Biblical eldership requires individuals who are qualified by spiritual character and biblical standards, not merely human metrics of success. The qualifications, primarily found in 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1, emphasize being above reproach, with spiritual maturity and sound home life being paramount over intellectual brilliance or social standing. Elders must be actively engaged in the work of ministry, demonstrating servanthood and diligent care for the flock, rather than seeking a position of mere authority. Furthermore, the church has a critical need to train and intentionally pass on leadership responsibilities to the next generation, fostering a smooth transition of ministry through mentorship and trust, recognizing Christ as the ultimate head of the church.
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Thank you very much. I must say, it has been an absolute delight for me to spend these days with you all. I hear about some of the southern preachers, some names that I have known, some names that I have respected, and I haven't met them before personally, and it's been a real pleasure to meet many of you. Our topic for this afternoon is Biblical Elders. Now I teach at Emmaus and I work with college kids. And when I usually speak on this subject, the verse that I often turn to is First Timothy three-one, which says that if anyone desires the position of an overseer, he desires a good work.
So I'm talking to young people and say, this is a direction that you should point towards in life. If you seek this kind of leadership, aspire to it, and that would be a good life goal and ambition. Today I'm talking to those who are leaders in churches. I'm talking to those who work with elders in churches. And what I would like to do today is particularly look at this subject today. in terms of what I think are some of the most important needs in our assemblies today. Now, on my notes, I've said that one of the first assumptions that I have on this subject is that it is a biblical New Testament principle that every church should have a plurality of elders appointed by the Holy Spirit to oversee the assembly.
Now, I have about five or six minutes in my notes to expound on that subject and I'm not going to do that today because I I don't want to go over time I don't want to take away from the panel and I've got a number of very important things that I would like to to talk about today but if that's your debate we can talk about that we can talk about that later but what I would like to do is assume that we should have a plurality of elders in our assemblies and now I would like to ask what are our greatest needs in this area. And I would say that the first thing that we need in our assemblies is to have qualified elders.
We need qualified elders. How does a person become an elder in your assembly? Well, I was in an assembly for many years in Illinois before Emmaus moved to Iowa. where I would say that if you wanted to become an elder in this assembly, there were several requirements. There were several things that you should do if you wanted to become an elder. First of all, I would say that attend all of the meetings of the church. First requirement. Second requirement. See, forty years of age or over. Thirdly, Be a very, be a friendly, nice person and don't rock the boat.
And the fourth requirement would be own your own business. Now I say that because there were some people that moved into the assembly and I don't think they were particularly vocal. You never heard them speak at the Lord's Supper or any other time. I don't think they were particularly leaders in the church. But they were very nice, friendly, warm Christians. And within a short period of time, they became recognized as elders. We also had a young man who wanted to be an elder.
He had heard a sermon when he was young on First Timothy three one. But he went about it all of the wrong way. He became active with the high school group and for a number of years was the leader of the high school group in the assembly. And then when he passed the work of the high schoolers on to another group, he became a leader in the junior high group. And he worked with that group for a number of years in the assembly. And then when he passed on the work of the junior high group, he got involved with Awana. And he was involved with Awana for a number of years. And when he finished with Awana, he became involved in some Bible studies. in the assembly.
For many years, he took a job that I would call a tent-making kind of job. He was very interested in Emmaus when we were in Illinois. He was working with Emmaus in a number of capacities, all volunteer kind of work, but he loved the kids. He loved working with the kids. This man went about becoming an elder in all the wrong way. He was the Rodney Dangerfield of our assembly. You know, the one who gets no respect. No respect because he had a menial job and was not a success in business.
No respect because if, may I beg your pardon, Henry, he spoke with a New York City accent. and sounded lower class. No respect because his work for the Lord in the assembly was not really valued. I don't think that man will ever become an elder in this assembly. Too many assemblies put a premium... on human standards of success. How about your assemblies?
How many assemblies recognize those as elders who are not qualified, and then they cry out, we don't have any leadership in our church? And so the first thing that I would emphasize is that in our assemblies, we need to have elders who are qualified by biblical standards. Now what are those biblical standards? It's not very hard to find out. There are two primary passages that talk about this. First Timothy three and Titus chapter one. And you might turn to first Timothy three because there are a couple of things that I would like to make, observe from that passage.
