The World in the Church: Elders in Leadership & Dominating Pastors
Elders in Leadership
There is something else that is a problem that I have seen in the church. Today people are looking at the leaders and pastors as being dominating authorities. I am going to deal with that shortly, but not every church is like that. Some of the evangelical, more traditional churches, are sometimes run by deacons, and the deacons tell the pastor what to do. Sometimes they are not even saved.
Well, at the church that I was in, they had elders. These elders were big men. Well, it does not take much to be bigger than me, but they were big men, men of repute. They were Managing Directors of companies and that sort of thing. They were guys who were quite confident in their leadership. They were very strong and capable men. And let me tell you, the pastor could not step out of line. If the elders said, "No," it was no and his hands were tied. Very often he was not able to do what the Spirit of God was leading him to do, because the elders would put a block on it, and they would put a stop on it.
What is the difference between the pastor and the elders? In terms of the Scriptural pattern, which we will look at later, there should not be any difference, because an elder really is the pastor in a church. But they had this distinction in that denomination. They had the minister in charge, who was ordained to the ministry, and had the elders who were local people in the congregation that had been appointed to that office.
I was acting as an assistant pastor in this large church where these elders were, and my boss, the pastor, went on leave.
He said, "I'm going away on vacation for a couple of weeks. You're it. You are going to have to fill in my place while I'm gone."
Oh dear! I was not a leader in those days, not by any means. I could be confident in the Lord and in the ministry that He had given me, but I was not of strong enough character to stand up to these mighty men. It was heavy. During that time I was approached by a group of people who ran a conference ground that the churches would often hire for conferences. They had heard my ministry and they had enjoyed it.
They said, "We've never had our very own conference on these grounds. We're always hiring it out to other churches. But we have a little church fellowship there; a little group of us that gather, and we want to have our own conference. And you know what? We would like you to come and be our special guest speaker at the conference."
Wow, what an opportunity! I had to jump at that one. This was of the Lord. I poured all my time and effort into getting a whole seminar together to teach for that conference.
I came to the elders and said, "Brethren, I've been invited to be the guest speaker at this conference."
I thought they would rejoice with me but they said, "Is this going to interfere with your duties?"
I said, "Listen, I'm going to be there over the weekend and I need to end on Sunday morning. I don't normally preach at the Sunday morning service anyway, and you brethren are quite capable of running it. So, if you don't mind, can you excuse me from the Sunday morning service, and I will be there for the evening service."
Well, they muttered and they moaned and groaned and complained, but I had already organized it. I sure was not asking them, I was telling them. I had already organized it. So they grudgingly let me go to this meeting. And I remember the Sunday night when I finally came back after having a glorious weekend in the presence of the Lord, one of the elders was already standing there ready to get into the pulpit to preach, because they did not believe I was going to arrive.
He was totally arrogant and said, "Well, I didn't trust that you were going to arrive in the meeting in time, so I prepared a message for tonight in case."
It was not nice working with elders in a church, who were trying to dictate how the work should be run. Do you know what it is like when you have to face a Board of Directors and they do not want to stand with you? They do not want to agree with you on what you feel you need to do. Well, that is exactly what it was, because the church was being run as a business; because it was being run according to a World System. It came to the same thing. It now became a case of the strong leaders at the top controlling and quenching.
So often you see this in the world where the Board will kick out the guy in charge. He will be forced to resign and leave because he is not toeing the line with them. A lot of churches are run according to that exact same system.
I had conflict with elders in another church as well, that did not have a pastor. They called a pastor and he came in, and they did not like him, so they kicked him out. I made the mistake of going to visit shortly after that, and I tried to stand up in the meeting to say something. I was told to sit down and shut up. Elders can destroy a church.
Dominating Pastors
But here is one that you all know - dominating pastors. Hands up if you have heard of that one? Dominating, controlling pastors. I want to share a Scripture in 1 Peter 5:1:
"The elders among you I exhort, I who am also an elder (it is Peter speaking) and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed: Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight of it, not by constraint but willingly, not for filthy lucre but from a ready mind; neither as being lords over God's heritage, but being EXAMPLES to the flock; so when the Chief Shepherd shall appear, you shall receive a crown of glory that does not fade away."
