Introduction: This week and next the national stage has been all about leadership, as we’ve endured, I mean, watched the convention of the Democrats and this week the Republicans. There is a problem with our political leaders, and I don’t care which side of the aisle that you are referring to, there exists a crisis of leadership on the national level. I’m not sure when it started – maybe it was Nixon, but it may go back a lot further than that – where our national leaders are more interested in pushing their personal agenda’s and advancing their personal fortunes more than they are interested in what is best for this country as a whole. We see this crisis of leadership in the convictions of high ranking party officials on both sides for taking perks and being enticed to support projects based simply on securing their futures in Washington rather than our futures at home!
You see this crisis of leadership in corporate America too. There are CEO’s of investment groups and mortgage companies that are raking in multi-million dollar bonuses despite the company having a poor year of performance. Companies like Enron are still out there, doing whatever they can to enhance their own life-style while laying off others or not paying share-holders some of the profits that they deserve. There is a crisis of leadership.
You see this crisis of leadership in the home – where fathers are absent, or are married to their jobs or sleep in on Sundays while the rest of the family is left to find their own spiritual growth and development. This crisis has existed for sometime. The world craves authentic leadership at all levels, I think this is why Paul gives us this admonition in Romans 12:8b when he says, “If God has given you leadership ability, take the responsibility seriously.”
See, Paul recognized that there are people with the spiritual gift of leadership who have decided to use their leadership for lesser things than kingdom use. There were plenty of people in Paul’s day who used their influence, their leadership, to build up their own financial security, or to manipulate a situation to their own advantage, or even used their leadership for a good cause, were neglecting stewarding that spiritual gift to leverage great gains for the church. So, Paul admonishes the believers in Rome, if God has given you the gift of leadership – use it! Don’t sit on your hands…don’t just use it for personal gain or even community gain – use it to help the church be as effective as it can possibly be!
Transition: this crisis of leadership was probably pretty pronounced in the early church. While Jesus was physically on earth it was pretty obvious who was leading the movement that eventually became known as Christianity – it was Jesus Himself.
We see it over and over again in the Gospels where Jesus says something like this; “One day as Jesus was walking along the shore of the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew…Jesus called out to them, “Come, follow me, and I will show you how to fish for people!” And they left their nets at once and followed him.” Mark 1:16-18
Or as we see in Luke 9:23, “Then he said to the crowd, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross daily, and follow me.”
And they did, mostly…follow him to the cross that is. Just an aside, not really the point of the message today but…if Jesus were to look at you today, would you qualify as one of his followers? What have you turned from in order to follow him? What kind of cross are you carrying? Where have you most recently followed him? Was it a conversation that he asked you to have, was it forgiveness he asked you to extend? Where has He been leading you? If you have a hard time with that question, you may not be following Jesus – oh you’re probably following someone alright, but it’s not Jesus!
Anyway, while Jesus was here he was the leader. But then Jesus left. He ascended into heaven, he left the disciples on earth with no one to follow – physically at least. Jesus did tell them that He was going to be leaving them. He said this in John 14:15-19, “If you love me, obey my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, who will never leave you. He is the Holy Spirit, who leads into all truth. The world cannot receive him, because it isn’t looking for him and doesn’t recognize him. But you know him, because he lives with you now and later will be in you. No, I will not abandon you as orphans—I will come to you. Soon the world will no longer see me, but you will see me. Since I live, you also will live.”
So, you see, they weren’t really alone after Jesus left. They had a leader, it was the Holy Spirit, and they were to follow Him. There is something about the Holy Spirit though, and that is – well, he’s invisible. I mean, He’s real, He’s alive, he lives in us, according to Jesus, he guides us, comforts us, convicts us of sin etc. but He is invisible. So, in the early church you start to see a different type of leadership taking hold. Look with me at a couple of examples.
In Acts 4 we start seeing this shift towards the visible people leadership in the local church. We read this in Acts 4: “All the believers were united in heart and mind. And they felt that what they owned was not their own, so they shared everything they had. The apostles testified powerfully to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and God’s great blessing was upon them all. There were no needy people among them, because those who owned land or houses would sell them and bring the money to the apostles to give to those in need.
For instance, there was Joseph, the one the apostles nicknamed Barnabas (which means “Son of Encouragement”)…He sold a field he owned and brought the money to the apostles.” Acts 4:32-37
A couple of pages later in Acts 6 we see it again when the apostles made a decision about distributing food to the needy in the congregation, it says, the Twelve called a meeting of all the believers. They said, “We apostles should spend our time teaching the word of God, not running a food program. And so, brothers, select seven men who are well respected and are full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will give them this responsibility. Then we apostles can spend our time in prayer and teaching the word.” Acts 6:2-4
Here you see the leaders taking the initiative to solve a problem. They listened to the Holy Spirit and then the apostles took the lead and the people followed the apostles who were following the Holy Spirit. Make sense?
