Making the same disclaimer that I made
yesterday, are you looking for Mark Lavallee's class?
Not necessarily.
You're welcome here.
We'll be glad to have you.
We're talking about elders and bishops and
deacons here.
So if that's sort of a little out ahead of you,
then go and find Dr. Asher's class.
I'm sure he's got something he can share with you.
I don't want to leave the impression in any way
at all that we're in bad shape with our
leaders and our elders, and that we're in great
need of a spirituality transformation.
I have worked with too many godly elders who
have made such a tremendous impact on my life
to think otherwise.
But looking at my own life as an elder, in the
past, I'm now too old to be an elder,
but looking at my own life in the past as an
elder, I've come to realize that there
have been times when I have been stretched to
the very limit and just plumb worn out.
And whenever we're dealing with people and life
problems, that can be very, very tiring
and stressful and very difficult.
It's much easier for us as elders to meet in an
elders meeting and decide how much money
to spend on a parking lot or which kind of air
conditioner to buy to replace the one
that died.
But my understanding is that that's not what
elders should be doing, but it is much easier.
So I feel at the same time in my own life a
daily need for growth spiritually.
And so rather than think in terms here today of
a recovering spirituality, I would like
to be thinking of a renewal or a refreshing in spirituality.
So I want to make that statement at the beginning.
Possibly two of the most significant men in my
life are here this morning who have shaped
my life, and I would be remiss not to mention
them, and that's my father in the gospel over
here, Brother Tex Williams, who came to my
home, bought the house next to mine when I
was just a young man, and he was too, and
taught me about Jesus Christ.
So you know, might be Tex is like Neil Lightfoot.
They both grew up in the same town, went to the
same congregation, and Paul Faulkner said
of Neil Lightfoot, he was 40 years old when he
was born.
And might be that's true of old Tex.
He might have been 40 years old when he was
born, you see.
But I owe a tremendous debt in my life, as does
June and my oldest son here to Tex, Mary
Jane and their family.
And he was a mean brother, Fred.
He was, okay, yes, I've heard those kind of
stories before, but we're grateful that the
Lord did wonderful things in his life, and I
appreciate that.
And then Brother Clyde Clayton and his wife,
Jo, just impressed my life so significantly.
I have never been around a person that is more
creative, with more vision in my life
than Clyde, and the leadership that he has
provided us as a fellowship, but me especially
in my own life.
And so I'm deeply grateful that they're both
here, all four, three of you, five of you,
six of you here this morning, as I'm grateful
for all of you being here.
But what I'm going to be talking about today
has to do with what I've just been talking
about, and that is the importance of elders,
bishops, and shepherds in the lives of their
people as special role models.
And we've been trying to focus our attention by
clarifying what we mean by spirituality.
I think that you might have heard some of our
speakers address this in different ways,
but when we think in spirituality, of
spirituality, we're not thinking in terms of
that warm fuzzy
feeling that we have inside that makes us sort
of feel good, and we're not really to
try to be disciples so that we feel good,
because if you're really a disciple about
Jesus, you're going to be stretched to the very limit.
And so spirituality is not about that
fuzziness, that something elusiveness, and in a
lot of
the literature that we read on spirituality,
there's going to be the kind of statement
of the dynamic indwelling of the Holy Spirit
and being led by the Holy Spirit, and I'm
sure not going to deny that or challenge that,
the importance of the Holy Spirit in our lives.
We would not be born again as God's children if
it were not for the working of the Holy
Spirit in that new birth.
We would not be the kind of people that we need
to be strengthened if it were not for
the Holy Spirit working in our lives.
But I'm concerned that sometimes that gets
taken to the limit to where all that we need
is this fuzzy feeling that somehow the Holy
Spirit is dwelling in us, and that is spirituality.
I think we learned yesterday as we looked at
the definitions of spirituality, and if
you had the time this morning to just catch a
glimpse of what we were putting on the screen
here, that if we look at what Thomas Akempas
said, and also what Paul said in Philippians
chapter 2, that spirituality is the imitation
of Christ.
It's the contemplation of Christ.
It's the meditation on Christ.
It's the imitation of Christ as we try to be
like Christ in our everyday lives, and
we talked yesterday about Galatians 2:20, where
Paul said, I have been
crucified with Christ.
It is no longer I that live, but Christ who
lives in me.
And that's a nice thought, but we need to look
at that a little further.
What does it mean for me to have Christ living
in me, for me to have died, for me to be imitating
That involves also coming to grips with
understanding the purpose of Christ, what
Christ was all
about, to understand why he died on the cross,
to understand the focus of his life.
And I think we will begin to see then that
spirituality takes on a flavor here of service
to others, that spirituality is not something
that is worked out in private.
It is not something that is an experience just
in which we are meditating on God and
on Christ, but it's what happens as we move out
from that into a public life with people,
and as we come into contact with people, is
what kind of impact that we are having on
their lives.
And so, in a sense, there can be no
understanding or development of spirituality
outside of
the context of Christ.
I'm going to just put this one overlay up here
to focus on one point before we move
on, because I believe it speaks to one of the
things that we're going to be talking
about this morning as we think in terms of
being leaders.
