Elders

Long, long, long ago a severe famine appeared in a wide large land that was used to enough food for as long as anyone could remember.

All of a sudden they realized that they were used to plenty and had never taken enough care to save for a rainy day, in this situation more like a dry day. They ate all they had in the small granaries they had. Yet the drought continued.

They ate the animals they had. In fact they realized that it was the best thing to do before all of them died of hunger or became too skinny to eat. But the drought continued.

Then they started looking for wild animals and in a short while they either cleared their forest or the animals fled to more livable lands.

Then they swept their bushes and thickets for small game; rabbits and even squirrels. But in a short while those also ran out. Yet the famine continued.

They then sank to levels they had never imagined. They started looking for rodents and even reptiles as there was simply no other food available. But the famine continued.

Eventually people started losing their strength as there was so little to eat. The strong ones were the ones who scoured their area and went far to look for food, with the strongest being able to look for food even to the neighboring nations; journeys that took weeks to complete yet did not accomplish much as there was a drought there too. The advantage with the other nation was that they had stored some extra food to help a needy neighbor from far. You see capitalism was not yet a way of life.

Eventually the strong realized that something had to be done. There was simply not enough food to go around however hard they rationed. Unless something was done, they knew that it was a matter of time before the whole community perished.

The leaders therefore held a crisis meeting to look for a solution.

They had to reduce the mouths to feed to leave a chance for a few people to survive the famine. Those still with some remaining strength but not enough to travel to look for food were encouraged to move to the neighboring lands and stay there until it rains in their land. They were given some little provision for a few days on the road and were advised to be on the lookout for anything to supplement.

They were left with a dilemma. What were they to do with the old and withered people? They could not look for food for themselves, leave alone for anybody else. Many were sickly and needed even more food and care than the healthy. And there was no chance they could offer anything in exchange for all the food they ate. At least the children were not so dependent as they ate some detestable things from the ground but their parents pretended not to see as it helped maintain their health without drawing on the scarce food rations they had.

They decided to clear these dependent people by killing them. It was a unanimous decision that each one was to kill his parents. And that is what they did.

One man however did not agree with them though he saw no reason to do so in the meeting when he saw the drift of the meeting. He therefore carefully concealed that fact from the rest.

That meant that he had to look for more food secretly so that nobody suspected that he had defied the decision of the breadwinners (scrap gatherers is a more appropriate term). Even when they had a communal meal he had to hide some food, yet so secretly to take to his father.

But finally it rained and everybody was so excited. They could start farming, which they did.

Unfortunately they did not have any seed to plant as they had eaten all of it in the famine. Going to the neighboring lands would take more time than the rainy season could have allowed. They were at a loss as to what they needed to do. They promised a reward to anyone who could provide a solution.

The man who defied them went to his father and explained their dilemma. His father advised him to tell them to dig around their homes and they would have food. Though they thought it was more of a joke they did it as they had nothing else constructive to do.

In a short while food was growing in those compounds. How? The compound is normally too hard for seed to penetrate yet it is where food is prepared, meaning that seed will always be found there.

The community was excited that now they have food and made this man their leader. But they wanted to know where he got that secret from. But he said that it was his secret. They plodded him day after day until they promised that they would not touch the source of that secret. Then he told them that it was his father who had given him that secret. He confessed to having defied their collective agreement to kill their parents and asked for their forgiveness.

They would have none of it. He was their hero. His disobedience had saved them from certain death. They regretfully confessed that they were the foolish ones to have killed their parents supposing that had all of them been alive even better solutions could have been available.

We have become a generation of perennial youngsters. It appears like being old is a liability. People in their seventies are bleaching their hair to look young and virile. It sometimes appears to some shameful to be so old.

Strangers have devoured his strength, and he knoweth it not: yea, gray hairs are here and there upon him, yet he knoweth not. (Hosea 7:9)

The other day I was talking with some friends about a function when he suggested that I would need to bleach my grey hair to fit in. I was shocked to say the least. I respect my grey head. I am not ashamed of my age. I might not be as strong as when I was twenty but I am strong enough for my age. Of course I refused. I hope I was diplomatic as I did so since I felt as if I had been insulted.

The problem with our generation is that we have taken this fear and spite of age even to church. But even worse is we have adjusted the scriptures to agree with us. We have transferred responsibilities that were meant for the old and grey headed to the youth, like the people in my story thinking that the old have nothing much to add to our progress.

