Church attendance on the Sunday after the September 11 attacks rose by 6% nationwide. However, seven weeks later, pollsters tell us that church attendance has settled back to the same level it was before the terrorist attacks. Just by way of contrast, the Sunday after President Kennedy was assassinated in 1963, church attendance went up by 20%. So it seems odd that our nation would be facing our biggest crisis since World War II, and we’d only see a 6% increase and that it would only last a few weeks.
It’s tempting for us as the Christian community to point our finger at the unchurched in our community. We might be tempted to say, "People in our culture today are anti-Christian, so no wonder they aren’t in church during this time of crisis." Or we might be tempted to day, "Here’s another example of western individualism, where people don’t see their need for community." However I wonder if people’s lack of church attendance during this time of national crisis says more about the church than it does about the people who don’t attend.
Most non-Christians I know aren’t anti-Christian, but they are anti-church. In fact, most of my non-Christian friends believe in God and some even try to nurture some kind of personal spirituality, but they’re skittish of organized religion, the kind of thing they see in our churches. I saw this very kind of attitude in the TV show CSI this last week, when the main character was invited by a catholic priest to attend mass. The character replied, "I believe in God, but I don’t believe in religion." Translated that seems to mean, "I nurture my life with God in places other than the church."
And it’s also simply not true that most unchurched people are rugged individualists who avoid community at all costs. Many unchurched people nurture their spiritual lives in other community settings, whether it’s a yoga class or an AA meeting, a martial arts course or a book discussion group at Borders Books. The reality is that it’s not that unchurched people avoid community, but it’s that they avoid church. I suspect the lack of church attendance in the wake of our national crisis reveals something about the church in our culture.
We’ve been in a series through the New Testament books of 1 and 2 Timothy. We’ve been calling our series Deepening Your Life With God. We’ve seen so far that a deepened life with God comes as a result of three factors in our lives: Accurate beliefs, spiritual practices, and authentic Christian community.
It’s this authentic Christian community we’re talking about now. You see, attending worship services on Saturday night or Sunday morning is no guarantee that we’re experiencing authentic community. Many people in our culture "play church" the way children play dress up. They dress in their Sunday best, put on a phony happy face, pretend to be excited about God and want to learn about how to follow Jesus. This is a kind of superficial "churchianity," and it smells fake and phony. Playing church, or even going to church, can never be a substitute for authentic Christian community.
Today we’re going to see that character is an indispensable quality to experience authentic Christian community. Today we’re going to see two specific areas character is especially important and then the reason why character is so important for us to have authentic Christian community.
1. Leaders With Character (1 Timothy 3:1-7)
Let me just give you the first area character counts: To experience authentic Christian community, those who lead us must lead with integrity.
Look at 1 Timothy 3:1. This is the second "trustworthy statement" we’ve encountered in 1 Timothy. Bible scholars tell us that these "trustworthy statements" were slogans that were well known in the Ephesian church Timothy was ministering in when the apostle Paul wrote Timothy this letter. So the "trustworthy statements" were like some of our church slogans, like, "Helping people love God and others," and "Every member a minister." This slogan was, "If anyone sets his heart on being an overseer, he desires a noble task." That tells me that perhaps they were having difficulty finding people who wanted to serve as church overseers.
Now the word "overseer" simply means leader, a person who’s in charge of guiding a church forward in the advancement of its mission. Later on in church history this word would come to describe a bishop. But at this point it simply refers to a church leader, the equivalent of an elder in the church (Stott 90).
Paul’s point seems to be that it’s good and right to want to become an overseer in the church, but he’s going to list some very specific criteria church leaders must meet to qualify. In other words, it’s good to want to serve this way, but the church must make sure those who serve in this way qualify. You might remember the context of 1 Timothy, that some of the former elders in the church in Ephesus have abandoned the Christian, so Timothy is trying to appoint new elders and to make sure the current elders are qualified for their position.
