Focus on the Church Part 5

God’s people would take their
Bibles and turn to a new section of Scripture, first Peter, chapter
five. We have for the last five weeks. Been on an excursion, a focus
upon the church and looking at different passages of Scripture,
all the while keeping The church in general, in focus, we have
looked at the primacy of the church, the nature of the church,
God’s revelation to the church. That of. The Holy Scriptures
and no discussion of the church would be really complete without
a discussion of the leadership of the church, what kind of leadership
is there, and there are many different opinions. There are
some who believe that the church is a mystical organization and
it really should be guided purely and simply by the Holy Spirit
that the Holy Spirit should call us together when the Holy Spirit
wants to and the Holy Spirit should guide different people
filled with the Holy Spirit at different moments can lead anybody
who has a message that they claim is presented by the Holy Spirit. Really what it leads to ultimately
is chaos. That’s one form of church government. Another one says that because
men are so corrupt and not just men because people are so corrupt
that really the church collectively should decide all decisions that
the church should be the decision making body. And so the congregation
decides and really the congregation leads the church. The leadership
structure is the congregation itself. That has been a popular,
not just in America, but a popular means of governing the church
really throughout the history of the church. Of course, corresponding
to that is the the top down, the autocratic method, not the
least of which is the Roman Catholic Church, but certainly Protestantism
has its forms of top-down leadership where the pastor or the very
right reverend sits at the top of the heap and essentially dictates
to the rest of the body how things are going to go. And some people have even suggested
that there really is no one form. I can remember hearing a professor
say one time that if the people are godly any form of church
government will work. And if the people are ungodly
it doesn’t matter what form of church government you have you’re
going to have trouble. So is it really true that we
just kind of have to grasp at straws or has God given us anything
in scripture to indicate that there is a system of government
that he has laid forth and I believe that there is obviously that’s
why we’re here this morning. And I think Peter lays it out
in a succinct fashion and gives us a number of things to discuss
this morning. If you would look at first Peter
Chapter 5. Peter, the great apostle who
had been through so much, I remember when we started our study of
first Peter. I spent three weeks just on that
one word, Peter, because it was so astounding to see the apostle
that we see in the Gospels so utterly transformed to be able
to write this epistle. Some astounding things. An amazing
transformation had taken place, and I think we entitled that
series An Apostle of a grace changed life, the apostle of
a grace changed life. These are Peter’s words, but
absolutely and overwhelmingly influenced by the Holy Spirit.
For Peter. Who really wanted to run the
show, even wanted to give Jesus some advice on how to manage
some things. These words come. Quite surprising. First Peter, Chapter five, verse
one. Peter writes, Therefore, I exhort
the elders among you as your fellow elder and witness of the
sufferings of Christ in a partaker also of the glory that is to
be revealed, shepherd the flock of God among you. Oversight,
not under compulsion, but voluntarily according to the will of God.
And not for sordid gain but with eagerness nor yet is lording
it over those allotted to your charge but proving to be examples
to the flock. And when the chief shepherd appears
you will receive the unfading crown of glory. I believe that
what Peter does there is acknowledge and even submit himself to the
leadership structure of the church that God had implemented that
of the eldership. If there was ever a time for
Peter to pull rank, this would have been it. After all, he is
exhorting the leaders of a particular body, those called the elders.
But instead of appealing to them and pulling rank by citing his
apostleship, Peter puts himself down with them as your fellow
elder. To Peter, there was no higher
office than that of an elder in a church. Certainly, he was
an apostle. He did not eschew that. He didn’t
abandon that calling. But the ongoing leadership of
the church was to be a plurality of elders, as we will see in
a moment. God does have a leadership structure for the church. And
it’s God given and it’s not man made. This isn’t something that
men came up with and said, well, you know, it really would be
good if we had some leaders in the church and let’s call them
elders. I believe that what is advanced
in the New Testament is a clear pattern that gives us a God given
leadership structure in the church. Even if you glance around at
contemporary churches. Maybe you just think back through
the history of the churches in which you fellowshiped, maybe
in churches in which you were brought up or visited, that reveals
many different church leadership structures. And there are, as
I even already cited, there are three basic models. The purely
congregational, where members decide all the issues. The traditional
Baptistic structure where you have pastor and deacons and then
you have the laity that just kind of submit to everything
that the pastor decides. The deacons are really there
to act as a clutch, some kind of a buffer between the people
and the pastor. And then you have the eldership
structure, which we’ll talk about this morning, and there are many
others. These are the ones that really
are most appealed to as being derived from scripture. We’ll
examine some of that this morning. Some people think that the scriptures
are completely silent. Regarding the structure or government
in a church and people use that argument all the time to support
virtually any kind of leadership structure. In other words, they
take that advice that any leadership structure will work if the people
are godly. But what does the scripture say?
