Strings Attached

Thoughts and recommendations on external pressures on local elders.

Introduction

Have you ever been shaped by a Christian leader only to have him fail and fade through disqualifying sin or compromise with the world?

In a world that is increasingly hostile to God’s truth, external pressures are growing on church elders. These pressures are like strings attached to eldership which, when pulled, can warp the elder, local church, and execution of God’s mission.

It is my goal provide some thoughts and recommendations on how to elders and congregations can guard against these pressures and resist failures of elders to shepherd the sheep of God. To do this, I’ll provided a basic understanding of the duties of an elder, some common external pressures that disrupt and hinder healthy eldership, some possible failure points for elders, four practical recommendations to help buttress elders against external pressures, and finally some biblical and current examples that informed these recommendations.

Before starting let me provide some clarifying notes:

First, I will use ‘elder’ as an umbrella term for the biblical terms pastor, overseer, shepherd, elder. I do not find in the New Testament a functional distinction between these terms. I have chosen to use the term elder, instead of pastor, as it is the term used most often in the New Testament for this role.

Second, I presuppose that a plurality of equal, male elders is the biblical model for church leadership. This is in contrast with many common models of church organization. It is not my goal to argue for this model in this essay. For an excellent argument for this position see Alexander Strauch’s book Biblical Eldership.

Third, I am not currently, nor have I been an elder. This discussion is an attempt to distill my observations during two decades of participation in church life, including several elder removals, into common issues and root causes and to formulate practical suggestions to work against these issues. I have personally observed specific instances of most of what I discuss below, however I have avoided any reference to specific facts or circumstances.

Duties of Elders

The roles and qualifications of biblical elders are laid out in Scripture. Included in the qualifications for eldership are: being a man (1 Timothy 3:2, Titus 1:6), having a family (1 Timothy 3:2, 4, Titus 1:6), and good management of a household (1 Timothy 3:4-5). Thus, the role of eldership in a local church comes on top of a layered set of roles with their accompanying duties. Many of these duties are foundational to being a godly man and must be well maintained or else an elder risks become disqualified for continued eldership of the local church.

Personal Duties

To be a godly man, a husband, and a father, a man has the duty to provide for and protect his own household. Being the man of the house entails provision both physical and spiritually. A man must work to provide for the physical needs of himself and his family (2 Thessalonians 3:6-12, 1 Timothy 5:8) along with working to teach, instruct, and disciple his household in the truth of God (Ephesians 5:25-28, 6:4, Deuteronomy 6:4-7). These duties are part of the qualifications of an elder and they do not cease once a man becomes an elder.

Pastoral Duties

With eldership comes the duty of managing the household of God. Some of the clearest duties are caring for God’s people (1 Timothy 3:5), shepherding (1 Peter 5:1-2), overseeing or protecting (1 Peter 5:1-2, Hebrews 13:17), teaching and instruction (Titus 1:9). Thus, elders are to feed and protect the family of God from the word of God in a similar manner that fathers are called to provide and protect for their individual households.

External Pressures on Elders

As seen above, the role of the elder of the local church is full of duties and obligations. Many duties are good and right and yet carry with them the risk of drawing an elder away from more foundational duties.

The risk to elders seem to fall into two broad categories: internal (originating in an elder’s heart; Acts 20:28) and external (from duties or desires towards others; 2 Timothy 1:14). Internal risks are certainly great for anyone in leadership and these internal risks are inseparably intertwined with all external risks. However, for the sake of clarity of this discussion, I will treat external risks as separable from internal or heart level risks since discussing the internal temptations of elders is far beyond my goal here.

External pressures are plentiful. Two external pressures that are particularly strong in our current culture: the need to provide for a family and calls for unity.

Provision for Family

Provision for a family and the need to earn a living for this provision is a central duties of a man. For the means of provision to come from a man’s role as elder is certainly permissible (1 Timothy 5:17-18), and yet having a man’s sole provision from eldership opens him up to particular the risk of failing to fulfill the duties of an elder well. Money given to elders for provision is a neutral thing and may either hinder or help good eldership. Being able to spend large amounts of time on shepherding the people of God will generally be helpful to good eldership, but the need to be paid sufficiently to provide for a family and to maintain a paid position within an organization can often lead to compromise on biblical duties or convictions.