Now at Life Bible Fellowship Church our "overseers" are our Elder Board. Currently we have five elders on our elder board: Mal Youngblood who is our elder board chairman, Mike Duffy, Bruce Erickson, Bob Myers, Gary Keith, and myself. Now you might notice that all of our elders are male, and last week we talked about what that’s true. If you weren’t here last week, I encourage you to get the tape or to read the sermon on our web site. Since we’re talking about eldership, let me describe the process a person goes through to become an elder here at Life Bible Fellowship Church. Every few years I offer a special four month class called "Design for Leadership." We open the class to anyone who wants to come to it, but we also personally invite certain people we as an elder board see as potential elders. Sometimes we also ask the congregation to give us input on people they see as potential elders. In this leadership class we talk at length about our congregation’s vision, values, mission, and doctrine. I also teach about key leadership skills. At the end of the course, anyone who wants to take the next step is invited to attend elder meetings for six months to a year as elder apprentices. We currently have three people in this apprenticeship process right now. This gives us an opportunity to get to know them and them an opportunity to get to know us. If at the end of that apprenticeship time, if they want to serve as elders and if the board feels good about what they’d contribute to the elder board, they decide to officially aspire. To do that, we present the potential elder in front of the church, read the qualifications from here in 1 Tim 3 and also from Titus chapter 1. Then we ask that if anyone knows something about the potential elder’s character that would disqualify them from eldership that they take it up with the potential elder within a 3 month period of time, and then, if need be, that they bring it up to the rest of the elder board. If there is no objection on moral grounds, we appoint that person to eldership. Our non-staff elders serve for three years, and then have the option of a year off, and then they can continue to serve. We’re not a congregationally ruled church in the sense that our members vote on elders, but instead we see the role of calling new elders to rest with our elder board, and the role of confirming that call to rest with the congregation. So that’s the process of becoming an elder here at LBF Church.
Now in vv. 2-7 we find several qualifications for overseers who serve as elders in the church. As we read these qualifications, you’ll find that the great majority of them have to do with character, not with leadership ability. This is because no amount of leadership ability can compensate for a lack of character.
Look at the qualities with me. The phrase "above reproach" is a catch all phrase for everything that follows. "Above reproach" does not mean morally perfect because if it did, Jesus would be the only person to qualify to lead. In fact, "above reproach" doesn’t even mean, "Nearly morally perfect." Instead the word refers to integrity, and what this integrity looks like is spelled out in detail in the following character qualities.
We find here the need for martial faithfulness in v. 2. The Greek text literally reads "a one woman man." Being a "one woman man" refers to a man who keeps his marriage vows, a person who, if he is married, is completely committed to his spouse. Marriage can be really difficult at times, and how a married person perseveres during those really difficult seasons of marriage reveals that person’s character. This is not to say this person has never been tempted to break his vows, but this is the person who makes the choice to stay faithful to his vows even when times are difficult and he’s tempted to do otherwise. Martial faithfulness is a window into a person’s character.
We also see the need for self-restraint in v. 2. The words temperate, self-controlled, and respectable all refer to the leader’s self restraint. A leader who can’t control his own drives and urges won’t be able to effectively lead other people. A leader in the church must have a sense of self-mastery and accountability, lest his passions overwhelm him and disqualify him from leadership.
We also see the need for hospitality here. Now hospitality was especially important back in the first century, because all the hotels were known to be crime infested, so the only way for traveling Christian teachers and preachers to serve was for church leaders to open their homes to them. But I think hospitality is also important today as well. The Greek word here literally means "love of strangers," and I think it describes an openness to new people, to people we don’t know, even people who might even be different than we are. Far too often we as leaders are tempted to only hang out with our friends or with other leaders, and this qualification reminds us that we need to be open to people we don’t know. To be honest, this is an area I struggle with, because it doesn’t come naturally. I struggle to grow in this area as I seek to see my character more closely shaped into the character of Jesus.
Finally we get to an area of leadership skill when we read about teaching ability at the end of v. 2. Now this isn’t simply the ability to follow a lesson plan, but it’s knowing enough about the Christian faith and the Bible to accurately communicate it to other people. The qualifications for overseers we find in Titus 1:9 helps us understand what "able to teach means." Paul writes Titus that overseers must "hold firmly to the message" (which refers to understanding the Christian faith), they must be able to encourage other people with sound doctrine (which refers to communicating the Christian faith to others) and they must be able to refute those who oppose sound doctrine (which refers to the ability to use the Bible to expose false ideas about God). Now some of us on the elder board have advanced degrees in Bible and theology, so obviously we’re going to be more attuned to this sort of thing, but all of our elders-regardless of educational level-have a basic knowledge of the Christian faith, training in how to use the Bible, and the ability to teach the Bible. This is an essential skill for church leaders, and in the past we’ve rejected potential elders who were qualified morally but who didn’t yet have this skill. We told these people they had to bring their understanding of the Christian faith and skill in teaching the Bible up to a certain level before they could consider aspiring to eldership.
