When you listen to preachers talk, many of them complain about their elders. It’s a bit like men and mother-in-laws, as far as stereotypical relationships. It’s just supposed that preachers and elders will be at odds.
Sometimes that does happen. The church is made up of humans. I think it can be especially hard when the preacher and the elders are from different generations. Then all of the tension that we’ve been talking about this week enters into the equation.
The churches of Christ have typically been an elder-led movement. Some have intentionally sought to change that, wanting to give the preacher a more prominent role.
I don’t buy it. I do agree that elders should take the lead in shepherding, which is one of the reasons I dislike the trend of calling a preacher “pastor.” Elders should be pastoring. The fact that our society expects it to be done by the preacher shouldn’t change that.
Many have wanted to follow the corporate model, with the elders serving as a board of directors that hires the CEO (preacher) and lets him run things as he sees fit, until he loses their confidence. I don’t see that as a healthy model for the church. You can’t parallel an organism like the church with an organization of this world. There are some principles that will overlap, but no corporation is the Spirit-filled body of Christ.
I don’t think elders rule. I don’t think elders dictate. But I do think that elders lead. Or should, at least.
I’m not buying it. I don’t think anyone can read the Pastoral Epistles and say that elders have any more leadership responsibility in the church than that of the evangelist (minister, preacher) or that of the deacons. All three have the same leadership responsibility in the church, albeit exercised in different roles, and need to lead as a team accountable to each other and the church rather than one group being “in charge of” or “over” the other.
Just as wrong as it would be to make the minister a “CEO” over the elders and deacons, so also is it wrong to see the elders as the “BOD” over the minister(s) and deacons. Both models assume an authoritarian model of leadership foreign to the New Testament. What we need is an approach where the minister(s), elders, and deacons lead together as a team who discern together and lead by being present with the church as servants of the church.
Rex,
Why would we limit ourselves to the Pastorals to talk about elders? We have the whole of Scripture from which to learn about elders and about shepherding.
Please note that you’ve inserted several concepts that weren’t in the original post. I didn’t talk about elders being “in charge of” nor “over” others. As you said, that assumes a model of leadership that we don’t find in Scripture. [Though the term “episkopos” does imply oversight, so they are “over” others in that sense.]
Does the evangelist/minister/preacher have a role to play in leadership? Of course. But any minister that wants to be over the elders is making a serious mistake, violating the very same principles that you have mentioned.
I mentioned the Pastoral Epistles because that is usually the go to texts among Churches of Christ for establishing the leadership responsibility of elders among the local church (but in doing so, often diminish the leadership responsibility of the minister and deacons).
Realizing we are all brothers might help.
In many churches, the elders are volunteers and the preacher is paid. It functions like an employer/employee business relationship due to this financial arrangement. Very hard to say that the elders are not “over” the preacher when they control his job.
I’ve worshiped with congregations in the past that had no full-time, salaried minister. Preaching and teaching were performed by the able men of the congregation in addition to those designated as elders. Collected funds went to support mission efforts around the world where there are not those capable of teaching. The current trend in the church seems to be heading in the other direction with increasing numbers of staff positions and a larger percentage (>50%) of the budget spent on salaries.