Elderbabies

Released in 2001 by F. LaGard Smith, Radical Restoration is a 315-page book that asks the tough questions. The book is a call to throw off denominational thinking. This is the 2nd excerpt with thoughts on elders. You can read the first excerpt here.

The widespread lack of mature Christian men is one of the most devastating results of not having a strong mutual ministry. When what you have, in effect, is a rather exclusive clergy system, the “laity” simply don’t develop as they ought. As long as men can remain mostly-passive spectators, they will never become the kind of elder statesmen who are naturally sought out as spiritual leaders.

Which only compounds the problem. In the absence of true elder statesmen, we are forced to settle for overseers who are chosen, not so much for their spiritual maturity, but for their demonstrated success in worldly matters. This is not to say that elders can’t also be successful in their normal employment. But look closely, and you will see far too many elders whose chief qualification for the job is that they are good businessmen, respected professionals, or even (in more rural communities) the most successful farmers. Of course, this approach is a perfect fit for what has become the most common model among today’s “elderships:” that of a corporate board of directors.

One of the tell-tale signs of this corporate model is the practice, in some congregations, of having set “terms” for those who serve as elders. And voting them into office, or out of office. Of course, that’s simply not how shepherds and flocks work. Nor “wise old men.” Worse yet, instead of the church taking the model of shepherd leadership into the world, we have brought the world’s model of doing business into the church.

At that point, it becomes a matter of chickens and eggs. Do we have the “corporate board model” because of the kind of men we have appointed as elders; or are we appointing that kind of elders because they are most likely to be good “board members?” The answer, of course, is “yes.” Both! No prizes for guessing why the next generation of the church then produces so few spiritual shepherds.

If elders are not to be “board members” for a “corporate church,” what are they to be? From the historical association between Israel’s elders and the city gates, one would not go far wrong to think of elders as gatekeepers. Ever wonder why Israel’s spiritual leaders sat around at the city gates? A good guess is that they were keeping a close eye on who was coming into the community and who was leaving. In an era of great fluidity in “church membership,” do elders today (especially in larger congregations) know who is coming in to be fed, and who is leaving, perhaps because they are not being fed?

Israel’s gatekeepers were not only judges over matters in dispute, but as watchmen at the gate, they used their wisdom and understanding to judge with discernment between those who were bringing prosperity to the city, and those who were bent on destruction. With that in mind, Paul’s warning to the Ephesian elders takes on added meaning. “I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock” (Acts 20:29). Therefore, he tells them: Guard the flock over which you have been made watchmen.

Do our shepherds in the church understand the seriousness of today’s spiritual crisis in which a virulent strain of cultural values is silently and inexorably destroying God’s people? What’s being done to shut the gates? What warning signs are being posted?

Jesus spoke of the way in which he-as the Good Shepherd-would come through the gate to save those within the fold. “The man who enters by the gate is the shepherd of his sheep,” said Jesus. “The watchman opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice” (John 10:2-4).

The three-fold application is obvious. Elders, first of all, are to be the watchmen taking responsibility for who comes and goes within their fellowship. Second, like Jesus, they are only able to lead their congregations effectively when they know each disciple by name. And finally, the congregation is willing to follow the lead of their elders because they recognize their voices. Not the voice of a hired hand, mind you, but the voices of the shepherds themselves.

Of all the things in the church today which need to be radically restored, nothing is of greater urgency than bringing elders back to their role of prayer and proclamation (which, at least relative to prayer, has seen great strides over the past couple of decades). Wherever it still lingers, the board-of-directors approach to “eldering” is, by any measure, an abomination. Interminable “elders meetings” to decide matters having little to do with the spiritual health of the flock are a mockery. And abdicating responsibility for teaching and preaching of the Word by hiring professional “pulpit ministers” (as distinct from full-time elders) couldn’t be more misguided.

What will it take for us to see how far removed most of our congregations are from the pattern of leadership in the early church? To honestly admit that there’s been a paradigm shift of the greatest magnitude? To have the courage to fundamentally change how we are fed and led?

When the dereliction of Israel’s elders finally resulted in Jerusalem’s destruction and the exile of those self-same elders, the lament of Lamentations (5:14) said it all: “The elders are gone from the city gate….” Simultaneously, that statement spoke to both cause and effect. The reason Israel’s elders were “gone from the city gate” is because they had long since abandoned what they were supposed to do at the city gate! They had let somebody else do their job. They had been content to be administrators and decision-makers, but they had forgotten what it meant to be shepherds among God’s people.

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