Shared Secrets for Ministers, Useful Advice for Elders

A colleague recently asked for recommendations for articles or books on the subject of spiritual formation. I stuttered and stumbled around, because I”m never quite certain what is meant by the term and am quite certain I”m not qualified to speak with much authority on it.

At the time, though, I was reading Richard Lischer”s delightful memoir, Open Secrets. It was published over a decade ago, but I somehow missed it. I shouldn”t have.

After finishing the book, I e-mailed my colleague with the recommendation: read this book. Open Secrets is a frank memoir recalling how Lischer”s first congregation helped to “spiritually form” him. He already had the book learning. With his divinity school behind him and his newly minted PhD in theology certified and ready to hang on the wall, Lischer felt armed and ready to do battle for the Lord. His envisioned future included a satisfying term in a pastorate, then a brilliant career as a professor and, no doubt, a university or seminary presidency to cap his career.

Instead, to his dismay, the denomination posted him to fictional (but all-too-real) New Cana, Illinois, not far from Alton, but a world away from St. Louis, his home territory. His rural congregation gathered weekly in a run-down church building capped by a one-armed cross (the symbol says it all); his people had calloused hands and simple vocabularies. Learned theologians they weren”t. They needed him, he could see that, but they didn”t need him as much as””and not in the ways””he thought they did.

So began his three-year stint. He preached grace but believed works, his works, were what was really needed. He counseled others while his own marriage suffered. He brought his cerebral ammunition into the warfare against evil and ignorance, only to learn that “what really matters is how we live with one another in the church. The real subject matter of Christianity is not a set of truths but the whole checkerboard of our lives taken as a whole.”

Lischer tells a good, if sometimes startlingly frank, story. His characters live. Their personal crises are the burdens every in-touch pastor carries: difficult marriages, wayward children, alcoholic parents, gossips, and financial disasters. The young minister”s mistakes are excruciating, but they lead to his growth, and along the way the young professional with his brand-new degrees becomes a genuine pastor. His spiritual formation is underway.

Lischer left Cana for another congregation and then, after nine years of pastoral ministry, began his notable teaching career at Duke Divinity School. I”d like to sit in on his classes, where he can hold forth authoritatively about what constitutes a proper theological education for “the clergy.” They can get a good start in that direction at seminary. For more complete spiritual formation, you need to spend time in New Cana.

 

Filling a Gap

A longtime friend recently invited me to consult with his church staff and elders. As the senior pastor going into his third year, he knew the honeymoon was definitely over. The elders were sharply divided and the church was facing a split. Would I help them?

It was not the first time such a call has come my way, so I knew what to expect and prepared myself for what I predicted would be a series of tense, even bitter, confrontations. I didn”t want to go. “Been there, done that,” as they say. But the minister is my friend. I went.

What I found when I got there, however, was a total surprise. The meetings were congenial, the atmosphere positive, the elders upbeat. What had happened between the call and my arrival?

David Roadcup is what happened. The minister had talked with him by phone and invited him to consult with his eldership, also. Roadcup got there sooner than I did. I”m glad he did. In short order, this experienced professor/consultant diagnosed the problem, prescribed the remedy, and set the church on a healthy trajectory. All that was left for me was to cheer them on.

This is not the only church to have benefited from the wisdom of Roadcup and the company he keeps. He and colleagues Jim Estep and Gary Johnson have published a series of books written specifically to help churches like my friend”s. I”m hoping the elders there are studying them together. If they will, eruptions like the one that precipitated Roadcup”s visit shouldn”t happen again.

All three of the authors have earned the right to be heard. Dr. Roadcup was the executive director of the Center for Church Advancement and continues to serve as a professor at Cincinnati (Ohio) Christian University, Dr. James Estep is dean of undergraduate studies at Lincoln (Illinois) Christian University, and Dr. Gary Johnson is senior minister of Indian Creek Christian Church in Indianapolis, Indiana, where he has guided the small congregation that called him 22 years ago to become one of our fellowship”s leading megachurches. Together, they bring their solid biblical scholarship and long and fruitful practical experience to bear on challenges every alert eldership deals with.

The books (and the digital curriculum, What Every Elder Should Know) fill a gap. Often a church selects good leaders, tells them to “go lead,” but gives no guidance on what is expected of them. This series provides good counsel. Whether used for individual or group study, the books offer biblical insight and time-tested advice for building strong elderships””and strong elders. I like their take on electing (or selecting) elders (there is more than one way to do it); I especially like their appeal for flexibility in church governance (yes, there is also more than one good way to run a church). They would do away with Robert”s Rules of Order. I nearly cheered when I read that! They call for peer evaluations among elders, an absolute must that is ignored almost everywhere.

The expected emphasis on the elder”s prayer life and exemplary personal character is here, but so is the frequently overlooked importance of the elder”s financial responsibility. (You can”t teach good stewardship if you don”t model it.) Yes, they get specific: tithing is the norm. I cheered yet again as they addressed the need for leaders to keep growing, keep learning, keep adapting to the changes that keep coming. The title of their book Enjoy His People alone is a good reminder that when done right, there is joy in serving Jesus. There are duties to be performed, to be sure, sometimes onerous ones, but in our relational faith, leaders who not only love, but enjoy, their people are blessed””and a blessing.

Have these men written the definitive volumes on the eldership? No. The thoughtful reader will find points to challenge. They and I are not of one mind on all issues. But that”s part of the value of the series (as well as the stand-alone volume, The Healthy Elder). The eldership that studies them seriously will be in for some provocative discussions, debates even, as they seek to apply the Scriptures to today”s always changing, ever more demanding, church culture.

And professors Johnson, Roadcup, and Estep are just the instructors to lead the discussion.

 

LeRoy Lawson is international consultant with CMF International and professor of Christian ministries at Emmanuel Christian Seminary in Johnson City, Tennessee. He also serves as a Christian Standard contributing editor and member of Standard Publishing”s Publishing Committee.