Here For Him | Elders & Deacons | Coleton Segars

It's good to see all of you.

My name is Colton.

I have the honor and privilege of being able to lead this church, and I'm really grateful that y'all are here today.

Happy St.

Patrick's Day.

If the person sitting next to you is not wearing green, I don't I mean, I don't want to tell you to like harm someone, but uh you can pinch them if you'd like.

Sorry, I'm not texting someone.

I'm just getting this thing set up.

Um as a church, uh as a church, we're going through a series.

This is the second to last week.

Next week will be the last week of this series.

It's been a rather long series, but uh hopefully it's been a foundational one for the life of our church.

Just looking at everything that we do in the church and saying, like, man, we're here for him, not for him being me, but here for Jesus.

And everything that exists in the life of the church is supposed to point us to him, lead us to worship him, and to be related to something that he has accomplished for us so that we celebrate this good news.

That the gospel, that song that Chris sang at the beginning, the gospel shall not kneel and shall not faint.

I'm like, and it's crazy because like to me, I'm like, that it is good news that like you are imperfect, but loved by someone who came to love imperfect people, and like, man, what a gift.

That is the way people enter into the kingdom, and that message is supposed to be this powerful thing that leads people to experience what Jesus is actually like, someone who came not only to love imperfect people, but to give his life, uh, to redeem them so that imperfect people could enter into a perfect space.

Um, and so, anyways, but dealing with anything as it relates to the church, um, wanting to point to Jesus is because of his character, his nature, who he is.

And I think the more that we can comprehend him as a um as a friend and as a brother, as he calls uh those, we are co-heirs with Christ.

I think the more that we can experience that, um, the richer that this thing that we call Christianity will will be.

And so that's been the goal.

And so today uh we're gonna touch on a topic that may be like a hot topic, I guess, maybe, I don't know.

We're gonna talk about elders and deacons, leadership in the life of the church.

Um, and so I have a lot to say about this.

I'm gonna try and knock this out.

That's why my phone's here, because I'm gonna try and run through it uh more quickly than the last message.

But um, the teaching text comes from 1 Timothy 3, started in verse 1.

This is what Paul writes to Timothy about elders, specifically in Ephesus, and I'll talk about that more later.

But Paul says this here's a trustworthy saying whoever aspires to be an overseer desires a noble noble task.

Now, the overseer is to be above reproach, faithful to his wife, temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not given to drunkenness, not violent, but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money.

He must manage his own family well and see that his children obey him, and he must do so in a manner worthy of full respect.

If anyone does not know how to manage their own family, how can they care for God's church?

He must not be a recent convert, or he may become conceited and fall under the same judgment as the devil.

He must also have a good reputation with outsiders so that he will not fall into disgrace and into the devil's trap.

And in the same way, deacons are to be worthy of respect, sincere, not indulging in much wine, not pursuing dishonest gain.

They must keep hold of the truths of the faith with a clear conscience.

They must first be tested, and then if there is nothing against them, let them serve as deacons.

And in the same way, the wives of deacons are to be worthy of respect, not malicious talkers, but temperate and trustworthy in everything.

A deacon must be faithful to his wife and must manage his children and his household well.

Those who have served well gain an excellent standing and great assurance in their faith in Christ Jesus, that this is the word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

Rainey's in my experience with elders at the first church that we were at was that they gossiped about us at the beach and came back with rules specifically, not for the church, but for us specifically and how we should behave.

They chased us down to Chicago to try and get me fired from a job that I had acquired there.

And it didn't work out.

And that was my experience at the first church.

The second church that where I experienced elders was when I first got hired at that church in Chicago, uh, within the first week, the lead pastor and I had hit it off and he had hired me.

And the first week the elders come up to me and be like, hey, real quick, we're trying to get him fired.

And I was like, Oh, and they're like, So are you in?

And I was like, Well, he just hired me, so if he goes, do I go?

Because I have a couple of questions about that.

And I'm like, Yeah, we're trying to get the worship pastor to be the new lead pastor because he's kind of, you know, he's on his way out, he needs to move on, and that was my first experience.

Then I was there for almost two years, and uh we sat in elder meetings every single month, um, almost every single week because the church was just in disrepair.

And um we started going in the through the directory with images, family by family, and talking about.

I did not participate in this because I it was the worst thing I've ever been a part of.

But it was supposed to be like, how can we shepherd each family better?

It turned into and devolved into what's wrong with this family and why are they living in sin?

And it was like everybody just started throwing darts at like these families on the wall in the boardroom of this church.

And they're going, like, I don't know what you know why the church's suffering is because this person's not giving enough and this person's not doing this.

And I was like, I have a couple of thoughts of why the church isn't doing great.

Um, it has nothing to do with the people on the wall, but most of the people in this room.

So that's my experience with church elders.

Um, and so I just want to be super honest.

Uh well, one, let me ask this.

Anybody have any church hurt from any, if and just raise your hand, you don't have to, please don't share your story.

Um, but uh in your experience, church hurt from leaders in the church that were supposed to care for you, just raise your hand if you have that experience.

Okay, okay.

Um I think for us, that's been our experience as well.

So talking about elders and deacons, I want to be very honest.

