The Role of Elders

Introduction

Object Lesson: The torque wrench. What’s it for? It’s made for a specific purpose, putting the proper torque on the lug nuts. If it does something else, it’s not doing its job. God designed the church to have different people doing different jobs. No one is better or worse for being called by God for a specific job, but it’s important to know what your job is.

Some of you who have come to this church recently may not know this, but we here at Fredericton Christian Church are a part of a movement of churches called the Restoration movement. We are congregationalist, which is the technical term for being independent churches without a governing body over all our churches, but still being connected. So for example, there’s no denomination telling us what to do as a church, but we still gather together at Maritime Christian Fellowship every summer with churches all around the Maritimes because we’re in the same movement.

So who leads the individual churches? In the Restoration movement we believe that churches should be led by a plurality of Elders. That means that there is more than one Elder, but that they are the spiritual leaders of an individual congregation.

Now as of this moment, our church is without any Elders. It has been since before my time. Just before I was hired the church decided together that we wanted to accomplish a few important goals, one of which was to move back to being an Elder governed church. I have been meeting with the Leadership committee tasked with coming up with next steps concerning this process. We decided together that, before we make decisions about who our Elders should be, we as a church need to get on the same page about Elders.

What are Elders supposed to do? What level of authority should they have over the Church? How do we decide who should be an Elder? We should all know the answers to these questions and more before we go about the process of searching for and appointing Elders. To that end, we’re taking another break from Job for the sake of taking time as a congregation to consider together what the Bible says about Eldership.

I would encourage all of you to listen carefully to these sermons and take notes on what you hear. Not because I am an authority on this, but because I will be sharing with you what Scripture says about this. I have provided these Scripture references ahead of time and encourage you to be reading this passages on your own and studying them diligently. We will also as usual be uploading the sermons to Youtube and giving the link on Facebook if you miss any sermon in this series or just want to revisit it.

It is my hope and the hope of the leadership committee and the board that we would consider these things deeply and that everyone at this church would be actively involved in seeking God’s will for the future of leadership in this church.

So we will begin this journey first with a job description. What is the work that an Elder is called to? Why do we have Elders? What need are they appointed by God to fill in the local church. To answer this question I’d like to turn with you all to Acts chapter 6. We’ll be looking at the first 6 verses of this chapter together.

Acts 6:1–6 CSB

In those days, as the disciples were increasing in number, there arose a complaint by the Hellenistic Jews against the Hebraic Jews that their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution. The Twelve summoned the whole company of the disciples and said, “It would not be right for us to give up preaching the word of God to wait on tables. Brothers and sisters, select from among you seven men of good reputation, full of the Spirit and wisdom, whom we can appoint to this duty. But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.” This proposal pleased the whole company. So they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit, and Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolaus, a convert from Antioch. They had them stand before the apostles, who prayed and laid their hands on them.

Now the observant among you will notice that this passage isn’t about Elders specifically. “The Twelve,” in other words the apostles, are the subjects of this passage. I would argue however, and so would some Bible Scholars, that at this point in Church history the apostles are functioning in something of a “proto-Elder” role. I will also quickly add that if you disagree with me about that you don’t have to disregard the rest of this sermon. I will be backing up everything I say about Elders with other passages of Scripture that make the same point.

This passage gives an example of the tasks which leaders in the church should make their main job description. These are the things which Elders ought to make their top priorities in other words. So what are these things? First, the Apostles in the passage demonstrate how Elders should lead their churches. Second, we see the Apostles devote themselves to prayer, just as Elders ought to do. Thirdly, we see that they also dedicated themselves to preaching the word just as Elders should.

Elders Lead the Church

Illustration: Why do we have leaders? Have you ever thought about that? The answer is pretty simple, really. It’s very hard to make decisions as a group. The larger the group the harder that is to do. People disagree, and putting every single issue to a vote isn’t always practical. Plus depending on the context, not every individual is equally qualified to make decisions. Some people take leadership in specific areas because they have the specific qualifications to make the call in that circumstance.

If we get more specific we find ourselves with a similar answer to the question, why do we have church leaders? The church is a group of followers of Jesus. If we needed to make every single decision by consensus, that would really slow down everything we do, especially in larger churches. Plus should a fresh new believer have the same input on Biblical interpretation as someone who has been studying the Bible for decades?

This has been true of the church since it’s formation. Peter’s first sermon inspired thousands to be baptized and join the church. There were bound to be interpresonal issues to resolve and conflicts to navigate. This is exactly what we’ve seen in our passage this morning. Let’s revisit the first three verses to get a grasp on our context.

