Any significant change in a local church should come after careful study of the scriptures and thoughtful, prayerful dialogue. Transitioning to biblical eldership is no small change, so naturally, people will have questions.

Yesterday, I explained what biblical eldership is and what it would look like in our church. Here are the next two questions I addressed at last Sunday\’s congregational business meeting…

Q. What authority will the congregation have? A. All authority rests in Jesus Christ, who is alone the Chief Shepherd and Architect of the church. He has delegated some of this authority to elders in the church, who will be held accountable to God for the choices they make (Rom. 13:1; 1 Tim. 2:12; Titus 2:15; 1 Pet. 5:2). However, the Bible also indicates the whole congregation has some level of authority with a system of “checks and balances.”

It is the church membership (not just leadership) who do the “work of the ministry” (Eph. 4:12). The congregation will be responsible for testing and approving new elders and deacons, reaffirming lay elders on an annual basis, exercising spiritual gifts, guarding the truth, pursuing holiness, approving new church members, administering church discipline, approving an annual budget, approving staff changes, approving the purchase and sale of property, etc. We will still have quarterly congregational business meetings for these kinds of business and will strive for respect, good communication, and transparency between elders, ministry leaders, and congregation.

Q. What will my relationship be with the elders? A. We hope you will not merely follow these men out of duty, but will grow to love, trust, respect, and genuinely admire them as your under-shepherds. Your responsibility will be to pray for, listen to, seek counsel, follow the example, and submit to their God-given authority. They deserve the same level of respect as Jesus Himself, for they are His chosen instruments and spokesmen. Hebrews 13:17 is especially helpful, which says to “obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you.”

On matters of preference, we ask you to preserve the unity of the church and support the decisions of the leaders (Eph. 4:1-3). If there are moral or doctrinal concerns about an elder, it is essential to follow the process outlined by the Apostle Paul: “Do not admit a charge against an elder except on the evidence of two or three witnesses. As for those who persist in sin, rebuke them in the presence of all, so that the rest may stand in fear” (1 Tim. 5:19-20).

Please come back tomorrow for part 3 of this series.

One of the most exciting developments for our church this year is a transition to biblical eldership. On Sunday, as part of our quarterly congregational business meeting, I gave an update on this transition plan and posed some “Frequently Asked Questions” I anticipated people might have. Then I opened it up for any other questions from the congregation. It was a good opportunity to cast vision while also respecting that people have legitimate questions that need to be addressed. Over the next few days, I will post my answers here for those who missed the meeting.

Q. What is biblical eldership? A. Biblical eldership is a model of church leadership where a team of godly elders lead, feed, and care for the flock. Rather than having one senior pastor serve as “the pastor” or “the elder,” the New Testament seems to favor a plurality of elders working together and sharing the load of ministry according to their spiritual gifts. We prefer the term “elder led” over “elder rule” because it is not a dictatorship or oligarchy, but a group of servant leaders guiding God’s flock.

Q. What will biblical eldership look like? A. In many ways, it will resemble our church today. There will still be congregational business meetings. There will still be a primary teaching pastor. There will still be a team of leaders praying for, caring for, and shepherding the church. Our deacons are already functioning in some ways as biblical elders, and our committees and church council are already functioning in some ways as biblical deacons.

We will, however, have a clearer decision-making process and tighter organizational structure. In the past, some of our committees like the Nominating Committee, Personnel Committee, and Pastoral Search Committee, were asked to do things that are very pastoral in nature, such as choosing ministry leaders, identifying ministry priorities, and casting vision. These would seem to fit better under the office of Elder. Other committees like the Stewardship Committee, Trustees, Church Council, and Constitution Review Committee, were asked to do things that are administrative in nature, such as balancing the budget, maintaining and developing property, and facilitating ordinances. These would seem to fit better under the office of Deacon.

A committee-driven organizational structure has served our church well for the first 35 years, but it is time to grow up into maturity and accept a more biblical model of leadership. Many of the finer details still need to be ironed out as we revise our bylaws, but we would expect the need for some of our committees to be simplified or eliminated under this new structure.

Tomorrow, I will post part two in this series.

‘This week I’ve been posting notes from our Business Meeting last Sunday on transitioning from a committee-led to an elder-led model of church leadership. Already, we’ve talked about What Biblical Eldership Is and the Relationship of Elders to the Congregation. Today, I’d like to talk about the Elder Selection Process.

Q. How will elders be selected? A. I’ve developed a training program and have invited a small group of potentially elder-qualified men to go through this process with me for the first time. We are nearing the end of our program and have discussed topics like godly character, the purpose of the church, biblical theology, the gospel, evangelism, worship, prayer, visitation, and teaching, while also doing ministry together.

Explaining the details of this course is a topic for another day. But my goal is to build within each man a solid foundation of godly character, theological conviction, and ministry competency that will lend itself to biblical eldership.

At the conclusion of this training program, each candidate is required to preach on a Wednesday night and to field questions from the congregation in an ordination style meeting. If the elder prospect completes the training in a satisfactory manner, he will be presented to the congregation for vote and approval.

Each year, we will invite church members to nominate additional people for elder. These names will be then reviewed by the existing elders and suitable candidates will begin the elder training program.

Q. Can women become elders? While women have many vital roles in the local church, elder is not one of them. Every mention of eldership in both Old and New Testament suggests this office is restricted to men (Deut. 21:21; 1 Tim. 2:12; 3:2; 2 Tim. 3:17; Titus 1:6).

Once a biblical plurality of elders has been established, however, the role of deacon can open up to both male and female candidates. That’s because the deacon ministry will finally take on its true biblical meaning of helper/servant/minister. It is my conviction that, far from suppressing women, a plurality of elders will actually expand the role of women in our church in beautiful, Christ-exalting ways.

Next week, I\’ll wrap up this series and talk about the timing of change, and what to do if I prefer things to stay the way they are right now.