We also find the need for moderation with alcohol here. Now for me as a recovering alcoholic and addict, this means total abstinence from alcohol. As they say in AA, for people like me, "One drink is too many, and a thousand is never enough." But for other elders who don’t have that kind of a background, that means moderation when they drink socially.
Paul also mentions relationship integrity. The word "violent" in v. 3 refers to someone who’s a bully in their relationships with others. The words "gentle" and "not quarrelsome" also refer to relationship integrity. Sometimes I can be a bit quarrelsome, so this is an area I’m constantly trying to grow in. Paul’s point seems to be that church leaders must know how to have good, healthy relationships with other people.
Then he mentions financial integrity. Greed has no place in church leadership, especially when you’re making financial decisions and handling people’s hard earned giving. But part of financial integrity is generosity, and we fully expect our elders to be among the most generous and faithful financial supporters of the church. Whenever we face a new faith challenge that requires financial commitment, we expect our elder board to set the pace for the rest of the church. When we bought this property back in 1977 for $360,000, our elder board agreed to use the equity in their homes if necessary to make the payments.
In addition to financial integrity, Paul mentions family integrity in vv. 4-5. Notice the emphasis here is both on the potential elder’s leadership skill in his own home and on his integrity in his relationship with his kids. Although the English translation uses the word "manage" here the Greek word is "lead" and it refers to giving direction to a group. Paul’s point seems to be that if a person can’t provide leadership for his own family or if a person has minor children who are in rebellion, that demonstrates something’s not right in the home. This is not talking about rebellion of adult children or typical child behavior, but it’s speaking of full rebellion. Kids will be kids, and there’s a whole host of normal kid behavior that this text is not talking about. This seems to point to an elder’s minor child who’s completely rejected his or her parent’s authority and is spinning out of control.
Then Paul mentions spiritual maturity in v. 6. The Greek word here is the word neophyte, and it originally described a seedling that’s just been recently planted but that doesn’t yet have deep roots. So the seedling is easily uprooted. A lack of spiritual depth leads to conceit on the part of the leader, which causes his downfall.
Finally, Paul mentions a good community reputation in the non-Christian world. I think about this every time I’m tempted to loose my temper at one of my boys little league games. Again, this doesn’t mean perfect, but it refers a person who doesn’t have a reputation for being dishonest or immoral in the community.
A big reason why the unchurched world avoids the church is because often our leaders lack this kind of integrity. We can point to the obvious examples, the Jimmy Swaggarts and the Jim Bakkers. But we can also point to more subtle examples.
Frankly, I think the key to having integrity is not pretending to be perfect, but it’s simply having high moral standards and being honest with our shortcomings. I struggle to live by some of these qualifications. Some come easily, but others are a real struggle, and I hope I’m making progress.
You see, the reality is that all genuine leadership requires integrity. Our culture has bought into the idea that leadership performance isn’t at all related to a leader’s personal character. I think the biggest tragedy of the Clinton scandal wasn’t so much what our former president did--as bad as that was--but how the American public responded to what he did. There seemed to be no awareness that an inability to keep one’s marriage vows might affect a person’s ability to keep one’s leadership vows.
According to the Bible there is a clear and direct connection between authentic leadership and integrity. This is true in every area of life. It’s true of our lives as parents, as we seek to lead our children to become healthy, responsible, and God loving people. It’s true of those who seek to lead their business, those who are bosses, those who serve in public office. One of the myths of our generation is that character and leadership performance are unrelated.
But before we point the finger at those people out there, the point of this text is to make sure we in the Christian community have leaders who lead us with integrity.
2. Servants With Character (1 Timothy 3:8-12)
Now let me give you the second area where character is essential: To experience authentic Christian community, those who serve in ministry must serve with integrity.
Look at v. 8. Paul mentions "deacons." Now later on in church history the word "deacon" came to be a leadership term, but here it simply means "servant." The Greek word Paul uses here is diakonos, which simply means "servant" or "minister." A diakonos referred to a person who did menial service to a master, and in the context of the church it refers to people who are involved in ministry. In v. 11 the Greek text literally reads, "Women likewise." The New International Version of the Bible takes the word "women" to refer to the wives of these servants, but I think it makes better sense to take it as referring to female deacons. So both men and women served as deacons or servants in the church.
At Life Bible Fellowship Church our "deacons" are our leadership community. Our leadership community consists of everyone who works with people in ministry in our church. It includes our children’s ministers, our small group care pastors, our volunteer worship leaders, our student ministry volunteer staff, and so forth. All of these people begin as apprentice leaders in their ministry. We meet with this group of people every month for prayer, instruction, and encouragement. So we don’t have a formal deacon board, but instead we look at those who serve in ministry with people as the equivalent of our deacons.