Who was a deacon in the scriptures? What are his qualifications?

I will highlight a few to demonstrate to us that he simply could not have been young, probably not middle aged and certainly could not have been a woman, however affirmative you may want me to appear. I do not argue with the Bible. I do not try to justify my interpretations. I just seek to understand so that I may live by what it teaches.

One that ruleth well his own house, having his children in subjection with all gravity; (For if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God?) (1Timothy 3:4, 5)

My understanding of this is that this elder is old and with mature children who have been raised in the fear of God. The children become his testimony in church and outside.

Is it possible to bring up children this way before you get married? Is it possible to do so before getting them? Is it possible to do so when your children are small?

Not a novice, lest being lifted up with pride he fall into the condemnation of the devil. Moreover he must have a good report of them which are without; lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil. (1Timothy 3:6, 7)

He must be someone with a proven track record of his faith. He has been in the faith for long enough to silence even his enemies as to the genuineness of that faith. He has been in the faith for so long that his critics, even his enemies can write a positive testimony about him. He has also walked with God for so long that it can be safely assumed that titles have no capacity of swaying his commitment to Christ. He has walked so close to Christ and for so long that positions and titles have little chance of arousing pride in him. That is hard for a young man to fit that description.

Even the qualification about wine more accurately describes an old man because the stresses of middle age sometimes lead some to drunkenness. It is therefore assumed that this deacon must have successfully passed middle age.

Does it mean that young people can’t be committed? It is precisely because they can be so committed that we need an old man to lead them instead of making them leaders. In my not so many years I have seen men who are at one moment so committed to Christ transferring that commitment to something or someone else for this or that reason. I have seen people with an encounter with God that is enviable yet for marriage behaves as if nothing had ever happened. I have been through testimonies so dramatic that one is convinced that the one involved will become Christ’s servant for life yet you see the same being used to look for money instead of giving glory to God.

Yet it is not restricted to our time. Judas was with Christ for all the time yet for some money sold Him. Peter was in the inner circle yet he betrayed Him. One thing we see in the Gospels repeated again and again is that they believed as if that is when it started. Yet even after resurrection we see them doubting that they had to touch His hands and side to believe. And they had been part of all the miracles He did and sermons He gave.

Faith is not a straight line. There are enough crises along the way, crises that have the capacity of getting me away from the faith altogether. I have seen enough people in my life to emphatically say that we can’t use someone’s commitment in his youth to predict his later commitment.

A case in point is a man I knew and respected since my childhood. We used to go for fellowships in his house and I really knew him as a man on fire for God. This man had a family I envied. I recently heard that this same man got a good job, a job that offered opportunities for everything he wanted and he lost his faith. He is now a drunkard and has been unable to reconnect to his earlier faith however hard he tried. He is in his sixties. He was a leader not only in the church he attended; he was a leader in the fellowship that involved many churches. He was not poor as he had land and farms so we cannot say it was depravity that took him that direction.

An old man that has been consistent in his faith is more powerful than the most eloquent preacher. Even the devil knows him as he has been on his case for a long time. He must have tried all the devises in his armory to bring him down without success. His spiritual stature is much higher than the spiritual giants in the frontline of spiritual warfare and ministry. The thing he has been able to succeed in is getting them away from spiritual leadership through the same leadership that is insecure especially in this elder’s presence. He has over the years demonstrated that his loyalty to Christ is not subject to his loyalty to a pastor, bishop or any other leader.

Another fact I need to add is that he has been consistent in his faith since his youth. We are not talking about a man who had his fill of the world before coming to Christ or like this friend I have mentioned if he gets restored. And this does not reduce the effectiveness of such a person. Remember Christ saying that the last shall be first? It just makes sense that a person who has been faithful to God all his life is a more powerful testimony than one who came in later. I remember many young people responding to a call to salvation by saying that they want to ‘eat life’ first so that they will have no regrets when they forsook all as they had become fed up with it anyway. Many will put up such an argument when such an elder is given the responsibility of eldership. He came to the faith because he was fed up with the world anyway. No one can venture such an argument when the elder got saved in his youth and remained faithful throughout his life till old age. His life is more powerful than any apologetics of the faith.