Standing before God and the cross in the
context of life.
One person said that what we need is to stand
before the cross of Jesus every day, and to
be broken by that cross of Jesus every day, and
then to be put together again by the cross
of Jesus every day.
And spirituality has to do with living within
three dimensions.
First of all, the world of our spiritual life
before God, and that's that dimension of devotion.
That's that dimension of meditation.
That's that dimension of prayer and study, in
that we live in this world of spiritual
life before God.
It's God's and Christ's impact on our life, and
that's very important.
We understand that.
But the second one is the world of our
Christian heritage.
In this new book that was announced last night,
I had one given to me a little earlier and
had a look at it.
I haven't read the whole thing, but right that
very first chapter in the book, James
Thompson has some things to say that we have a
story to tell, and that story has to do
with Jesus Christ.
And we live within that story, and that story
is important to us, and that if we try to
be a people without a story to tell, we fall
apart, and that that story that we have to
tell and in which we live is an important story
to who we are.
One famous philosopher said, any philosophy
that's done outside of a tradition is doomed
to fail, because all philosophical, theological
thinking needs to be done within a tradition.
Now what's that got to do with you and me?
We're members of the Church of Christ.
We're part of a tradition that has come down to
us through the last 2 centuries of a
restoration movement.
That's who we are.
We need to understand who we are so that we can
function adequately as we live within
that story.
And so spirituality has to be done within that tradition.
I don't know who it was yesterday or the day
before said that one of our problems that
we have today is that we're running around the
world borrowing things from different
religious groups and pulling them together
because they sound good or they make us feel
nice and here we go and we've got them all
together and before we know where we are we've
forgotten who we are and we don't know who we are.
And you know, why in a world can we not work
out and understand the sense of spirituality
within our own tradition and within our own
people, because we do have the Word of God.
Now, that doesn't mean to say that we cannot
learn from other people.
If it means we cannot learn from other people,
I'd better quit reading books.
And so we do learn, but we need to be discreet
as we learn from others.
And that's so important and that's what we're
seeing here, that spirituality needs to be
worked out in almost every definition that I
looked at that had to do with spirituality.
I ran into this concept that it needs to be
done within your own religious Christian heritage.
And then it also has to be worked out in the
world of your neighbor.
You don't grow spiritually in the confines of
your own mind and the confines of your
own closet, but one grows spiritually as we
live in this world and exercise our spirituality
in this world and help people to see what kind
of people we are in this world, that
we do have values that are more important than
the values of our neighbors.
And that is part of what spirituality is all about.
Right after the catastrophe of September the
11th, I was due to fly out of Durango and
go somewhere because all of the flights were
canceled, so I couldn't go.
But I was flying the next week out, that's just
two weeks after that, and one of my neighbors
saw me and said, well, are you heading out again?
That's sort of become a catch word for my
neighbors, where are you going this time?
And I said, yeah.
They said, well, where are you going?
And I told them I'm going to fly into Milwaukee
and then go up to Wisconsin.
They said, you're going to fly?
And I said, yeah.
They said, we're never flying again.
And I said, why?
Just the trauma of what happened.
We've got people that don't want to travel at
all because they're afraid that something
might happen.
You and I have got some values that are
different from that.
And by living those values and saying, hey,
listen, this is not the worst thing that could
happen for us to die.
We've got more important things to do than to
be worrying about dying.
Some years ago, I said to a client, this
thought stuck in my mind there.
I had flown with Tex in Botswana one time, and
we ran out of fuel and sort of landed
on a soccer field out in the boonies.
You remember that time, had to walk through the
thorn bushes to the railroad station,
walk up the railway line, slept on the station
that night until the next morning and make
a phone call.
That was number one.
Second time, I'm flying with him and Gerald
Payden, and we're going down to some Texas
somewhere and the plane starts to splutter and
we land out here somewhere, this side
of Weatherford, and the guy says, well, your
saddle is not functioning.
I thought, hey, listen, guy, we're not riding a
horse, we're flying a plane.
But apparently there's a saddle, a harness,
some wiring in there.
You remember that one too?
The harness, the saddle, whatever it is, the
harness is there, same thing.
The third time, the third time I'm flying a
little plane and one of our guys that had
flown every kind of mission in the military was
flying us down to San Angelo, and the
wheels wouldn't come down.
And so I said to the client, I ain't flying in
one of these little planes anymore.
Three times he said, might be the Lord is
telling you something.
You ain't going to die in a plane crash.
We have some values that are a little different
from the values of the world.
And that's what we're talking about, that's
where spirituality is lived here, you see,
in the context of people.
Now what does that have to do with us as
elders, or bishops, or shepherds, or leaders?
We're talking about spirituality in leadership
among the elders, and bishops, and deacons.
And Luis, good morning, Sir, good to have you
with us.
There are one or two chairs up there.
What has that got to do with us?
Well, number one, we desperately need to keep
our spiritual life strong so that we can provide
the kind of leadership that our congregations
need and our people need.
Number two, it will help us focus better on
what we should be doing as elders, bishops,
and shepherds.
And yesterday we talked about the definition of
the word elder.
