(A Study in New Testament Leadership from the Old Testament prophet, Haggai)

Workshop, 1996 Eastern Christian Convention, Hershey, PA

Premise: Local godly elders are a vital link between the intent of God's Word (perfect love for God and selfless love for others) and the local culture.

As program director for this convention, I conducted a little survey to pursue possible workshop topics. A person on staff at one of our Bible Colleges recommended a workshop that addresses: "What Do Elders Actually Do? If anybody could answer that question, it had to be somebody from a Bible College. I called him, but he had not asked as a Bible College instructor dying to share something. He had asked as a good-hearted local church elder longing to gain something.

The question has always intrigued me, for this is hardly the first time the question has ever been posed. Good elders ask. Terrible elders ask. Prospective elders ask. Troublemakers with no intent of ever serving on the front line invariably ask, "Hey, what do those elders actually do?" I have always believed strongly in the essential character of elders to a New Testament church, so I asked Shelly if it would be inappropriate for me to take a stab at this. He affirmed me. Here we are. I asked one of my elders to introduce me, because I want to be accountable to them for what I teach, and I don't want to say anything to you that I wouldn't say to them.

What compels us to ask, "What Do Elders Actually Do?"

First, we ask because the Bible is not very specific. It speaks of qualifications that describe an elder's character. But, in many instances, Christians differ in the specific conclusions they draw from those qualifications. On the few occasions when the Bible speaks to an elder's function, it uses almost frustratingly vague terms - Keep watch! Be shepherds! Guard the flock! Be overseers!

Sometimes, men ask the question because they are steeped in a typically American, success-oriented culture. We are accustomed to looking for the "key to success" for any project in which we are involved. As products of our environment, we are utilitarian and pragmatic by nature. "Just give me a list and let me know what's expected." If you are looking for that elusive job description, I plead guilty already to the biggest cop-out in the history of convention workshops.

I hope you have asked, "What Do Elders Actually Do?" only because you love the Lord's church, and want to see the mission of our Lord carried forth without encumbrances. If you asked in that spirit, I hope you will at least walk away believing that common sense and a heart for Christ's church was affirmed whether or not your intellect was particularly enlightened.

For several weeks, I jotted down thoughts on scraps of paper, old envelopes, whatever - and dropped them in a file folder, never sure how I would organize them. When my program chairman responsibilities were fulfilled, I would zero-in on shaping my own workshop. I found myself drawn to a small book in the Bible where I have been before on other occasions for other projects. I preached a four-part stewardship series on the book one year. I preached on ministry one day for a chapel service at Lincoln Christian College-East Coast a couple of years ago.

Haggai is an obscure jewel in the Old Testament. We know very little about the man, Haggai, but we do know the exact days and years on which he delivered his four prophetic oracles. Three of these oracles were addressed to the leaders of a community first before they were forwarded to the community as a whole. The fourth is a word of encouragement and a promise of blessing to a leader himself, provided his leadership of God's people proved faithful.

The inhabitants of Jerusalem had been carried away into captivity in the days of Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. This was God's discipline upon their idolatry and disobedience. The Babylonian Empire eventually gave way to the Medo-Persian empire. A Persian king, Cyrus, decreed that the Jews return to Jerusalem to rebuild their city and their temple. This was about 538 BC. A foundation for the temple was laid and dedicated, but the work abruptly stopped, and the Jews never resumed the project. The foundation would just sit there for the next eighteen years.

This posed a unique problem for the Jewish people. The temple was no mere church building. Because of the presence of the Holy of Holies, where in the past God's shekinah glory had descended into the presence of their high priest, the temple represented the centrality of God among His people. In the days of the wilderness, the tabernacle housed the Holy of Holies. When that tent of meeting was erected, it was always placed in the physical center of the nation's encampment. Four tribes each set up camp to the north, south, east and west of the tabernacle.

Under Moses, God had promised to bless His nation in measurable ways if they remained loyal to Him. Captivity had broken them of idol worship, but that alone did not secure the centrality of God among His people. They turned their attention to building their own houses and planting their own fields. When Haggai appeared on the scene, the agricultural, social and financial blessings God had promised in His covenant back at Sinai had eluded them.