I don't believe, or excuse me, I do believe the church needs elders and deacons.

But I don't believe they need elders and deacons that the church needs them because I have such an incredible experience with elders and deacons.

That's not why.

The only reason I believe that the church needs elders and deacons is because Jesus seems to say, this is how I have given you my bride to care for and to steward, and this is how I want it to be cared for by elders and deacons.

And so I'm not choosing to talk about and wanting to install these things because I just I just love it.

It's been so great for me in my experience.

I'm truly seeking to go.

Someone has given me permission to care for their own bride, and they've just said, and here's how I'd like you to do that.

And so that's why I believe we should have elders and deacons in the church.

Not because it's gone super great for us in the past, but because I just believe it's according to the scriptures.

Uh Greg Sharf, uh, one of my professors at seminary, said this.

He said, Elders are God's plan for his church.

God loves the church so much that he gave his only son to die for it.

He does not entrust such a treasure to a single individual, especially me.

He deploys a group, a team, so that the church is soaked in prayer, led in wisdom, fed by the word.

Healthy, faithful churches always have a team of qualified, faithful leaders.

And so, because of this, because I believe that, I believe this is the way the church needs to be led and cared for by a group of people, elders who oversee the life of the church, deacons who serve within the life of the church, meeting the practical needs.

And so, what I want to do today is just take those two terms and hopefully uh redeem them a little bit in our minds.

It was like, here's what they're supposed to be, here's the beauty that they're supposed to give off into the life of the church, um, and then what it will mean for our church moving forward, um, because this is the way that Jesus wants to care for his bride, the church.

So that's what I want to do today.

So the first elder.

Elder, uh, the apostle Paul was constantly appointing elders in churches wherever he went, and he instructed Timothy and Titus to appoint elders as well.

So he's constantly doing this in the churches.

Uh he sets the precedent for it.

What is an elder?

An elder is, I go to the next slide here, an elder is a pastor.

In the Bible, the terms elder, pastor, and overseer are used interchangeably to refer to the same person or group of people.

Some elders may serve the church full time, that would be me, those we usually call pastors, while other elders may serve as lay volunteers.

But biblically speaking, elders are pastors, and pastors are elders.

That's the idea that's given Robert Toon in his book on uh gospel eldership.

That's what's given in the scriptures.

Here's what is what do they do, what is their role, what is their purpose, what are they, what is their thing?

It's like they're genuinely they're overseers, they're pastors, they're shepherds, and that's what they're supposed to do.

First Peter 5 talks about specifically what they're supposed to do, and he says, To the elders among you, he's writing to a church talking about the elders.

To the elders among you, I appeal.

Shepherd the flock that is under your care, watching over them, not under compulsion, but willingly as God wants you to, not pursuing dishonest gain, but eager to serve, not lording it over others, uh, over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock.

And when the chief shepherd, Jesus, when the chief shepherd appears, you will receive a crown of glory that will never fade away.

And so Peter is referencing and going, hey, elders are a thing, and here's how they should operate.

The first thing is they should operate in plurality.

We don't have this on a slide, but they should operate in plurality.

No one person should have any authority over the church.

Everything should happen in plurality because one person can become corrupted, and that could be spilled into the life of the church, and the accountability of other people actually keeps us in line and keeps us going the way that we're supposed to go.

And so they're supposed to, he says, to the elders, not to the elder, singular, to the elders, operate in plurality so that there's a number of voices and people speaking into it.

They're supposed to care for the people under their care the way that Jesus would.

He's a shepherd, he's the chief shepherd.

They're supposed to love people like Jesus, not to get something, but to give something.

Elders are supposed to seek to serve, not to be served.

They're not supposed to try and be elders because it's like, well, I just need to feel important, and I'm important in the life of the church, and people need to honor me.

It's not that, it's not to be seen as important, but to make other people feel important.

It's supposed to be this role specifically, is supposed to be a space where people in the church are reminded when they encounter an elder, they're reminded of what God is like.

They experience what when when the elder guides them and gives them direction, they experience the wisdom that God has poured out among his people.

They experience the safety and protection that God has for them.

That's the way it's supposed to be with an elder.

Again, that's not my primary experience with elders, but that is the way it's supposed to go.

Robert Toon again in his book, Gospel Eldership, says this.

He says, Scripture sees elders not as mere figureheads in the church, but as competent, committed, mature leaders who teach.

These people rebuke, govern, guard sound doctrine, do evangelism, deal with difficult people.

Amen.

And raise up other leaders.

Elders are leaders whose lives and character are worthy of being imitated and reproduced in every Christian.

And so the way that it's supposed to function, go to the next slide here, is this is the image.

The way that it's supposed to function, it's not a hierarchy, and it never should have been a hierarchy.

But the way it's supposed to function is Jesus is the cornerstone.

So it clearly can't be a hierarchy because Jesus is at the bottom and at the top.

So Jesus is the cornerstone of the church.

He is also the head of the body, which is the church, and the elders are just the overseers over the church and the shepherds over that thing.

That's what they do, that's their role, and that's what they're supposed to do.

They oversee, the shepherd, the whole of the church, and not one specific ministry of the church, but the whole of the church.

