Who Picked These Guys Anyway?

1 Tim 3:1-13

How do you make decisions in your home? Does everyone have a vote and the most votes win? Do you let the kids make all the decisions and you just do whatever they decide? If we did that, we would eat at McDonalds for every meal, and have only toys and movies in the house. As parents we know that you can’t always go by what most of the family wants to do or let the kids decide on certain issues. There are decisions too important for children to make. As parents, as the more mature ones in the home, we need to decide what is best for the family as a whole.

The same needs to be done in the church as well. We need men who are more spiritually mature to make decisions for what is best for the church as a whole. If we voted on everything, or let spiritually immature people make decisions, it could be devastating for us as a church.

One of the most important tasks a church does is picking men to be elders and deacons. Those choices have an incredible impact of the life of the church and on the spiritual growth of the church. Yet, most churches go about it in an absolutely horrendous way. Far too many churches in our fellowship pick men to be elders by simply figuring out who wants to do it, give 2 weeks for anyone to say something bad about them, if nothing is said, they are elders for life. Brothers and sisters, I stand before you today and tell you that’s NOT the way to bring men into the role of an elder or deacon.

PRAYER

I. What Makes a Church Leader?

A. Desire

1. Vs 1 starts off by saying, “if anyone sets his heart on being an overseer…”

2. There are a couple of ways to look at the idea of a man who wants to be an elder.

3. The most important thing a church needs to figure out is why does he want to be an elder. I can’t express enough how important it is to figure out a man’s motivation for serving in this role.

a) I talked with a church that was in the process of appointing new elders. They had several men who they were considering. One man really wanted to be an elder, but it was quickly apparent he wanted to be an elder so he could have a “power role” in the church. The current elders felt this man shouldn’t be an elder and told him they would not consider him at this point. He was furious and tried to get a number of the members of that church to challenge the elders and put his name before the church. Still they refused. When he couldn’t get his way, the man left the church.

b) His actions showed his motivation wasn’t right in desiring to serve as an elder.

c) It wasn’t to humbly help a church grow stronger spiritually, but so he could be somebody important.

4. Yet we need men who do desire to take on that heavy responsibility.

5. It shouldn’t be something to add to your church resume, or feel that after x amount of time a person gets to be an elder.

6. It is a serious vital role within the life of the church that needs to be filled my spiritually mature men who are willing to step up and take on that responsibility.

B. How should we choose these men?

1. It’s interesting that most churches of Christ follow the same basic pattern for selecting men to elders or deacons.

2. It’s so consistent that you would think we could point to chapter and verse on how to do it. What’s shocking is that we only have 2 examples of men becoming elders and in both cases the minister appointed them.

3. I’m not advocating that position, but it should make us realize that maybe God hasn’t given us an absolute way in choosing these men because he knows that each church may have different ways of knowing which men should be their spiritual leaders.

4. We need to think about how we should go about appointing these men in a prayerful manner.

5. Think about this; we usually spend much more effort and prayer choosing a minister than we do elders. Maybe that needs to equal out.

C. Are they in for life?

1. I have been asked from time to time if elders and deacons are supposed to be that way forever, or should there be term limits.

2. Again, the Bible is silent on the issue. We have the 2 passages about appointing elders, 3 passages about what type of men they should be, and not a single word about how long should they serve.

3. Hopefully an elder should know the church well enough to sense when he doesn’t have the confidence or following of the church any longer.

4. Has a church changed so much that a man just isn’t an effective spiritual leader anymore?

5. Has he reached an age where he cannot function as a shepherd and is just one in name only?

6. Has something happened in his own spiritual life that would require the other elders insist he step down?

7. These are all questions that need to be answered when removing a man from that role in the church.

II. Qualities of Elders and Deacons

A. Elders

1. We have 3 passages that tell us what kind of men should be elders.

2. Our text, Titus 1, and 1 Pet 5:1-4

3. What people argue about is that should a man carry all of these qualities, or did each church have different needs and so different qualities were more important at each church.

4. A counter argument I have heard with that is “okay, which of these qualities would you leave out in an elders”

5. Let’s look at what Timothy gives us

a) READ vs 2-7

b) What we see described here is a physically and spiritually mature man.

c) We see a man who is family man raising his children in a godly surrounding.

d) We see a man who is respected by those in and out of the church for his integrity.

6. Sounds like a man I would want leading our congregation whether you want to call these qualifications or qualities of an elder.

B. Deacons

1. Paul then moves to the deacons.

2. READ vs. 8-10, 12-13

3. Deacons are men who are again of good character, family men, and faithful men.

4. Both elders and deacons are to be men who have proven themselves first.

5. I’ve been around churches who when talking about a man to become an elder or deacon used the logic that if they were to become a leader they would then get more active in the church.

6. That’s the polar opposite of what Paul says. He tells us that these men need to be faithful workers in the church and then they should be considered to be leaders.

C. Differences

1. We make the mistake of looking at these men as Jr. elders.

a) Somewhere along the line we began thinking of being a deacon as a stepping-stone to being an elder.

b) Or, we look at them as elders with a little less authority.

c) Neither one of those are scriptural interpretations of a deacon

2. The elder’s role is spiritual leadership that’s why they need to be mature both spiritually and physically.

3. Deacons are servant leaders

a) Men who are trusted by the church to lead them in ministry areas that need to be done.

b) Acts 6 is a good example of what a deacon’s role should be. READ Acts 6:1-6

D. Wives

1. Whenever we address this issue, people ask about women deacons.

2. Some point to Phoebe who was called a deaconess, or a couple of other women mentioned in that role.

3. Others point to the wording of vs 11.

a) The Greek says, “ in the same way the women.”

b) It doesn’t say wives though the word for women can be used to mean wives.

4. Let’s look quickly at this in our own text.

a) The end of chapter 2 Paul tells Timothy that women are not to teach or have authority over men.

b) If deacons are servant leaders, wouldn’t that indicate authority?

c) Why would Paul contradict himself in this letter?

d) Women can be great servants of the church. They can even be leaders by demonstrating a godliness that everyone respects and follows.

e) However, I think the office of deacon that Paul sets up here is different than a person who is a wonderful, well-respected servant; male or female.

f) People like Jim Smith or Deb Winegardner and great servants and lead by their godly examples, but they are not deacons.

E. Reason For Writing about Worship

1. I’ve heard many people say we can worship God however we want as long as we say we love Jesus.

2. That sounds really good. It opens the door to do a lot of things we could do to spice up our worship.

3. But, it’s not really scriptural.

4. READ vs 14-15

5. God has a plan for the life of the church, a plan we need to be aware of and follow.

6. This is just as relevant to us today as it was to Timothy and the church in Ephesus.