What I'm going to be trying to do today and
tomorrow is look at some of these terms that
Scripture uses to define those who are elders
or leaders in a congregation.
Unfortunately, part of the heritage that we
have received through the years has biased
that understanding to where sometimes we think
in terms of being an elder is having a title.
We talked about that yesterday.
This is not a title.
Or we talked about it having a position.
This is not a position.
We talked about it being a function.
These are descriptive terms, like for instance,
the word preacher.
When we refer to the person as a preacher, what
are we doing?
We're describing what he does.
This is a descriptive term.
We say, he is our preacher.
Here's a preacher sitting right here.
I think you still are, aren't you? Wonderful.
We had a class together in 1896, didn't we?
Something like that, yeah.
And so preacher defines what the person does.
It defines somewhat of who the person is, but
it's not a title.
It's a descriptive term.
Now that is true of the term elder,
presbuteros, which primarily means an older person.
But what does that mean?
Well, in the context of Scripture, we noticed
yesterday that it comes to mean a person who
has been recognized by the community, the
church, and beyond the church, as someone
who has maturity.
This is someone you can rely on.
This consistency in this person.
You know how this person is going to react
under all kinds of circumstances.
This person's got maturity.
Or it has to do with dignity.
This is a term that was used to define the
leaders among the Jews, and among the Gentiles,
the Greeks, and also among the early
Christians, as someone who has dignity.
Are you looking for Mark Levallee's class?
I know he's intelligent and good-looking, but
not as good-looking as I. Good to see
you guys.
Next class, 1.20.
Where was I?
Before talking about my obvious good looks,
dignity, which, okay, dignity, alright.
You see, the term elder defines a person who's
got dignity.
I mean, people are going to respect this
individual, because dignified.
So it has to do also with wisdom.
Now wisdom is not necessarily knowledge.
But wisdom without knowledge doesn't exist either.
But it's not limited to knowledge.
It's the ability to take the knowledge that we
have gained in a variety of different ways,
study of scripture, study of life, experiences
of life, and interpret those in a proper and
helpful way.
So this is what the term elder means.
Unfortunately for many of us, it has been tied
to a title, a position, an elder's meeting,
or the folks who make the decisions for the congregation.
It's as far removed from that definition as
could be.
But it's a person who you can rely on and
trust, look up to as a role model, and say
that's the kind of person I want to be one day.
That's the term elder.
Now we're going to move on from that, and we're
going to talk today for a while about
the term bishop.
Now for good reasons, we decided many years ago
to just drop the term bishop, because
you know, we don't call our people bishops,
because that says something that we don't
want to say.
It sort of associates us with some other folk
that we want to be removed from, and it associates
us with a model of leading that that's not
where we want to go.
And so we recognize the term bishop.
Well I forgot to tell you that the term elder
is found 28 times in the New Testament.
I know that's important to you.
You want to know that, you want to take a note,
it's found 28 times.
It's found in that 28 times only four times in
Paul, isn't that amazing?
It's found 18 times in the book of Acts, and
it's found six times in Peter and John, but
28 times.
It obviously was not a term that Paul used too
often, but he does use it.
Well then we come to this term bishop, and I'm
sure you're aware of the fact that it's
used even more rarely than the term elder.
But we find this term in 1 Timothy 3, and good morning.
Are you looking for Mark LeValley's class?
Okay, you found it.
We're glad you're here. Good.
1 Timothy 3:8, if anyone desires the office of
a bishop, he desires a noble task.
That's what my translation says, and of course
it's obviously one of the better translations,
but it doesn't do as good a job, I think, as
the NIV does, which says if anyone sets
his heart on being an overseer, he desires a
noble task.
It's a very awkward word to translate, that
word that we have there.
The word is episkopos, and the word episkopos
has a number of very interesting usages in
the New Testament, but the word office is just
not found in 1 Timothy 3.
It's just not there.
You say, well how did it get there?
Most of our translations are in the heritage of
the King James tradition, the Wycliffe
Bible, the Bishop's Bible before that, and when
these translations were being made, especially
let's talk about the King James Version, around
about 1600 and 1611, the Church of England
was going through all kinds of problems.
Henry VIII had torn them away from the Roman
Church, and he was trying to distance himself
from the Roman Church more for political
reasons than theological reasons, but they were beginning
now to see the need for translating the Roman
rites of worship, which were all done in Latin,
into English.
And so there was the need at that time also for
translating that Latin Bible into English.
And so they were working through this, well, on
the one side in England you had these Catholics
who had been Roman Catholics, were still Roman
Catholics, and wanted to hang on to being
a Roman Catholic.
Then one step away from them you had these folk
that were now episkopos, Church of England,
they didn't want to be Roman Catholic, but they
still liked the Church the way it was.
They didn't want to change it, and they fussed
like crazy when they wanted to translate the
Roman rite in worship, especially as it had to
do with the Lord's Supper and Communion,
and translate that into English.
They were upset with that, so they wanted to be
Catholic, but they didn't want to be
Roman Catholic.
And then you had the next group over here that
were saying, no, we want to just move
away from that completely, and we might call
them the moderates.
And they said, no, we need to go ahead and
redefine ourselves.
