Qualified to Lead the Church (2)

Titus 1:5-9

Introduction:

There is seemingly no end to the amount of books published every year on the topic of leadership. You may not realize this but these are constantly peddled to pastors. I get so many marketing emails advertising all kinds of leadership things for pastors. And most of these materials focus more on the actions and strategies of leadership rather than the character of the leader. Leadership in the church is so much more important than leadership in the business sphere. And as such there are different standards. Although, I’d bet that if more business leaders met the qualifications for church leadership they were be better bosses at their workplaces.

Similarly, the church growth movement in the late twentieth century focused on leading in ways that majored on getting people in seats and not focusing intently on biblical qualifications. There were all of these resources on ordering and leading the church. And many of the prominent men in these areas have in subsequent years disqualified themselves from ministry because their gifting outpaced their character. They were more gifted than their character could support.

I’m thankful that in recent years many people have looked back to scripture and to those in church history who had proper understandings of what is truly required of pastor elders in the church and how the church is to be ordered.

Titus has been called a manuel for planting and building healthy churches. Today we dive into that topic as we look at who is qualified to lead the church. Who gets to lead the church? Not just anyone gets to lead the church. Let’s read from Titus 1, verses 5 through 9.

Titus 1:5–9 ESV

5 This is why I left you in Crete, so that you might put what remained into order, and appoint elders in every town as I directed you— 6 if anyone is above reproach, the husband of one wife, and his children are believers and not open to the charge of debauchery or insubordination. 7 For an overseer, as God’s steward, must be above reproach. He must not be arrogant or quick-tempered or a drunkard or violent or greedy for gain, 8 but hospitable, a lover of good, self-controlled, upright, holy, and disciplined. 9 He must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it.

This could have easily been three separate sermons because of all that could be said on each qualification listed here. But I am doing it in one so you need to listen fast. My goal today i sfor you to see Paul’s instruction to Titus in Crete, understand the role and qualifications of an elder, and know why in the world this matters so much.

With that let’s jump to our first point,

I. Paul’s mission for Titus in Crete.

Paul is up front with why he left Titus in Crete. He left him to put what remained in order. The phrase that gets translated there contains in part, the word ortho that we get our word orthodontist from. It means to “make straight”. Just as an orthodontist makes crooked teeth straight, Titus was to set in order or straighten out the churches on Crete.

The question would obviously next be, how? Well, Paul says that he is to put what remains in order by appointing elders in all of the cities in Crete.

Appointing elders is how he was to set things in order…

Titus was to correct and “set straight” some practices and doctrines that were bent and was to correct those in error. We can assume that some of the correcting that needed to be done was in the area of leadership in the Cretan churches.

Paul’s method of missions was church planting. He’d go somewhere and preach the gospel. As people came to believe the gospel and follow Jesus, they would then be organized into local churches, and elders would be appointed. Church planting is God’s method of spreading the gospel.

The end goal is Christians being made disciples and equipped to be disciple makers within the local church.

So, Paul follows his pattern and the patter we see in scripture of planting churches but it was time for Titus to appoint elders. So we have to ask the question:

II. What is an elder?

The word translated elder in English is the Greek word presbyteros. There are two offices in the church. I’m not talking about little rooms where work gets done. In Scripture there are two positions or offices of the church. Only two. They are elder and deacon. Now, the words elder, overseer, and bishop are used in scripture but they are all used describing the same office. It’s the office of pastor/elder. An elder is a pastor and a pastor is an elder.

The reason different words are used is because those other words, overseer, elder, bishop, all describe a function of what it is to be a pastor/elder.

We aren’t going to get into the functions that deeply because I want us to stick to our passage in Titus today.

Elders are important enough that it gets mentioned four times in the NT. Each of the four times the topic of elders appears in the New Testament, it’s always in the plural. We have one so for right now all eyes are on me here. But there may also be someone here who one day will aspire to pastor ministry.

Apparently on the island of Crete, there were enough Christians for there to be multiple churches and these churches needed solid leadership.

Again, we see the biblical method of equipping people for ministry and setting them lose to serve.

What are some of what elders do? Elders are to lead out in preaching, teaching, and prayer. They are over the ministries of the church and responsible for the spiritual well being of the church.

They provide, protect, feed, lead, teach, and tend the spiritual needs of the church. They are shepherds, not ranchers, not franchisees, not CEOs, and not fundraisers… Pastors shepherd. They live among the sheep and they smell like the sheep.

Deacons serve the needs of the church. We have a good group of guys here but as they are not mentioned in this text, we will save them for another day.

An elder is a pastor.

