We have embraced the concept of Elders within our leadership as well as the more familiar roles of Deacon and Minister. Of course our Minister is an Elder but we also wanted to both support him in his leadership as well as put ourselves on a sound footing for the future.

The purpose of the Eldership is to develop and take responsibility for the vision and strategy of the church, co-ordinate the working of the teams through the team leaders and deal with membership matters.

From time to time church members will be asked “to consider the matter prayerfully and to recommend in writing to the minister the name of person or persons whom they believe might have the gifts and qualities to be an elder. This shall be done without the knowledge of the person concerned”.

There are a number of things to consider

• The Role and Quality of Elders
• What God’s Word says
• What we have agreed in our Constitution
• The Qualities that need to be displayed in an Elder
• Some Questions we should ask ourselves when considering someone for the role of Elder
• The Process of Nomination

The Role and Quality of Elders

In the Old Testament an Elder in Jewish community was a respected leader who sat in judgement giving advice and guidance. Spiritual wisdom and discernment are the qualities highlighted here.

In the New Testament, Elders are those who have an overall leadership role in the local church (1 Timothy 5:17-18).

Leadership means bringing to the church vision and strategy for the overall direction of the church. This has to come from a base of doctrinal stability (Titus 1:9 ). Good Bible knowledge is essential.

There is also a co-ordinating role as overseers that pull the work together, and a pastoral role that supervises the caring aspect of the church (Acts 20:28; 1 Peter 5:2-3 ). Prayer, spiritual counsel and healing are part of such pastoral care (James 5:14).

To summarise: Elders use spiritual wisdom to give leadership in vision, coordination, doctrinal stability and pastoral care. Some Elders teach and preach, though that implies not all necessarily do. Financial support is encouraged for the preaching Elders i.e.Ministers (1 Timothy 5:17-18).

The style of leadership is spelt out in I Peter 5:2-3: “not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples”. While firm guidance is called for, authoritarian attitudes are particularly inappropriate for Elders.

What God’s Word says

Different denominations of the Christian Church seem to have different patterns of leadership in the local church, all claiming to be derived from Scripture. There is certain amount of flexibility built into the Bible’s understanding of leadership, but some practices still need questioning. Baptists come out pretty well on the test of Scripture, but when you get back to the Bible’s teaching there are some surprises.

In the New Testament, leadership in the local church always includes Elders. There were Apostles who served the wider church, but the local church always had Elders. In Jerusalem ( Acts 11:30), in all the churches Paul visited on his first missionary journey branching out from Antioch (Acts 14:23 ), and in Ephesus (Acts 20:17 ), the only local leadership was Elders. Deacons are mentioned alongside Overseers (mg Bishops) at Philippi and their qualities are enumerated in I Timothy 3. Surprisingly they are not mentioned elsewhere. Incidentally, Overseer (Bishop) is another name for Elder as we discover in Titus 1:5-7. Some have thought of the seven appointed alongside the Apostles in Jerusalem as deacons because of the use of the verb “to serve” (Acts 6:1-7). Deacon means servant. But we discover later that the leadership alongside the Apostles in Jerusalem Is Elders (Acts 15:2).

So if the Bible is to be followed, then there should always be Elders as leaders in the local church and sometimes alongside them Deacons. You may be forgiven for thinking it was the other way round because of Baptist practice, but we need to reflect upon what the Bible says

Actually, to be fair to Baptists, a good number of churches have an Elder; we call them Ministers. But Eldership in the New Testament is always plural, never singular.

From the Constitution

9. ELDERS

9.1 The church may appoint up to three members as elders

to work alongside the minister within the eldership to develop and

take responsibility for the vision and strategy of the church, to help

with pastoral issues and to oversee membership matters.

9.2 A person may not be appointed as an elder unless they (i) have been a member for at least two years

(ii) have been baptised as a believer by immersion (iii) have attended church services and church meetings regularly (iv) show capacity for leadership in vision, strategy and pastoral care

(v) show doctrinal stability and qualities of life consistent with the fruit of the Spirit similar to that described in I Timothy 3:1-7; Titus 1:5-8, 2:7-8; 1 Peter 5:2-3

Qualities and Qualifications of Elders

When Paul is talking about gifts in I Corinthians 12-14, he slips in Chapter 13 about the paramount importance of love. The fruit of the Spirit is necessary for control the gifts of the Spirit. It’s not surprising then to find in the two main passages that speak about the qualities of Elders, I Tim 3:1-7 & Titus 1:5-9, that negative attitudes and excesses disqualify from office (over-bearing, quick-tempered, given to much wine, violent, pursuing dishonest gain), and the fruit of the Spirit are commended (hospitable, one who loves what is good, who is self-controlled, upright, holy and disciplined) Titus 1:8, (temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach) I Tim 3:2. Elders should display the fruit of the Spirit alongside their gifts.

Two other clues are given: how they are thought of in the community at large (good reputation with outsiders) and how they conduct themselves in their own home and family life (husband of but one wife.. .manage his own family well) I Tim 3:2-7. The latter is not so much about gender or marital status, rather about the qualities they show in their family relationships, a loyal and faithful kind of person, who tempers firmness with care and consideration. How people behave in their home and family life will be reflected in their leadership role in the church.

Can anyone live up to such descriptions? Does the perfect person exist? Of course not We are encouraged to look for those who approximate to such gifts and qualities.

10 Questions

We need to ask ourself the following questions about the person:

• Do they attend both services on a Sunday? 
• Are they likely to turn up at prayer meetings? 
• Do they support the Fellowship Groups? 
• Do they have a strong Christian faith? 
• Have they a good grasp of the scriptures? 
• Do you consider them wise? 
• Are they good at listening to I talking with people? 
• Are they diplomatic? 
• Do they have an over-all grasp of where the church should be going? 
• Are they currently in leadership, or have shown leadership qualities through involvement in the recent past?

The Process of Nomination

Having prayed about it and read this article, come up with a name, prayed about it again; put pen to paper and write:

“I recommend (name of person ) as an Elder’ Sign (your name)

And pass it to the Minister.

You can recommend as many as there are vacancies to be filled.