And then you had another group over here, the
Protestants, especially those coming down
from Scotland and other places, and they said,
well, we want to get away from all of this
Popish stuff, we want to get away from Catholicism.
And so right at this time there was the
problem, how do you translate the Bible into English
in a meaningful way that hits all of these folk
in English and addresses their needs?
And the instructions were, you can translate,
but you cannot change the ordinances of the
church, or the offices of the church, or the
governance of the church.
And so we come on down, and guess what we did
with the word baptizo?
We transliterated it and called it what? Baptized.
Why do you think they didn't translate that
properly and call it immersion?
What were those Catholics and Episcopal folks doing?
So you see, we cannot change this to immersion,
because that challenges what?
The ordinances of the church, the sacraments.
So we keep the word baptized.
And then we move on and we say, well, we'll
come to this term, Bishop.
Well we really need to translate this word
Bishop some other way, and we've got several
other words.
One might be, for instance, overseer.
Oh, but what does that do to the tradition of
the church now, and the governance of the church?
We've got a whole bunch of bishops here that
don't want to be displaced.
They're comfortable with the power that they
have, and the control that they have, and
so they don't want to lose the sense of being a bishop.
So what do we do?
We keep the word Bishop.
And then we move on down and we've got this
fascinating word deacon.
Well, it would be much better if you just
translate the word deacon as servant.
That's what it is.
But then you've got all of these deacons that
have got an office in the church, and you
mean to say you want to call us the same as
these other folk in the church?
That's a step down.
No, we're not going to do that.
So guess what do we do?
We keep this word deacon.
And so the tradition has come down to us.
And unfortunately, we've tried to struggle with
that and redefine that, and so we've
come to this word overseer.
And we say, well, if anyone desires the
ministry of an overseer, he desires or has in
his heart
to be an overseer.
But we've got a problem there, because we live
in an industrial society.
And where do you find overseers?
In the factories, in the production plants.
And who is the overseer in the factory?
He's the foreman.
He's the boss.
He's in charge.
He's the one that makes the decisions.
And so we've taken this word overseer, and it
does mean overseer.
The word episkopos means to look over, but does
it mean in the looking over that we are
now the boss of the congregation?
Too often that's true.
I had some deacons call me from Arkansas one
time, and said, we want you to come and do
a leadership seminar for us.
And I said, that would be wonderful, but I
don't normally accept invitations from deacons
if you've got elders.
You've got problems there between the deacons
and the elders?
He said, how did you know?
I said, hey, guy, I've been around a few times here.
So before I'm going to come over there, I want
to hear from an elder.
So he said, OK.
One of the elders called me up and said, would
you come and do a leadership seminar for us?
I said, great. Why?
He said, well, the deacons wanted you to.
I said, that's a good idea, but why?
Well, eventually we'd get through that, and so
June and I decided we'd go over there Wednesday night.
They wanted to talk to us Wednesday night.
They wanted to test us out to see, you know,
how sane we were or biblical or sound we were
before they allowed us in there.
And that's good.
I guarantee the congregation where I worship,
if the elders decide to invite someone in
there to do some teaching and we don't know who
he is, I'm going to say, wait a minute, Fella.
I want to know where this guy's coming from.
So June and I truck on over there to Arkansas.
She'd never been that far east in the world,
other than to Africa, which is a little further
east, but not in this country.
So we go over to Arkansas there, and great
congregation, great preacher, and I met with
the deacons for supper that night, and I said,
what's going on here?
He said, well, we've got one elder in the
congregation that just ramrods the whole place.
Every time we come to the elders with any
proposal, he sits there and listens to us,
and the elders sit and listen to us, and when
we get through, he folds his arms and says,
that sounds very good, but it's just not biblical.
And it dies right there.
He said, he's been an elder for 40-something
years, and it just dies right there.
So I said, okay, I'm glad you told me.
So I get in there and taught a Bible study for
the congregation, got to meet with the
elders and the ministers and the deacons
afterwards, ran my story out there, and I'm
trying to
figure it out now.
They all look like they've been elders for 40
years, and I'm trying to figure out which
is the one they're talking about there.
So when I get through this whole thing, one guy
folds his arms, and I thought, okay, here
it comes, and he said, well, what you said
sounds very good, but it's just not biblical.
And I thought, this is ridiculous.
I've come all the way from Abilene, all the way
over to Arkansas, and this guy's going
to bring it all to a crunching halt.
One guy folds his arms, says, that's it,
domineering the congregation, overseeing, he's
in charge,
nobody dares say anything different, and I
thought, hey, this is not my turf, this is
just a few miles from Harding University.
I'm going to clean this guy's plow, and we're
going to just take this thing right here now,
and we're going to sort this thing out, and
then I'm going back to Abilene, and Harding
can sort the mess out.
I mean, it's their problem, it's their turf.
So we started out, I said, okay, let's start
from the beginning, and we went through that
whole thing again.
And I get through one point, and I said, okay,
now tell me where that's not biblical.
And here's the scripture.
Well, at the end of that evening, I went home,
it was about 12:00, and June said, where
have you been?
I said, listen, girl, pack, because we're
leaving here at sunrise tomorrow morning.
