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Get a load of this, Dan. Your question is answered in the very title of a book. Elders are seniors. Notice the number of reviews. Hardly a best-seller. However it is still offered as part of the popular Logos Bible software.
You are asking a question which few others, at this time, even care about. In their minds the role of the elders is to help the pastor do the work of the ministry.
Shepherding is a big deal in the mind of Jesus. "Peter, do you love me?" Then "feed my lambs". Thus we read that the elders who were appointed to the shepherding task were done so "with prayer and fasting."
Likewise in the mind of the apostle: "This is a faithful saying. ANYONE who desires to be an overseer desires a good work."
A work, a duty - not an office. And I inquire: Does not Satan strive to keep Christians from their duties, obligations, and responsibilities???
What we can agree upon is that the natural man cannot get enough hierarchy. Nor enough money to go with it. Therefore we see the pattern of "preachers" being "called" to larger churches. Seldom smaller ones...
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David,
With all the good Christians already do in this world, we need more freedom to do more. Not to earn our salvation, but to enjoy it to the full! The limits that modern traditional structures place on us often pleases our flesh, but they steal away our joy in Jesus!
Paul wrote to Timothy: :
2 And the things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, these entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also. 2 Tim 2:1-3 NASB
Can there be anything more wonderful than the flow of the River of Life coming forth from one to another, and then all over again? Yet, our traditions often keep this blessing for a special class of individuals.
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