And I want to turn over to Titus chapter one on one occasion. There are also some further remarks about elders in first Peter five and in Acts chapter twenty. In first Peter first Timothy three, Paul says in verse two that a bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife. temperate, sober-minded, of good behavior, hospitable, able to teach, not given to wine, not violent, not greedy for money, but gentle, not quarrelsome, not covetous, one who rules his own house well, having his children in submission with all reverence.
For if a man does not know how to rule his own house, how will he take care of the Church of God? Not a novice, lest being puffed up with pride he fall into some condemnation, into the same condemnation as the devil. Moreover, he must have a good testimony among those who are outside, lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil." Now I want to make two general comments relating to interpretation as to these qualifications. First of all, When you look at the qualifications, these qualifications of an elder, it's interesting.
There are two completely different attitudes toward this passage. We used to have a teacher at Emmaus when I first came. And he would look at the qualifications of an elder. And he would read them off and he said, These qualifications are so high. Nobody can attain to them. And then I started looking at the commentaries on First Timothy, and I was amazed to find that many of the commentators were saying, it's amazing. These standards for elders are so low. Now, how could they say that?
Why did they say that these standards were low? Well, what the commentators were saying is that when you look at what is required for elders here in First Timothy three, they are no different from the standards for every Christian. They are no different from what every Christian should be doing. Now that shouldn't be a surprise to those of us who recognize that the New Testament does not know of a select group of clergy or of leaders that are set apart from and different from ordinary Christians. The fact is that God's standards are the same for all of us.
And when you look at this passage and you look at the things that we have just said, the real question is, do you know people who meet these standards? Do you know who's people who are the husband of one life, white, temperate, sober-minded, of good behavior, hospitable, able to teach, and so on? I say yes. I know a lot of people who are godly Christians like this. Christians that I respect for their character and for their consistency. I would say in answer to the first question, are these standards that can be met and should be met for elders, I would say yes.
We should not have elders in our assembly who do not meet these standards that are found in the qualifications for elders. Now the second question of interpretation really relates to the nature of these qualifications. And let me put it this way. Are these qualifications necessary qualifications or are they particular disqualifications? Now that's not double talk. Let me explain by what I mean by that. Again we are looking at two completely different ways of looking at this passage.
If these are necessary qualifications for an elder, then those who look at the passage this way say that when you look in verse two and it says that a husband, an elder, must be the husband of one wife. If that's a necessary qualification, that means he must be married. If it says in verse four that he must keep his children under control, then that means he must have children. The other viewpoint... is that these are not positive requirements in that sense, but rather these are matters which could disqualify a person from being an elder.
It doesn't mean that an elder must be married. But if he is married, then he should not have a messed up marriage. Doesn't mean that an elder must have children. But if he does have children, they are to be decent, orderly children. Titus says that they are to be believers. So which of these approaches is the correct approach? I would take the second that these are matters in which a person could be disqualified. And the reason I would say that is... I want you to look at one verse in Timothy. You notice the first thing that is said there in First Timothy, chapter three, a bishop then must be blameless.
That's the head qualification. Look over in Titus chapter one. And it's even clearer the point that I want to make here in Titus. It says in verse six, Titus one six. If a man is blameless, the husband of one wife, having faithful children, not accused of dissipation or insubordination, for what? Bishop must be blameless. You notice how you have in the beginning of verse six, he must be blameless. Then you have a number of specifics. And why those specifics?
Because he must be blameless. That's the general qualification, blameless of character, above reproach. Now there is no reproach for not being married. First Corinthians seven tells us that. There is no reproach for not having children. But what these verses are saying is that These are areas, possible areas, of demonstrating your character. Demonstrating your character if you're married.
Demonstrating your character if you have children. You don't have to be married. In fact, First Corinthians seven says that there are distinct advantages for the single life. But if you are married, you need to be above reproach in your marriage and in your family. So I would look at these. Everything that is said in terms of the qualification of an elder fit under that one phrase, that one general category, above reproach. Now I am saying that we need to have qualified elders in our assemblies. We need to have elders who are above reproach.
I don't have time, we don't have time to go through all of the specific qualifications. And so what I would like to do is make a couple of observations. My first observation is this. I would notice that when you look at the qualifications for an overseer or an elder, They are mainly spiritual qualifications. You'll notice that of all of the things that are said, there is only one matter, one point that is intellectual. And that is that he must be able to teach. Now that says to me that the most important thing, as far as God is concerned for an elder, is life and character.
