Elders 4

I have been writing about elders the way the Bible looks at them.

I want to add another dynamic to the topic. And this follows in the heels of my post about discipleship.

Allow me to call them old ministers instead of elders. And I call them thus because they are still in active ministry, and active because they are still on the trenches.

They can be equated with player coaches in sports.

However, I want us to examine that model since it is different from what I have been sharing in my previous posts.

And this is because God is at liberty to call His people as He would. This of course means that my calling and perception and obedience is not exclusive to how God calls His people.

It is important to also realise that even the elder I have described must have gone through the process I am looking at in this post as part of his preparation for eldership. The only difference being that he put a stop in the active ministry part.

We are dealing with mentorship or what in simple terms I will equate to a spiritual apprenticeship of sorts.

I will explain this by giving an example.

Most believers of yore know Bill Gaither, a hymnwriter and singer since the fifties.

Even those who do not know him know some of the hymns he has composed.  Many know and love ‘Because He lives, I can face tomorrow’. That is one among many.

Well, not so long ago, my family as been watching some videos he has been making probably since the turn of the century called the Homecoming videos. From my observation, they are called homecoming because many of the old people in them have one foot on the doorstep of eternity. In fact, a few times one would cross over between the recording and the video release.

In them he brings together Christian musicians together for a time of worship in song.

Some are much older than him, some who influenced his ministry. Yet he is almost ninety.

But he also has young and upcoming musicians in those sessions. You will see singers of all ages; from teenagers to centenarians.

What do you think will happen to a teenager sharing a platform with a legend his parents and grandparents spoke about in complete awe? What do you think a teenager rubbing his shoulders with a centenarian who has been in the music ministry probably since his teenage will feel?

I believe that is how Asaph and his team operated.

And they cast lots, ward against ward, as well the small as the great, the teacher as the scholar. (1Chronicles 25:8)

Allowing younger people, even immature believers, to minister alongside mature and ‘experienced’ ministers will expose those youngsters to ministry in a wholesome way, a way no classroom can teach.

Another thing with Gaither and his team does is that not only do they sing together, they plan events in diverse places, from Australia to Africa to Israel and many states in the USA.

This means that they will travel together and more or less live together for the duration of the event, from planning to travelling to performing.

This will expose these younger ministers to the whole package of these established ministers.

That is the kind of discipleship Jesus was involved in.

It would be almost impossible for a young person so grown to fly outside the orbit of relevant and God-glorifying ministry.

It would be preposterous for such a young person to take his ministry to dens of wickedness for a coin.

It would be impossible for such a youngster to compose songs off right doctrine because he has walked hand-in-hand with singers, composers, instrumentalists, who have been there done that yet are humble enough to allow them to grow alongside them.

And it would of course take a lot of effort for them to have pride and bloated egos because they have been with people revered everywhere and for a very long time who did not have such issues.

And finally, it would go totally against the grain for them to seek self-glorification because they have seen glory in its right context. This means that they would have no qualms at all in doing the same to other, probably struggling or upcoming, ministers.

Suppose all ministers copied this model?

What would happen if evangelists did the same? What would happen if prophets did the same? What would be the result if writers and teachers like me copied that model? What about other musicians all over the world? What about pastors?

The church would truly be God’s family where people are born, are nurtured, taught and allowed to do their part in a non-threatening way until they can later stand on their own as they start the whole cycle afresh.

What has God been speaking to you as you have been reading these posts about elders?

Is there something specific He has challenged you to do? Is there an order He has released your way?

What will you do about it?

God bless you.