For Paul, ordering the church begins with qualified men being appointed as elders. It is important because not only do they lead but they also protect the church from threats. So we had better understand what makes for a qualified elder/pastor.

III. What are the qualifications of an elder?

Paul lists elder qualifications here as well in I Timothy 3.

Men who don’t meet these qualifications should not be elders. Some men may begin as qualified and disqualify themselves along the way. We have seen many of these happen publically over the last several years.

Let’s begin with the qualifications in verse 6.

Titus 1:6 ESV

6 if anyone is above reproach, the husband of one wife, and his children are believers and not open to the charge of debauchery or insubordination.

Above reproach - also translated blameless…

If an accusation is made it will find no footing because of the character and the life of the man. His character will refute accusation and the life he leads will not lend any credibility to the accusation.

He is a faithful man.

He is a man.

He leads his wife and children faithfully in the gospel.

husband of one wife - literally a one woman man. He has one, not multiple, wives and is faithful to her. No other woman has his love.

You can’t disconnect blamelessness and this characteristic. If the man is guilty of adultery he has disqualified himself from ministry for life.

John McArthur states that, “ An elder must have an unsullied, lifelong reputation for devotion to his spouse and to sexual purity” (MacArthur, Titus, 28).

It is my understanding that this point is not speaking directly of divorce though others would disagree. I chose to use grace and discernment in this, along with Christian conscience. I believe it would be possible for a divorced person to be an elder depending on when the divorce took place and what the circumstances of the divorce were. That’s all I’ll say about that for now but if you have questions I would be happy to discuss it.

He must lead his family well.

1 Timothy 3:5 ESV

5 for if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God’s church?

While under the roof of the pastor his children should show a degree of response to this leadership. They are not to be wild and rebellious. My understanding again, is that this would primarily pertain to the children in the home and not necessarily the adult offspring. Does the man take the time and attention and effort to nurture his children in the way of the Lord?

Ephesians 6:4 ESV

4 Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.

His children are not perfect, but they are not exhibiting open and outright regular rebellion.

Titus 1:7 ESV

7 For an overseer, as God’s steward, must be above reproach. He must not be arrogant or quick-tempered or a drunkard or violent or greedy for gain,

Being above reproach is an overarching qualification the the other qualifications explain what being above reproach means.

He is a man whose life is worth emulating. All of these qualifications sum up a life that you could trust to point you to Jesus.

2. A man of Christian conduct

he knows that he needs a good reputation.

he understand the nature of the calling as God’s steward…

He is God’s administrator or steward. An overseer. Manages and watches over the church as the appointed shepherd for that congregation.

He gets his marching orders only from King Jesus. He does not get caught up in some teaching or cultural item simply because it has become popular in the church or in modern Christianity. There are many in popular Christian culture who are actually promoting false doctrines. This pastor/elder understands his doctrine and his calling to only take his orders from Jesus, laid out in the Word of God.

He must understand his calling or else when times get hard and conflict comes he might cut bait and run.

3. He leads a balanced life:

Paul rolls into a spitfire list of several character traits of a qualified pastor/elder that flow from a life above reproach. Five listed are negatives followed by six that are listed in the positive.

He must not be: (must…meaning necessary)

arrogant - not self centered or a proud pleaser of self.

quick-tempered - not easily provoked, short fuse, fits of rage and anger

a drunkard - Not addicted to drinking too much and becoming drunk. Doesn’t deal with problems at the bottom of the bottle.

violent - not a bully or fist fighter, not given to violence, brawler, or verbally or physically abusive, he’s not purposely hurting people

greedy for gain - Money is not his motive.

4. A god-centered man.

A man of godly character.

Your character is who you are when no one is watching. Paul gives Titus six characteristics in a positive wording after the negative wording in the previous list.

Right priorities

hospitality adn loving what is good

5. He is a sensible man.

self-controlled - sober minded, under mental and emotional control

acts with wisdom and common sense

views life from God’s perspective and then acts on this

This is absolutely crucial to a church’s health. Paul mentions it five times in the first two chapters.

Right perspective

How he carries himself (pattern of life)

Has and puts forward the right passion

A good grip on himself. Control over his strength. Knows who he is and what tempts him. Builds enviornments where he will supported and held accountable.

Titus 1:9 ESV

9 He must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it.

6. A man of strong doctrinal convictions.

Paul rolls from talking about the character qualification of a pastor to working through the pastor’s doctrinal qualifications. If he’s wrong about the Word of God it will lead to wrong living. This is what we see throughout Titus as one of the themes. Right doctrine leads to right living. He needs to have defined convictions about the truth and about the teaching/preaching of that truth. There’s no room for compromise on this in the life of the church. It will affect everything.