Likewise you younger ones, submit yourselves to the older ones. Yes, all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility, for 'God resists the proud and gives grace to the humble.' Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time. "
Peter is writing to the elders. Well, who are the elders? You will notice that whenever Paul went and started a new church, before he left he ordained elders (plural) in every church. And you will notice that the leadership in a church was always recognized as being the elders.
The title or term pastor is used ONE TIME in the New Testament, and you will not find it mentioned in the apostolic church. It was mentioned many years later as the church began to drift away from God's pattern, where one of the early writers (I forget which one it was, but his writing is still available) is quoted as saying, "You must revere the pastor and the elders." He distinguished between the pastor and the elders, and he set one over the others.
It was not the original order. In the early church there was a plurality of elders. We will look at that a lot more as we look at the pattern of God's order for the church later. But today the church has come to a place where it has one elder as it were, who has to be in control. In the early church the pattern was that a multiplicity of elders would come together in harmony. It was a team ministry. Every church was run, not by one person, but by a team.
Now it is very possible that amongst that team there could have been one person who was recognized by the others as having greater authority, I do not know. But it was never an official title.
And Peter says, "You younger guys amongst the elders, you need to show some respect for the older brethren."
There were elders of different age groups leading the church.
In the end he says, "Listen, you must all submit to one another. There is no head honcho here."
Peter writes as an apostle and he says, "I'm also an elder, just like you."
How was Peter an elder? He was in a local church, and he was involved in the leadership of that local church; not as an apostle, but as an elder. His apostolic ministry was a different function altogether. The apostolic office embraced the entire body universal, as we will look at later. But in the local church context he was amongst other brethren as elders.
So he was not saying, "I'm imposing this on you. As the apostle, the main guy here, I'm telling you lower down guys down there you'd better listen..."
No, he says, "Listen guys, I'm one of you. You elders, I'm an elder just like you. I'm the same as you. Now listen, stop trying to be lords over God's heritage. Stop trying to be a big shot here. Just be in humility. God resists the proud. Submit to one another. You are leading under Christ, who is the head of the church."
There is something else that is a problem that I have seen in the church. Today people are looking at the leaders and pastors as being dominating authorities. I am going to deal with that shortly, but not every church is like that. Some of the evangelical, more traditional churches, are sometimes run by deacons, and the deacons tell the pastor what to do. Sometimes they are not even saved.
Well, at the church that I was in, they had elders. These elders were big men. Well, it does not take much to be bigger than me, but they were big men, men of repute. They were Managing Directors of companies and that sort of thing. They were guys who were quite confident in their leadership. They were very strong and capable men. And let me tell you, the pastor could not step out of line. If the elders said, "No," it was no and his hands were tied. Very often he was not able to do what the Spirit of God was leading him to do, because the elders would put a block on it, and they would put a stop on it.
What is the difference between the pastor and the elders? In terms of the Scriptural pattern, which we will look at later, there should not be any difference, because an elder really is the pastor in a church. But they had this distinction in that denomination. They had the minister in charge, who was ordained to the ministry, and had the elders who were local people in the congregation that had been appointed to that office.
I was acting as an assistant pastor in this large church where these elders were, and my boss, the pastor, went on leave.
He said, "I'm going away on vacation for a couple of weeks. You're it. You are going to have to fill in my place while I'm gone."
Oh dear! I was not a leader in those days, not by any means. I could be confident in the Lord and in the ministry that He had given me, but I was not of strong enough character to stand up to these mighty men. It was heavy. During that time I was approached by a group of people who ran a conference ground that the churches would often hire for conferences. They had heard my ministry and they had enjoyed it.
They said, "We've never had our very own conference on these grounds. We're always hiring it out to other churches. But we have a little church fellowship there; a little group of us that gather, and we want to have our own conference. And you know what? We would like you to come and be our special guest speaker at the conference."
Wow, what an opportunity! I had to jump at that one. This was of the Lord. I poured all my time and effort into getting a whole seminar together to teach for that conference.
I came to the elders and said, "Brethren, I've been invited to be the guest speaker at this conference."
I thought they would rejoice with me but they said, "Is this going to interfere with your duties?"
