We want our church leadership to be Biblical. Usually by this, we mean that we want to appoint people to the offices we find in Scripture and mirror the structures we find there. The problem is that there is often a lot of disagreement here because in fact the New Testament doesn’t really have that much to say about structures, processes and titles.
However, another way of being Biblical, is to fulfil the purposes of Scripture and its patterns for the church overall in how and who we appoint. A look at Ephesians may offer a helpful example. It is worth remembering some of the themes that we have seen in Ephesians. The aim is to see a church that glorifies Christ, symbolically before the powers and enemies that have been defeated. There is an element of spiritual warfare to this and that Spiritual warfare is won through being spirit filled in our every day family relationships. It is fulfilled too as the church is united on the foundations of God’s Word.
So, first of all, we need people to lead in local churches who model spirit filled life, are centred on God’s Word in their own lives and able to teach God’s Word. So, Paul in Ephesians 4:11-12 will refer to a sequence of gifts to the church: apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastor-teachers who are all concerned with entrusting God’s Word onwards. Their purpose is not to do everything that every member of the church is meant to do but to equip all the believers so they can serve. The result will be that the church will be built up into unity.
It is no surprise then that when Paul instructs Timothy on appointing elders, remembering that Timothy was based in Ephesus that he should insist that elders are able to teach. In fact, that is the only gift, in a list of ethical qualifications that is specifically required of them.
We also shouldn’t be surprised to see that the specific qualifications required of an elder are to do with how he looks after and leads his family or household. This is unsurprising given that marriage offers a picture of Christ’s relationship to the church and given that it is in the household/family where the Spiritual battles are won.
In fact, the sense throughout the New Testament is that the church functions like an extended household. This means that just as families need mums and dads, so too local churches. This is why I’ve argued that elders, acting as the dads in the local church are male, not merely because they ought to be as a requirement but because they are ontologically. This is not an argument against female leadership and hearing female voices in church. The crucial point is that churches need mums and dads. Eldership may be male but leadership is about more than eldership.
Leaders in the church need to be spirit -filled, word centred. They need to love the church as their own family, to be able to provide and protect spiritually and to nurture the church. They need to be battle hardened knowing that they are leading their church not for a country walk but into spiritual conflict. They need to be worshippers whose first concern is to love and glorify God.
Faithroots 