We're getting out of here before the sun gets
up tomorrow morning.
We did, too.
And we headed on out.
About a week later, I get a phone call from the
deacon that called me, first of all, and
he said, well, the elders met, and they want to
ask you to come back and do a seminar for us.
And I said, what happened to the guy that
folded his arms?
He said, he's the guy that made the proposal,
which shows you amazingly how God can work
through situations.
What was happening here, here was a great
congregation, great people, great minister,
and they were dead in the water. Right?
that's where it ended. He didn't understand
what the word overseer means, because the
word overseer does not mean that this is the
person who's in charge. What does the word
overseer mean? Well, if you'll forgive me, I'll
give you a graphic demonstration. You're
the congregation, and I have the responsibility
of looking out for you, and I'm going to get
up here and look over the congregation. If I
fall, pick me up, okay? That's what an overseer
does. It's one who looks out over the
congregation. That means he knows every
individual in the
congregation. If you go back over to Ephesians
4 and verse 1, I think Jim McGuigan
is going to talk about that today, this
morning, and I know Jim will do a great job,
but I'll
just set the scene so that he's got it right
before he gets there, okay? When you get down
to about verse 11, Paul says that one of the
gifts, or some of the gifts, that Christ has
given to the church is that some would be
apostles, some would be prophets, some would
be evangelists, some would be pastors and
teachers. Pastors and teachers is not referring
to two different guys there, same guy. They are
teaching pastors. So what do pastors do
in Paul's mind? They teach. So teaching pastors.
Why? To equip the saints for the work of ministry.
That's why we have apostles, prophets,
evangelists, and elders, bishops, shepherds, is
to equip
the saints for the work of ministry. Now, if
your Bible doesn't put it quite like that,
that's okay, but that's what it means. That's
what my Bible says. NRV does a reasonable
job there, but you really need to get the RSV
to get that thing sorted out, all right?
But notice what our business is. I can show you
a passage of scripture that tells you
what the business of an elder, a bishop, a
shepherd is. It's equipping the saints for
the work of ministry. What is that ministry? It
could be any kind of ministry, but we're
in the equipping business. I know that when
we're in the air conditioning business and
when we're in the parking lot business and when
we're in the carpet business, we don't
have enough time to do our equipping, but we
are in the equipping business. That's what
the overseer does. He looks out over the
congregation so that he can see those that need equipping,
that need something to do that they can be
plugged in, because if you read the rest of
that passage of scripture, Paul goes on and
says, so that every member knit and joined
together functions properly so that the body
can grow up to be in Christ. As an overseer,
our ministry or our function is to see that
every member of the body is equipped to function
in some way so that the body can grow up into Christ.
Some years ago at the 11th and Willis
congregation, I'm sure it's still the same day,
they have
a deaf congregation that meets on Sunday and
they meet in a separate place and that was
interesting how that thing started. I'll tell
you that story as well because it also has
to do with this business of control. Some
college students came to the elders and said,
we need to have a deaf ministry here. And the
elders in their great wisdom said, why?
We don't have any deaf people here. And the
students said, why do you think we don't have
any deaf people here? So here were some folks
that could see something that the elders weren't
seeing. So we got this deaf congregation and so
they would come back to us repeatedly and
say, we never see the elders. You're our elders.
Why don't you come to our worship service
and worship with us? And the elders would get
together and say, we've got to address
this guy. We're going to do it alphabetically.
We're going to start A, B, C, D, go through
there. I think we had 13 elders at the time. It
worked fine for two Sundays and then it
came to a crunching halt. And after a while
they came back and I said, guys, I think I've
got a solution. Our memories are sort of
slipping a little. We forget. We've got so many other
things. We don't remember these. Why don't we
ask somebody in the congregation on Sunday
morning to phone one of the elders. They've got
a little list, come down it alphabetically
and say, Ian, it's your turn. Charles, it's
your turn. Dub, it's your turn to go to the
elders today. Wonderful. Who are we going to
get to do that? Okay. So the elders talked
to her. I said, I think I've got a suggestion.
My mother-in-law, she is a great lady. Texas
secretary for years in South Africa, my
secretary, at sunset she worked there, came to
ACU here.
I mean, intensely involved in the church, but
now she's getting up in years. In fact,
I had seen her on campus court here one day
with her little blue Oldsmobile Cutlass going
down the road at 35 miles an hour in reverse in
the center of the road. And I went home
and I said to June, we've got a problem. We're
going to have to take mom's car away from
her before she kills herself or kills someone
else. How do you take a lady that's 80 years
old, take her car away? That's her independence.
Well, I was out there changing the oil, changing
the spark plugs and started the car and all of
a sudden, there the flames were. I stood
back and watched that sucker burn. I said, burn
baby, burn. I didn't run inside and grab
the fire extinguisher. I stood there and
watched it. And I went inside and I said, mom, got
a problem. Your car's just burned up. So here's
this great lady being involved in the church
life sometimes, but she goes to church every
Sunday, doesn't have anything to do. I said,
why don't you elders call Sister Stent, my
mother-in-law, and ask her to do this for
us on Sunday morning. They said, it's a great
idea. Why don't you call? I said, no, no,
I'm not going to do that. One of you guys is.