What does Scripture consistently teach? Some people have suggested
that the idea of a God given leadership structure is not even
provided in Scripture, it’s totally absent. One pretty well known
writer, I’ll skip his name for convenience, he said that it
appears likely that there was no normative pattern of church
government in the apostolic age. In other words in the time of
the New Testament there was no normative pattern of church government.
There was none when the church was established there was none
in the years as the church began to grow and flourish. He goes
on and says in that the organizational structure of the church is no
essential element in the theology of the church. Are you kidding
me. He would have to be almost blind
not to open up the New Testament and to see regular features of
a God given leadership structure. On the contrary, there’s plenty
of evidence to suggest that a well-defined leadership structure does exist
in scripture, and we’ll see that in a moment. Elders are presented
as functioning in churches throughout the New Testament. They are addressed
and they are instructed. as such as elders. There’s a
consistent pattern not just of elders existing but a plurality
of elders existing in the first churches. The New Testament record
records evidence of pastoral oversight by a council of elders
in nearly all of the first churches. There are instructions that are
given about elders that are given to the church. There are instructions
and exhortations given directly to the elders of various churches. Let’s begin to look at this passage
when Peter says, therefore, I exhort the elders among you. Peter was
acknowledging two things there. He was acknowledging not only
the leadership structure of the church, But he was acknowledging
that it is a plurality. It is by God’s design a plurality
of elders. That’s when the church is wholesome. That’s when the church flourishes
at its best. Is when it consists of a multiple
number of godly men. The ministry of the church is
not supposed to be a one man show. That’s when it’s in its
most vulnerable condition. That’s when it’s in its most
dangerous condition is when you have a one man show. I can remember
one of the most frightening things in the history of my own ministry
is during the course of one discussion. The elders, the rest of the elders
said, well, pastor, whatever you want to do, that’s a frightening
thing. That’s a frightening thing, but
it fits the pattern of our society that wants to push one person
to the top and yields only to him. Unfortunately, the structure
of most churches facilitates that and often opens the door
somewhat unsuspectingly to self-willed men. Who trouble the very church
in which they serve. reinforcing that particular idea
of a God given pluralistic design. MacArthur said it this way and
it’s a rather lengthy quote but stay with me. I’ll try and break
it up a little bit. John MacArthur said the biblical
norm for church leadership is a plurality of God ordained elders. Furthermore it is the only pattern
for church leadership given in the New Testament. Nowhere in
Scripture do we find a local assembly ruled by majority opinion
or by one pastor nor are the elders to operate by majority
rule or vote. If all elders are guided by the
same spirit and all have the mind of Christ there should be
unanimity in the decisions they make. Now if you’re familiar
with our Constitution there are decisions where the elders can
wrangle and wrestle and decide and And basically, we put it
to majority vote. What color do you want the carpet
to be? There are lesser decisions. But in those key decisions, to
bring on an elder, to bring forth a deacon, to entertain the idea
of bringing on a missionary, those are the things that there
has to be absolute unanimity among the elders. Spiritual decisions. MacArthur goes on. If there is
division, all the elders should study, pray and seek the will
of God together until consensus is achieved. That’s God given
leadership. That’s the design. That’s the
Holy Spirit working through these men to lead the church. He closes
with this. Much can be said for the benefits
of leadership made up of a plurality of godly men. Their combined
counsel and wisdom helps assure that decisions are not self-willed
or self-serving to a single individual. I’ve shared with John and Frank
I would love I would love to have my way all the time. I can
promise you I told them in this I would not want to be in the
church where I was the only pastor. I wouldn’t want to be in it.
I don’t want my way all the time. I mean, I want it, but I don’t
want the end result. It’s a dangerous thing. God has
given a plurality for the purpose of guiding, and a lot of times
you don’t even see it until you’re through the storm and then you
see the wisdom of the plurality that God has provided. In fact,
he goes on to say, pardon me, MacArthur goes on to say, one
man leadership is a characteristic of cults, not of the church.
