Thursday, June 16, 2005
Genuine Elders
Jollyblogger shares his notes from a speech he heard on "Why God Invented Ruling Elders." It's good, if disjointed, stuff.
The resistance comes in two forms -- good poeple unwilling to make that level of committment -- and ever increasing staffs that view such elders as threats to thier jobs. This is a deadly combination.
Quite frankly, I have longed for but never experienced the role of elder as described in David's notes. I work hard to administrate my committees in a fashion that allows for the other, far more important duties of an elder, but I find either other elders, or more usually staff, throw such monkey wrenches into the works (you know little things like showing up at meetings and demanding agenda time without discussing it with the chairman in advance) that the adminstrative becomes overwhelming. It is only when I am not serving on Session that I can teach and truly lead. How can we fix this?
In our day it is common for elders to see themselves as a spiritual board of directors. We must not denigrate the administrative function of elders, but we must never let this overshadow his role as a discipling shepherd.As an elder, and a former Nominating Committee Chair (therfore charged with finding new elders) I have held this view and worked hard for it, and experienced much resistance.
The resistance comes in two forms -- good poeple unwilling to make that level of committment -- and ever increasing staffs that view such elders as threats to thier jobs. This is a deadly combination.
Quite frankly, I have longed for but never experienced the role of elder as described in David's notes. I work hard to administrate my committees in a fashion that allows for the other, far more important duties of an elder, but I find either other elders, or more usually staff, throw such monkey wrenches into the works (you know little things like showing up at meetings and demanding agenda time without discussing it with the chairman in advance) that the adminstrative becomes overwhelming. It is only when I am not serving on Session that I can teach and truly lead. How can we fix this?
