Any takers?

I’ve been in other congregations, on the other hand, where preachers worked actively to prevent elders from being appointed. A men’s business meeting they could control; an eldership they perhaps felt they couldn’t.

Thinking back on it I’ve only been a member of one congregation where the eldership was functioning in a healthy and scriptural way. I get the sense that that situation was more the exception than the rule.

It would seem like a dearth of elder-led congregations would be a much bigger (and more damaging long-term) issue than “collectivities” or any other such thing.

Along with this, I suppose, would be our collective conception of what elders are and do: are they spiritual leaders and teachers or are they the men who make sure that the grass out in front of the building gets mowed and the power bill gets paid?

To another point made earlier: how do we train men to become elders? Have we ever sat down and thought through what that preparation process would look like and how we would vet suitable and unsuitable young men?

Thanks to everyone for chiming in on this issue.

I work with a number of Hispanic congregations and most do not have a plurality of men who would meet even the loosest interpretations of 1 Tim. 3 and Titus 1. So, what do we do? The two I work closest with have men’s meetings every month and occasional congregational meetings. I’m willing to consider any alternatives. However, I still believe that the only thing worse than no elders, is having unqualified ones.

There was a strong desire to do away with the men’s business meeting model and appoint elders. The congregation certainly had a number of men, about 6, that met the qualifications (believing children, good report, etc.). One of the men didn’t want to be an elder for whatever reason. The other 5 had varying degree of “desire” for the office. Two of the men were elders previously when the last eldership was dissolved upon their resignations.

Apparently, at least one of the former elders didn’t want the other three for elders because a sixth man was brought in under consideration even though he didn’t meet the believing children qualification as understood by the majority of the congregation. Also his temperment isn’t very good (i.e. sometimes sarcastic towards brethren). I firmly believe that this man was put forward to even out any voting block in the eldership so that the three new men wouldn’t win when it came down to the direction of the eldership.

It ends up we had a months long congregational study on the “believing children” qualification, a visiting preacher was even brought in. Even after this there was no consensus but the majority still held to “believing” as in “baptized believers”.

Then there were side meetings, mainly between the potential elders, to discuss the issue. These meetings became very contentious. Eventually, all three of the potential new elders left the congregation along with several other families. Then the two previous elders were appointed as well as the other man.

The other man ended up retiring a year or so later and resigned his eldership to move closer to his children. The two other elders resigned obstensively because of the danger of only have two men being elders. However, I believe one of the elders decided to resign due to family problems that cropped up a short while later.

So the congregation ended up being without elders again. The only explanation I can find is that one of the elders didn’t want other people to run his church. Otherwise why start a row about having a sixth man be an elder when there were legitimate questions about his qualifications and five men are available to be elders. This elder was there at the founding of the congregation and contributes a lot of money to the offering (given his obvious wealth). I suspect he was concerned about the direction the church would take.

You might say something similar about located preachers… but I’m not sure if that’s as big an issue in NI circles.

Thanks for your comments. For some reason, your posts keep getting tripped up in my spam filter. I haven’t yet figured out how to permanent approve you, but hopefully that will come soon.

I think you’re right, though. A perfect storm of all of the elements you mentioned would seem to inevitably yield the current situation.