A congregation typically will not grow without leaders who are growing in spirituality and cultural awareness in their own lives.
Why? Because the societal and spiritual challenges/opportunities presented to the congregation change over the years. If leaders are not adaptive in method and context, it will matter little if they’re rock solid doctrinally.
Imagine being a high school business education teacher who believes in the importance of workplace integrity and a willingness to study diligently, yet stubbornly maintains that typewriters are more efficient than personal computers linked to printers.
You’d be an unemployed teacher who isn’t preparing students for success and for finding a job.
Yes, the teaching doctrine of integrity and hard work is good. But the contextual irrelevance is not.
Church leaders today are faced with rapidly changing landscapes in how to “do church.” Tie or no tie? Pews or chairs? Choir or praise team? Slacks or jeans? Youth church? Or keep grades 4-6 in the worship service? Women in non-preaching worship leadership roles? Or only as musicians or singers?
The list of methodology questions could go on and on, of course, and not cross into any violation of biblical doctrine. Church leaders should be looking at how to increase the relevance of congregational worship and volunteer ministries in ways that don’t confict with biblical doctrine.
Though methodology should be flexible, the doctrine for leadership conduct should not.
In fact, I believe that a congregation will be more confident about leadership’s changing ministry methodology if the members are confident about the leadership’s behavioral theology.
Here are the expectations for how an elder is to conduct himself. When I see elders who live the way described below — something to which I also aspire — I am more confident that my congregation will make progress toward God’s vision for the church, even as we consider different methodological routes.
“Whoever aspires to be an overseer desires a 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 his own family, how can he take care of 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.” (I Timothy 3:1-7)
I counted 15 characteristics for assessing if an elder is being faithful in his behavior theology, none of which deal with specific doctrinal theologies.
Listen, if the men we’ve selected as elders for our congregations are biblically solid in how they heed the expectations above, then we can have greater confidence that they’ll be biblically solid in how they embrace new ways of worship and ministry for conveying the never-changing truths of the Bible.
Pray for your elders to become more like the above so that their greater firmness in faith can allow your congregation to embrace a greater flexibility in “doing” church.
As always, I love you
Martin