Calls for Unity

Christ calls his followers to unity and peacemaking (Matthew 5:9) and to make peace is certainly part of the role of an elder. However, to keep the peace is a very different thing from making peace. Making peace involves bring all into conformity to God’s word even through conflict, while keeping peace avoids conflict in an attempt at unity. External pressures to keep the peace are widespread. They may be couched as calls to “maintain unity” or to “keep the peace” by not disrupting a cultural norm or organization stability. These are nothing less than calls to suppress truth for the sake of gaining some unbiblical goal. These sorts of pressures can come from inside a church network or denomination, or from external groups or governmental entities, or from groups of people within a congregation. When a pressure like this is great enough there is significant risk to an elder’s position. Causing disruptions may be out of line for an elder, but to maintain the conformity at the costs of the truth is worse. Elders, with all believers, are called to maintain unity grounded on the truth of God (Ephesians 4:3-6) and yet not to compromise this truth (2 Timothy 4:1-5).

Possible Failures

External pressures often lead to failures of eldership. I have observed three failure modes that appear common in the current American church: a failure to teach and apply God’s word boldly, a failure to confess personal sin, and a failure to hold fast to truth. These seem to be the most common risks. Clearly, this does not apply to every elder nor is this an exhaustive list of possible failures.

1. The failure to teach and apply God’s word boldly.

   When faced with the external pressures described above there is risk of elders ceasing to teach the congregation boldly and apply God’s word to the people of God. By this I do not mean an elder ceases to teach truth, for that is generally not the case, but rather that the extent of the truth taught is reduced in scope due to an external influence. That is, truth is taught in acceptable areas, but not taught in areas that are off limits culturally, would cause offense, or risk an elders position. For example, speaking truth about men failing to lead is acceptable, but speaking about sins that are more common to women is excluded. Similarly, calling out legalism is acceptable, but addressing modesty is not. Addressing anything that may drift into the political sphere seems to be off limits for most elders. For a biblical examples see Peter in Galatians 2:11-14 and Paul’s warning in Acts 20:29-30.

2. The failure to confess sin.

   When faced with the need to provide elders are at risk of hiding sin. If provision is tied to the role of elder any disqualification from that role has life altering consequences for a man and his family. Such an elder is under pressures to hide sin and maintain his provision for his family. In a healthy leadership group, elders will most certainly confess sin, but there is a strong hinderance to confessing sin that would be disqualifying to eldership particularly if eldership is a man’s sole means of provision for his family. Examples of this included hiding grievous sexual sins to maintain eldership positions.

3. The failure to hold fast to truth.

   In our rapidly decaying culture, networks or denominations of churches change quickly. The pressure to compromise for the sake of keeping the peace and maintaining an eldership position can be great. False unity and the need to provide may easily cause compromise on biblical truth. For example, changing positions on baptism and denominations to move “up” in pastoral roles. Compromising on hot cultural issues to keep the eldership of a congregation within a certain network. A biblical example of this is Demas’ misplaced love in 2 Timothy 4:9-10.

These are all failures to act for the good of the congregation and thus fulfill the duties of eldership. Specific pressures to pursue provision or unity may directly detract from an elder’s ability to shepherd. This is in direct opposition to the call of elders to shepherd the sheep of God (John 21:15-19, 1 Peter 5:1-4).

Freedom from External Pressures

Hopefully I have made my case for the risks of external pressures on elders. As I observe the American church, external pressures, particularly on elders, appear to be growing stronger. Now I turn to the question of how elders can work to cut these attached strings by providing recommendations that I believe will give elders a greater foundation to resist external pressures.

Recommendations

To free elders from these external pressures, I submit the following recommendations for elders and congregations: be able to provide, seek non-provisional eldership, be provided for by the local congregation. These are not to be added to the biblical qualifications of elders, though the first is directly connected, but rather recommendations to reduce unhealthy pressures on elders.