They operate like that, caring for the bride of Christ under the headship of Jesus and on the foundation of Jesus, so that they always do it, or supposed to be, always doing it, the way that Jesus would have them do it, and the way that Jesus has cared for us.

The way that Jesus has loved us is the way that elders are supposed to love the church.

There are qualifications for being an elder, and we read those.

The reason there are qualifications is because in the same way that I wouldn't like, if I was leaving for town, I wouldn't just tell somebody, any rando at the store to go and check on Rainey.

I wouldn't be like, hey, could you go check on my wife?

Like I wouldn't do that.

I'd vet the person a little bit.

I'd have some uh qualifications for who can go and check on my wife.

Uh we even do that with our dog, which I don't even, I don't even actually, I shouldn't say that, okay.

Um but like you don't just you don't just give care over to anybody of the things that you love and care for.

Jesus died for the church, and so he has qualifications for who can lead over the church because he recognizes I love this so much, and I don't want just anybody leading over this thing.

And so I'm not gonna run through all these, uh, but here are a number of qualifications uh for being an elder and really a deacon.

But there are moral and spiritual characteristics in the bold there.

Uh there are um reputation uh characteristics.

One in particular is to be above reproach.

It's not that an elder never does anything wrong, but when they become an elder, there's nothing in their life that people are pointing to and going, hey, you know that's wrong, right?

And they're like, no, it's completely fine, don't worry about that.

It's not that like they're above reproach in that way.

And when there is something that they're dealing with and walking through where they mess up, miss make a mistake, walk into sin or something, they're quick to repent and do those things.

It's not that they're perfect, it's just that they are above reproach in the ways that they're supposed to live by the scriptures.

Well thought of by outsiders is important.

Uh non-Christians know this person is a Christian, which is important, uh, and then they have a compelling faith and a compelling life and a compelling following of Jesus, not a berated one where the non-Christians are like, yeah, we know they're a Christian and they're the worst employees we have.

Like, no, that's not good.

Um, family life is important to qualification, husband of one wife.

Uh we see this, and Rainey and I have studied this, and I'll talk about this more in just a little bit.

We see this, yes, uh, a one-woman man.

We also see this as a one-man woman.

Uh, we believe that what Paul is dealing with in Ephesus and in Crete with Titus is something specifically where he is referencing men need to serve in this particular area at this particular time.

We, I will get to this in a second, but we believe that women also can be elders functioning in those roles, that Paul was referencing something culturally that was happening in Ephesus.

Um qualifications, a lover of what is good.

This is one of the things that I think goes goes missing a lot.

A lover of what is good, not a pessimist, not someone that's like you get them in the boardroom and they're like, ugh, life is terrible and they are too.

Like you don't want, like, if you don't want to hang out with them in real time, you probably don't want them leading over the church.

Um, that's the personal, that's one of the personal ones.

Uh, relational, not quick-tempered, not quarrelsome, not arrogant, wanting the position like I'm important, you guys should bow to me because I'm an elder, not that.

As soon as that ever takes shape in an elder, you're no longer qualified to be an elder if you think it makes you better than somebody else.

Uh, gentle, upright, hospitable.

Um, and then the ability to teach.

This isn't necessarily like you're gifted at teaching, like people love it when you teach, not necessarily that.

Uh, but you can defend and give out sound doctrine.

When people walk up to you and say, I have a question about uh the scriptures, could you help me with this?

You don't quote from the Quran or something, you know, like you actually, which no offense to the Quran, uh, but you actually understand the scriptures and you're able to give biblical advice from sound doctrine, and people don't like, well, Jesus said if I ask anything in his name, I can have it.

So if I pray for a million dollars, will I have it?

The elder wouldn't be like, Absolutely, this is gonna be great.

Ask for me too, not that.

Ability to teach is give instruction with sound doctrine, rebuke those with false doctrine.

And again, rebuke is not to berate someone, but to guide them and to help them to drive out something that's actually hurting them.

Um, and again, these qualifications, as an elder and as a deacon serving in these particular spaces, it's not that they're perfect in these ways all the time.

It's that they have a desire to move into these spaces, they recognize that this is supposed to be the qualification set upon their life, and that they're seeking by God's Spirit within them to walk in these directions under these qualifications.

So the elders are meant to be a gift to the people inside the church.

Again, not our primary experience.

I've worked at seven churches, it is not our primary experience with elders.

But at the last church I was at, it actually was a pretty strong way of this.

The elders were a gift to me.

Um the last church I was at, I was there for almost seven years, and uh I had three different bosses in the midst of a seven-year stint.

And I remember talking to a friend of mine at a different church in Carterville, and uh he was like, Man, aren't you ever worried that like they're gonna hire a boss over you that like just fires you and wants somebody else to like come and be their pastor over this thing?

Aren't you worried that you'll get a new boss that just wants to kick you out?

And I thought about it, and I was like, no, I've never actually even thought about that.

I was like, because no pastor, no boss of mine has that type of authority, it would have to go to the elders first.

And the elders know me, they know my ministry.

It would it would take a real moral failure for them to fire me.

And even then, the way the elders have dealt with moral failures at this church in the past is to seek counsel and to give counseling and to give help so that a pastor can be restored and not just exiled off into a thing.

And I was like, no, that is not my experience at my church.

