New World Church 3

I promised to deal with some reasons Biblical elders refuse to take their positions and insist on remaining active in ministry, even despite their waning strength.

The first is the dynamic of modern living.

In the past, children would automatically continue in the occupations of their parents and would learn the skills through apprenticeship. We did not have formal schools or jobs.

Today, all children go to school in a system designed to keep them unproductive until they complete. Then they continue being dependent until they get a job.

This means that they will be dependent on their parents for a very long time, at least till their mid twenties.

Another dynamic of modern living is that the marriage age has gone much higher than in the past.

This means that most will get married into their thirties.

A dynamic that seems to counter that is that most couples insist on having very few children.

But even then, it raises serious issues.

A pastor who gets married at thirty-five and gets a child immediately will get him at thirty-six.

At fifty, when he is supposed to retire from active ministry and take the Biblical role of elder, his first born is only fourteen, either in or joining high school.

Incidentally, that is when education starts becoming expensive. And he could be having another child or two.

The pull between what God’s word says and the dynamics of his life make it very difficult for him to even listen to God or even consider His way of doing things.

Even if he decides to push God’s retirement age to sixty, he still would be having greater needs because then his children will be in college, an even more expensive obligation.

That is why it becomes very easy to trash God’s word.

But closing our eyes to what God’s word commands does not invalidate it.

The need to remain afloat in the sea of parental demands has no way of annulling or even weakening God’s revelation.

We had better align ourselves with what God says to be able to walk with His favour and provision.

I am not an elder because I have all my chips aligned.

If anything, I am in a more difficult position than most. And I have been like that for most of my ministry years.

But I choose obedience because it allows God to always show off in my situation.

As an example, many believers will only remember to support ministers when they see them at work; either through reports or appeals.

But God not so long ago asked me to stop even sending those ministry updates. Meaning that those supporters who require the plodding of updates and reports will simply disappear.

Incidentally, they are the ones who request for those updates and reminders and so it is not begging as many might be thinking.

What this means is that my support is purely in God’s hands even as the educational demands are growing. It means I have completely lost control of my support since anybody who will give me will have to be prompted by God to do so.

My support has dimmed dramatically even as I am writing this, meaning I am writing this probably more for me than for you.

There are other orders I have received that has made the expectation of support for ministry even more ominous.

However, this has made me more focused on pursuing obedience because I know God is only involved in what is pursued in obedience.

There have of course been miracles of provision, some very dramatic. But they have not been in tandem with how they were when I was visible.

But we must take our roles seriously if the church will support us.

We must minister in that role before believers see the necessity of that role enough to pour their resources into it. We must minister in that role properly for the church to realise the need to support us.

Let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honour, especially they who labour in the word and doctrine. For the scripture saith, Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn. And, The labourer is worthy of his reward. (1Timothy 5: 17, 18)

You may realise that these elders are ruling, in other words exercising authority or bringing order in the church.

But they are not using whips and swords since their rulership is spiritual.

And their authority is not questioned because they have lived a full life of integrity and service.

Those verses are also talking about taking care of these elders since they have left fishing to watch over the church of Christ with their oversight.

I can confidently say that God is taking care of me, and has been since I decided to take my role of Biblical elder as the Bible states.

As happened when Israel was crossing the Jordan, we must put our feet completely into the flooding river before God can part it. We must trust God to release our cares completely into His revelation before He can take responsibility for our needs.

What I mean is that we must be operating in the elder position before we can expect God to make any sense of our nonsense of complete obedience.

We must throw away our crutches before we can walk in our healing, however secure we felt in those crutches.

That salary, that support, that honorarium; in fact, everything you were harvesting from the visibility of your ministry must be intentionally forsaken. Simply because elders are not visible.

As an aside, only elders can conclusively deal with a sin issue in the church leadership.

Any member of that leadership, even the pastor, will find it impossible to deal with corruption and many other destructive sins in the leadership because he is part of it. And the collective nature of decision making makes it almost impossible. The fact that it is the same body that decides his package makes it impossible to even attempt to put his foot down on issues dear to his heart.

Putting his foot down will simply divide the leadership and even the church due to the influence those leaders have, especially because there are relationships and interests being represented by each leader. Church splits are many times the product of such an attempt.

I for one have over the years in many committees attempted to deal with issues and was met with defamation, at times being ejected from leadership when they realise they can’t argue their way out of their sin or explain away their indiscretions since vested interest can also be found in church.

But an elder is not part of the leadership and so can be trusted to offer a sober solution to issues. He has also been in leadership and therefore knows the dynamics of that leadership. The fact that he served with distinction makes it easy for any leadership to take his word and counsel he offers seriously.

My argument so far is that an elder MUST NOT be in leadership. But he must have had actively served the Lord with integrity and distinction before he became an elder.

You can’t have a pastor who chased girls being entrusted with eldership because he will then be chasing people’s wives. You can’t have a person who had a reputation of Judas being an elder because he will always favor the side that had the best gifts. And we can’t have a person whose children are sons of Belial being an elder because it will be difficult to blot that stain from their character.

The Bible is very clear on the qualities of an elder.

If any be blameless, the husband of one wife, having faithful children not accused of riot or unruly. For a bishop must be blameless, as the steward of God; not selfwilled, not soon angry, not given to wine, no striker, not given to filthy lucre; But a lover of hospitality, a lover of good men, sober, just, holy, temperate; Holding fast the faithful word as he hath been taught, that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers. (Titus 1: 6 - 9)

A bishop is simply an overseer, an elder.

Nobody will trash the word of such an elder. Nobody will get enraged by the rebuke from such an elder. Nobody will run away from the counsel of such an elder.

That is what the modern church lacks.

And it lacks because the ones who should take that role are preoccupied with family affairs and the growth of their megachurches instead of looking at the big picture, God’s picture. They are preoccupied with chasing the shadows of ministry relevance that they forget that the only relevance that counts is the relevance God approves.

Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity. (Matthew 7: 21 - 23)

It is not the doing of God things that takes us to heaven. It is only doing what God has for us to do.

Are we together?