There is a sense in which the chief practical responsibility of those who lead God's people has always been to insure that God is first and to keep selfish tendencies in check. Jesus taught that the greatest command was to love God with heart, soul, mind and strength. The second command is to love others as we love ourselves. Everything else modern elders or ancient governors need to know emerges from one’s love of God and one’s selfless love for others.

Elders, if the most important thing in your life is to keep God supreme before your people and to address selfishness wherever it exists, then, the practical "do"s and "don't"s of eldership can emerge from that. How difficult will it be to at least shape a premise for keeping a church on target as a community that draws unbelievers to the cross? How hard can it be to at least shape the argument that unity and purity must be guarded in your local fellowship at all costs?

God had promised His people material blessings. This national indifference toward the temple reflected an indifference toward God in all areas. God was not reluctant to tell His covenant people why life for them was marked by such blight. They had broken the contract. But, He had nothing to say to the people as a whole until He first seized the attention of the men in charge.

Zerubbabel was the governor. Joshua was the high priest. To these two men Haggai first said, "Is it a time for you yourselves to be living in your panelled houses, while this house remains a ruin?" ... "Give careful thought to your ways." I don't know who God held liable for the work stoppage eighteen years earlier. However, I can clearly see that the centrality of God was not urgent to the men in charge at this point. If Zerubbabel and Joshua had become comfortable ignoring the urgency of God's place in His people's lives, we can know that a movement to finish the temple would never have generated spontaneously among the general population.

1) Measure yourselves according to the biblical qualifications of the office. Much lively debate has revolved around the biblical qualification of elders recorded in I Timothy 3:1-7 and Titus 1:5-9. What they mean generally is quite simple. To what degree these traits are applied to elders is not. How "above reproach" must a man be and how far back into his past do we delve? How "hospitable?" How "able to teach?" Does "husband of one wife" disqualify a divorced man? Does "husband of one wife" and "whose children believe" imply that single, childless men cannot be elders? For how many years is a man a "recent convert?"

I grew up in the movement and have seen church leaderships nervously redefine positions they used to hold rigidly. When Paul wrote to Titus and Timothy about the qualifications of elders, those two men may have known exactly where the Apostle drew the lines. Or, Paul may have trusted Timothy and Titus to judge such matters. He certainly must have expected the elders and the elder candidates in question to examine themselves according to these character traits.

2) Prayerfully fine-tune the bar for your body of elders and for your community, or the "boys in the 'hood" will - that is, the brotherhood. There is always a church down the road ready to judge your church for having a divorced elder. I received a letter scolding me that one of my elders was too much a "recent convert." He's been a Christian for ten years.

I interpret most of these issues as flexibly as the texts allow. I'm more rigid than the norm on a couple. Honesty compels me to admit that my judgments are absolutely weighted by my experiences in churches I have served. Having said that, I don't bat an eye when leaders in other churches disagree with me. Local leaders should understand the sensitivities of their local flock and communities better than I do. A divorce in a man's past, no matter how servant-hearted the man, might do violence to your church that it would not do in mine. That's your call, not mine.

Several of our men attended the Leadership Conference at Southeast Christian Church in Louisville, Kentucky. Ernie reported to me that at one session on eldership, it was stated that the Southeast elders have adopted a policy for themselves of complete abstinence from alcohol. When someone asked if the same standard applied to tobacco, the response was: "Hey, this IS Kentucky." My initial reaction is to jump all over the stupidity, inconsistency, and apparent hypocrisy of such a policy. My more guarded reaction is to accept the possibility that the elders of that obviously great church understand the sensitivities of Louisville, Kentucky better than I do.

Any attention at all to the qualifications of elders would save many churches a ton of grief. But, Paul gives us little to etch in stone. Rather than to be nervous about possibly "lowering standards" when fine-tuning Paul's qualifications for elders, bodies of elders need to accept the responsibility for prayerfully making such unavoidable judgments. You are God's link to His flock. If you don't deliver His word to them on such matters, someone will - either the preacher of the moment (How many times have we seen this?) or the church down the road.