I am not worried.

I might get a bad boss, but I'm not worried that they will, my job's at stake because the elders will protect me, they will care for me, and they have done that.

Um, even this past week I called one of the elders of that church, and I was running this message by him and just going, like, hey, I just want to check some things.

I know that we I disagree on women elders and men elders, I know we we won't agree on that, but I just want to run some of this stuff by you, and he gave me wisdom and guidance, and it was so helpful.

And I received it as if like he is, he's he walks closely with Jesus, and so I can talk to him and ask him questions that are vulnerable and going, like, I just don't know.

Is this something that I should, you know, give me give me some advice, give me some uh best practices and even preaching some of these things?

And he was super, super helpful because he's still someone that like I receive from the Lord whatever he has for me as if the Lord is giving me guidance from other wise counsel.

The elders of that church prayed for Teddy when he was speech delayed and couldn't speak, and they prayed for him and they cried for him and they cried for me and with me when my brother-in-law passed away and walked with me, walked with me through that situation, and um like reached out to my sister who doesn't even live here, she lives in Georgia, and like the elders of that church were like just caring not only for the flock under their care, but like the people connected to those people.

And still to this day they'll ask, How's your sister?

I'm like, Man, it's been six years, and you're still asking how my sister's going since her husband passed away.

It's just crazy.

Like, I've I've experienced the goodness of this and the beauty of this.

Primarily, I've experienced the other side where people like just usurp authority and they want to be an elder so that they can make decisions so that the church isn't something they serve, but the church serves them.

Um that's been my primary experience, but I have seen it work really well.

And uh that's what I want for this church.

I want elders that are like, man, what a gift that man, that woman is to the life of the church, because they're people that when I need somebody and I can't get a hold of one of the pastors or one of this person or whatever, I can go to an elder and they have wisdom that I need God's advice on, and they are able to give that to me.

They're able to guide me and direct me, to care for me, to check in on me, and all those different things.

That's what an elder is supposed to be.

And there's supposed to be, again, a gift and a beauty that displays what Christ, when he wants something for our lives and wants something for the church, it's supposed to be the space where it's like, oh yeah, it makes sense that Jesus wanted that for the church because look how well it functions.

He is, I mean, he's just brilliant that he decided to display his power in the midst of other lay people in the life of the church that care for it.

It's supposed to testify to the goodness of Jesus in our lives.

So that's an elder.

Second, the deacon.

Deacon means servant.

Diakonos means servant.

Um, in the ancient Greek world, uh, to be called a deacon wasn't an honorable thing.

It meant that you were less important than others.

But Jesus like flipped it on its head, and he redefined it, and he was like, actually the greatest among you.

Like that's the way it is in the world.

Like the servants are the least.

He goes, actually, in my kingdom, the greatest among you will be the servant of the most, the servant of all.

And so Jesus flips it on his head, and then he even says about himself, I did not come to be deaconed, but I came to deacon.

Like even the Son of Man did not come to serve, but to or to be served, but to serve.

And the the same word is there, I did not come to be deaconed.

I want to deacon.

I want to serve.

And technically, inside the church, every Christian is called to be a deacon.

We're all called to serve.

But the title of deacon and that role of deacon is not just someone that serves in the life of the church, but someone who leads in service.

It's like they're just they're just made for it.

They saw a need and started meeting it and just kept meeting it and just they took that ownership of this thing and was like, this is mine.

I'm going to meet that need.

And then they're elevated to a position, not of like, you know, make, you know, put them on a pedestal, but they're elevated to a position of to look at for the other church people to look at and go, like, hey, this is what it looks like for Jesus.

The way that Jesus served the church is the way that that person is serving the church.

The deacon is supposed to be in a space and a marker of like, what's it, what did Jesus do?

How did he love us?

He loved by serving.

He did not come to be served, but to serve.

And that man, that woman, they display what Jesus is like, and you see it in their lives.

And so they lead in service and they can lead others in service.

For the deacons, the qualifications are effectively the same, which is important for us to see because it in many churches you can be like there's an elder and then there's a deacon.

Like there's the leaders of the church, and then like the servants of the church.

And it's not supposed to be that way.

It was never supposed to be a hierarchical thing.

The church is supposed to display the manifold wisdom of God, that there's zero hierarchy.

In the life of the church, in terms of the worldly way.

But there are people who lead, but they lead by serving, by stooping, the way that Jesus did.

Jesus was king of all kings and all the things, and he is those things, but he gave up his grandeur in order to become a slave and a servant to die, a slave's death on the cross.

Everything is supposed to display that.

And so the image here again to see it, there is no hierarchy.

The elders oversee the church under Christ's headship and on his foundation, and the deacons serve within the church.

It's not that there won't ever be crossover.

Deacons and elders will serve together.

Pastors and deacons will serve in different spaces.

It's not like the elders, sorry, I'm not an elder, I can't help set up chairs.

Like it's not that.

Like it's it's like deacons do those things, elders do those things, it's not those things.

It's just that there are two different roles in the life of the church.

And so again, it's not that elders are better, it's not that one's more important than the other, it's not one is more worthy of respect than the other.

And again, if an elder thinks I'm more important than a deacon, if that ever happens in the church, then they have automatically disqualified themselves to be an elder because it's not supposed to be seen that way.

