Immediately I must explain the title. I am not joining with those who say much about inadequate elders, but do little to help them. As many Uplook readers have heard me say, there are perfect elders—unfortunately they are all in heaven. The ones that the Lord has given us will admit they are not perfect.
But the call to the sheep is not to criticize their elders; not even to hear an unsubstantiated charge against them (1 Tim. 5:19). Of course we are free to prayerfully “entreat them as fathers” (v. 1). We are to personally take the initiative to know them (1 Thess. 5:12); to honor them (1 Tim. 5:17); to “Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves: for they watch for your souls…” (Heb. 13:17).
So this article is not about the need for elders to be committed generally. The need for that is clear to all believers, and any elders not as committed as they ought to be should already know that.
The particular commitment I wish to address is extremely rare, perhaps because it is so peculiar for an elder. It seems to be the very opposite of the elder’s natural inclination to care for the sheep. Elders, by definition, are inward-looking “overseers,” protective of the little flock entrusted to their care.
This commitment is a longing to see other assemblies born out of their own assembly as soon as feasible. No parent finds it easy to say good-bye to their children as they grow up and move out of the home. But that is the idea, isn’t it? Children should not be raised to be good children to us, but good parents to our grandchildren. And so with the local church.
Hear again Paul’s words to Timothy: “The things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also” (2 Tim. 2:2). It is generally agreed that the first generation of faithful men were the elders he was commissioned to see raised up in every place. But who were the next generation of faithful men these elders were to equip? True, the elders are to teach the flock generally, but it seems Paul is speaking about elders training another group of elders!
The commitment that every group of elders should have is this: As soon as the Lord enables it, we want to see another assembly born out of this one. We are committed to this, not because we naturally feel like sending away some of these sheep we love and care about, but because we believe it is the pattern of the New Testament.
I know what some elders are thinking. “We’re just barely hanging on! We can’t imagine letting some of our best people go to start another assembly!” Wait! I’m not saying this will happen tomorrow. But if the elders do not have this vision, others in the assembly will, and eventually little groups of shepherdless sheep will wander off to start something anyway—with or without the elders’ help. We see it all the time.
We believe that a Christian really starts to grow when he begins to think beyond himself. The same is true of assemblies. One of the best things that happened to the Greensboro, NC, assembly was the start of the Reidsville group. The same was true with Tulsa and Little Rock. And I for one would never have developed if the brethren in St. Catharines had not concluded that it was time to branch out—first into two, then three, then four, then five assemblies—because the young men didn’t have a chance. Someone was always stepping into the water before us; the elders didn’t want us lying by the pool for 38 years!
We want our good young men to be committed? To what? A token job? Tell an athlete, “You better get training for the Olympics—the 2048 Olympics.” Why bother? There’s lots of time. But if every group of elders was committed to the ideal that ASAP they wanted to see healthy, well-thought-out, balanced new groups carefully planted in soil that had already been tested by gospel effort, how would that affect the young men? Why, every group of elders would be eager to train them, hands-on, to get them ready for the next assembly to be started. And young men—I mean committed, serious, yes, “faithful men”—would catch a vision worth laying down their lives for.