So they did. After lunch that Sunday,
I'm sitting there, the phone rings and it's my
mom. She says, guess what? I said, I don't
know what. She said, they asked me to do
something. And I said, what do you mean? She
said, the
elders asked me to do something. I said,
wonderful. What did they ask you to do? She
said, they
wanted me to phone the elders up every Sunday,
one of them, and remind them to go to the
elders meeting. I said, isn't that wonderful?
She said, yeah, I'm glad I've got something
to do. Put the phone down. I said, June, we've
got a problem. One of us is going to have
to call your mom on Sunday morning every Sunday
to remind her to call one of the elders to
get there Sunday morning. But what I'm saying
here is, you know the person I'm talking about,
great lady. Okay. What I'm saying is, that's
what elders are supposed to be doing, is looking
out over the congregation to find somebody
that's sitting there that's not doing anything
and find something that they can do and get
them equipped to do that. That's the function
of an overseer. Or should I say, that's one of
the functions of an overseer. And if you
guys who are elders are honest with yourselves,
you know that that's a full-time job. It's
finding everybody in the congregation that's
not doing anything or not functioning, helping
them so that they can find something that they
can do, equipping them for that and getting
them involved. That's a busy job. So that's one
of the definitions that we have here of
this word overseer. Another fascinating
passage, to my knowledge,
which means it's limited, but to my knowledge
there are only two passages in the New Testament
that pull all of these descriptive terms
together. That is the elder and the bishop and
the shepherd.
And help us understand that we're talking here
about the same person. We're not talking
about three different offices or three
different ministries. Although one time, just after
I had been asked to serve as an elder, the
phone rang and somebody said, are you the
pastor of the church at Eleventh and Willis? I
happen to be the preacher at the time and
also the elder, one of the elders. And this
person said, are you the pastor? I said, no.
You talking about the preacher? He said, yeah.
I said, no, I'm not the pastor. And June said,
oh, yes, you are one of the pastors. It hadn't
sunk in yet that this is another hat that
I wear, you see. And so these different terms,
elder and bishop and shepherd or pastor, are
different terms that are used to describe the
same person and the function of that same
person and what that person does. It's not
three offices. It's not three positions. It's
three descriptive terms that are defining who
we are and what we do. To my knowledge
it's just two passages in the New Testament
that take those three terms and bring them
together in one context. The one is Acts 20
beginning with verse 17 where Paul calls
the elders from Ephesus together. And then you
get down to verse 28 and he says, take
heed to the flock over the which the Holy
Spirit has made you overseers to feed the
church. And there you have the other take heed,
that is that word shepherd. And then
you've got overseers, which is the word bishop.
So here you have that. But another fascinating
one that I have come to look at a little more
intensely is over here in 1 Peter chapter
5. And so let's have a look at 1 Peter 5. It's
on the right hand side of the page,
right about an inch from the bottom. 1 Peter 5,
and we're going to read from verse
1 following. And I'm going to be reading to you
from the Revised Standard Version.
Okay? I exhort you elders, or the elders among
you, as a fellow elder. So, number one, talking
to elders, and a witness of the sufferings of
Christ as well as a partaker of the glory
that is to be revealed. Tend the flock of God.
That word tend comes from the word poimaino,
from poimain, which is a shepherd. So you are
going to function as a shepherd. So elders,
you're going to be shepherding here. Tend the
flock, that is your charge. Not a very
good translation. All right? A difficult one to
translate anyhow, because it's in the form
here of a participle, but the word that is used
here is the same word as episkopos. In
other words, tend to the flock over which you
are to be having the oversight. You have
a flock, you've got a bunch of folk out there.
I was going to say a bunch of sheep, but that's
not the kind of language we want to talk here
about. You know, one time I said to one of
my good friends, when I was working as the dean
here in the College of Biblical Studies,
I said to Daboer, you know, it's really a
challenging job keeping all of these race
horses. I was talking about the faculty. He
said, I said, keeping all of these race horses
together here is a real challenge. He said,
yeah, especially when some of them are mules.
And so, you know, I thought, wow, are you
talking about me? You know? He was just joking.
But, you know, we've got a couple of goats in
among the sheep out there too, all right?
So he says, you take charge, you tend to this
flock that is your episkopate. That's not
good language, is it? Which is the folk that
you are to have the oversight over, the ones
that you are to be looking after, all right?
Which is your charge. Not by constraint, that
is, not by compulsion. You don't provide this
leadership by compulsion or constraint, but
willingly, not for shameful gain, but eagerly,
not as domineering over those in your charge,
but being examples to the flock. See, it's not
in a domineering way that we provide this
oversight. We're not the bosses. We're not the
ones that are in charge. And that word
domineering is interesting because the NIV
translates it, I think, lording it over. Is
that correct, those of you guys? We're not to
Lord it over. We're not to act in such
a way, the word actually here, the word
actually means to have authority over. In other words,
we don't function in this capacity as those who
have authority over people. We're in charge.
We're the elders. We're in control of the
situation. He says that's not how you do it.