There is no hierarchy in it.

The important thing to see is not one elder deacon here, but this is a role of an elder based on gifting and calling, and this is the role of a deacon based on gifting and calling.

They're two different calls and two different giftings, and they're needed.

Both of them are very, very important.

But again, the main difference in an elder and deacon is not who's over who, but what role they actually accomplish.

And so they have the same qualifications and standards, but go to the next slide here.

I think I have this.

Elders, their calling and their difference.

The calling is to preach and teach the scriptures.

That's one of the main differences between elders and deacons.

They all serve, but one of the things that the pastors do is uh calling to preach and teach and to lead and oversee and shepherd the whole of the church.

But the deacons serve in a specific practical way according to their gifting and needs in the church.

And so if they're gifted at hospitality, there will be a deacon over hospitality.

It's not that an elder will never take shape in that particular ministry, but like this is what you're gifted at, and you're gonna, and then our church needs to be hospitable, and so you're taking leadership in this thing.

And then you're gonna be to be a leader in serving so that others can follow you and you'll lead those specific ministries.

So again, it's very important, and I want to talk about the difference.

It's not one is better than the other over the other, okay?

It is this is a need in the church, and this is a need in the church.

One fills this one, one fills this one, and every now and then they cross over like this.

A deacon can become an elder, and an elder can stop being an elder and become a deacon, and so on and so forth.

So, how are we doing so far?

We okay?

Okay, okay, not great.

Okay.

Um in Acts 6, in Acts 6, you see this difference played out in a really, really healthy way.

But in Acts 6, uh this is what it says.

Paul, uh, Luke's writing, and he says, In those days when the number of disciples was increasing, the Hellenistic Jews among them complained about the Hebraic Jews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food.

So this is the problem.

Somebody's being overlooked in the church.

So the 12 who are the apostles and the early elders of the church, they got together and they said this, it would not be pleasing, arresto, which is important, I'll get to that in a second.

It would not be pleasing for us to neglect the ministry of the word of God in order to wait on tables.

So just stop there.

If you if I were to say that, like if somebody was, you know, if you were to hear that, it's easy to think like, hey, it's not right for us to like give up ministry of the word in prayer to like serve at the table, so somebody else needs to do that lesser work when you do it that way.

But it's not that.

That's not what they're referencing.

The word is pleasing.

It's not, it wouldn't be pleasing to God, and it wouldn't be pleasing to you guys if we stopped preaching.

And so y'all don't want that.

We don't want that either.

And the Lord hasn't called us to that.

He wants us to preach and teach and to pray.

And so there's something wrong here, and so here's what they offer.

So choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the spirit and wisdom.

Look at the high calling.

Don't just choose randos, full of the spirit and wisdom.

We will turn this responsibility over to them and we will give our attention to prayer and ministry of the word.

And notice it says this proposal pleased them.

It pleased the whole group.

They weren't like, oh, you think you're better than me?

Like you can't serve at tables, like you think that you can preach and I don't need to do this.

Like, no, they're thrilled with it.

They're like, that makes sense.

Now you get to fulfill your calling, and we get to fulfill our calling, and the church grows in terms of health because more leaders have been raised up, not fewer.

And so it goes on.

They chose Stephen and all the different people.

Uh, and then in verse 6, they presented these men to the apostles who prayed for them, laid hands on them.

And then notice in verse 7, it's this beautiful verse.

So the word of God spread.

And the word of God spread because they were doing this correctly.

No one in here is saying, I'm better than you.

It's just I'm different than you.

I have a different calling than you guys.

There are people in the church that have a different calling than other people, and that's perfectly fine and super necessary.

And we'll talk about this more next week.

Where Paul's like, hey, one the finger can't say to the foot, like, I don't need you.

You're the church is a body, you need all the parts.

Uh I lost my fingernail holding the door for Annie Gattaparthy.

Um I'll talk about this maybe a little next week, but I was holding the door for her and the door slammed on my finger, and I lost my mind because it hurts so bad.

And uh I lost my fingernail, and my body let me know.

When my it's just my fingernail, you would think that like what does the body care about the fingernail?

It cares a ton.

Okay?

It hurts so bad.

Rainey said, You you actually have turned green.

Like there's something wrong with your body, and I'm like, my fingernail?

Um and so, in the same way, like everybody part in the church is important, they just serve differing roles.

One is not better than the other, and one can't say to the other, well, you're doing this, but I'm doing this because I'm better.

It's not that.

It's not honor me more or do this.

It's just these are two differing roles, and that's what happens here.

And when that takes shape, when the when the space happens in the church where the people in the church go, look, I want to give my life and my time to these things that Jesus' bride needs.

So I want to care for his bride this way.

And then other people go, I want to give my time and my resources to something completely different, but still to the bride of Jesus.

I just want to serve her differently.

I want to serve her this way.

The word of God spreads because people are raised up and then more people are able to be cared for.

And so that's what's happening, and that's the difference.

It's not that elders are better, it's that they are or held in higher regard.

It's that they serve a very, very different purpose, and the church needs both.

They need leaders with different callings, functioning in different ways.

And so it's primary about focus on calling and gifting.