I have known some brilliant Christian scholars. Their knowledge of the Scripture, their knowledge of theology is amazing. But you wonder, whatever happened to the fruit of the Spirit in their lives. See, you can be brilliant and not be qualified to be a Christian leader. You can be brilliant. You can have a PhD and that won't qualify you to be an elder or a teacher in a Christian school. So the first thing is that the qualifications are spiritual.
The second thing, you notice how several of the things that Paul mentions relate to the home life. The elder must be the husband of one wife. He must manage his own household well. He must have his children under control. The principle is stated in verse five of First Timothy three. It says, For if a man does not know how to rule his own house, how will he take care of the church of God? Do you know what that says to me? It says that Christian living begins in the routine areas of life. Christian living begins in the home, in the daily life, in the ordinary things of life.
You have to cut it as a Christian, as a leader, with your family, with those that know you best. I have a friend who was ministering a number of years ago in an assembly in the Northeast. And all the time he was preaching the word of God and teaching the scriptures. His home was a war zone. When the assembly finally discovered this, the elders said, Brother, you need to step back from your Bible teaching. And this brother was shocked. Isn't my teaching orthodox?
Isn't my teaching true? is it my teaching good? Why do I have to step back from my teaching because I'm having trouble in my home? Well, the fact is, the Bible says that what we teach needs to be backed by our character. And if it is not if the words that we say are true, but lack the moral authority that comes from one who is living a life consistent with that word, then we're not qualified to teach. I think that in this group we could number, multiply, friends of ours, who have been involved in the ministry of the Word of God, who have lost that ministry because of their home life.
I have a friend, very good friend, one of several that I could talk about who lost his ministry because he lost his wife. There was nothing immoral involved. They had been working together for many years. They had had a good marriage for many years, but there came a point in their life in which He began his work in this direction, and she began her work for the Lord in this direction. And they became further and further apart, until one day she said, I want to call it quit. And he lost his ministry.
Now I would like to make this point. The Bible does not allow you to sacrifice your wife or your children in order to serve the Lord. The scriptures do not allow you in your dedication to the Lord to neglect your family. what it does say that if you want to serve the Lord without the distractions of a family, if you want to serve the Lord with the freedom that a single person has, if you want to serve the Lord without the responsibility of taking care of a wife and taking care of her needs and without taking care of children and without looking for the needs of your children, If you want that kind of freedom to serve the Lord, then the Bible says in First Corinthians seven, stay single.
There are advantages in terms of freedom if you are single. But it says that if you are married, if you do have children, then what you do in the home, whether you are a good husband, whether you are a good father, whether you manage your home well, will qualify you or disqualify you in your service to the Lord. Now there are many other qualifications that I think we could look at. I think that that is a very important one. It says other things that an elder may not be a neophyte. He must have self-control.
He must be free from the love of money. But may I, if, would you permit me to... look at one area where I think that it is particularly important for an elder to be above reproach. And that is the area of sexual conduct. I know that we are living in a sexually permissive society. I know that we are bombarded by temptations from every side. I know that elders and Christian workers get trapped in situations, counseling situations that develop into friendships and then into intimacy and then into sin.
But I must say that while I know these things happen, I was really shocked when I was reading Alex Strout's book on Biblical Eldership to read some of the statistics to the extent of marital infidelity when it comes to Christian leaders and Christian workers. One, Alex says, church leaders are committing sexual sins and divorcing at epidemic rates. There was one survey in Leadership Magazine, a magazine that is put out by Christianity Today, that showed in answers to a survey that twelve percent answered yes to this question.
Have you ever had sexual intercourse with someone other than your spouse since you have been in local church ministry? Twelve percent. That's an awful number. I was asking how many were at this conference. Somebody said that there are probably around two hundred and fifty that have been to this conference. Twelve percent. By that statistics would be more than twenty-five people. And furthermore, there was an even higher number approaching twenty percent of those that had to answer, yes, that they had been involved with some other form of inappropriate behavior, such as passionate kissing or fondling.
Brothers and sisters, may I ask you very pointedly, is your sexual life above reproach? Is the sexual life of the elders in your assembly above reproach? There is no faster way to drag down the name of Christ than by sexual misconduct. There is no way to become a scandal, to scandalize the name of Jesus Christ in the before the non-Christian world than by sexual misconduct. Is that really what you were serving the Lord for? Is that really what you want to be the outcome of your ministry?