Remember the passage that Pastor Cletus Titus taught from? He was in Acts 13 and he read this to us, “Among the prophets and teachers of the church at Antioch of Syria were Barnabas, Simeon (called “the black man”), Lucius (from Cyrene), Manaen (the childhood companion of King Herod Antipas), and Saul. One day as these men were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Dedicate Barnabas and Saul for the special work to which I have called them.” So after more fasting and prayer, the men laid their hands on them and sent them on their way.” Acts 13:1-3
Notice that the Holy Spirit went to the leadership of the church. The leaders obeyed the Holy Spirit’s leading and did what He led them to do.
One of the things that these missionaries did when they were sent out from the church is that they established new churches. And God’s plan for the church is that no church lack leadership, so we read this in Acts 14:23, “Paul and Barnabas also appointed elders in every church. With prayer and fasting, they turned the elders over to the care of the Lord, in whom they had put their trust.” Acts 14:23
So, now you have a foundation for what the elders are – they are God’s appointed leaders for the church. They are the physically seen leaders of the church. Christ is the ultimate leader of this church; the Holy Spirit guides the elders of this church and leads us. Let’s look at what the elders do.
To figure this out I want to use an image that is used in the NT as an elder. Let me also clarify, that in the Bible the word elder and overseer and pastor and shepherd are used interchangeably. So, Peter, one of the apostles and one of the elders of the early church in Jerusalem wrote this in his letter:
“And now, a word to you who are elders in the churches. I, too, am an elder and a witness to the sufferings of Christ. And I, too, will share in his glory when he is revealed to the whole world. As a fellow elder, I appeal to you: Care for the flock that God has entrusted to you. Watch over it willingly, not grudgingly—not for what you will get out of it, but because you are eager to serve God. Don’t lord it over the people assigned to your care, but lead them by your own good example. And when the Great Shepherd appears, you will receive a crown of never-ending glory and honor.” 1 Peter 5:1-4
The image here of an elder is that of a shepherd. A shepherd watches over what kind of animal? A sheep, right. Turn to your neighbor and make the best sheep noise that you can. Very good. What does a shepherd do? The answer to that question will tell you what the role of the elders are here at Believers.
The answer is right here in the passage we just read, a shepherd, an elder, is to care for the sheep. What does this look like? Well, we can look to King David, who was a shepherd for one of those examples. Remember when he was offering to fight Goliath while Saul and the rest of the Israelites cowered in fear back at the camp? He cited his experience as a shepherd to prove he was up to the challenge when he said, “I have been taking care of my father’s sheep and goats,” he said. “When a lion or a bear comes to steal a lamb from the flock, I go after it with a club and rescue the lamb from its mouth. If the animal turns on me, I catch it by the jaw and club it to death.” 1 Samuel 17:34-35
So an elder is a protector of the sheep. We monitor what is being taught, ensuring that false doctrine doesn’t creep in to the church, either through what I teach or what is being taught in the children’s ministry – or creeping up through small groups or whatever. So, if you are teaching wrong things, look out, one of the elders will be coming after you with a club!
We also care for the sheep by corralling those who wander. Luke 15, Jesus tells the story of the lost sheep, remember that? He says that a good shepherd, by application a good elder, who has a hundred sheep (do that sound again?) will leave the 99 who are safe and go after the 1 who was lost, who had wandered away. In other words, elders are to try to corral the flock, keep them together, keep them united, keep them from wandering from the faith. Sometimes this can mean getting in someone’s face, sometimes it means taking someone who wants to go in one direction and making them uncomfortable and making them go in a direction that they don’t want to go, but where God wants them to go.
In staff meeting this week an image of the shepherd came up along these lines, the person said that in the ancient world, sometimes a shepherd would have to break the leg of a sheep to keep them from constantly running away. That sounds more like the mafia than an elder, but the idea is that sometimes corralling sheep makes them uncomfortable, but we do it because it’s the right thing. Sometimes this can involve church discipline, which our elders have practiced. We have had to strip membership away from people, we have had to ask people to leave until they turn from a sin in their lives – not fun, but part of an elder’s job.
You might wonder how just a handful of elders can corral 400 or 500 sheep. That is the next way that elders care for the flock. Jesus is ultimately the main shepherd, and he said this:
“The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep recognize his voice and come to him. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.” John 10:3
“My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.” John 10:27
I love this aspect of the shepherd’s job – especially that of Jesus, the Great Shepherd – because it says he know us by name. In other words he knows me well. He doesn’t just holler to the masses – he reaches out specifically to Jamey Stuart! It’s a personal thing with him.
One of the responsibilities of the elders is to know the sheep – know the congregation. Learn your names. Learn what is going on in your life so we can pray for you and guide you and so forth. There is a problem with this though and the problem is that there are a lot of you and fewer of us, how is this going to happen? And there have been people in the past, and there will be people in the future who leave this church and complain that no one ever chased them down. There is a principle here and that is – the level of your care corresponds directly with your level of responsibility. In other words, the more plugged in you are, the more known you are, the more likely you will be to get the care you need.
