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There are several good things about using “waiting on the Lord’s Supper table” to train men to serve the congregation. Let me illustrate that for you. We have a member (Let’s call him Hans) who was a little nervous to stand in front of the congregation. However, in talking to Hans we told him he could be in the outside position and not have to lead a prayer or read a scripture or anything else… just pass out trays. He agreed. After a while I asked him if he would serve at the inside position and say a prayer for the cup. I explained, he wouldn’t have to read a scripture or make any comments. He could even write the prayer down and read it. He agreed and did that for a while. Now on his own he serves on the inside, saying the prayer for the bread, reading scripture and making meaningful comments. Training is a process.
Let’s use another example (we’ll call him Willie). Willie had been a Christian all of his life but was extremely nervous about speaking in front of a large group. His Bible knowledge was excellent. He had a good brain and knew how to use it. He started on the outside… got comfortable and evolved into a great speaker at the Lord’s Table. Every time he made comments at the Lord’s Table the congregation’s eyes and attention were focused on him… you never heard the same thing twice out of him. In my opinion Willie was at the top of my list for inspiring the congregation at the Lord’s Table.
Hans and Willie were trained to serve the congregation at the Lord’s Table. Their talent was discovered, trained and honed by starting them out small and letting them grow.
In Acts 6 we read of a “Daily Ministration” whereby the church provided food necessities for Christian widows. I find this interesting because during this time period Christians were able to perform miracles by the power of the Holy Spirit. So why did people have to sell their lands, etc. to purchase food for Christian widows? Why not just take a fish or a loaf of bread and miraculously transform them into 1000 fishes and 1000 loaves?
The answer to this question lies in God’s purpose for his people. God wants his people to be transformed into humble selfless people. That can only occur when his people have a spirit of compassion and sacrifice.
If human beings use God’s (miraculous) power to feed the widows then that’s God doing the work and leaves the aforesaid Christians weak and underdeveloped. We become strong and more like Jesus Christ when we do our own work.
So although Jesus used miracles to provide for food and other needs, that was never the plan for the new church. In the age of the early church miracles (worked through Spiritually empowered people) would only be used to draw attention to God and his powerful word.
Otherwise we would be handicapped Christians relying on the “crutch” of God’s special powers for the mundane things of life. God took away that “crutch” so we could develop into the kind of people he intended us to be… exact copies of Jesus Christ.
Even today we can be handicapped if we rely on the preacher or the elders or the deacons or our husband or our wife or other Christians to do all the spiritual work. That’s a spirit of laziness, of spiritual atrophy and spiritual ineptitude and a very poor caricature of Jesus Christ. Let’s get to work.
A study of qualifications (Apostle, Daily Ministration, Elder, Deacon, Widows in Deed), reveal that the respective qualifications are applicable to the specific work being qualified for.
For instance the qualification for an Apostle was that the individual had to have been in the company of Jesus from the time Jesus was baptized until the time he ascended into Heaven. Undoubtedly he had to have other attributes as well but this was the distinctive one as related to the work of an Apostle, i.e., he was to give personal testimony about Jesus Christ.
So then, when we consider Elder qualifications they should be interpreted as how they impact the Elder’s “work”. For instance most of the Elder qualifications relate to his character. That’s relevant to his work because according to Eph. 4 he is to help Christians grow into the very image of Jesus Christ. He cannot do that unless he has first done it in his own personal life.
In addition, the man must be the husband of one wife. Why? Because the marital relationship mimics the relationship between Christians. In marriage the two become one flesh by mutual sacrifice and subjection. That’s the same process in becoming “married” to Jesus Christ, individually and collectively (Eph. 5). If the Elder hasn’t experienced that process in his own marriage then he is scarcely qualified to instruct others in the spiritual marriage process.
The man must have children and have successfully parented them. Fathers don’t give up on their children. Like the father of the Prodigal son, he may not tolerate bad behavior but he is always ready to forgive and restore. In a congregation of believers sometimes it is easier to just get rid of an unruly member but a “father” works to the best of his ability to correct an unruly son. Job prayed for his children and sacrificed for them just in case they might have sinned. Imagine what it would be like to have an Elder in a congregation who expressed genuine care in the same manner.
Qualifications are germane to the work of an Elder and should be studied in that light. First let’s understand how God wants his Elders to work within the church and then perhaps we can understand the qualifications better.
