House Church Talk - Must elders be males?

[David Anderson]

Hi all, hey Paula, hi Bruce,

In the original language, the word for a male elder is the same for a 
female elder except for the ending letters. It is NOT a churchy word, 
either - just the usual one to denote age.

The era of the NT was patriarchical in nature, yet Christians, more often 
than not, come to passages addressing the elder males and immediately 
assume the context of "church government." Granted, there is a 
connection. Having interpreted the eldership passages in an 
ecclesiastical sense, they should then be amazed that in this 
patriarchical age, there is very little (left) in scripture about the 
role of older ones. That would be stange indeed. I submit that male 
eldership is no more an office than female eldership. Requirements are 
made of both and they are frequently contrasted with "younger ones" - 
also not an office.

Anyway, enjoy with me today this amazing story of an elderly lady, Evelyn 
Johnson, who has TAUGHT thousands to fly. Teaching - that's what 
eldership is about - instructing those who are younger and modeling Jesus.

Titus 2:3-4 The OLDER WOMEN likewise, that they be in behavior as 
becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers 
of good things; That they may TEACH the YOUNG women to be sober, to love 
their husbands, to love their children.

As has been duly noted on House Church Talk , all roads eventually lead to KENTUCKY. 
Evelyn was born in Corbin in 1909.

In the recent Scott Simon interview below, she put in a powerful word of 
testimony for her Lord and even blasted the ACLU, a big NPR sponsor! 
NPR.org has the RealAudio listed under "Weekend Edition" for last 
Saturday.

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Charles Mayer/NPR News Dec. 13, 2003 - Since the first moments of 
aviation, pilots have religiously recorded the length of their flights. 
With nearly 58,000 hours at the controls, instructor Evelyn Bryan Johnson 
of Morristown, Tenn., has logged more flight hours than any living person.

Johnson has trained roughly 5000 pilots and has given 9000 flight tests 
as a certified Federal Aviation Administration flight examiner.

She is required to take an annual physical exam by the FAA, which she has 
passed every year with, well, flying colors.

On Johnson's 94th birthday, NPR's Scott Simon traveled to Morristown to 
take a lesson with "Mama Bird" - a nickname given to Johnson by one of 
her students a few decades ago.

After nearly 60 years as a pilot, Johnson still has a young girl's 
fascination with the sky. "You forget about your problems while you're 
up," she says. "You've still got 'em, but that doesn't matter, you've had 
a little rest from it. It's just a wonderful thing."

http://www.npr.org/features/feature.php?wfId=1545986

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      We all want to be flying when we're 90. What's the secret of a 
long, productive life?

Don't sit down and watch the grass grow. Stay busy. Have something that 
you have to get up and do every day. Anybody that can move around at all 
can get interested in something and stick with it.

      Who gave you the nickname "Mama Bird?"

Fran Davis is one my students. One year she sent me a Mother's Day card 
which was funny because she's almost as old as I am. But she sent it to 
me because the way I looked after my students reminded her of a mama bird 
looking after the baby birds.

       Who are some of your more colorful students?

I had one seventeen year-old boy going all over town telling everybody he 
could fly as good as I could if I'd just get out of that airplane. Of 
course I wasn't going to get out until I was convinced he'd be okay by 
himself. So one day we taxied out and I asked him to stop the airplane 
and I said "I want you be careful and take it around the field by 
yourself and give me a real good landing." I was unbuckling my belt to 
get out and I heard a noise and he's standing there next to the airplane 
saying "No sir. I'm not going to fly this thing by myself! There's too 
many things that can happen." He wasn't ready to solo that day, but a few 
days later he was, and I still see him every now and then.

I had an elderly man whose son was a military pilot that had been killed 
in Korea. I had trained his son and had him almost through his private 
license when he went off to the military. The man used to need to catch 
an airline in Knoxville and he wanted me to be the pilot to take him 
there. We were flying down there one day, running a little late, and he 
was talking about the stress of losing his son and dealing with his 
daughter-in-law and their kids and he'd lost a lot of weight trying to 
handle all this. When we got there the plane was just about ready so I 
pulled right up in front of it. You could do that back then, you could 
never do that now. This fellow jumped out to get his luggage and started 
running for the plane. He had lost so much weight that as he ran around 
the front of the airplane his pants fell clear to the ground. This was in 
front of the tower and the terminal and the passengers on the airplane. 
He stopped, put down his luggage, pulled up his pants, picked up his 
luggage and boarded the airplane. I've often wondered what the people in 
the tower were thinking.

http://www.avweb.com/news/profiles/182968-1.html

Cheery photos at both the above links. I can assure you that her pics 
will inspire you, particularly if you somtimes resent your age as does 
one reader of which I am aqauinted with on this list.  :)

Correct me if I am wrong but I beleive that today is the 100th aniversary 
of manned flight.

    David Anderson