You do it by being examples to the flock, by
being the kind of person that they can
look at and say, there I see responsible,
mature decisions, leadership, whatever the
case might be. Again, what are we doing? We're
defining what these terms mean. And we're
defining here this term episkopos, or bishop.
It's one who looks out for, looks out over
the congregation. Now, let's talk a little more
about that word because there are several
other ways that this word is used in the
language. It can also mean to care for.
Episkopos, to
look out over, is to care for. So it's not
again to be in charge of, but to care for.
The word is also translated in our New
Testament, in Peter, as guardian, the shepherd
and guardian
of our souls. Now, who is the shepherd and
guardian of our souls according to 1 Peter
chapter 2? Jesus Christ, who is the shepherd
and guardian of our souls. And that word guardian
there is the same word from which we get bishop
or overseer. He is the one who is the shepherd,
who looks out for and who protects, he cares
for, he nurtures the flock. We could just
stop for a moment and just meditate on Psalm 23.
The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.
What does he do? He leads me beside still
waters. He feeds us, he guards us, he protects
us. That's what the word Bishop means. And so
when we refer to ourselves as overseers,
and we have in our mind the fact that we are
the ones who are in charge, we are the ones
who control, let me tell you something, we're
slipping back into the Episcopal church and
out of the New Testament church. Because in the
New Testament, this word doesn't mean
who's in charge, but who is the one who looks
out for, who cares for, who feeds, who nurtures,
who protects, and who equips people for the
work of ministry. So it's a fascinating little
expression here. So in this one wonderful
passage that Peter writes, and Paul of course
addresses and Luke records this for us in Acts,
we have these two wonderful passages
that define what it is that we do as elders or
bishops or shepherds. And it's not a matter
here of a title or an office, it's a
descriptive term of function. Now when we can understand
that it's a descriptive term of function, or a
descriptive term of ministry, it helps
us shift away from this sense of authority. In
fact, the very passage that we've been
looking at here, when Paul says to them that
they ought to feed this group of people, the
flock, he says, don't do it in an authoritarian
manner. It's not a matter of authority.
Now let me stretch you here a little. Did you
know that the word for authority that's
normally used in the New Testament is Exousia?
That's the normal word for authority, the
one who has authority over, Exousia. That word
is never in the New Testament used one
time of elders, bishops, or shepherds, neither
directly or by implication. The word Exousia
is used of God. It is used of Jesus Christ. It
is used of the Holy Spirit. It is used
of the apostles, by implication, Scripture. Now
what is that saying? That elders don't
have authority? No, that's not saying that.
It's saying that they have a different kind
of authority than God and Christ and the Holy
Spirit and Scripture have. But you see, anytime
anyone is given a function or a ministry, there
has to be a sense of authority that
goes with that to function. You give a person,
a man, the responsibility of being the preacher.
You're giving him the authority to go to
Scripture and to come out of Scripture and
teach us.
See that authority is functionally defined.
Down there at 11th and Willis, fascinating
congregation, always a chinchy congregation.
For I don't know how many years until just
January they've never had a full-time preacher.
They always hired somebody here from ACU,
you know, Paul Faulkner at one time preached
there, then Neil Lightfoot preached there,
and then Ian Fair preached there, and then Tony
Ash preached there, and we just go on,
we had Bible faculty, and boy, I mean, they
could get us real cheap. And so they never
did have a full-time preacher. And we put all
of that money, the good thing about it
is they put that money in the mission work,
into the mission field. Well they never would
hire a full-time secretary either. They hired a
part-time secretary who would come in the
morning and an answering machine for the
afternoon. So I mean, we're talking about a part-time
secretary. So I called up one morning and
talked to the secretary, and I said, I would
like to talk to Bob, please. That was Bob Marco
who was working for us as a minister
at that time. And I said, I would like to talk
to Bob, please. She says, I'm sorry,
you cannot talk to Bob, he's in conference at
the moment. And I said to her, I know,
but I'm an elder in this congregation, and I
need to talk to Bob. She says, I know who
you are. Isn't it strange? The phone can ring
and I can say hi, and they say, hello,
Ian. How do they know that? She says, I know
you're an elder, but you cannot talk to Bob,
he's in conference. I don't know what you call
that, folks, but that's authority.
So I said, well, I know that, but I'm also the
dean of the College of Biblical Studies,
and Bob is one of my students, and I really
need to talk to Bob. She says, I know who
you are, but you're not going to talk to Bob.
Now, that's not only authority, that's
brute authority. I mean, that's it. Was she
usurping? I mean, I'm an elder, and she's
telling me I cannot talk to the minister? Is
that usurping authority? No. We told her,
we want you to take care of Bob, and if he's in
there studying or praying with someone,
don't interrupt him. Because everybody called
and said, I'm stuck down here on the corner
of the street, my car won't start, can you
please come and help? We don't want Bob out
there taking care of those things when he's
praying for someone. So protect Bob, take
care of him. That's authority. But you see,
it's not the same kind of authority as God
has, although she thought it was, I mean,
telling me I couldn't talk to him, you know.
But nevertheless, so I'm saying here, when we
come to this business of authority, we
need to understand that that authority is the
authority to function. So we need to understand
what our function is. And if our function is to
be in charge of, to Lord it over the
congregation, well, that's where our authority
is. But if that's not our function, then we
do not have authority to do that. Now, our
authority as elders is the authority of example.
