The lives of past saints can be very inspiring, so reading biographies is a thrill. Whether we are reading about a recent saint, like Nate Saint, Jim Elliot and their partners killed trying to reach a stone age tribe, or those of the early church like Polycarp or Ignatius, we are inspired to handle adversity, to stand against persecution and to sacrifice all in service to our King. The danger comes when we take these stories that should empower and unfairly condemn ourselves, seeing these people as more endowed or having more of the Spirit, greater potential or ability than us. One example is Paul. What church planter has not looked at Paul planting churches, over an area of several hundred miles from diverse cultural and linguistic groups, and concluded that he was a sort of Über-Christian—fascinating but impossible to emulate? Read the rest of this entry »

The hardest part of being a pastor is the feeling that you are always on a stage; always on display. People come to you with problems, with bits and pieces of their life and expect that you will react a certain way. Often, when you do not respond as expected, they get offended because their image of what a pastor is or what he is to be does not match up to what they see. Read the rest of this entry »

Qualifications of Elders: Part VIII

The claim of being a Christian should be a guarantee of honesty and integrity in business matters. Unfortunately, it is easy to claim to be a Christian when you aren’t. Christians look just lie everyone else so how are you to tell if the person you are doing business with is truly saved? Is a fish symbol on their sign or business card enough? Does the scripture verse quoted in their marketing materials prove they run their business on Christian principles? In my experience picking a business or service by symbols or scriptures seldom works well. Those claiming to be Christians are not necessarily telling the truth while those who are do not always follow Christian principles in their business. Read the rest of this entry »

Qualifications of Elders: Part VII

If you’ve lived in a small town you understand how quickly news spreads. We lived in a town of about 450 people for four years. As the only resident pastor, I was constantly told stories of my son’s activities. Some people seemed to get a twisted pleasure in asking the pastor: “Do you know what your son did?” He never seemed to understand how dad could know the things he had done, and know so fast. Now don’t get me wrong, he wasn’t doing bad, cruel or illegal things. Neither was he being disobedient since most were not the sort of thing you would think to tell a kid not to do. He and a friend were simply being mischievous. We had moved to this small town so that, among other things, he could have fun and experience childhood—a boy’s childhood. Read the rest of this entry »

Qualifications of Elders: Part VI

Language is a powerful device. Something as simple as a combination of sounds emanating from the human mouth can inspire and elevate, or repulse and infuriate. Words in church meant to inspire are salvation, love, devotion, deliverance, but one little word can shut the ears of the average congregation, causing them to hope no more is said. This word is discipline. Among a people striving for pleasure and comfort discipline is practically an obscenity. This aversion has left scores of churches in tatters, given a black eye to the image of Christ and shipwrecked the faith of many as leaders fall into temptation and sin. Read the rest of this entry »

Qualifications of Elders: Part V

Paul commands that the elders of the church are to be the “husband of one wife.” This qualification has caused much contention and in our day of easy divorce it can be one of the greatest hurdles to finding qualified men. Some have interpreted this passage (in ascending severity) as disqualifying the polygamist, disqualifying the divorced who remarry, disqualifying the divorced even without remarriage, disqualifying remarried widowers. All of these share one trait, they are attempts to apply this positive passage negatively. Paul is not saying what the potential elder will not do, but what he will do. Read the rest of this entry »

Qualifications of Elders: Part IV

In a world that assumes women’s presence in every endeavor, it seems backwards and hateful to restrict women from certain roles. In this fight, like all others, Christians must following scripture not the dictates of society. As we consider the qualifications of leaders in the church we must examine what scripture says about all areas, including those that are unpopular. Whether we limit leadership of the church to one gender or open it to both, we must have good strong biblical evidence for our view. Read the rest of this entry »

Qualifications of Elders: Part III

With record low job approval ratings worldwide, we expect little good from our national leaders. Even in the church, bad leadership seems more the rule than the exception. Just like other problems faced by the church, the Bible has the solution. If the people of Christ would hold our leaders to the qualifications given in scripture we could transform the church overnight. Read the rest of this entry »

Qualification of Elders Part I

Elders who handle the affairs of the church well are worthy of double honor—at least according to Paul. The apostles never imagined one man rule for any church, for any location, for any reason. Rather than mini-popes, commanding obedience and submission, they ordained a group of equal leaders for the body of Christ in each locale. The church badly needs to return to this biblical example of leadership. Read the rest of this entry »

Books on leadership are abundant these days. Management styles come and go while corporate America chases the latest way to lead a company to greatness. The church has followed this siren song, adapting these ideas and methods to its own use. While these sources are helpful, great leaders of local congregations start with Paul’s letters to Timothy and Titus. Read the rest of this entry »