By Arron Chambers
Who is an elder supposed to be? The Bible makes it clear
Now the overseer must be above reproach, the husband of but one wife, temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not given to drunkenness, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. He must manage his own family well and see that his children obey him with proper respect. (If anyone does not know how to manage his own family, how can he take care of God”s church?) He must not be a recent convert, or he may become conceited and fall under the same judgment as the devil. He must also have a good reputation with outsiders, so that he will not fall into disgrace and into the devil”s trap (1 Timothy 3:2-7).
But the Bible is not as clear about what an elder is supposed to do.
I know . . . I know . . . the Bible teaches that an elder is a shepherd of Christ”s church (Acts 20:28; 1 Peter 5:2), but what exactly does shepherding look like in a 21st-century congregation? A shepherd”s job description is clear when you”re standing in a field, holding a staff, surrounded by sheep, but it”s not so clear when you”re standing in an auditorium, holding a congregational meeting, surrounded by people.
As the son of an elder, as a minister who has served with elders for almost 20 years, and as a faithful church attendee for the past 38 years, I know what elders do:
They make important decisions about the church building, property, staff, missions, budget, and vision. They oversee the hiring of the preachers. They read letters after sermons by a guest speaker explaining to the congregation why the preacher doesn”t serve here anymore.
They handle church discipline. They teach. They take Communion to shut-ins. They pray for the sick. They ordain people for ministry.
They attend a lot of meetings, and””in some churches””during Communion they sit in big chairs on either side of the Communion table so they can hand out the trays to the deacons and then sit solemnly waiting for the trays to be safely returned.
And based on what I”ve seen in a lot of churches, I also know what congregations think their elders are supposed to do””all of the above, plus “Make us happy and keep us happy . . . or we”ll vote you out.”
Recently, Scott Adams, creator of the comic strip Dilbert, asked readers of his blog1 to describe their job in one sentence. Here are a few of my favorites:
1. Sell gluttony: Cinema Concession Stand Attendant
2. Bring a little rain into the lives of flood victims: Government Debt Collector
3. Have people spend far more than they estimated: Building Inspector
4. Talk in other people”s sleep: College Professor
5. Arrive after the battle and bayonet all the wounded: Auditor
6. Stand on a field and get yelled at for hours: Baseball Umpire
“Get yelled at for hours.” Hmmm . . . I wonder how many elders, if they had to honestly describe their role in one sentence, would say their job is to “stand in front of the congregation, or in the narthex, and get yelled at for hours.”
How unfortunate.
But I digress.
We at Christian Standard were curious how elders would describe their job and, in particular, what they consider the most important aspects of their job, so early this year we invited elders from across the country to take a short survey, and 265 elders responded.
The survey revealed some interesting information as elders answered the following questions.
How much time in an average week do you give to responsibilities associated with the eldership?
We already knew being an elder is an important job, but our survey revealed it is also a time-consuming job.
Of the elders we surveyed, 82 percent spend more than two hours a week fulfilling the responsibilities associated with the eldership; 48 percent spend more than four hours a week, and 20 percent invest more than eight hours a week serving as an elder. This means most of the respondents give 416 hours of service each year. For many of them, this is on top of a full-time job!
Elders who serve in cities spend more time fulfilling their responsibilities than elders in the suburbs or rural settings. According to our survey, 90 percent of the elders from cities claim to spend more than two hours a week fulfilling their responsibilities compared with 79 percent in the suburbs and 77 percent in rural settings.
What is an elder”s most important job?
When we asked elders this question and gave them the following choices””shepherding, decision making, administration, staff management, stewardship of church finances, teaching, or “other”””77 percent of all respondents answered shepherding.
The answer to this question was also influenced by the area where the church was located. For example, 86 percent of rural elders believed their most important job is shepherding, whereas 11 percent fewer (75 percent) of the elders who serve churches in cities or suburbs viewed shepherding as their most important job.
The next highest responses””although far behind shepherding””are worth noting. They were decision making (10 percent) followed by teaching (6 percent).
Church staff members in many places feel they are micromanaged by well-intentioned elders. But, surprisingly our survey found no elders who believe staff management is their most important job.
This doesn”t mean the elders we surveyed don”t think staff management is important. On the contrary we believe the comments of an elder who”s been serving a suburban church in the Southeast for the past five years would probably reflect the majority opinion; he said he believed that jobs we listed were “all important aspects of directing the affairs of the congregation.”
What percentage of time do you spend doing your “most important job”?
The answers to this question surprised us too. According to our survey, 64 percent of elders admit to spending less than half of their “elder time” doing their most important job. Even more shocking, 32 percent of the elders surveyed admitted they spend less than 25 percent doing their most important job.
Only 18 percent said they spend more than half their time shepherding the church, and less than 2 percent say that”s all they do.
And here”s what these elders do not do:
“¢ 55 percent of elders in city churches say they spend no time doing staff management
“¢ 46 percent of elders in rural churches say they spend no time doing staff management
“¢ 40 percent of elders in city churches say they spend no time doing administration
“¢ 37 percent of elders in rural churches say they spend no time doing administration
“¢ 24 percent of elders in suburban churches say they spend no time doing administration.
Does your church offer any type of training for elders before they are set apart for service?
Almost two-thirds of the elders we surveyed said their church provides absolutely no training for elders before they are set apart for service. Rural churches are most likely to offer no elder training. According to our survey, 74 percent of rural churches offer no training, but that number decreases significantly””by almost 20 percentage points””in city churches where only 55 percent offered no elder training.
Of the churches that offer elder training, most are using Alexander Strauch”s book, Biblical Eldership: An Urgent Call to Restore Biblical Church Leadership (Lewis and Roth).
We also heard about some excellent training programs.
An elder who has served for more than 21 years with a suburban church in the Midwest shared that the church has a leadership development group that meets each month for training. Elder candidates are required to spend a minimum of two years in that group before they can go through the screening process. He told us the screening process at his church involves self-evaluation, an evaluation by all the elders, a personal interview by the elders, and a final meeting with the candidate and spouse before affirmation by the congregation.
The survey revealed a wide variety of approaches to elder training. We found a suburban church that requires a 6-to-12-month elder intern program for all candidates; a suburban Midwestern church that offers no formal training (instead desiring to be “Spirit-led and accountable”); a city church in the Northeast that requires elders to go through a two-year “pre-elder training program” where they discuss qualifications, responsibilities, conflict resolution, and biblical pastoral care; a Northeastern city church that has no curriculum but requires elder candidates to spend a six-month training period during which they attend meetings, make pastoral calls, and actually join in leading; and a suburban church in the Southeast that requires elder candidates to participate in a 10-week study of Nehemiah, read three books on leadership, and go through an extensive interview process.
We conducted this survey because we were curious how elders would describe their work and””in particular””what they would say was their most important job. The overwhelming response revealed that our churches are in good hands””under the watchful care of godly shepherds who truly understand the importance of what they have been called to do, who are committed to investing long hours in fulfilling their ministry, and who deeply love those over whom they”ve been called to watch.
________
1http://dilbertblog.typepad.com/.
Arron Chambers is a CHRISTIAN STANDARD contributing editor and author (his latest book is Remember Who You Are, available from Standard Publishing). His blog appears at www.christianstandard.com. He has just begun his service as senior minister with Journey Christian Church in Greeley, Colorado.
0 Comments