole is quite helpful, so I encourage you to pick that up as well. 

I will have relatively short lessons from here on out, because I want to discuss a group of verses that are similar, then I want you to stop, and I want you to reflect. Hopefully you’re watching this as a group, and I want you to sit down and say, “Okay, what do you think? Was Mounce right? Was he wrong? I don’t like his application. I liked his application. Should we implement this in our church, or can we cast it aside?” That’s your call, not my call. I want the lessons a little shorter to leave time for you to reflect on and apply the material that I’m covering. Also, be sure you get the handouts. There are quite a few handouts listed for this class. One of them is “The Spiritual Call of Eldership.” I will be working through it. I’m not going to be—just for the sake of time—I’m not going to give all the verse references, but they are in the handout. So, I encourage you to pick that up.

Let’s talk about the importance of leadership. First Timothy 3:1, “If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task.” By the way, I wrote this a long time ago, and I was using the English Standard Version (ESV). So, if you’re wanting a Bible version of this, it’s the ESV. 

“If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task.” It’s important. Leadership is very important. First Peter 5:1-2, “So I exhort the elders among you…shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly…” See, that’s how important it is. You have to have people that are willing to exert oversight, not because they have to, but because they want to, understanding that the church is not their church. The church is the flock of God, and elders are simply stewards of the authority that God has placed in them. So, this whole thing is very important.

Why would Paul need to say this? Well, historically, it’s real obvious. The church in Ephesus was a mess, and a lot of the problems that you have in the Ephesians church that’s reflected in the letter of 1 Timothy are the kinds of issues that you have from an established church. Paul was in Ephesus for over three years, the longest time that we know of that he spent in any one place. What you have is not the kind of issues that a new church has, but these are the problems that entrenched management can cause. Why would you need to be told as an Ephesian that eldership is a noble task? Because it’s a mess. It’s going to take up time. It’s going to have heartache because you have to deal with false teachers and a lot of other things that are going on.

Leadership is not clean. Leadership is dirty. You have to get your hands dirty because you’re going to be involved in the lives of people, and some of these people in your church, frankly, are really messed up. Your life may be somewhat messed up, too. But when you’re in leadership, you’re really in the—what’s the expression? You’re in the pit with them. You’re in the foxhole with them. But also recognize the church is not a democracy.

IV. Necessity of Biblical Standards

I have real trouble with congregational rule. There are some people I know, Mark Dever and John Piper, whom I respect deeply and who have argued for congregational rule. I just don’t see it. The church is not a democracy. People can’t do whatever they want to do. I’m not saying that’s what John and Mark say, but there is a leadership structure, and we are told to submit to the authority of our leaders. Therefore, that role of leadership is very important. So that’s the statement of it. Necessity. Necessity.

First Timothy 3:2, “Therefore, an overseer must be above reproach…” then it continues. I really want to center in—in the other class, I’m going to center in a lot more on this. These are not optional. The word that is used there is very dramatic. It’s very specific. It’s the apostle saying, “This is the way it is.” Paul never did brook disagreement. I mean, he was an apostle. He had his teaching from the Lord, and he was this authoritative. He was like preachers are supposed to be. He was a herald of the King. Requirements for a herald are they speak clearly, and they’re faithful to the message of the king. Paul is a herald of the King. Preachers are to be a herald of the Kng. Because of that, he’s not going to have someone come in and disagree with him. He has the authority to say, “This is the way it is.” When he says, “it must be,” then it must be.

Now, I had a rather discouraging experience in my church when I was working through this with our elder board. When we were all done, one of my friends, an elder, said, “Well, I just think we’re being legalistic.” I said, “Really?” He said, “Yes, I just think if we can find good men who know how to make decisions, that’s all it really takes to be an elder.” I looked at him and said, “Really? So, you think Paul’s teaching is irrelevant? Just irrelevant. And you’re going to put up your two requirements for an elder against the Apostle Paul?” 