Resources are another reason the elder needs to be such. This believer has lived his faith on the marketplace without compromise for all his life. His commitment to the course of Christ is unquestionable. You need to go to his competitors in business or whatever else he does to verify his integrity. Talk to his customers about his honesty. Talk to his neighbors about his hospitality. Someone who has walked with integrity and faithfulness to Christ would find it impossible to divert a few millions to his use or for a purpose that is not aligned to the cause of Christ. Such a man would not bend to meet the whims of a pastor who decides that the church exists to keep him in comfort even when some of those funding it are impoverished. He will not swallow his voice even in the face of majority opinion as he has been in constant fellowship with the opinion that matters.

And I think this is the reason pastors nowadays have lowered the benchmark for the choice of deacons. Such a caliber of deacons will insist that the pastor is hearing from Christ, and their long experience with Him can accurately tell when the pastor has lost it and will not be afraid to tell him so. Then the pastor will become as impressive as this.

For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables. (2Timothy 4:3, 4)

I suspect that is the reason we have thrown the scriptures a side so that we can run the church the way we want without the censure of those who have the spiritual backbone to confront our hypocrisy and sin.

I read this next story somewhere and I will tell it as I can remember

There was this huge meeting. The hall, though huge was filled. The crowd saw a performer and asked him to recite the 23^rd Psalm. He did it with flawless grace and accuracy and the crowd clapped and screamed and stood with excitement. They had not seen such in a long time.

Then they noticed an old pastor among them and prodded him to do the same. Of course we know that the motives were not noble. They were requesting him to outdo the performer. He declined. But they pushed and shoved him until he went to the stage.

He then started. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.

By the time he finished every eye was wet and some were weeping openly. Some had even knelt down in worship.

What was the difference? The first one gave an oration about a shepherd. The other spoke about his Shepherd. The words were the same. The source was different. One spoke from memory while the other spoke from experience. One had read about the shepherd, the other was led by the shepherd.

I write unto you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for his name's sake. I write unto you, fathers, because ye have known him that is from the beginning. I write unto you, young men, because ye have overcome the wicked one. I write unto you, little children, because ye have known the Father. I have written unto you, fathers, because ye have known him that is from the beginning. I have written unto you, young men, because ye are strong, and the word of God abideth in you, and ye have overcome the wicked one. (1John 2: 12 – 14)

Who is the best person to lead worship? Is it the person with the best voice or the one with an experience with the object of our worship?

In the verses above we are able to see some order. Elders know the Father. It is this experience that they transfer to the young men to overcome the wicked one and the children to give an assurance of their salvation. One who is from the beginning denotes an experience with the same. It is such an experience that guides the young in their relationship to the same.

I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread. (Psalm 37:25)

Only an old man can say that with conviction. The young can use the statement like many in our generation to demand this or that from God. An old man will say that from his experience. He will not need flowery packaging to do so as his life demonstrates it.

My understanding of worship is a person’s response when they encounter God. It has little to do with falling down or lifting hands if the reality of God is absent. It is not even related from the feeling of God’s presence as that can be so subjective. Worship is a person’s response to their encounter with God. The presence or absence of music is to me irrelevant if the encounter is not real.

Only an elder who has walked and lived in God’s presence is capable of leading a congregation in worship. Only the person with an adequate experience with God’s presence can show people how to get into that presence as he can easily sense a counterfeit presence.

It is a shame that we look for musicians and instrumentalists when we need worship leaders, many who are too young in the faith, some even wrestling with sin and sinful tendencies.

I believe a worship leader is not a musician because worship is rarely musical. Otherwise get me the verses that restrict worship to singing and heaven to an endless musical concert. What I see for the most part is that the worship consists not only of prostration before God’s presence but a proclamation of His attributes. Worship is the response of a creature to the revelation of his creator.

We have simply transferred the worship in the world and baptized it with Christian words. A disco or bash or whatever it is called is a worship event worshiping the prince of the world. And no wonder that so much of his agenda is carried out there and thereafter. And it is so effective because music is employed. Simply saying they do not have many other options.

Why should we borrow that worship and bring it to church? Why don’t we research on what the Bible means when it talks about worship? Singing can be an aid. But it becomes dangerous when made THE TOOL.

And that is where the older worship leader comes in. Since he might not be swayed by the evolving and fashionable trends in music, he will be able to soberly assess whatever whoever is leading the singing is offering. Since he may be unable to dance as vigorously, if at all, he may be able to see worldly trends and leanings in the energy the young ones are displaying. His sobriety will help the young people control their hormones and explosive energy levels. And I believe the lack of this is the reason singers (called worship leaders) may be the most sexually immoral of any ministry in the church.