That means that those of you who are faithful weekend attenders – but nothing else – you won’t get well known. You can change that by getting into a small group – all of our elders lead a small group – it is a requirement of an elder to lead at least 2 of the 3 semesters. It means coming to the BU classes – it means serving. Every time you take one of those steps you are allowing yourself to be known. That part is your responsibility.
Back in the Peter passage the elders are also warned not to abuse their leadership. Some of you have been in churches where the leadership has been abusive, or manipulative. Leaders who do that will answer to God for that.
Then in that passage Peter says that the elders are to “lead the sheep by their own good example.” This is the last big category that an elder is to do, he is to lead the sheep of the church. How does an elder do this? He does this by guarding the vision of the church. By constantly reminding everyone that we aren’t here for our own comfort – this church doesn’t exist to meet all of your needs, this church exists to fulfill the commands of Jesus. We exist to take the message of the Gospel to those who haven’t heard, both here and around the world. We exist to build up those who have placed their faith in Jesus and teach them what their next step in following Jesus is. In short, we exist to lead people to become fully developing followers of Jesus!
That’s why we’re here. We’re not a social club, we’re not a baby sitting service, we aren’t here to cater to our own needs – we are here because God has called us to love others with his love and so we do that in practical ways throughout our community. Just this pass week we distributed 300 bags of school supplies to kids in our community. We did that to show God’s love to kids and parents in our community in a practical way – sowing the seed of the Gospel into their lives and we pray that some of those families will find their way here, and hear a message that can change their life. (story of the person looking at our bag and saying, “you guys do so much good. Giving away gas and free school supplies.)
So that’s what are elders do – they shepherd, they care for the sheep and they lead the sheep by their example. Now, who are they and how do they become elders @ Believers?
Here are our elders (show pictures)
Let’s look at a passage and look at some of the qualifications, and please turn there with me if you would, we’ll kind of park here for the rest of our time. (Read 1 Timothy 3:1-7).
Verse 2 – a man. Why does it say a man? I don’t know, but it does. Paul could have used other words if he wanted it to be men and women, but he didn’t. He said an elder was a man. I will say that this is not politically correct today, and there are a lot of churches and denominations that say that this is just a cultural thing – but I’m not sure I buy that and it sets a pretty dangerous precedent to say that and you can just take away the words of Scripture, we could start doing that for anything. The writers of scripture didn’t seem to mind going against cultural norms. Who was the first one to find the empty tomb? Mary Magdalene. Why is that important? A woman had no rights in that day, she couldn’t testify in a court of law – if the writer’s of Scripture wanted to bolster the claims of the resurrection, they wouldn’t have chosen a woman. Paul tells people to love their wives as Christ gave the church. In a day when a woman was mere property, this was simply revolutionary talk. Christians have done more to advance the value and causes of womanhood than any other group. Yet, Paul states here that an elder is to be a man. A woman can do anything in this church except be an elder/pastor. We have women small group leaders, women who help plan our services, women who lead worship – but no women elders. We’re trying to be biblical!
His life it to be above reproach.
Faithful to his wife – a one woman man, literally in the greek. This has less to do with marital status than a state of heart. There are plenty of men who have only been married once but lust after women, indulge in pornography, cheat on their spouses in thought or deed and are disqualified. Divorce does not necessarily disqualify someone from eldership and I can cite a couple of examples. Jesus said there were two times divorce was allowed, desertion and infidelity of a spouse. In either case, the Bible says he is released from the bond of his commitment and allowed to remarry. So, in that situation and the other would be if it happened before he became a Christian. It seems silly to hold someone to the standard of an elder before he was even a Christian!
Our elders go through a process where their lives are scrutinized, where their knowledge of the Bible is tested and where we seek to discern if the person should serve in this area of leadership or not. We take about 6 months to study it out, read a book on elders, consult scripture, spend time with each other, get references from outside etc. Not everyone who goes through the process becomes an elder, but each person is handled respectfully and whether they serve as an elder or not doesn’t mean that they don’t have a role to play and something to offer the church through their leadership.
This process isn’t unrealistic, we recognize that no one is 100% in all of these areas, but these qualities have to be the general character of their lives. I mess up all the time, and so do you. Let’s stop pretending that there are perfect people among us, because there aren’t! But we do want to ensure that our elders meet biblical standards.
I think the greatest qualification is this – they hear the voice of the shepherd. Our elders aren’t the Great Shepherd, we’re actually just sheep ourselves, the lead sheep if you will. Our ultimate job is the same as the church leaders in the book of Acts – to hear the Holy Spirit and lead the rest to follow where He is guiding. We don’t ask you to follow our lead because we’ve got it all figured out – we say follow us as we follow Him. The author of Hebrews says this to the sheep, “Obey your spiritual leaders, and do what they say. Their work is to watch over your souls, and they are accountable to God. Give them reason to do this with joy and not with sorrow. That would certainly not be for your benefit.” Heb. 13:17.
The question I want to conclude with is this…how well are you following Him? How well do you hear His voice? If you don’t hear Him, then maybe you don’t belong to Him!
Prayer.