He didn’t answer me, but I was pretty blunt because I was shocked. I thought I knew this man better, but I was shocked that he would be so willing to dismiss the instructions of Paul and have his two criteria: a good person who can make decisions. How do you know he’s a good person? How do you know he can make decisions? I mean, it was a disturbing experience on my part.

But I want to center in on that word, it is ‘necessary.’ In Greek, it’s de- delta-epsilon-iota. In the commentary, I go through places where de is used in Paul’s teaching. Let’s just listen to the seriousness of this particular word. In the pastorals, de occurs nine times, but Paul uses it 25 other times in his other writings, and it’s really interesting. Several times—this is page 169 in the commentary, “…Christ must reign until all his enemies are under his feet. At death, the perishable immortal man must be replaced by the imperishable and immortal. All people must appear before the judgment seat of Christ.” And the list goes on. These are passages where Paul is using the word de not in a debatable way. It is necessary. This is what an elder must be.

My question is, what if you decide not to follow these instructions? What do you call it when you don’t follow the clear, unambiguous demands of the Bible? I’ll let you figure out where I’m going with this. All these requirements are absolutely required. No exceptions.

V. Spiritual Accountability

Not only are the requirements for elders necessary, but it’s important to understand that eldership is primarily a spiritual position because you’re answerable to God. There are also administrative abilities that an elder—all of the elders on the board—must have.

At the end of the day, you’re answerable to God, and that makes this really serious. In Titus 1:7, the elder is called “God’s steward.” In Hebrews 13:17, the author says, “…your leaders…are keeping watch over your souls as those who will have to give an account.” The account is to the Lord. In Acts 20:28, “Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God which he obtained with his own blood.” This is not the Lions Club. Okay? This is not a social club. This is the entity for which Christ died. That’s a spiritual reality. First Peter 5:1-2, “So I exhort the elders among you…shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you, not for shameful gain, but eagerly; not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock.” 

I know that leadership teams have to deal with administrative issues. They have to do budgets. They have to deal with job descriptions. There’s a lot of administrative things you have to do. But leadership in the church is primarily a spiritual reality because you’re looking over the souls of the people in your church, and you are responsible to God for how you do that. It just makes sense. The church is primarily a spiritual reality, right? So, since it’s a spiritual reality, the leadership of that would also be spiritual.

VI. Reflection & Resources

We have a class in the leadership tract called Pastoral Care and Leadership. I’d really encourage you to look at it as an elder board. We tend to be so busy looking over and helping other people that we often forget our own spiritual lives, our own spiritual growth. That class will help you take inventory on how you’re doing, and especially if you do it as a staff. There’s a church in Ohio that wrote me and said that when the class came out, every Monday the entire pastoral staff got together. They watched the lesson, and they talked about it. How are we doing? Why? Because it’s not a matter of debits and credits. Running the church is primarily a spiritual reality, so you have to do spiritual assessments from time to time. Take time to reflect on this. Is what I’m saying right? Is it too much? Is it not enough? But take some time.

In your experience, in your church, is the importance of all of these rules taken seriously? Or are they taken flippantly, like my friend wanted to do? How much are you willing to insist that your elder board follow these guidelines, mandate that people follow these guidelines? 

I had a very uncomfortable situation. I’ll probably refer to it later on. But there was a man, an elder. I liked him. He’s a good guy. We had worked through this whole position paper, but one of the things we worked through is his children. It turns out that none of his children were Christian. We had stated that at least a majority of an elder’s children have to be Christian. That was our interpretation. When it came time to nominate the next round of elders, he put his name forward, and we had to turn him down. He was really angry at me. I finally said, “But you voted on this position paper.” I asked, “What did you think we were doing?” He said, “I just thought we were doing it to look good.”

No, we’re not doing this to look good. We’re doing it because the text says it is necessary that leaders be a certain kind of person to oversee the church and give an answer to God for how they’re doing. So, this could be difficult. This is going to be a difficult thing. Reflect on it now.