All right.

I'm almost done, I promise.

Are we doing you go?

I don't have like stories or anything like that.

Okay, sorry.

This is more like teaching, like just like I got that, anyways, I'm gonna move on.

Okay.

The church's response, just the like the members of the church, the lay people in the church, the ones that are just, I'm just here, I'm a part of the thing.

I love this church.

Uh, we love you too.

Uh church's response to elders and deacons, um, one is to trust and submit to their leadership.

Uh Hebrews 13, 17 says this, and it's a really good verse to use as like a self-aggrandizing thing, like, yeah, you guys should obey me.

Like, it's really, but it's not that.

He says, Have confidence in your leaders, submit to those in authority, submit to the ones in authority.

But notice why?

Because they, the overseers, the deacons and overseers, keep watch over you as one who must give an account.

And so the idea is an elder or deacon serving over anybody in the life of the church is gonna stand before Jesus one day and he's gonna say, What'd you do with my wife?

How'd you handle my bride?

Did you care for her?

Did you abuse her?

And what will the church say?

He will not hold accountable every single person in the life of the church if they do not serve in one of these roles.

But an elder will be standing before Jesus, and if he's asking questions to everybody, he's gonna ask you one more, and he's gonna ask me one more.

He's actually gonna ask me two more.

How did you oversee the church and how'd your preaching go?

Because I will be held more accountable on what I teach and what I preach.

And so, in the same way for an elder and for a deacon, anybody that leads and oversees in the life of the church, you will be held to a greater accountability.

And so the idea is the church can follow and submit to their leadership because healthily, elders and deacons are making decisions for the church, knowing I'm gonna be held accountable to this, so I gotta make sure that I'm doing this the way that Jesus would want me to do it, and I'm not just doing this to serve myself.

And so obey, submit, have confidence, trust them as they are seeking to lead, because they should be at their best, they should be leading in a way that they know I will be held accountable to Jesus on how I treat you, how I deal with this conversation, how I manage these things.

And so you're able to trust and submit to them if they lead in those particular ways.

The second is to honor them.

This is not put them on a pedestal, they're the best, never talk badly about, well, we shouldn't talk badly about people, but like never confront them over things.

It's not that, it's just honor them.

This is uh 1 Timothy 5, he says, the elders who direct the affairs of the church are worthy of double honor, especially those uh whose work is preaching and teaching.

Again, I'm not saying this to be like you guys need to honor me a little bit more.

I need more birthday cards and stuff.

Like, it's not that.

It's not those things.

Thanks.

That was funny to one person, thank you.

But it says, honor them.

They're worthy of double honor, especially those who do that do this.

Uh for the scripture says, do not muzzle an ox while it's treading out the grain, and the worker deserves its wages.

Again, it's not put pastors or elders on a pedestal.

It's not that.

It's just that they are taking on an honorable calling and a heavy and a weighty one.

And so anybody that chooses to do the hard work of overseeing the church and seeking to deal with difficult people, we don't want to deal with difficult people.

Who wants to be like, I'll take that one?

Like, actually, I kind of do want to do that.

Um, but like most people don't want to do that.

And so the people that sign up for that stuff, like sign up to do those things.

They know what they're doing, they know that they're gonna be held more accountable, and so honor the fact that they're taking on something a little more difficult and a little more, it's an honorable calling, honor that thing.

But in the same verse, so that's verses 17 and 18, Paul continues and says, Do not entertain that we should hold elders accountable.

Do not entertain accusations against an elder unless it's brought to you by two or three witnesses.

But then he says this in verse 20 but those elders who are sinning, you are to reprove before everyone.

Like, yikes, before everyone, so that the others may take warning.

I charge you in the sight of God and Christ Jesus and the elect angels to keep these instructions without partiality.

Don't show partiality.

Don't put elders on a pedestal.

Don't show partiality and be like, well, they're sinning, but they're an elder, so maybe what their sin is, is it's fine.

It's completely fine.

No.

The way a church is supposed to function well is that the elders, the people of the church need the elders, and the elders need the people of the church to hold them accountable as well.

And so we shouldn't gossip about them and be like, you see that elder doing that thing.

We shouldn't do that.

But there does need to be a space where an elder goes to, or excuse me, someone in the church holds accountable an elder when they see something out of step with following Jesus or the gospel, so that the church is able to have healthy elders who are not sinning.

And the idea is if you go to the church and that elder and you try and like they're sinning, everybody sees that, you know that too, and you're talking about it with them, like, hey, I want you, and the church does nothing about it.

The idea is find a different church because that church will be held under judgment because they refuse to remove someone from leadership that's doing something badly, and so find a different church.

Because it's such a big deal.

And the elders don't need to, there's no way they could care for the spiritual health of the church if they're unhealthy spiritually.

They can't do it.

And so the idea would be that the church would not only honor them but also hold them accountable.

It's a joyful position, but it is a sobering position.

You will be held far more accountable, and you will be held accountable by the people.

They're gonna look to you to be a marker of what it means to follow Jesus.

And so, with those things, you're supposed to do those things to honor them and to hold them accountable.

And then lastly, the church is supposed to utilize the elders.