I suspect Zerubbabel and Joshua blushed as they sat in their elegant dens enjoying their big screen TV's with surround sound. They saw the agricultural blight on the land. They knew that if they had not guarded the place of God in their own hearts, the people wouldn't even know how to do so. God moved their hearts, and in only 23 days, the entire community was activated to pick up where they had left off eighteen years earlier. But, renewal started in the governor's mansion.

People in their late seventies and up may have remembered Solomon's temple before it was destroyed by the Babylonian invaders. The gold alone in the Holy of Holies was valued at more than 20 million modern dollars. But, Babylon carried away all those goodies. Anyone who remembered the old temple could now see that this new one taking shape was pretty meager by comparison. A few years earlier, when the foundation of this temple was laid, a dedication service took place. Ezra cites details, some of which are rather pathetic:

Good grief! The people's renewed zeal to build God's house was instantly threatened by negative comparisons to the "good old days." The comparisons were actually a bit ridiculous. When Solomon built his temple, Israel was a world empire. The king himself was world-renowned for his wealth. Now, they were a newly released people from a foreign captivity. They had no wealth. They had no power in the region. Wailing over the comparisons was shameful.

1) Keep everyone's efforts focused on the "here and now." This is one of the most practical contributions that any group of elders can make to Christ's body. Our church recently celebrated its ninetieth anniversary. It was certainly worth celebrating. But, as it might anywhere, nostalgia fueled a little backwards thinking by a few. It was no big issue, because most people realize that today's challenges cannot be addressed with yesterday's methods.

In fact, the past may not even be the most dangerous threat to ministry in the "here and now". Sometimes, it's the future. When I hear faddish rhetoric about vision, I insist on knowing exactly what a man is talking about. If it's a high-powered term for a group goal, I want to know. Goals are valuable, but human goals by any other name are still human goals. Proverbs 29:18 says in the King James Version, "Where there no vision, the people perish." Thiis may be the only verse in the Bible we have to keep in four century-old English, for if we use modern English, the verse looses it usefulness to the major projects we dream up. In the Bible, vision means revelation from God. If a leader is claiming divine revelation from God, that’s something I’d really like to know.

Because we are so success-oriented as a culture, the greatest danger to our local ministries may be what other places do. A convention like this can be one of the greatest contributions available to your church. Or, it can be one of the biggest pains in the neck. Which it turns out to be probably hinges on how you as a local body of elders process specific ideas for your church.

2) Process every brainstorm against what you know about your flock and your community. A few years ago, when I was in the southwest, the Richland Hills Church of Christ in Fort Worth was a medium sized church of a few hundred. God gave a prayerful eldership there something they dubbed the "Ministry System." It was simply a biblically sound means of organizing believers for the work of the church. Richland Hills has grown remarkably through the years with the help of a program into which I have no reason to doubt God led them.

News of the success spread rapidly. The Ministry System was printed and packaged. Richland Hills' elders were suddenly in demand to lead Ministry System Seminars. Churches all over the southwest pursued the Richland Hills Model. Some churches were able to do more efficiently what they had already been doing. Some enjoyed significant growth. Some fellowships nearly killed one another trying to get things off the ground. There was never another Richland Hills. Many churches possessed somebody's proven good idea, but they seemed to lack empowerment.

We benefit from every piece of data we can get. But, elders must realize that there are few real answers for their local body to be found in some pre-packaged "Kingdom Kit." Elders can and should open-mindedly scrutinize everything, but they are obligated to swallow nothing. Never abdicate your thinking in pursuit of the latest method. Take with similar caution phrases like:

"We've never done it like that ..."

"I was at a church that did this ..."

"Barna says ..."

"The Willow Creek model says ..."

"My home church does ..."

"The experts say ..."

There are things to be learned anywhere, but there will never be a substitute in any local church for a body of elders that will ask God for His own creativity for the work that He wants to do in that place. The Lord assured Joshua and Zerubbabel, "I am with you. Stay at the work I have given you." God had bigger and better plans for this humble new temple than He ever had for the one Solomon built. He reminded them that He owns all the money. No matter who carried what off to Babylon or anywhere else, God still has plenty of cash when He needs to shake it lose. The glory of this new temple would surpass that of the old. In this temple, the "desired of all nations," the Savior, would teach and God's people would know His peace (verses 7,9).

