I have read and understand how it is a good thing to desire the position of being an elder but over the years, I have considered why anyone would actually volunteer when called upon by a congregation. With this thought in mind, I would like to consider how we (I) usually make the position something more challenging than it needs to be.
One thing seems certain in how every thing not meeting the perfection we think should take place comes back appearing to be their fault. The men accepting this challenge have placed themselves out in front of all of us to view as examples and yet being human, they would acknowledge they will make mistakes. I know we pray for these men but I think we also need to take it a step further, realizing how wonderful they are for accepting this challenge, and examine everything we can do to make their life for Christ a life of joy in service. When looking back at myself, which is the intended purpose of my blog, I think it is also important to remember first and foremost how these men not only accepted this challenge but they did so being recognized as the most mature, spiritual and godly men available to serve in this capacity. Our elders have never to my knowledge been anything other than men meeting the definition of these words and the qualifications laid out for being an elder in Christ's church.
One of the first things to consider is whether I am using the talents God has given me or am I sitting back waiting on someone else to get me going. Over the years, I think we have placed our elders into a position where all we expect of them is an agenda of things for us to do for God. Many times when something is discussed and presented to us, we choose to think of the things we would rather do and end up doing nothing. When I look at myself, the question seems simple; "why are you not doing the something else you recognize as important?" With each person using their talent(s) to be effective for the work of God, coming up with a "project" for the church would not be a burden and the acknowledged maturity and spirituality of each of them using their talents would be joyful.
Often when we(I) have looked and made association of the actions of Pharisees with those around us, we look to place the title Pharisee on our leaders but I would like to view this from another angle and put the title Pharisee on myself and have the elders in the position of Jesus facing the challenges of the Pharisee. As I see things, the Pharisees were challenging Jesus from their understanding of the law and trying to trap Jesus into a position of going against the law. In other words, they perceived to know the law better than Jesus! I have mentioned we already have the most mature and godly men as elders and yet we(I) go to the elders with our comments concerning things taking place during our worship time. I have been guilty of going to the elders and asking them to stop or do something about something not "authorized" in scripture. The more I think about it, when approached with something like this, the response should probably be along the lines of "and by what authority do I get involved with something of which God has not involved Himself?" As the "Christian" Pharisee, I am not willing to abide by the instruction in Romans 14 and remain silent when someone does something of which I do not approve but rather ask someone else to get involved and stop the "offending" party. I become the "righteous" Pharisee reporting the things wrong with my brothers and sisters and burden the elders with additional hurt.
This challenge I speak of is specifically hurtful because our elders deal with the same issues of things they can do in faith according to Romans 14 as you and I. Jesus, with the complete wisdom of God knew the perfect answer without any challenge to His own faith. When we take things of this nature to our elders, it is much like the children in the family going to mom and dad and saying Susie is not playing fair! The child wants to get the parent in the middle and take sides for a WINNING position. I am no less childish when I go to the elders and say (like I have done) we need to make sure only songs with notes are shown on the screen. I can see now, how I wanted to put them into a "Papal" position of making decisions for the congregation instead of being our spiritual leaders. I become the source of pain and sadness in their lives when I behave like a child and those of us who should be more mature need to keep Romans 14 open and let it guide our lives.
I wonder how much more joyfully they would be in their choice to serve as elders if those like myself would quit asking them to get in the middle and choose sides since they are burdened with the same problems as humans we all face. On the other hand, we are told of the great value in having godly men pray over us and we should take our hurts and pain to them so they can join with us in prayer for the healing of our hearts and life.
It is my opinion we will always have childish or failing Christians when we come together and like the hurt coming at times from our own children, we will continue to bring sadness to our elders at times because we are less than we can be. What I hope from my own children is for them to recognize I am doing the very best to be the parent God expects from me. I would hope we all recognize our elders are doing and will do their very best to represent the will of God to all of us.
My prayer for us is to do the best we can to bring as much joy and as little pain to our elders as we all seek to be the talented person God has created for His purpose. In doing so, we will clear their plate of so much making their life difficult.
One thing seems certain in how every thing not meeting the perfection we think should take place comes back appearing to be their fault. The men accepting this challenge have placed themselves out in front of all of us to view as examples and yet being human, they would acknowledge they will make mistakes. I know we pray for these men but I think we also need to take it a step further, realizing how wonderful they are for accepting this challenge, and examine everything we can do to make their life for Christ a life of joy in service. When looking back at myself, which is the intended purpose of my blog, I think it is also important to remember first and foremost how these men not only accepted this challenge but they did so being recognized as the most mature, spiritual and godly men available to serve in this capacity. Our elders have never to my knowledge been anything other than men meeting the definition of these words and the qualifications laid out for being an elder in Christ's church.
One of the first things to consider is whether I am using the talents God has given me or am I sitting back waiting on someone else to get me going. Over the years, I think we have placed our elders into a position where all we expect of them is an agenda of things for us to do for God. Many times when something is discussed and presented to us, we choose to think of the things we would rather do and end up doing nothing. When I look at myself, the question seems simple; "why are you not doing the something else you recognize as important?" With each person using their talent(s) to be effective for the work of God, coming up with a "project" for the church would not be a burden and the acknowledged maturity and spirituality of each of them using their talents would be joyful.