Do you want to dishonor Him and drag His name down? Are you prepared to destroy your ministry that way? Are you prepared to destroy the relationship with your wife that way? Are you prepared to destroy your relationship with your children that way? I tell you, I do not want that. You remember what Paul said in First Corinthians nine? He said he exercised rigorous self-discipline. Let's having preached to others he would be disapproved or disqualified.
I can think of no greater tragedy than to serve Christ for years and that yet have to stand before Him, disqualified, disapproved. I try to never put myself in a situation where there can be the slightest question of anything happening. I will not meet with another woman without taking my wife along or taking another elder in the assembly along. Woman calls me up and says, I'd like to meet over a particular matter.
My first thing I would say is, that's fine. Can I bring my wife along? If she says no, then I would say, I'm sorry, I will not meet with you. I will not meet with a woman student in my office without having my door wide open. I will not do that. Every time I look at my letter of commendation and read over the list of elders in my assembly, the very top of the list is the name of one of the men in my youth that I respected most as a godly Christian brother.
And yet, he got involved with a woman that he was counseling, and as a result, he lost his ministry, he lost his wife, he lost his children, and he spent the final years of his life as a very tragic and pitiable figure. The Church of Jesus Christ must have elders who are above reproach. And we need to make sure that in our own personal area, we do not give occasion to fall.
And we must support one another that we do not allow one another to be in the position to fall. But elders must be blameless in their own personal lives. My first point, the needs of our assembly, we need to have qualified elders, spiritual, godly people whose lives are above reproach. I would suggest that there's a second need of our assemblies, and that is a need for working elders. You notice that Timothy said, if anyone desires the position of an overseer, he desires a good work.
This isn't an office. This isn't just a position of authority. It is a work. And it is a hard work. Paul says in First Timothy, that elder, he refers to elders who rule well and work hard at preaching and teaching. Work hard. In First Thessalonians, he refers to those who diligently labor among you. Shepherds are to guard and feed the flock. And that involves hours behind the scenes caring for God's people.
In times of difficulty, in times of personal need, in times of attacks from the outside and from the inside. This is a work, and it's a hard work. I say that because I think that there are some people who have tended to look on the position of overseer, not as a work to be done, but as an officer, as a position of authority. These are people who don't want to work hard in the church, but they want to sit on the sidelines and make the calls. They want things done their way.
And so all they do in the life of the assembly is make sure that they get to exercise their vote when any decision is going to be made. But you don't see the teaching. You don't see the pastoral care. You don't see the labor for the Lord. An overseer is not an overseer unless he oversees. An elder has to elve. And when a person ceases to do the work, he should cease to be recognized as an overseer in the assembly. He should cease to have any say as to how the assembly is run.
And there are too many assemblies that are hurting. because they have elders who look on the eldership oversight as a position of honor and authority instead of a position of work. So we need to have working elders. Let me again mention a third area. Besides having qualified elders and working elders, we need to train elders. We need to train elders. I've been thinking about this particular subject in relationship to Emmaus. The need for the next generation of teachers who will come and be teaching at Emmaus.
This is my twenty-eighth year at Emmaus. I've been, for fourteen years, I was the youngest teacher. When I first came, we had a faculty student basketball game. The faculty won. Not only would that not happen today, but for the last couple of years, we have played the girls' team, and unless we take in a couple of ringers from the staff, a couple of young guys from the staff, the girls will beat us.
Now what that means is that our faculty is getting older. And we really have to be concerned about who is going to take up this work after us. Who is going to carry the torch in the next generation? Because who we pass that on to will determine the direction and the character of the school if the Lord does not come in a future generation. Now, I've been thinking about that, and I think it's a very solemn responsibility. But is it any different in the church? Every assembly faces the same issue.
Who are going to be the leaders in your assembly after you? The fact is that most elders have no idea. Those of you who are leaders and elders, how did you learn to be an elder and do the work of an elder? I would probably guess that most of you never had anyone teach you or guide you or train you. I would make a guess if that's true. You can refute me afterwards, but that would be my assumption. Now I would notice that's not the way the Lord Jesus worked.
He took twelve men, he taught them and trained them, and then he sent them out to preach and teach. And when they worked for a while, he brought them back to himself and then said, how did it go? And he taught them some more, and then he sent them out again. If you'll notice the way the Apostle Paul worked, He came to Lystra on his second missionary journey. He picked up Timothy, a young man there, and invited him to go with him. And then he trained Timothy. And as Paul went to a city, preached the gospel, taught the Christians, and then went on to the next place, he would send Timothy back to Thessalonica.
