Eldership and Member Development

Obviously the congregation is made up of different members with differing abilities. The church is described in 1 Corinthians 12 as a human body. The body needs all of its parts to function properly.

If parts are absent or weakened then the church is “handicapped” and cannot function properly as God designed it. So then it is on the Elders to identify and develop talent in the congregation so that the church body can function properly.

Here’s the thing… talent can never be developed unless it is discovered and used.

Several things factor into the wasting of talent by not using it. In a lot of congregations the Preacher is the main guy. He typically does all the preaching and teaches all of the classes. After-all that’s his job we pay him for that right?. So you have a body part that is over developed while the other parts are wasting away. I’m not a fan of the one Preacher system (for several reasons) where the Preacher is used to the exclusion of the other members.

Another factor is micro-management by Elders. Some Elders feel like they have to do and control everything. I know, of some congregations where the Elders do all of the announcements for fear that someone might “announce” the wrong thing.

At Parkway we discovered a young man who in his early 20s had an incredible “presence” for making announcements. He was comfortable, spoke clearly and had good extemporaneous thoughts to share with the congregation. We have used him and I’m convinced still have not discovered his “ceiling”.

We’ve had young Song-leaders who showed ability and with use have really developed into excellent Song-leaders.

Talent and ability can never grow unless you use them. You can’t be afraid of talent making mistakes. In fact you want the talented people to make mistakes so they can grow and learn from it. As Elders, let’s not handicap the congregation. Let’s discover talent and use that talent so the congregation can be all that it can be.

Eldership and Communicating Your Mission

I’m afraid that for many members if you asked them what the mission of the church was they would reply… to take the Lord’s Supper, sing, give the offering, pray and listen to preaching… Failure… abject failure. Those things are “what” the church does. The mission relates to “why” we do those things. We do the “what” things to accomplish the “why” things.

The Lord’s Supper causes us to remember Jesus and his sacrifice. Singing is a memory device to teach us about God and to teach each other. The offering teaches us to sacrifice to help others. Praying teaches us dependence upon God for all of our cares and worries. And Preaching/teaching causes us to learn about God. These things (and others) help us grow spiritually as individuals and collectively as a congregation to demonstrate to the world (physical world and spiritual spiritual world) that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.

That’s our mission and it’s a grand and challenging mission.

So Elders, as leaders, need to constantly communicate to the congregation why we are in business. Not just a collection of spiritual robots performing a mundane list of requirements but a living, breathing, growing, organic collection of spiritual beings waging war with Satan and pleasing our God and Father in Heaven.

Something You Can Learn from Dogs

I was recently at a seminar that provides service dogs for people who are handicapped and often wheel chair bound. I was struck by what the speaker said, that a lot of these handicapped people are mentally beat down because they are not normal and that feeling is validated every day by the way people look at them and treat them.

When this organization provides a service dog for these individuals a transformation begins to take place… the dog provides unconditional love… the dog cannot see the handicap. He’s blind to it.

And eventually the handicapped person begins to believe the dog that they are worthy of love.

Jesus Christ provides that kind of transforming love but the problem with that is it’s hard to buy into concepts. What’s easier to buy into is when the Lord’s people provide that kind of unconditional love. Then it becomes palpable and real and helps build faith in Jesus Christ.

So when we meet someone who is not like us and may wear the visible effects of a sin stained life don’t look at that handicap, don’t even look at it… look at the person inside and use the power of love that Jesus gave you to help transform them because eventually they’ll begin to believe in it and reject the lie that Satan has sold them and believe in Jesus Christ.