Modern elders taste the best of God's peace and glory when they focus on the work that He has already revealed rather than try to "capture a vision" - whatever that means. In fact, God has already revealed something that He Himself has connected to the success and growth of any church than any program ever contrived in the mind of man ...

Two months into the work, the temple project was underway to the point that Haggai no longer issued challenges. Instead, he asked the leaders to research a couple of technical legal questions:

The Law stated that consecrated food rendered whatever it touched holy. The fold of a garment was a simple pocket fashioned out of a man's belt and the excess fabric of his outer garment. Consecrated food rendered a fold holy, but the fold could not render other food holy. The primary holiness of consecrated food had a power to impute a secondary holiness to other things. But, those other things had no power to further impute holiness. On the other hand, there was no primary or secondary defilement. A man who touched a dead body was unclean. Anything he touched was unclean. Whatever he touched would render whatever it touched unclean.

The lesson is simpler than the rhetoric. Holiness is not contagious. Uncleanness spreads like wildfire. If I have a contagious disease, people avoid me to keep from catching it. I could argue that my well friends should hang around me so that I might catch their "wellness," but it doesn't work that way. The same is true with holiness and defilement. I don't have to do a thing to be defiled, just be exposed. I have to be made holy, and holiness, like health, must be protected.

1) Acknowledge and act upon what the Bible says about holiness and unholiness. We all want our churches to grow. The Bible says more about the holiness of a people and how that holiness relates to making the church larger than it does about any "vision-caster's" vision? Peter wrote: "Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us" (I Peter 2:12).

In some churches, the ongoing quest for the latest idea is often just a means of circumventing vastly more important issues that in reality can never be bypassed. Is there sin in the camp? Is there danger? This is where elders can specifically know that they have been called into action. We are familiar with Paul's farewell visit with the Ephesians elders:

2) Be shepherds. Here, you must divorce yourself from all the "shepherding programs" you have seen rise and fall and ask yourselves intelligent questions about this metaphor that links you as an elder to the ancient shepherd. What did ancient shepherds do? They fed flocks with a view to sustaining them on the journey. They did not gorge them. They tended sick sheep with a view to making them stronger. They did not tend them in such a way that they actually became fatter and more helpless. They carried crippled sheep. They did not carry healthy ones.

Evaluate what your church does in the name of "shepherding." What things produce stronger believers? What things feed pathologies, locking people in their weaknesses? It is in this nebulous area of "shepherding" that good men beat themselves up with guilt, do the most damage to their own families because of time restraints, and rob God of fanning their real gifts into a flame. In the meantime, they might not even be doing the good they think they are doing. Shepherds must love and nurture, but they must also define to the sheep how growth is measured.

To what end do you shepherd? Our elders sent a letter to the congregation addressing their concerns over involvement, finances and enthusiasm about the work of the church: The following sentence on the objective behind "shepherding" is worth sharing with you: "... we believe that to accomplish our primary mission of seeking lost souls and telling them about Jesus and what He can do for them, then we must also 'shepherd the flock' of Christians, the Body of Christ, in a manner that will instill in them a fervent desire to reach out to those who are lost." They have to figure out how to do that, but, in the meantime, the objective has been well stated.

3) Step to the forefront when wolves come near. I am convinced on biblical grounds that the greatest need facing our churches today is not new ideas, but a renewed passion to be a holy people to God. Paul makes it clear that those who undermine the unity, the truthfulness and the direction of the kingdom exist outside and inside of your church.

The Israelites defeated the seemingly impregnable city of Jericho by trusting God. Then, they couldn't even take Ai, a wide spot in the road by comparison. Why not? Achan had disobeyed God regarding the plunder of Jericho. The whole community suffered due to sin in the camp. Sometimes, we act like we believe that if we address enough methods, it won't matter if we ignore sin in the camp. Have you ever wondered if the cause behind the elusiveness of God's blessing is as simple as that? A loving Father may be selective about where He births His babies.

In the subsequent verses, Haggai made it clear that unholiness was the reason that everything God's people had previously placed their hands to had culminated in futility. But, from the point that the community would come understood this, following the lead of Zerubbabel and Joshua, then, through Haggai, the Lord assured them, "From this day on I will bless you" (Haggai 2:19).