And so you look at a lot of these contemporary organizations where,
you know, the guy’s name is on every little thing that he does
and his ideas and his way and his agenda are foremost. It does take on a cultic appearance. But a problem often creeps up
with a desire to. Maintain a plurality, we spent
almost seven years, seven dangerous years, seven long, arduous years
waiting for for plurality. And it wasn’t my doing. In fact,
I attended the funeral of one brother this past week who would
have been our first would have provided us a plurality and in
becoming our second elder. And it was God’s decision, even
as we sang that song this morning, God gives and God takes away.
I had to work through that. Here’s God giving us a plurality
and in a sense, Taking it away. We had to submit ourselves to
him and we had a what we call the Titus model in the early
years of the church where I was the only recognized elder. We had a steering committee.
We were overseen by another church. It was a very careful situation
that we had placed ourselves. But it was dangerous. It was
dangerous for me. Dangerous to want my own way.
Dangerous to field the criticisms all alone. Dangerous to make
decisions when we constantly had to bring discussions before
various people. And so in order to bring about
a plurality a lot of times churches use quotas to ensure that a proper
number of men will always be on the board. And it always frightens
me to read church constitutions that say there shall be four
elders. Neither shall there be five nor
three but four elders shalt thou have. That frightens me because
I buried one this past week and I probably have known 10 men
in my lifetime that really fit the biblical qualifications of
an elder and Dave was one. And so to yield to a quota just
to fill a spot is a dangerous thing. There are at least two
problems with quotas. On the one hand the church might
be tempted to compromise their standards in order to arrive
at the magic number whatever it is they’ve even to arrive
at two. I can tell you for seven years
there was heavy pressure to find someone anyone to fill this role. There’s another problem, on the
other hand, churches might prevent a godly or called man from serving
by holding to the no, we’ve got four, you know, we don’t need
you. I know I know that you fit the
call. I know that you’ve served. I
know that you want you desire this noble. I know, but we’ve
got our four things. No room in the club, either way,
the church loses, right? There’s all kinds of blessing
attached to a plurality of elders. First of all, it’s an obedience
to God’s word. God God lays it out. It’s his plan. And to implement
a plurality of church leadership by elders is God’s way of doing
things. That’s what gives us the leadership
that we require. It also prevents the tyranny
that comes from a self-willed man. It gives you that multiplied
giftedness and multiplied guidance and wisdom of a plurality of
men. In essence, what it does, it
doesn’t stifle the ministry of the church, it magnifies it.
So then, there is a well-defined leadership structure in the church.
It is a plurality of elders. And when Peter wants to address
the leadership of the local churches, he says, I exhort the elders
among you. Let’s pause and let’s just consider
for a moment, what is the significance of this term elder? One writer really nailed it with
this description. when he said it’s quite plain
that Peter here is addressing distinctively not elders in age. There are those that have looked
at the pages of Scripture and seen that this word is presbyteros,
the elder, and said that, you know, you’ve got to basically
meet an age quota. Incidentally, those kinds of
things, they are everywhere in the church. Whenever I would
apply and this is a long time ago whenever I would apply to
a church and they would say must have children must be at least
40 years of age must you know I would just I wouldn’t even
apply wouldn’t even send my resume in that direction because of
a church will use unbiblical standards to find a pastor. They’re going to use unbiblical
standards in a lot of other areas too is a basically a recipe for
disaster. Why go there. goes on to say what made a presbyter
was not age but ordination calling. Remember you have an office given
which reckons not by years but by graces. In other words it’s
a God given calling. You have to walk by the aisles
of your church to tread the streets of your parish as men in one
sense prematurely old as men of that truest dignity which
consists not in wealth not in rank not even in age. but in
bearing Christ’s commission. They are elders by calling. I
like that. Prematurely old. Now, from an
earthly standpoint, I feel that way more and more, but it doesn’t
have a really pleasant sound to it. But there’s something
there that he is wise beyond his years. He is Gained the wisdom
from experience. Now, in the passage before us. The office is referred to as
elders in the plural, as I said. You see, when a pastor enters
this, when a man enters this role eldership, it isn’t It isn’t
a light undertaking. He’s entering into the most sacred
office in the church, the most enduring office in the church
that for thousands of years has been the proof of God’s ongoing
hand upon the church. And even though here it’s referred
to as elder, there are really three different titles. that
are all ultimately referred or used to refer to the same office,
elder, overseer and shepherd, all three. In fact, glance down
at first Peter, because all three of those terms are found in the
passage in front of us this morning. We’ll look at those in a moment.
