Biblical Mandate of Elders {part 2}

Roles of Elders

Having looked at the qualifications, what is the role of elders? What responsibilities do elders have in the church? 1 Peter 5:1-4 states “Therefore, I exhort the elders among you, as your fellow elder and witness of the sufferings of Christ, and a partaker also of the glory that is to be revealed, shepherd the flock of God among you, exercising oversight not under compulsion, but voluntarily, according to the will of God; and not for sordid gain, but with eagerness; nor yet as lording it over those allotted to your charge, but proving to be examples to the flock. And when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory.” 

We shall highlight seven responsibilities that elders have. There is more than can be said but these seven are the basic ones:

1. Word and Prayer – we read in Acts 6 how the apostles exhorted the believers to appoint seven men who will be in charge of serving tables so that they (apostles) can commit themselves to the ministry of prayer and the word. Elders have been mandated with teaching and praying for the congregation. This will mean that elders are freed up of their time from other engagements as much as possible so that they commit themselves to prayer and the word. It thus goes without saying that an elder must be committed to the word and prayer both in private and in public.

Practically, it will look like the elder;

• Setting apart time to feed from God’s word. Having a regular pattern of reading and studying God’s word daily.
• Leading the family in word and prayer
• Setting aside time to pray for the ministry and the members of the church. It will mean praying for fellow elders. It will mean praying for mission and for other churches.
• During time for corporate worship, the elders ought to pray. We have set aside a slot for pastoral prayer. This is the time when an elder prays not only for the needs of the church but for mission, partnerships, needs around the world, politics and other churches.
• Benediction- the elder ought to say the final blessing for the congregation. This should be well thought out.

2. Oversight – Elders are overseers (Acts 20:28). This has the connotation of showing concern, being attentive to and watching over the flock. This will mean that the elder is ‘with the people’ and what he does is ‘for the people’. The elder is the leader of the local congregation. Elders guide the congregation and provide direction for where the church is heading.

At GracePoint, we’ve tried to have at least one elder serving each Sunday. This is to ‘assure’ the congregation that indeed the elders are doing their work. Elders lead from the front. Also, even if an elder is not on duty, one still ought to know that they have a significant role in the church and as such, to know that an elder cannot be invisible.

3. Shepherding – See Acts 20 and John 21. This involves the following;
   1. Feeding – by teaching the flock from the pulpit and from house to house with the whole counsel of God. The biggest disservice that the elder can do to the flock is not feeding them or instead of feeding them real food (whole counsel of God) he gives them junk.
   2. Protecting – guarding the flock from the wolves within and without. Actually, before guarding the flock, the shepherd needs to guard himself first by watching his life and doctrine closely. 
   3. Care – The shepherd must bind the broken-hearted and tenderly care for them that are hurting.

practically, shepherding will mean:

• being on the lookout for those who are missing in attending services and those who are not actively involved in ministry.
• visiting members in their homes and sharing life
• hosting members in your homes and doing life together
• visiting the sick
• comforting the bereaved and if possible, attending funerals
• attending events- weddings, funerals, birthdays, house-opening/dedication etc.

A good skill to have is to know how to ask good questions. As you spend time with people and get to know them well, this will come almost naturally.

As elders do this, they recognize that they are both sheep and under-shepherds. The elders will both give account to the Chief Shepherd of how they shepherded the flock that was entrusted to their care and also receive a crown from the Chief Shepherd for their faithfulness in the work.

4. Serving – Jesus makes his mission clear and calls us to follow his pattern. “You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and those in high positions act as tyrants over them. ⁴³ But it is not so among you. On the contrary, whoever wants to become great among you will be your servant, ⁴⁴ and whoever wants to be first among you will be a slave to all. ⁴⁵ For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Mark 10:42-45). 

This is a call that all elders need to heed for we see today many who are in eldership not to serve but to be served. 

5. Handling conflict – This may not be explicit in biblical texts but is implied. In Acts 6, there was a conflict and the apostles rose to the occasion and handled the conflict before things got out of hand. In Acts 15, when the issue of whether or not to circumcise Gentile believers came up, “the apostles and elders were gathered to consider this matter” (v. 6) and they debated the matter and wrote a letter to the Gentile churches the resolutions they had reached.

It is important that those who are being called to the office of elder know that their wisdom, resolve, patience, and gentleness will need to be evident especially for conflict resolution. In addition, being an elder means being ready to face controversy. This will mean working hard to be on the same page and speaking in one voice even if as an individual elder I don’t agree with the rest of the elders.

6. Raising workers – As we saw earlier from Ephesians 4, the leaders that are put in place are there to equip saints for the works of service. Elders don’t just do the work, they equip others to do the work. Elders are not called to do everything. Also, elders know that they will not be there forever and as such they need to raise others who will continue with the work of ministry. 

As elders, we’ll need to rally the church in doing one-to-one mentorship, have interns or apprentices serving in the church, think about and run training programmes for leaders and generally for people to serve. Things like sermon preparation groups, training on public reading of scripture, prayer, training on evangelism etc. ought to be happening regularly. One of the things that I have been thinking about recently is identifying a few men and challenging them to start praying about them being elders. The first qualification is “desire” and I’ve been asking myself ‘are we elders helping create a desire in men to serve as elders?’

7. Being an Example – In Paul’s address to the Ephesian elders in Acts 20, he mentions so many things he did as an example to them- teaching the whole counsel of God, humility in service, suffering, working hard for his needs and his boldness. Peter, in 1 Peter 5, also tells the elders that they are to be examples to the flock. Elders are to be an open book to not only the congregation but even to the non-believers (be spoken of well by outsiders). 

In this day and age, it’s easy to be casual, to blend in, to be seen as being the same and not different. This is all good except the bible calls us to be examples. This means that how we dress, our speech, time keeping (or lack thereof), social media etc. all matter. Let’s be examples.

Conclusion:

This is what we desire for and pray for GracePoint Church. Please pray that elders will “shepherd the flock of God among [them], exercising oversight not under compulsion, but voluntarily, according to the will of God; and not for sordid gain, but with eagerness; nor yet as lording it over those allotted to[their] charge, but proving to be examples to the flock. And when the Chief Shepherd appears, [they] will receive the unfading crown of glory.”