I said, "Listen, I'm going to be there over the weekend and I need to end on Sunday morning. I don't normally preach at the Sunday morning service anyway, and you brethren are quite capable of running it. So, if you don't mind, can you excuse me from the Sunday morning service, and I will be there for the evening service."
Well, they muttered and they moaned and groaned and complained, but I had already organized it. I sure was not asking them, I was telling them. I had already organized it. So they grudgingly let me go to this meeting. And I remember the Sunday night when I finally came back after having a glorious weekend in the presence of the Lord, one of the elders was already standing there ready to get into the pulpit to preach, because they did not believe I was going to arrive.
He was totally arrogant and said, "Well, I didn't trust that you were going to arrive in the meeting in time, so I prepared a message for tonight in case."
It was not nice working with elders in a church, who were trying to dictate how the work should be run. Do you know what it is like when you have to face a Board of Directors and they do not want to stand with you? They do not want to agree with you on what you feel you need to do. Well, that is exactly what it was, because the church was being run as a business; because it was being run according to a World System. It came to the same thing. It now became a case of the strong leaders at the top controlling and quenching.
So often you see this in the world where the Board will kick out the guy in charge. He will be forced to resign and leave because he is not toeing the line with them. A lot of churches are run according to that exact same system.
I had conflict with elders in another church as well, that did not have a pastor. They called a pastor and he came in, and they did not like him, so they kicked him out. I made the mistake of going to visit shortly after that, and I tried to stand up in the meeting to say something. I was told to sit down and shut up. Elders can destroy a church.
Dominating Pastors
But here is one that you all know - dominating pastors. Hands up if you have heard of that one? Dominating, controlling pastors. I want to share a Scripture in 1 Peter 5:1:
"The elders among you I exhort, I who am also an elder (it is Peter speaking) and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed: Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight of it, not by constraint but willingly, not for filthy lucre but from a ready mind; neither as being lords over God's heritage, but being EXAMPLES to the flock; so when the Chief Shepherd shall appear, you shall receive a crown of glory that does not fade away."
Likewise you younger ones, submit yourselves to the older ones. Yes, all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility, for 'God resists the proud and gives grace to the humble.' Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time. "
Peter is writing to the elders. Well, who are the elders? You will notice that whenever Paul went and started a new church, before he left he ordained elders (plural) in every church. And you will notice that the leadership in a church was always recognized as being the elders.
The title or term pastor is used ONE TIME in the New Testament, and you will not find it mentioned in the apostolic church. It was mentioned many years later as the church began to drift away from God's pattern, where one of the early writers (I forget which one it was, but his writing is still available) is quoted as saying, "You must revere the pastor and the elders." He distinguished between the pastor and the elders, and he set one over the others.
It was not the original order. In the early church there was a plurality of elders. We will look at that a lot more as we look at the pattern of God's order for the church later. But today the church has come to a place where it has one elder as it were, who has to be in control. In the early church the pattern was that a multiplicity of elders would come together in harmony. It was a team ministry. Every church was run, not by one person, but by a team.
Now it is very possible that amongst that team there could have been one person who was recognized by the others as having greater authority, I do not know. But it was never an official title.
And Peter says, "You younger guys amongst the elders, you need to show some respect for the older brethren."
There were elders of different age groups leading the church.
In the end he says, "Listen, you must all submit to one another. There is no head honcho here."
Peter writes as an apostle and he says, "I'm also an elder, just like you."
How was Peter an elder? He was in a local church, and he was involved in the leadership of that local church; not as an apostle, but as an elder. His apostolic ministry was a different function altogether. The apostolic office embraced the entire body universal, as we will look at later. But in the local church context he was amongst other brethren as elders.
So he was not saying, "I'm imposing this on you. As the apostle, the main guy here, I'm telling you lower down guys down there you'd better listen..."
No, he says, "Listen guys, I'm one of you. You elders, I'm an elder just like you. I'm the same as you. Now listen, stop trying to be lords over God's heritage. Stop trying to be a big shot here. Just be in humility. God resists the proud. Submit to one another. You are leading under Christ, who is the head of the church."
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by A.W. Bowman on
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Oh! thank you! Very well said.
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