Elders, overseers and pastors or shepherds. I said there’s
three Greek words that are used in reference to what I would
call the primary permanent office of spiritual leadership in the
church. It is the primary office. In other words it’s not the only
one. But the elder there is no higher
office than elder. But there is an adjunct office
called deacon that comes alongside alongside and assists the elders. And when I say that it’s the
permanent office, we’re not to ignore the fact that apostles
did exist, but apostles passed away. The permanent office of
spiritual leadership in the church was the elders. And that’s why
Peter affirms that by saying that, look, I’m one of you. I’m
a fellow elder. Now, mind you, even in this town,
do you know that there’s an individual in this town? I’ll give you his
initials if you pull me aside someday but he he wants to be
the apostle of Fort Collins. Do you realize that there are
some people that believe that there’s a long chain of apostleship
still going on today. The office of apostle was for
a set and specific period. The permanent office is the office
of elder. The word prospheter us use some
70 times in the New Testament usually with reference to mature
age. I love that. And there are non technical uses
of it where it just basically refers to an older person seniority. There is the technical use where
you would have the Jewish system elder the elders of the Jewish
church. There are eternal elders, which
we have been reading about in Revelation, the 24 elders that
surround the throne, and then there is the church elder, the
Christian church elder. The office mentioned in Acts
1130. Set forth in Acts 1423, validated in Acts 15-2 and so
on. The Ephesian elders summoned
by Paul and exhorted as such in Acts 20. First Timothy 414
referred to as the elder board the presbytery. There is instruction
regarding the elders given in first Timothy five not only honor
but even discipline. Titus 1 5 Titus was exhorted
to appoint elders. and then given a lengthy list
of qualifications. We are exhorted to call the elders
when we are sick. We are. Peter gives these exhortations. There’s another term though not
just elders but overseer. Now the trouble with this one
is that historically it got hijacked. I’ve told you before about those
words that were transliterated and not translated. Well, this
is one of those words. Remember, like the word evangelism,
once you begin to transliterate it, meaning can be randomly assigned. And that’s exactly the case with
this particular word. Because instead of rendering
the meaning, which is overseer to oversee, They transliterated
it and just referred to it as Episcopal or ultimately in the
English bishop. And that’s where you get this
whole created order of bishops and sub bishops and minor bishops
and this guy and that guy and all kinds of additional extra
biblical unbiblical structure to the church. The word literally
just means to oversee. One of the two occurrences in
which it refers refers to ministerial duty, what we are to do as pastors. First Peter 5 to the passage
right before us, he tells the elders shepherd the flock of
God among you exercising oversight. That’s what pastors do. That’s
the calling of an elder is to watch over the flock. To watch
over what they. Believe what they teach. What
they do, how they live, that’s the elders job. One of the noun forms just refers
to inspection or an overseership, and one of the four occasions
that that occurs refers to the ministerial office. The masculine
form of that particular verb refers to overseer, and three
of the four occurrences there refer to ministerial office. First Timothy 3.2. An overseer
then must be above reproach. So that’s the second term, not
only elder, but overseer, they both referred to the same office. But the third one, this one really
gets hijacked. Pastor or shepherd. The word
is poyman, translated usually shepherd, and those occurrences
in the New Testament usually refer to Christ as the shepherd. The verb. Poimano just referred
to tending or shepherding, nourishing, ruling, feeding the sheep. Used 11 times in the New Testament,
five of them clearly point to Christ to have reference to literal
shepherding, the shepherds that were out tending their flocks
and three plainly referring to the responsibility of church
leadership. Acts 20, 28. You’ll know this
one. Be on guard, Paul says to the Ephesian elders. Be on guard
for yourselves and for all the flock among which the Holy Spirit
has made you overseers. Why? To shepherd the church of
God, which he purchased with his own blood. The passage in
front of us, as I’ve already said, shepherd the flock of God
among you. Now, the unfortunate thing And
every time I’ve ever said this some people take it wrong. So
I’ll be ready at the back door. The noun Poyman shepherd used
18 times in the New Testament. Eight of them clearly referred
to Christ as the great shepherd. Five of them allude to Christ
as such. Four referred to literal shepherds. Tending sheep one time. One time, it’s referred to as.