That's what Peter said. Not domineering, it's
not demanding authority, it's the authority
of example. Or, it's the authority of dignity
and maturity and wisdom. Or, it's the authority
of shepherding and teaching. If we had time
today, which we don't, we'll talk about it
tomorrow, we're going to talk about this
fascinating term in Hebrews 13:7, and verse
17, and verse 24, where Paul, no, not Paul,
forgive me, where whoever it was that wrote
Hebrews, not Paul, said, obey your leaders and
submit to them. What does that mean? We'll
talk about that tomorrow. Of course, we're
going to look at verse 7, verse 17, and verse
24, and I think I can show you something that's
very surprising about that passage on leadership
and what leaders do again there. So, what have
we said here this morning? We've said
that we need to understand better what it means
to be a bishop. It means to be the person
who is looking out for the congregation, who is
looking over the congregation, who is guarding
the congregation, who is nurturing the
congregation. If we tie that to the sense of
being an elder,
they're doing it by their example. They're
doing it by their maturity. They're doing
it by their wisdom. Now, what's spirituality
got to do with that? If spirituality is the
way you live in the presence of people, because
of your relationship with God and Jesus Christ,
and your devotion to God and Jesus, and if it
has been fed by your meditation on the
Word of God and prayer over the Word of God,
then you are going to be a different person.
And spirituality is going to be what is
foremost in your lifestyle. And you will be recognized
by the congregation and by the community as the
kind of person that we want to lead us
and that we want to submit our lives to,
because this is important to us. So, spirituality
and understanding what spirituality is helps us
understand our function and how we are
to relate with people.
A congregation in one of our cities was having
problems. They had retired their senior minister.
Great man. One of the prominent preachers in
our brotherhood for many years, and most
of us younger preachers when we were in
university looked at this guy and said, wow,
you know,
he preached. The congregation, he got to the
point where he needed to step out of the pulpit.
So they said, we will just keep you on here.
We'll give you another ministry. You can help
us in our shepherding here. And they hired
themselves a young guy, 35 years old. I mean,
this guy was a firecracker preacher. He came in
there and really preached. It wasn't very
long, however, before some of the older members
went to the elders and said, we don't like
this guy. I mean, did you know, he doesn't
preach the gospel. He comes in here on Sunday
and all we hear from him is one passage of
scripture. He doesn't know that there are
other passages of scripture. He just wants to
come in one passage of scripture. The previous
preacher could quote the whole Bible in a
sermon. I mean, just one scripture after another.
That's the kind of preaching they were used to.
And so they said, this is the... So the
elders fired the preacher. At the time, I was
glad he was a graduate of Harding School
of Religion, graduate school, not ACU, all
right? One and one of us. But nevertheless,
he was a great preacher. So the deacons went in
and said, who gave you the right to fire
the preacher? Why did you fire him? You didn't
talk to us. Boy, they had a problem. So the
elders asked Dub Orr and me to go down and work
with them. I like to take Dub because
he's tall, gray-haired, dignified, you know,
wise, kind of... I'm short and dumpy and
hair's falling out and just not as impressive
as Dub. So I'd like to take Dub and put him
up there and I talk behind him, you see?
Anyway, Dub and I go there and we're sitting with
the elders and I trot out my story as to what I
think they should do. And one elder who
happened to be a member of the board of
trustees at ACU, one of my bosses, says to me, Ian,
if we do what you're suggesting, we could lose
this plant. Church building is what he's
talking about, not the ficus tree. This plant.
We could lose it. And that got me thinking.
It's sort of like he hit me with a two-by-four.
And I said, are you concerned about losing
this plant? He said, well, we are elders.
That's our responsibility. I said, brother,
let me tell you something. I know you can do
church without a building. I've done it
in Africa enough. You can do church without a
building, but I guarantee you cannot do
church without people. We are not in the plant
business. We are in the people business. And
we need to understand that in our role as
elders, our example, our oversight, our concern,
passion for caring for the people, and not in a
sense that we are in charge. Only one
person is in charge of your congregation. That
is Jesus Christ. And he has given you
the responsibility of shepherding them and
leading them and caring for them and nurturing
them. And I guarantee that is a full-time job.
Have fun the rest of the day. Go and
hear Jim McGuigan. He will certainly get you.
It would be nice if he could just learn to
speak English.
Thank you.
It's good to see you.
Functioning authority, authority to function.
I'm preaching. We're working through this
right now. Good.
It's the church, so I'm going to help.
You can't do that!
I don't know what to do.
You're supposed to be right here.
That's right. That's what you need to do.
Ha ha ha ha.
Is that the way it works?
You don't look at me.
You're supposed to be right here.
You can't get this guy in there.
Are you?
You're supposed to be right here.
I told you that.
You're supposed to be right here.
You're supposed to be here.
That's right.
Over here.
You're supposed to be right here.
You can't get that green guy in there.
That's right.
You're supposed to be right here.
You just have to get yourV
I can't.
That's right.
Come on in.
Sorry Wrong.
Ha ha ha.