Just they're meant to be this space for you where you can encounter what God is like and to get his wisdom and direction and discernment, to have them pray for you and to care for you and to shepherd you and all those different things, to teach you and to preach to you and help you understand hard biblical truths.

There's all these spaces in Acts 11, 15, 21, 1 Timothy, and James 5.

It's like they get special agency in prayer to like pray for you that so that you receive healing.

There's just things about elders that God has ordained for them, which is why it's an honorable calling.

There's things for them, it's like, hey, make sure you utilize those people.

Don't just like don't the church was never supposed to be all be built on one person.

I don't have the end-all, be all truth on anything.

The elders are supposed to share those things together so that the church actually has multiple people they can go to and look to.

So those are the things.

Make your needs known and utilize those things so the elders can do it.

And if the elders are not doing it, um, then it's something to hold them accountable to.

But that's the way the church should function in those particular ways.

Last thing, and I'm done.

For us as a church, over the next few months, um, we will be moving in the direction of appointing elders the way that Paul does and tells Timothy and Titus to do to appoint elders.

We currently function as a uh a church leadership.

We don't function as formal elders.

And they're wonderful, and it's functioned great, and they hired me, and I'm very thankful that they did.

Um, but we don't currently function as appointed uh elders in the life of the church in a formal way.

I'll talk to Larry about this yesterday.

And uh he was saying, yeah, we didn't do it that way, we didn't call them uh elders or appoint them in that particular way.

We just decided to like make them a leadership team so that we could have this because we needed something, but we didn't do formal elders, and we never got around to doing that.

And so for us, uh, we want to move in that direction.

We want to uh appoint formal elders in the life of our church.

Now, um, I believe, uh, and I've said this earlier, we have a conviction that men and women can serve as elders, pastors, overseers, and deacons in the life of the church.

That is not a popularly held view in the South, um, but I have a conviction for that, that I have read a bunch of books and a ton of articles and done a bunch of research, and I would love to share any and all of that with you if you have questions about that or anything like that.

I believe it's biblically faithful, not biblically unfaithful.

I think it's true to the text that leaders can be both men and women, and that some men should not be leaders according to the qualifications, and some women should not be leaders according to the qualifications that Paul outlines for those things.

And so I believe that, again, I'd love to share those things with you.

I said last time that if you want to go out to lunch and talk about it, I can buy you a really nice steak or something like that.

Nobody took me up on that.

So if you have, I mean, if you have questions about this, I'd love to talk about those things.

I don't mind buying you a steak in general, but um, but I'd love to talk about those things.

So that's for us.

We believe that elders can be men and women, and we believe not only that they can be, but that they should be.

The church, in the same way a family functions the healthiest way, when a mother parents and a father parents, they do the same thing, they just do it differently.

And that my son needs the way that my wife parents, and my son needs the way that I parent.

The church needs the way that uh a woman would lead, and the church needs the way that a man would lead in the life of the church so that it's healthy.

Again, we can talk about that more if you need to.

Um, the reason we're seeking to do this and to add more leaders in the life of the church, two reasons.

One, next slide here, is that the scriptures clearly testify to the fact that one person cannot lead, Shepherd, and care and serve for all the needs in the church.

One person was never meant to do all that.

The apostle Paul would have been the only person that I would have thought he could probably do it.

And even he started appointing elders immediately in all the places he went.

He and Barnabas were like, let's get some other people in this thing.

If this thing's gonna scale, if we're gonna actually reach the nations, we need more people who are like us and similar to us, filled with the Spirit, love Jesus, and want to care for these people because there's no way that one person, even me, the Apostle Paul, there's no way that I can do this by myself.

There's no way the 12 apostles could do this by themselves.

They immediately started selecting and appointing elders in the life of the church.

Greg Sharf, again, one of my professors, said he says, every church needs qualified elders.

They are a joy to a pastor.

They should be, a joy to a pastor, sharing the load of leadership and the privileges of shepherding.

They're a gift to a congregation, guarding the flock and extending themselves in love.

And again, they are God's plan for his church.

It's not a made-up thing and it's not a pastor or trying to just, I'm just like, I don't just relinquishing leadership.

It's not that.

I actually see this as a space of like, if the church is going to be healthy, if your needs are going to be met in this church and I want them to, one person cannot take all that on and cannot do that.

Jesus set that up and knew that.

And so even he was like, it's better that I leave so that the Spirit would empower all of you who come to belief in me, so that people can experience what I'm like through your personality and through your giftings and through those things.

And so that's what we're seeking to do here.

We want to add more leaders into the life of our church.

And so over the next few months, we're moving towards elders.

We're selecting deacons to serve in the life of our church.

We have a number of deacons doing that already.

Barbara Howell, who is a longtime friend of mine and let me live at her house years and years ago for like 50 bucks a month because she's just kind and prays for me and has prayed for me.

She is a deacon over prayer, and we have a long history of prayer together.

Uh my wife serves as a deacon over women's ministry.

Um Patty Danner, sorry, I didn't write these down.

Patty Danner is uh took just recently took over the deacon over pastoral care.

And so anything in the life of the church where there's that just needs just pastoral care, she she took that over and is serving in that capacity.

And even this past week, uh, when Mike Kyle passed away, just took that on.

It's just something that she was already doing, which is how it normally shakes out.