To refer to church leaders and translated only in that place,
Ephesians 411 uniquely. He gave some as apostles, some
as prophets, some as evangelists and some as pastors. And so you have this tendency
to divide the eldership, a God given commodity, to divide the
plurality that God designed and to set over and above them one
as the pastor. What’s the conclusion when you
look at the biblical data? that all three terms, the elder,
the pastor and the overseer, all refer to the same leadership
office. Listen to this. The fact that
the qualifications for an overseer in First Timothy three, Paul
gives detailed qualifications for an overseer in First Timothy
three. They’re identical, nearly, To
those that are given for an elder in the book of Titus. And that’s
because Paul is using the terms interchangeably elder and overseer
are the same. In Acts chapter 20 which verse
I’ve already directed the Saints listen carefully again all three
terms are used in conjunction with one another. From Miletus,
he, that is Paul, sent to Ephesus, called to him the elders of the
church, and said, Be on guard for yourselves and for all the
flock, which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers to shepherd
the church of God, which he purchased with his own blood. Likewise,
here in 1 Peter 5, glance down. The terms elder, shepherd, and
oversight are all used interchangeably. I exhort the elders among you
as your fellow elder and witness of the sufferings of Christ and
a partaker also of the glory that is to be revealed. Shepherd
the flock of God among you exercising oversight. Last piece of data I would throw
your way in Philippians 1.1 Paul just says. This is how he opens
Philippians just listen. Paul and Timothy bond servants
of Christ Jesus to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi,
including the overseers and deacons. Now, why on earth would Paul
suddenly omit the primary permanent office of spiritual leadership
in the church? Unless the word overseer there
is used interchangeably with that office of elder, pastor,
shepherd, The logical conclusion. MacArthur nailed it when he said
bishops and pastors are not distinct from elders. The same terms are
simply different ways of identifying the same people. All three terms
refer to the same office. The term elder emphasizes who
the man is. Overseer speaks of what he does
and pastor deals with how he feels the pastoral role of caring
and feeding. And that’s why I said this is
where I always get in trouble. You already know. Don’t call
me reverend. I don’t want to be called reverend.
I really don’t want to be called reverend. I don’t particularly
care for minister, but I get it. You got to introduce me as
something. This is my minister. I get it. My thing is the church really
should endeavor to use the same title for all elders. If you
call me pastor, call them pastor. If you call me overseer, which
isn’t real common, call them overseer. If you refer to them
as an elder, then I’m no more. It’s the tendency to divide that
frightens me. It’s not that I prefer a particular
title over another. What I don’t care for is to be
divided from the plurality that God designed. There’s another point to observe
here. Elders. Elders are appointed by God,
not elected by the church. Remember those quotas we talked
about sometimes. And in the most outlandish terms,
I’ve heard somebody had that they have to serve because it’s
their turn. Or I’m going off the board because
my time is up. Those are unbiblical ideas. There’s
there’s one thing to say that a brother needs a break. He needs
some time. You know, we want to give him
some time off, maybe from some of his responsibilities, but
it’s quite another to take a vacation to be off your post, as it were,
as a shepherd. How does that even function? Elders are recognized by the
local church as being appointed by God, and that appointment
is. We have this really grandiose thing in our church and in and
I mean. The greater church of ordination,
some churches, their their process of ordination is so elaborate
and so well defined, defined well beyond what Scripture says.
Scripture is pretty simple, two verses. You ready to versus. For this reason, I left you in
Crete, Titus one, five, I left you in Crete that you might set
in order what remains and appoint elders in every city as I directed
you. You say, well, that’s not a lot of help. I know. The word that they need to place
down to a point to designate. We make elders in a sense. All
we’re doing is recognizing what God has already done. We’re recognizing
that God has prepared this man. We’re recognizing that God has
qualified this man. We’re recognizing that God has
gifted this man. And in a sense, God has already
appointed him. We’re just acknowledging it.
There’s another verse. We need some more help, don’t
we? Appoint elders in every place. Is that all we got? No. Acts
14, 23. Acts 14, 23 says when they had
appointed elders for them in every church, having prayed with
fasting, they commended them to the Lord in whom they had
believed. He said, well, that’s not a whole lot more help. No,
it isn’t. Which makes my point that this
elaborate thing of ordination that has become really Taken
on a life of its own in many circles. Appointing elders in every church
was Paul’s pattern everywhere he went, that’s what he did here,
this appointing this word appointing, and it’s a fascinating word.