He would send Timothy back to Philippi. He would send Timothy over to Ephesus. and he trained him and then got him to work with others. And he said to Timothy in Second Timothy two, a verse you know, Timothy, the things that you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, these entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. The fact is that no matter how hard you work, no matter how much success you have in your own personal ministry, If you are not preparing a new generation to lead the church, you are not doing the job of overseeing the church.
What should we be doing? Well, I would suggest the first thing to do is be a working elder. That comes from the last point. This is a work. It's a hard work. But not just be a working elder. Be a model. Be a model. Let others work with you. When I was a young man attending an assembly in Dallas, one of the elders came to me and he said, Monday night is visitation night. How about coming with me? Now, as a young man in his early twenties, I would have felt it presumptuous to go out and start visiting people in the assembly.
Not only would I have felt it something that was presumptuous, I would have been terrified at the very prospect of doing that by myself. But he was the experienced man. He was the one in charge. It was very easy for me to tag along with him, find out what went on when you visited somebody in the assembly, what you talked about, what kind of questions came up. And... what was involved in that kind of work. That was a tremendous education for me. It was a tremendous blessing in my life. Not only be a model in your own personal life, but give responsibility to younger men.
Not only give them a responsibility, meet with them for evaluation, for counseling, for instruction. One of the things that we do in our assembly is that we very frequently have younger men speak on Wednesday night. We've been doing this for a period of time. But this year we started something different. Before these young men speak, we have one of the men in our assembly meet with them ahead of time and go over the basic... the basic way they're going to go about, expounding the past. And then after they've spoken, he meets with them again and said, let's talk about how it went. And I think that that's a very positive thing that has happened.
And it's a great help for our younger men. Let me mention another thing. One of the most useful tools that has come along in a long time is a work that has been just developed by Alex Strout. You may be familiar with his book on biblical eldership. He has a study guide for that book on biblical eldership, but this last year he has come out with a new thing called a mentor's guide to biblical eldership. Now, Alex has written this book as a tool to help elders go through a study program with younger men who are prospective elders, who would desire to be elders one day.
And it's a tremendous work. It deals very pointedly with the biblical teaching on elders. It also deals very pointedly on a practical issue, on a practical level with the issues involved in being a good elder. It talks very pointedly about your spiritual life, your study of the Word of God, the kind of commitment that you have to the work of God, to the attitude of servanthood, to the kind of work and the amount of work that you should be involved in if you are an elder and how you should go about preparing yourself for this kind of work it is really an excellent tool I was recommending it to my son-in-law and I said if you could get the elders in your assembly to go through this work with you it would be a tremendous blessing to you and some of the other men but let me tell you this it would also be a tremendous blessing or at least challenge to the ones who are the current elders in that assembly.
So I think it's a, you know, if you want a double blessing, the second blessing, this is one way of getting that in your assembly. What I'm saying though is this, we need to train elders. This is a work. And it is a work in many assemblies that is not being done today. My final point really relates to this last one. We need not only to train the elders, we need to pass the work on to them. We need to actually pass the work on. I think that there are many in leadership who are very insecure. And they are not sure that the younger men can be trusted.
You know what I mean by a younger man? I mean like Timothy was called a younger man. When Paul called younger, when Paul said to Timothy, let no one despise your youth, remember Timothy had been with Paul over fifteen years at this point. We're talking about somebody between the age of thirty-five and forty, younger men. And there are elders who really are not willing to trust some of these younger men between the ages of of thirty five and and and forty they are not sure that these younger men will maintain biblical principles with the same fervor they're not sure that if these younger men come in that they will won't won't change some of the things make some changes in the assemblies and so we have a group of aging elders working in assemblies who do not want to give up their authority.
I said before that this was because of a lack of, because of a sense of insecurity. I really should say I think that this is because of a lack of faith. It is a lack of faith if I do not believe that anybody else can do the work that I am doing. It is a lack of faith. when I do not believe that God can raise up anybody else who will be as trustworthy as I am. It is a lack of faith because I really do not believe that Christ is the living head of this, of his church.
That it is his work, that he is leading and directing it, and that he is the one who is responsible for the growth and the success and the welfare of the church. The fact is that the work is going to be passed on to the next generation. All we have to do is wait for the current crop to die out, and it will be passed on. What I'm saying is that it can be passed on much more smoothly if we will train the younger men, allow them to work with us, and allow them to make a smooth transition, benefiting from the wisdom and the experience. of the other.
This is something that we need to be conscious in.