Elders For Today’s Church

By the time the weekend ended, we knew that we had met God. We felt closer to one another and to the One who had brought us together. God met us in that place as we laid aside our personal agendas and came together to hear what God was saying about providing oversight, nurture and guidance for our church. It’s hard to describe, but we even felt closer to our surroundings: the bed we slept in, the table where we gathered to eat, even the floor where we fell prostrate. It became a familiar place, a place that we would miss and a place to which we would look forward to returning.

Over the next several years, we did return, many times. Committed to working together and taking responsibility to guide our church through its trials and blessings, our team of elders learned to serve in unity and Christ-like humility. We were discovering and experiencing eldership as an effective biblical model for leading a local church.

Through the course of history there has been much debate over the roles and responsibilities of elders in the church. For the past two thousand years, the church has used various leadership structures with varying degrees of effectiveness. Differing models have their strengths and weaknesses, benefits and dangers.

Although the early church started out with the biblical model of elders, this leadership style was lost for centuries, during which a widening chasm developed between the clergy and the laity. Attempts were made to restore biblical eldership going back to the Brethren movement in England and the Restoration movement in America, but many today are confused about what the role of biblical eldership really is because it is rarely practiced in our churches today.

It is the intention of this book to clarify what true biblical eldership is and how these leaders function and give oversight to the church. We recognize that today a majority of churches call the one who gives primary oversight to the local church a "pastor." Although the language may be different, the same individual is being referred to. We call the primary leader a "senior elder." The terms we use should not alienate us. We simply prefer to use this terminology because we feel it more accurately portrays biblical church leadership.

Godly stewardship requires continual evaluation of principles of leadership to determine if they are consistent with the New Testament. In looking for more effective models, biblical elders have been rediscovered.

Biblical eldership tends to focus on the entire body of believers becoming equipped to minister, thus discouraging spectator Christianity.

Christ gave leaders to the church "to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up" (Ephesians 4:12). Biblical church elders are to provide direction, protection and correction to the local church. Elders have the role of giving oversight to the affairs of the church as they empower believers for ministry and direct them to areas of service. As equipped believers grow, the church grows.

This was Jesus’ approach to leadership. "Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you" (John 16:7). Jesus knew that it was important for Him to go so that the Holy Spirit might come and fill each of us. Jesus desired that the number of people who were filled with the Spirit of God would multiply greatly. He said we would do all the things that He did and even greater things! Every believer has that potential.

Just as each believer has a vital role to play in God’s plan, each local church also has an essential role to play. Churches can move ahead with clear direction when they understand how leadership functions and how biblical elders can govern the church so that every believer has the opportunity to become involved in the Lord’s service.

The 2-2-2 blueprint

The blueprint we have discovered in the New Testament for organizing the church begins simply and remains easy to replicate. You do not have to be a master builder to understand it. Anyone can examine the design and follow its instructions to build solid leadership in the church.

The first foundational truths for building successfully are found in 2 Timothy 2:2. Paul, the apostle, exhorts Timothy, his protege, to pass on what he had learned to mature believers who would in turn pass on what they had learned to others. "And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others."

The unlimited potential of this kind of in-house training is obvious. It is the potential that starts at ground level and continues to develop ordinary people into world-changers! It is the potential that says, "We believe in you, so we trust you to God. The Lord is going to use you in big ways if you allow Him to! We are here to equip you, and God will do the rest." This is how church leaders of all kinds, from small group leaders to church elders, can eventually be formed!

Brian was fresh out of college with a degree in industrial engineering when leaders in our church, DOVE Christian Fellowship International (DCFI), saw potential in him and encouraged him in church leadership roles, first as a youth pastor and eventually as an elder in the church. Over the years, the leadership believed in Brian and helped set in motion the calling in his life to understand the development and design of the local church. Rather than engineering ways to make a product or provide a service, these days Brian determines effective ways to plant churches as he oversees our Church Planting and Leadership School.

An ideal blueprint for governmental leadership in the local church is to raise up leaders in-house who are trusted, faithful examples of Christian living. According to our understanding of New Testament leadership, these church leaders are called elders, and they are in place to lead the local church. That is why God gave them to the church.

Every Christian is a minister; however, elders are appointed to give governmental oversight to the church. As they provide direction, protection and correction to the local church, elders help equip the believers and bring them to maturity.

For many, the topic of local church government is one that seems unimportant. In Biblical Eldership, author Alexander Strauch challenges this kind of thinking.

The New Testament church was governed in a way that personally affected every member. Every member is a priest who is to do the work of ministry, while the elders promote this priesthood by equipping them to do so. This model communicates the family character of the local church.

Believers are brothers and sisters in Christ in loving relationship with each other. Elders are considered spiritual fathers and mothers called to model, equip and govern other family members. They are to be servant-leaders working for the benefit of the family.

This is a clear, simple pattern for healthy local church leadership: healthy elders, secure in the Lord’s love and call, serve as spiritual parents to the local church body.

Effective eldership like this requires a certain leadership style that decreases the distance between leaders and followers. It paves the way for leaders to lead with servants’ hearts, leading as humble examples of Christian living. At its best, a senior elder and his team aims to provide loving oversight for a congregation and encourage everyone to become active ministers.

The Lord is using multiple types of churches today—from conventional church structures to those that operate outside traditional patterns. Many options need to be made available to us for the immense task of equipping the saints for ministry and bringing the gospel of Jesus Christ to a lost and dying world.

Questions to discuss