Acts 6:1–3 CSB

In those days, as the disciples were increasing in number, there arose a complaint by the Hellenistic Jews against the Hebraic Jews that their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution. The Twelve summoned the whole company of the disciples and said, “It would not be right for us to give up preaching the word of God to wait on tables. Brothers and sisters, select from among you seven men of good reputation, full of the Spirit and wisdom, whom we can appoint to this duty.

This is exactly the kind of situation that needed leadership, and the apostles functioning in a leadership role in the Jerusalem church stepped up to that call. They demonstrated leadership in resolving the dispute, as well as in delegating authority to others. Though elders today are not the same as the apostles, they are called to function in the same way that the apostles did in this conflict.

They display an enormous amount of wisdom through this issue. Notice that they recognize that solving this particular issue falls outside of the scope of their main role in the church. We’ll talk about what they did focus on in the other two points of course, but because they were focused elsewhere they delegated authority on this issue to others.

But just because they delegated this issue doesn’t mean they weren’t maintaining authority over it. First though they left the selection up to those most effected, they are the ones who set the requirements for who was qualified to do the duty. Many consider these to be the first deacons of the church. They also demonstrate authority over this group in verse 6:

Acts 6:6 CSB

They had them stand before the apostles, who prayed and laid their hands on them.

They were essentially ordaining these men to do the duty to which they had been called. This is something done from a position of leadership, endorsing and praying for those appointed to do the work. The waiting of tables was still under the umbrella of their authority, but not their direct responsibility. Similar to how a store manager has authority over the cashier, even if they’ve delegated the task of ringing out customers to them.

Peter, calling himself a fellow Elder by the way, expresses this same responsibility for leadership by the Elders in 1 Peter 5:1-3

1 Peter 5:1–3 CSB

I exhort the elders among you as a fellow elder and witness to the sufferings of Christ, as well as one who shares in the glory about to be revealed: Shepherd God’s flock among you, not overseeing out of compulsion but willingly, as God would have you; not out of greed for money but eagerly; not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock.

There’s an important caution in there. Even though God calls Elders to be leaders and to have authority over the church, He cautions against doing so for personal gain or “lording it over” people. These are things we’ll talk about more next week when we talk about the authority of Elders in more detail, but shouldn’t be missed in this first point about Elders Leading the church.

So as we embark on this journey to come to a better understanding of Eldership and hopefully find and appoint elders for our church, we need to understand that they are given a responsibility and an authority to lead the church. They are responsible for the unity of the church, and for working with the church to find solutions to problems as they arise.

This includes delegation when needs arise which are beyond their main focus, appointing deacons and delegating authority to the church board on certain issues in a modern context. So if some things fall outside of their main focus, the question comes naturally what is there main focus? We’ll talk about the two main responsibilities of Elders, starting with prayer.

Elders Devote Themselves to Prayer

Illustration: Who is in charge of the North Side Fredericton Walmart? Is the store manager in charge? In a certain sense they make a lot of decisions about how the store runs in the day to day, but they aren’t really in charge. They answer to corporate Walmart, eventually tracing up to the CEO. He’s the one who’s really in charge. What would happen to a Walmart that tried to ignore everything that headquarters says? Things wouldn’t go well. They’d almost certainly get fired, and if allowed to do things that way for too long their Walmart wouldn’t really be representative of the company they’re supposed to belong to.

Now let me ask a more relevant question. Who is in charge of the local church? We believe that churches should be elder led, but does that mean that the elders have ultimate authority? No, of course it doesn’t. Because we know that the real head of the church is Jesus. Colossians 1:18

Colossians 1:18 CSB

He is also the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might come to have first place in everything.

So if elders are more like managers than CEOs, than they are responsible to answer to the higher authority when it comes to managing the church. This is part of the reason that the apostles say in verse 4 of this passage:

Acts 6:4 CSB

But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.”

Both of these are related to answering to Jesus as the true authority of the church, but we’re honing in especially on the first one for a minute before we bring up the second. The apostles were devoted to prayer, to the exclusion of other important things. Consider the conflict that they are resolving in this passage. What was the issue that was being complained about? Widows who were not being taken care of. This is not an unimportant issue. James 1:27 says

James 1:27 CSB

Pure and undefiled religion before God the Father is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself unstained from the world.

The apostles didn’t delegate this task because it was “beneath them” or because it was unimportant. In fact they set high standards for the people who were to take it on, showing how much value they placed on the task. The reason they delegated care for widows is because they needed to guard the time they had for the word and for prayer. Communication with Jesus who appointed them as his overseers in the church.