Often when we(I) have looked and made association of the actions of Pharisees with those around us, we look to place the title Pharisee on our leaders but I would like to view this from another angle and put the title Pharisee on myself and have the elders in the position of Jesus facing the challenges of the Pharisee. As I see things, the Pharisees were challenging Jesus from their understanding of the law and trying to trap Jesus into a position of going against the law. In other words, they perceived to know the law better than Jesus! I have mentioned we already have the most mature and godly men as elders and yet we(I) go to the elders with our comments concerning things taking place during our worship time. I have been guilty of going to the elders and asking them to stop or do something about something not "authorized" in scripture. The more I think about it, when approached with something like this, the response should probably be along the lines of "and by what authority do I get involved with something of which God has not involved Himself?" As the "Christian" Pharisee, I am not willing to abide by the instruction in Romans 14 and remain silent when someone does something of which I do not approve but rather ask someone else to get involved and stop the "offending" party. I become the "righteous" Pharisee reporting the things wrong with my brothers and sisters and burden the elders with additional hurt.
This challenge I speak of is specifically hurtful because our elders deal with the same issues of things they can do in faith according to Romans 14 as you and I. Jesus, with the complete wisdom of God knew the perfect answer without any challenge to His own faith. When we take things of this nature to our elders, it is much like the children in the family going to mom and dad and saying Susie is not playing fair! The child wants to get the parent in the middle and take sides for a WINNING position. I am no less childish when I go to the elders and say (like I have done) we need to make sure only songs with notes are shown on the screen. I can see now, how I wanted to put them into a "Papal" position of making decisions for the congregation instead of being our spiritual leaders. I become the source of pain and sadness in their lives when I behave like a child and those of us who should be more mature need to keep Romans 14 open and let it guide our lives.
I wonder how much more joyfully they would be in their choice to serve as elders if those like myself would quit asking them to get in the middle and choose sides since they are burdened with the same problems as humans we all face. On the other hand, we are told of the great value in having godly men pray over us and we should take our hurts and pain to them so they can join with us in prayer for the healing of our hearts and life.
It is my opinion we will always have childish or failing Christians when we come together and like the hurt coming at times from our own children, we will continue to bring sadness to our elders at times because we are less than we can be. What I hope from my own children is for them to recognize I am doing the very best to be the parent God expects from me. I would hope we all recognize our elders are doing and will do their very best to represent the will of God to all of us.
My prayer for us is to do the best we can to bring as much joy and as little pain to our elders as we all seek to be the talented person God has created for His purpose. In doing so, we will clear their plate of so much making their life difficult.
Mike,
ReplyDeleteThe problem is not with the elders or Christ's church (by Christ's church, I mean ALL Christians from whatever denomination). The problem is with mans' restrictive interpretation of scripture. You're right, we all do need each other and prayer, but how will a lie be exposed if we do not challenge and offer up a freshness to our worship to God, especially when it's lead by the Holy Spirit. Perhaps it is my arrogance that forces me to see more possibilities in scripture than most. It would seem we could all find a happy medium and join together as ONE. We will not! and you know, maybe that's the way God wants it. He did say ALL things work together for good for those that Love the Lord. We need to continue doing His work in whatever way we feel lead, so He can accomplish the great work. We should not worry with the result or boast in it, but rather let us trust and walk in faith and move as the Spirit moves us, even if it is uncomfortable.
There's so much more to a life in Christ. There has always been something from deep inside my soul that I continue to withhold; why? Fear! What do you think would happen if we moved by faith the way the apostles did after Jesus sent them out. I'll tell you, the result would be the same, death (physical). What's the reward? So then, why do we continue down the earthly path; we've seen it end for others, why would we think it would be any different for us. Do we need Gods word, absolutely, will we take up our cross for it? Should we defend the faith, absolutely, will we take up our cross for it? Why do we cling so hard to that which will vanish when we know intellectually it will! The Holy Spirit burns inside even now as I write, demanding sacrifice, SERVICE!
The president says we're not a Christian nation. He unfortuantly is right, we're Church of Christ, we're Baptist, we're Methodist, and, well you get it I think. We're everything but Christian and it makes me sad.
RD,
ReplyDeleteWow, what a great post! You are so right and love your statement of the Holy Spirit burns because that is what causes me to write. This blog was on my heart because some perceive me to be attacking the men who are elders in our congregation and that is most distant from my heart. You should know these men who would actually give you the shirt off their back and you would know what I mean. While reminding myself, I am going to keep pushing the fact that salvation is about what Christ did and not about what we do to honor or be appreciative of Him in our services. I am thankful I do not know of one teenager who buys into the nonsense of our past and I was extremely proud they would not allow these things taught in their bible classes at Camp Bandina last summer without a challenge. Love you and LA
Mike,
ReplyDeleteI agree so much. Our expectations for our elders is sometimes so different from what we expect of ourselves. If God said to do something, then there is no need to wait for an official program, or even to get permission. If we all got busy doing what God called us each individually to do...we would all be too busy to notice the petty stuff or the stuff that didn't matter to the mission.
If each person in God's church focused on bringing every person they touched one step closer to Christ...whether they were in Him or not...WOW what a world!!
Pray for our elders to have the courage to stand for what is truth, the love to shepherd our flock and the strength and faith to let go of the things that hinder them from doing so.
Ronna,
ReplyDeleteThanks for you comments and I hope the point gets across that when we have a problem it is because of us and not someone else's fault. Part of my past was blaming the elders for what did not get done and the fact is that they need to be free from our petty selfishness to lead us spiritually. In all of the "likes and dislikes," they are no different than everyone else and we want them to RULE on things of personal nature. Thanks again and I hope I can learn just to be my best for God and not worry what others do or think when they are praising God.
In response to an earlier statement of, "I'd rather be doing something, than nothing," I would like to say, that doing nothing, is in fact doing something.
ReplyDeleteRD,
ReplyDeleteYes, choosing to do nothing is choosing to do something. Not I want to encourage but there are some who, unfortunately will never doing anything for the Lord.