He is devoted to the truth.

Holds the message and does so firmly. Not haphazardly holding it.

Some may hold fast to what is not true. But we must hold fast to the true word. The Bible is the inerrant Word of God. This man will affirm this. He will agree to the bible’s authority and sufficiency for what we believe and how we go about our lives.

I really like the way Dr. Akin states this:

“ It means the minister of God places himself gladly and willingly, and in full submission, under the Word. He is a Word man, a Word minister, a Word-constrained and captivated slave. He will preach this Word and only this Word. He would never think of standing before a congregation and doing anything less than proclaiming the Word of God. He will honor what God has said, and he will honor how God has said it. Bottom line: he will be an expositor of Holy Scripture”

He’s diligent to teach.

This holding fast to the Word of God is so that the pastor who is, as verse nine states “...so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it. “

Sound teaching can be literally rendered as “healthy teaching”

There’s healthy teaching leading to life and sick teaching leading to death. In our healthy teaching we are exhorting and encouraging. When we are confronted with false teaching, we refute it. The pastor must be able to do this.

He is a teacher and a defender. A preacher and a doctor.

Romans 16:17 ESV

17 I appeal to you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught; avoid them.

Stepping in and confronting false teaching might not make a pastor popular. When you expose false teachings like prosperity gospel, open theism, liberalism, etc that get all shined up as new ways of belief and line the shelves of the Christian Living section, you don’t get cheered on typically. But as a shepherd of the sheep, a pastor must steer the sheep away from unhealthy teaching that will lead them astray. We encourage positively but we refute when it is necessary. Godly convictions, as one writer proclaims are not for sale. My theology as a pastor is not up for compromise.

IV. The model for an elder.

Elders are leaders serving the chief leader.

The church is to be Jesus ruled, elder led, deacon served, and congregationally affirmed.

They are to be competent in doctrine and theology and have lives that exemplify sacrificial love.

The best model for an elder is:

Jesus. It’s Jesus.

We should love our elders and follow them. But we also should remember that they didn’t die for your sins. Jesus is the only perfect leader who ever lived.

He lived a perfect life and was poured out on the cross in our place, for our sins. He didn’t hold back but gave His life and took the wrath of God that we deserved for our sin in order to redeem a people, the church for God. He redeemed a church and elders are appointed to serve and show Jesus to the church. It’s vital to get qualified elders because they are to show us Jesus. Follow me as I follow Christ.

How we as church members relate to our elders:

Scripture speaks to this.

We should love our pastors and follow them. They are to hold us accountable to our faith. As Americans sometimes we don’t like being submitted to anyone’s authority. But scripture is pretty clear. Let’s read:

Hebrews 13:17 ESV

17 Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you.

This verse haunts me. I remember when I first became a solo pastor at a church. I had been on staff before as an associate but there was a weight that I began to feel as soon as I accepted the call that I can not adequately explain. It sits on your shoulders beckoning you to stay faithful to the Lord and His Word. I would bet a different part of the verse sticks out to you than to me. I’m to watch over your souls and I will have to give an account for how I did that over the members of this church. That’s a heavy burden friends. The author of Hebrews tells us to let them have joy watching our souls. Don’t make your pastor’s job a drag. :)

Conclusion:

Let’s tie all this together.

Qualified men serving as elders are key because of the goal we aim at. The desired outcome of church planting is the glory of God and people who are presented mature in Christ.

Colossians 1:28 ESV

28 Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ.

The goal is for me and any other elder/pastors we may one day have here cooperatively shepherding the congregation, is for you to be presented mature in Christ. Let me say that another way: Our goal is make maturing disciples who make disciples. People who know Jesus and teach other people how to follow Jesus.

I’ll say something else you may have noticed.

Most of these qualifications are also characteristics that are supposed to be true of every believer.

You’re not exempt from martial fidelity just because you aren’t a pastor/elder/overseer. You’re still supposed to cling to right doctrine because it leads to godliness.

So, rejoice that God has given you a church and someone to watch over your souls. And believe that what God has set up is good and right. How can you apply this to your lives?

If you don’t know Christ, I implore you to ask someone here about how you can know God and live with freedom from sin’s chains.

If you have attended here for a while and never taken the step to become a member of this local church I want to challenge you to consider it. I don’t see anyway you can accomplish the one another commands in scripture if you are not committed to a local body of believers and submitted to qualified leadership. If it was important enough for God to put in the Bible, shouldn’t it be important to us as well? If you want to know more about this I would love to talk with you about it. Please come find me at the door after service.