Friday, February 17, 2006
Prayer is Primary-The Elder's Priorities
An elder/bishop (commonly called a pastor or minister) is called by God to tend the church as a shepherd tends his flock (See Acts 20:28 and 1 Peter 5:2). Since people do not literally need green grass and protection from wolves, however, what does this mean in practical terms? What are the elder’s duties, exactly?
The elder cannot trust his church to teach him his duties. First, churches expect their elders to do too much. Churches call upon the elder to do many things, from administering the work of committees, to visiting the sick, to performing weddings and funerals. (Yes, for some of the many small-church pastors, the list is much longer: mowing the grass, turning on and off the lights, cleaning the buildings, fixing the plumbing, etc.) If the church has a written job description, it is probably a page long, with about 20 duties named, and a phrase at the end that says, “other duties as needed.” If the church does not have a written job description, then rest assured that an unwritten job description several pages long, with upwards of 50 duties named, exists in the collective mind of the members! Second, churches do not normally derive the elder’s list of duties from the scriptures or from the example of the best elders throughout history. Instead, their list is made up of every good thing they have ever seen any minister do anywhere anytime.
The elder cannot trust his heart to teach him his duties, either. First, his heart is bigger than his schedule! That is, the love of Christ moves the elder to concern for many people. He desires to minister to the sick, the lonely, the mature, the immature, the lost of his community, the lost on the mission field, the missionaries he knows, his colleagues who are hurting, and the list goes on and on. Second, his own personal preferences will send enjoyable tasks to the top of the priority list, and send distasteful duties to the bottom, regardless of their relative importance.
For the first seven years of my own ministry, I wandered among these church-made and self-made lists of duties. My ministry had some success because of God’s grace and the power of the Gospel, but was, frankly, a failure in general.
Then, about three years ago, God taught me what should have been obvious, that there are two tasks for the elder/bishop that supercede all others: “prayer and the ministry of the Word.” (This is the NIV translation. I will address the literal meaning of the Greek in a future blog, and I welcome you to do so in your comments.)
God taught me this through a key verse in the Old Testament and a key verse in the New Testament. First, a verse about Samuel:
(1 Samuel 12:23) As for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the LORD by failing to pray for you. And I will teach you the way that is good and right.
Here we see this one-two punch that characterizes the work of the man of God: prayer and teaching the Word of God, with prayer listed first.
The New Testament verse about the apostles:
(Acts 6:3-4) Brothers, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will turn this responsibility over to them (4) and will give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the word."
Here we see the same combination, with prayer again listed first. Here the order of these two is not clear, however, because the apostles had mentioned the Word of God already, before restating their concern about ministering in the Word along with the ministry of prayer.
Since God showed me this foundational truth, I have endeavored to re-orient my ministry to fulfill these God-given tasks.
I look back on these three years and say that, despite certain failures due to my own immaturity and selfishness, my ministry has been, in general, a great success.
In future blogs, I will share how God has worked this truth into my life and ministry, and what I have learned about how to do these two basic tasks with excellence.
Thanks for reading, and I welcome your comments.
The elder cannot trust his church to teach him his duties. First, churches expect their elders to do too much. Churches call upon the elder to do many things, from administering the work of committees, to visiting the sick, to performing weddings and funerals. (Yes, for some of the many small-church pastors, the list is much longer: mowing the grass, turning on and off the lights, cleaning the buildings, fixing the plumbing, etc.) If the church has a written job description, it is probably a page long, with about 20 duties named, and a phrase at the end that says, “other duties as needed.” If the church does not have a written job description, then rest assured that an unwritten job description several pages long, with upwards of 50 duties named, exists in the collective mind of the members! Second, churches do not normally derive the elder’s list of duties from the scriptures or from the example of the best elders throughout history. Instead, their list is made up of every good thing they have ever seen any minister do anywhere anytime.
The elder cannot trust his heart to teach him his duties, either. First, his heart is bigger than his schedule! That is, the love of Christ moves the elder to concern for many people. He desires to minister to the sick, the lonely, the mature, the immature, the lost of his community, the lost on the mission field, the missionaries he knows, his colleagues who are hurting, and the list goes on and on. Second, his own personal preferences will send enjoyable tasks to the top of the priority list, and send distasteful duties to the bottom, regardless of their relative importance.
For the first seven years of my own ministry, I wandered among these church-made and self-made lists of duties. My ministry had some success because of God’s grace and the power of the Gospel, but was, frankly, a failure in general.
Then, about three years ago, God taught me what should have been obvious, that there are two tasks for the elder/bishop that supercede all others: “prayer and the ministry of the Word.” (This is the NIV translation. I will address the literal meaning of the Greek in a future blog, and I welcome you to do so in your comments.)
God taught me this through a key verse in the Old Testament and a key verse in the New Testament. First, a verse about Samuel:
(1 Samuel 12:23) As for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the LORD by failing to pray for you. And I will teach you the way that is good and right.
Here we see this one-two punch that characterizes the work of the man of God: prayer and teaching the Word of God, with prayer listed first.
The New Testament verse about the apostles:
(Acts 6:3-4) Brothers, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will turn this responsibility over to them (4) and will give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the word."
Here we see the same combination, with prayer again listed first. Here the order of these two is not clear, however, because the apostles had mentioned the Word of God already, before restating their concern about ministering in the Word along with the ministry of prayer.
Since God showed me this foundational truth, I have endeavored to re-orient my ministry to fulfill these God-given tasks.
I look back on these three years and say that, despite certain failures due to my own immaturity and selfishness, my ministry has been, in general, a great success.
In future blogs, I will share how God has worked this truth into my life and ministry, and what I have learned about how to do these two basic tasks with excellence.
Thanks for reading, and I welcome your comments.
Comments:
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My Friend,
I think you've got it!
We're of the same passion, though I must admit, I haven't mastered the practical outworking of my conviction I do believe that the ministry of prayer and the Word are the primary duties of an elder.
James
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I think you've got it!
We're of the same passion, though I must admit, I haven't mastered the practical outworking of my conviction I do believe that the ministry of prayer and the Word are the primary duties of an elder.
James
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