She was already leading and serving in this way.

And so giving the position just made sense.

Like you, we can as someone we can elevate and go, look, this is what it looks like to see Jesus serve the church.

Uh, we have those things.

And so we uh they're on our website, but we're gonna be adding into those spaces, trying to add more leaders so that the church is better cared for uh consistently.

Not that it hasn't been cared for in the past, and I wanted to make that very clear.

It's just that moving forward, we have new families and new faces and new people coming in, and I want the people here to step in and never get to a space like they did in Acts 6 where it's like, hey man, I'm being overlooked.

I don't want that to happen.

And where that is happening, we want to place people in positions so that the church can be cared for.

The last thing why we want to add more leaders is because of the stats.

Um, here's some stats.

80% of pastors believe pastoral ministry has negatively affected their families.

This is, I'm just looking at I think like hundreds of thousands of pastors.

80% believe that pastors um that pastoral ministry has affected their families negatively.

Many pastors' children do not attend church now because of what the church has done to their parents.

24% of pastors' families resent the church and its effect on their family.

And then one out of every 10 pastors will actually retire as a pastor due to burnout or moral failure.

Those are the stats.

That's not my experience, but the stats aren't looking good for me long term.

Like, if those are the stats, um, and I we Rainey and I know these stats, and we have many people in our lives, I think we could actually almost to a person say this is exactly true of them.

They would absolutely say that's not our experience.

I don't want it to be my experience.

We need more leaders in the life of the church because the weight of church ministry and those things is heavy.

And it's not that like I don't want to do it, it's just like there's no way I can do it all.

And if I try and do it all, I will burn out, and then I'm not helping anybody.

And if I try and help a hundred people by doing those things and then burn out, then like those hundred people, who's gonna help them in the future?

And so I love leadership.

I love establishing leaders and building in and developing those things.

I want to do that in the life of the church so that it's healthy.

And more than anything, I want my son to love the church.

Like I need him to love Jesus.

I need him to like, I want him to grow up in this church and experience you people and other leaders in the church loving him and caring for him and him never to come home and go, oh, I hate that place and I wish that you didn't work there.

Like I need him to love it here because I love it here and I love Jesus.

And if he ever wound up in a space where it's like, I just, I'm disregarding God because the way that God took my father away from me, that can't happen.

And it, I just, I just, oh, I just don't want that.

I want him to love it here, and I want him to love you people.

And y'all can speak into his life.

One, things that he's not gonna listen to me say to him, but y'all can speak into his life and develop him in a healthy way where there's all of a sudden there's not two people pouring into this person, but there's 150 people pouring into this little person who's gonna learn to love Jesus in a very different way because the way that I do and the way that you do is just different.

And what a gift of what that is.

And so I want that for him, and I want that for everybody in the life of the church.

And I definitely, definitely, I love what I do, and I do not want to burn out.

Randy and I, when we were talking about taking this church, we talked about the idea of doing it the way that her dad did, which was just wait till the kids graduate.

Like just wait till Teddy graduates and then start your lead pastoring because we know the weight of it and the difficulty of it and the demand on it.

Um, and Larry was able to do that, and that's just not my calling.

And I'm thankful, I'm thrilled to be here.

But I want to raise up other leaders so that the church can be served well and so that we have the longevity to go the distance with the church and not burn out or flame out due to sexual immorality or all these other things that pastors and leaders are failing into, and all those different things.

And I'm not shaming them or judging them, I just don't want that to be the experience.

And normally when you're under a ton of pressure, you make bad decisions.

And I don't want that to be the space for us or for my wife or for my son.

And so that may have been very too vulnerable for you.

You're like brand new and have no idea.

Um, but for me, I'm like, y'all are my family.

This is this is who we are, and this is what I actually believe.

And so I want to do this together, and I want to do this long term.

Um so let me pray.

Lord Jesus, uh, thank you that you um built into the life of the church this structure, that you have this beautiful, beautiful bride uh called the church.

That you say that your words evoke her beauty, uh, that you have purified her.

Um, and that's what you long to do in the life of the church, in the way that you want the church cared for by men and women who are just seeking to serve the way that you did, to give their lives away the way that you did, to sacrifice the way that you did, so that the people in the church can experience real, ongoing life and experience what you're actually like.

And so, Father, I pray uh that as we endeavor to do this, as we seek to follow you in this, I pray that you would bless our church with leaders who serve like you do, who love like you do, and uh are willing to um step into spaces uh that our church needs so that the people in our church can experience the fullness of how good you are, how kind you are, how caring you are, that you see them and that you know them.

I pray that in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Um we're gonna take communion.

Uh each week we take communion by reciting a liturgy.

And so what I want us to do together is, and we changed this up last week when we talked about communion, but I want us to come and take the elements, come gather communion elements and make your way back to your seat.

And communion is supposed to be taken together.

Um it's not wrong if you do it the other way.

I just like communion together.

And so come and receive the elements of communion, make your way back to your chair.

We will partake together by reading a liturgy, um, and then we're gonna respond just with singing and prayer.

And so um if you helped set up communion, please come and serve in this way.

Rainy and me right here.

Um but as you feel ready, uh please come and uh gather the elements for communion.