Later, on the same day as that strange oracle about holiness, Haggai came to Zerubbabel again:

A signet was a ring, the cameo of which left an official's mark in the clay seal of official documents and decrees. The mark was unmistakably identified with the possessor of the signet ring. Daniel was condemned to a lion's den by the official seal of King Darius. Jezebel used the signet of her husband, King Ahab, to decree the murder of Naboth. No underlings dared to question those awful decrees. What a metaphor for Zerubbabel to hear! Posterity would never question that his legacy was to be identified with the decrees of God Himself.

A signet ring was a king's prized possession. It was always visible. This ring on my hand is older than me. It belonged to my father. The stone fell out once. I was sick until I found it. When we bought a house, I put it in my wife's jewelry box for safe-keeping through the move. Sunday came before we had unpacked the jewelry box. One lady in our church noticed that it was missing as I was up there waving my hands around from the pulpit. She feared for me that I had lost it. She didn't notice my missing wedding band, but she noticed this big cameo. At some point, she had come to identify this ring as a part of me. Imagine what these words meant to Zerubbabel? "You are precious to me. You are a prized symbol of my own leadership."

1) Give more attention to the simple Biblical truths of leadership than to the fleeting rhetoric of the age. I do not mean to dismiss methodologies and crack research. I do mean to put them in perspective. They are not the most important element of your leadership.

2) Uphold the body of Christ. The church is Christ's vessel through which He does His work on earth. When you think about it, it is our dignity to be called His body.

a) ... modeling the body in miniature. Elders can model the body in terms of function. Do your body of elders work according to unique giftedness so as to complement the group, or does everyone share an identical job description? Paul acknowledged that there were elders who preached and taught implying that others did not. Elders should function as the body in miniature in terms of love. As the world recognizes the church to be disciples of Jesus by their mutual love, so, when the body looks to its elders, there should be no doubt about their mutual love for one another. Are you and your fellow-elders friends? There is no more practical thing for you to do than to figure out how to manifest your friendship for one another to your flock.

b) ... assess the body. Don't lock your church into someone's "vision" by trying to do specific things with inadequate giftedness. Always pray for more workers, but in the meantime, assess the talent in the body and stick to what you can do with excellence.

c) ... oversee the body. A shepherd guards a flock. He doesn't police individuals. Not all sheep require equal attention. Picture yourselves overseeing a pasture from a perch where you can see danger and where you can step in to help the stray. You are guardians of people, but also of the cause of Christ. If that doesn't make you the official strategic planners of the group, it certainly renders you the responsible parties.

d) ... let go of the control of the body, but fill the gaps. Every time the bible calls the church "a body," it does so in the context of describing how people serve God. For a person to be a part of the body metaphor, that person needs a job. As the Apostles in Jerusalem saw the need to give themselves to the ministry of the Word of God and prayer rather than to administer food distribution, so the modern elder should look for ways to release as many "nuts and bolts" of ministry to people as is possible. Still, be practical enough to know that some things are too important to let them fall apart.

There is no "cut and dried" job description for elders. To offer my "one size fits all" list of elder duties would prove me audacious, it would undermine much of what I have said and it would do your churches more harm than good if you swallowed it. I only challenge you according to what you probably already knew when you walked in here. How do you devise and work a plan? How do you set the bar for nonspecific behavioral standards? How do you protect holiness in the flock? What does it mean to "shepherd" at your church. You have to go home and pray those things through to conclusions.

Does this seem too cliché? It falls short of a job description. Perhaps, most pressingly, you need to realize the dignity of the role into which the Holy Spirit has called you. With guarded motives that look only to the kingdom, by the power of prayer and within the boundaries of God's word, you may just need to learn to trust sanctified judgment and common sense - your own and that of your fellow-elders. Is a drought of ideas really the crisis, or is it the lack of security to just act upon the awesome reality that the Holy Spirit has placed the care of Christ's own blood-bought bride in human hands? Holy fear is good. A holy image of your role is good as well.

Be encouraged by this. It is not by default that local elders are responsible for hammering out all those tough issues for which we tend to look to conventions and seminars. It is, in fact, the genius of God manifested. Who else can more effectively lead a particular church than mature men who know and love God and who, at the same time, know and love that particular local flock?