This is not just a matter of it being ‘better’ to pray frequently as leaders in the church. It’s impossible to do the job without devotion to prayer. Remember the words of Jesus in John 15:5

John 15:5 CSB

I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains in me and I in him produces much fruit, because you can do nothing without me.

Now if we can’t produce any fruit at all without Jesus, this applies to more than just leadership but certainly doesn’t exclude leadership. If anyone must rely on prayer to do their ministry, certainly the elders must. To neglect devotion to prayer is to think yourself better than Jesus, who Himself regularly took time apart to pray.

The application then is obvious. Elders must be devoted to prayer. Not just praying occasionally, devoted to prayer. This is essential to what it means to be an elder. Everything else in the job description is impossible without this. It’s impossible to lead the church God’s way without prayer. It’s impossible to preach the word accurately without prayer. This is the number one priority for all of us, but especially of our elders.

Then, once they have prayerfully considered God’s word, they are ready to preach it to the world.

Elders Preach the Word

Illustration: Back in the ancient world, if a King wanted to visit a city he wanted to make sure it was a big deal. So he wanted people to know that he was coming, so they could make preparations and come celebrate his arrival. Of course back then, you couldn’t just put a post on social media with a countdown or something. So what did they do? They sent messangers ahead to share the news that the King was coming. Something like the ancient equivalent of “hype men” to spread the word.

You know what they called the message these hype men would bring? They called it euangelion, which is greek for “good news.” Sound familiar? This is an image the Bible is borrowing when it tells us to spread the good news. If you were one of these people chosen to announce the king, you better make sure you got your message right. As a representative of the king there could be steep punishment if you misrepresent your king. The best way to make sure you got your message right was stick to the King’s message.

This was a huge part of the responsibilities of the apostles in the early church. In fact the word apostle comes from the Greek word for someone sent, and would have been the title for someone sent by the king. Because of the importance of this part of their job description, this is what they said when the conflict arose in the church:

Acts 6:2 CSB

The Twelve summoned the whole company of the disciples and said, “It would not be right for us to give up preaching the word of God to wait on tables.

What we said in the last point still stands. The apostles weren’t saying the task wasn’t important, they were saying it wasn’t worth giving up their primary mission. Which they repeat in verse 4.

Acts 6:4 CSB

But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.”

Really that’s the job description of the Apostles. They are to lead the church as God wants them to, which means that on top of needing a vital connection to God, they also must be teaching the disciples God’s Word. Remember that this is a part of the great commission that Jesus sent them to accomplish. In Matthew 28:19-20

Matthew 28:19–20 CSB

Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Teaching disciples what God has commanded means teaching them the word, God’s word. In other words the Bible, Scripture. This is God’s communication to us about His nature and about how we ought to live. It is the guide to everything we do and every one of us should seek to follow it to the best of our abilities.

The duty to teach the word is the duty of the elders of the church. This is why in the qualifications of elders listed in Titus we read in Titus 1:9

Titus 1:9 CSB

holding to the faithful message as taught, so that he will be able both to encourage with sound teaching and to refute those who contradict it.

Elders are the guardians of accurate Biblical truth. They encourage people by teaching the Bible accurately and protect the church by defending truth against those who would twist it.

This is a big responsibility. This is why Scripture cautions us to not be quick to appoint Elders. We want to make sure that those we are appointing to interpret and teach Scripture to us are Godly people who are praying, seeking God, and able to teach well. So when we set about to appoint Elders to our church we need to make sure that these elders can be trusted to teach God’s word to all of us well so that we are disciples who know God’s word well.

Conclusion

Although this passage recounts the apostles navigating a conflict in the early church, it serves as a great example of what elders who lead our churches even today should set as their primary responsibilities in the church. First, as leaders in the congregation they should take responsibility for keeping unity in the church. Second, they should devote themselves to prayer at all times. And third, they should strive to teach accurately the word of God to the congregation.

So as we consider going forward who we might be able to appoint as elders in our church, this is the ministry that we should be intending for them to fulfill. Not as bosses or managers or as pseudo board members, but as shepherds of God’s church, leading us all to be better disciples of Jesus together. When the church gets this right — leaders who lead, who pray, who teach — the word of God spreads, and disciples multiply. Let us all strive to keep these priorities ourselves, elders or no elders we should all be doing our part to shape our church into the body of Christ as it should be in the world.

As we prepare to sing another song and then make our way back out to the world I charge you to meditate on these things and begin even now praying that the Holy Spirit would lead us to the Elders that this congregation needs in order to be the church that we need to be.