1. Be Able to Provide.

   Before eldership is sought, a man should be able to provide for himself and his family. He should have skills and a work ethic that can support and provide for a household (1 Timothy 3:5). Men always need this whether they are an elder or not and having the ability to provide apart from eldership will give freedom and strength to stand against external pressures. The ability to provide for a family through vocational work should be encouraged and developed in future and aspiring leaders. A particular focus should be placed on building of valuable, flexible skills and on an avoidance of raising support and paid ‘ministry’ before it is needed by the local congregation.

2. Bi-vocational Elders

   Paired with this there should be a change in culture towards what is termed “bi-vocational”¹ eldership. When an elder has provision connected to the role of elder two things seem to happen: much more time is available for eldership and the ability to stop being an elder is greatly reduced. The role of elder can, and maybe should, be seen as one role amongst many in life and as something that could come or go depending on the season of life and the need of the local congregation. A change towards acceptance of “bi-vocational” eldership and a view of eldership that is less permanent would improve both the health of elders and the health of the body.

3. Congregational Provision

   If there are elders that should receive their provision from the church to free up time to serve the body well, the body should be the sole source of this provision. Often support raising is used as means to providing full time eldership for a church that is small or just starting. However, this opens an elder up to many external pressures: to focus on growth as numbers, to teach inline with the desires of the outside funding, to spend valuable time raising money. If provision remains within the congregation that has raised up the elder, the focus of the elder remains on the congregation. If a congregation cannot provide fully for an elder, then bi-vocational means should be utilized.

4. Priorities

   Finally, I recommend that elders keep in view the various duties that God has given them. And to order them rightly according to God’s word: personal, marital, familial, congregational. These suggestions above are aimed at helping to free an elder to care for these priorities in the proper order.

Examples

I have found great insight on this topic in both the life of Jesus and Paul as well in several other places. Here are some brief examples that informed these recommendations.

Jesus

Jesus is clearly a carpenter (Mark 6:1-3), the son of a carpenter (Matthew 13:55). It is not stated that he worked after his move to Capernaum (Matthew 4:13) and yet his was the provider for his mother all his life and does not transfer that responsibility until he is on the cross (John 19:26-27). It is clear that Jesus had means of providing for his mother for his entry earthly life and it is a pretty solid inference that his means provision was his work as a carpenter. This understanding is strengthened by the background information provided by Alfred Edersheim discussed below.

Paul

Paul’s trade as tentmaker is clearly mentioned in the New Testament (Acts 18:1-4), and the fact that he worked while he proclaimed the gospel is stated many times. The purpose for this pattern is two-fold: an example for godly men and elders (Acts 20:34-36), a removal of an obstacle in the way of gospel advance (1 Corinthians 9:12-18, 1 Thessalonians 2:9). There is an expectation in Paul’s writing that men following after him in his teaching would also follow after him in his example of work (2 Thessalonians 3:6-12).

1^st Century Rabbis

In Sketches of Jewish Social Live in the Days of Christ, Alfred Edersheim describes the expectations for first century Jewish rabbis. Part of the expectation was mastery of a craft. The ability to do excellent work with God’s creation was directly connected to understanding reality and practical wisdom. Some examples of highly respected Jewish rabbis as craftsmen are: Hellel – woodcutter and Shammai – carpenter. For a much fuller discussion of this topic see Chapter 11 of Sketches of Jewish Social Live in the Days of Christ entitled “Jewish views on Trade, Tradesmen, and Trades’ Guilds.”

Modern Examples

C.R. Wiley and Michael Foster are two pastors who seem, from a distance, to live and shepherd in a way to resist external pressures. More about them can be found in their books (Man of the House, It's Good to be a Man and at https://crwiley.com and https://www.thisisfoster.com.

1. I think the term bi-vocational is a poor one as it implies that eldership is a vocation. This entails a professionalism which is nowhere found in the New Testament. It also presupposes that there are two types of elders – those whose life’s work is eldership and those who are part-timers. I’m not sure of a better term for the kind of arrangement I am describing, but eldership should be a common term for elders who provide for their families in various ways.