Now what kind of character is Paul talking about for those who serve in ministry? Look again at vv. 8-12.
Like those who lead, those who serve in ministry must have good character. The phrase "worthy of respect" is a catch all phrase that refers to good character. Again, this isn’t perfection or even near perfection, but high moral standards combined with honesty about one’s shortcomings. As part of this character, Paul mentions several of the same things he mentioned with elders, things like moderation with alcohol and financial integrity.
Paul also mentions doctrinal integrity. This is one clear difference in qualifications between those who lead and those who serve. Those who lead must not only know the Christian faith, but they also have to be able to instruct others in it and bring correction to those teaching false doctrine. But those who serve are simply required to hold to the Christian faith with a clear conscience. In other words, these people don’t have any reservations about our doctrinal statement and mission as a church. They aren’t necessarily able to defend the Christian faith against false claims or even to teach, but the hold to it with a clear conscience.
In connection with female deacons, Paul makes special mention of controlling their tongue. Perhaps Paul knows the women in Ephesus were especially tempted with malicious talk, so he wants to be sure that those women who serve in ministry can control their tongues. But this is also important for the men who serve in ministry as well. This is the person who resists the urge to pass on a tidbit of information about another person, the person who refuses to gossip and slander other people.
Paul makes special mention of being trustworthy. To serve in ministry, you’ve got to be trustworthy enough to be counted on, because people’s lives are at stake. Now our leadership community amazes me with their trustworthiness. I stand in amazement at most of our people’s willingness to help, their level of commitment.
Then Paul again mentions marital faithfulness, just as he did with leaders.
Finally, Paul mentions family integrity.
Not only is it important for those who lead us in the Christian community to lead with integrity, but those who serve must also serve with integrity. This is just as much a part of authentic Christian community as character in leadership is. When the non-Christian community sees people who serve in their church but who willfully disregard the teachings of Jesus in their jobs or in their marriages, that smells like hypocrisy.
3. What Character Does (1 Timothy 3:13)
Why is this all such a big deal? Look at v. 13. Those who serve with integrity as leaders and as servants in the church will gain "an excellent standing." Now this isn’t talking about personal status in the church, as if those who lead well and those who serve well get a special parking place. The excellent standing is the church’s standing in the community. This refers to the Christian community’s reputation among those who don’t attend the church. How our leaders lead and how our servants serve either builds or tears down our congregation’s reputation in the community.
Now why is Paul concerned with the church’s reputation? We find that out when Paul says those who lead and serve with integrity also gain "great assurance" in their faith. The word "assurance" is literally "boldness," and it refers to "a state of boldness and confidence, even in the face of intimidating circumstances" (Louw and Nida, Greek English Lexicon 25.158). So the assurance here isn’t just an inward sense of assurance, but it’s talking about our confidence and boldness in sharing the good news of Jesus Christ with our community.
So here we find why integrity is so important, why character still counts. When our Christian community has integrity, our message has credibility.
The credibility of our message is directly connected to the integrity of our leaders and the integrity of our servants. So when our nation faces a national crisis, and the next Sunday our nation’s churches experience only a 6% increase in attendance, I believe that says far more about the credibility of American churches than it says about the people who don’t come to church. For unchurched people in the twenty-first century, the church lacks credibility. Could it be that this is the backlash of years and years of pastors getting busted for prostitution, of church leaders living driving Rolls Royces, people who serve in ministry cheating their employees and flirting with their secretaries?
Conclusion
But there’s also a promise contained in these words: A church with leaders who have integrity and servants who have integrity has credibility to share the good news with its community.
Character still really does count. And the kind of character that still counts isn’t perfection or even near perfection, but it’s integrity. In fact, when we try to look perfect, we don’t fool anyone, because everyone knows we’re all just strugglers in this journey. We all struggle with things in our lives that are self-destructive, things that hurt those around us, things that displease God. When we pretend to be anything other than fellow strugglers, all we succeed in doing is confirming our culture’s belief that Christians are hypocrites. The kind of character that still counts is integrity. Integrity is high moral standards combined with brutal honesty about where we’re still falling short. We should be the absolutely first ones to admit where we’re still struggling, where we continue to need help. A dose of integrity in the church today will give us great credibility for this amazing and crucial time in our nation’s history.