It’s a different word than before. It’s not just to me. It’s care,
Tino. Here is the hand Tino to stretch
forth the hand. Now, listen to this one. Really
amusing to me. There are those that say that
this proves this caretino was a vote. A stretching forth of
the hand to vote on that man. And then there are those. That
say this is a stretching forth of the hand to lay hand on the
man as a public affirmation of the brother and the most amusing
thing of all. is that many churches do both
just to cover all their bases. You know, let’s do both. Let’s
vote on the guy. And when we’re all said and done,
let’s lay our hands on it. And so it’s interesting to note
that if ordination is spoken of at all in Scripture, it is
focused upon. Not ministers and reverends or
even pastors, it’s focused on. Elders. Appoint elders in every
place when they had appointed elders. One of my seminary professors
said it this way, ordination is the process. of godly church
leaders affirming the call, equipping and maturity of new leaders to
serve God’s purposes in the next generations. Ordination validates
and authenticates God’s will for a fully qualified man to
serve God and his people. And as a result of that, there
are no term limits. When you have recognized that
this is God’s man, he’s gifted, he’s called, he’s equipped, he’s
ready. There’s no term limits. As I
said before, and I’m not speaking hyper by way of hyperbole. I probably known worked with. Certainly, I’ve known many others,
but I’ve worked with probably 10. Qualified men in the history
of my ministry. So to think that we can just
rotate them in and rotate them out like it’s a ballgame is silly. It does disservice to the office
that God has designed. John Murray. Presbyterian writer,
he said it this way, the idea of being ordained to an office.
for a limited period of time is without warrant from the New
Testament. It is contrary to the implications
of election and ordination. There is no overt warrant from
the New Testament for what we may call term eldership. There is no intimation of the
relevant passages that these elders in question were ordained
to the office for a specific term. You can’t say that this
Incredible office that God has designed, that God has equipped
a certain number of people. You can’t say that you can rotate
them in and rotate them out like so many players. And that’s why
I’ve said before, I try to find a way to. Not alliterate this, but it works. The only terms that are imposed
on an elder are those that God himself imposed death. Death will do it when death comes,
your eldership is over. Somebody asked me, you know,
why did you come all this way to this funeral? I said, well,
Dave would have done it for me. He just got out of it. You know,
Dave got to go to glory before me, but he would. I know he would
have come. Death will do it. Disability. If you’re no longer
able to function either physically or with your mind, and I would
say the mind would be more crucial. That would do it. Disqualification. And there are many different
things that can take an elder out of his calling. Sin. Sin has many different forms. And then departure. I said it
this way, and the elders will recognize this. I would like
to think that if John MacArthur himself moved to Fort Collins,
came to Providence Bible Church, that we would put him through
the same rigors that we would any other brother. Examining
his life, looking at him, because just the fact that he picked
up and moved doesn’t make him an elder here at Providence Bible
Church. When you are an elder, you’re
an elder of a local church. You’re not a super elder. You’re
not like a Protestant pope that floats from local church to local
church. Departure. When an elder departs
from this place, he’s no longer an elder. Not until another local
church recognizes him and calls him as such. Elders take the
leadership. Always take the leadership in
appointing other elders. There is no congregational vote,
no stretching forth of the hand in that regard. There’s no term
limits for elders. Elders serve for life. Well, we’re into it. We’re only
partway into it. God has provided for the church. And we’ll take it up here next
Lord’s Day, you know, continuing consideration of what God has
provided by way of church leadership and then Lord willing, in time,
we’ll look at what the church’s responsibility is to that leadership. Let’s go before God in prayer.
Our merciful King, we humble ourselves before you and we thank
you. We don’t. hold out that we have
figured these things out by our own intelligent. We. We believe, Lord, that these
things are so plainly evident in Scripture. That they lie on
the surface, and yet the roots extend deep. That this is your
design for the church. A leadership by a plurality of
godly men called elders. And Father, we come before you
and we humbly thank you. That you have provided this church
with a true plurality. Men who discuss and dialogue
and even strenuously disagree at times. And we affirm one another
in that, knowing that ultimately that is your gift of leadership
to this church. your provision. Father, we pray
that you would use the leadership of this church for your glory.
That you would direct us to shepherd this church as you would have
it. And not as any one individual
would. Lord, we thank you for your grace and your goodness. We ask your blessing on our day.
In Jesus’ name, Amen.