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Gospel Eldership

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gospel_eldershipI’m being helped and want to recommend the book Gospel Eldership by Bob Thune to you.  Having worked through rewriting bylaws nearly 12 years ago and continuing to look for material that serves our Elders well, I’ve continue to look for resources that help us.  I love the vision found in this book.  So, here are some quick things I enjoy and am helped by in this:

  1. Everything is rooted in Gospel realities.  Whether it’s character qualifications or the work that an Elder is to do, many of us are very aware of how we don’t measure up to this high calling.  Thune takes us to Gospel truth and this is encouraging.
  2. The outline is simple.  The book lays out as character and work.  So, there are few helpful chapters on what an elder is to BE, followed by what an elder is to DO.  I like the simplicity of the approach.
  3. The book comes with many exercises designed to get groups talking.  One of the exercises requires that you speak with your spouse about an item and they have to sign that the conversation took place.  Many times, thinking about things like this can become an “out-there” discussion.  But, these exercises keep the learning in our hearts.
  4. It’s easy used with a group.  I’m using it to meet with a small group of men and talk about the elder’s life and work.  The book is helpful.
  5. There’s a chapter on “Mission.”  I’m preparing to write on this in another post, but much of ministry builds into maintenance type work.  But, Elders have to be relentlessly focused on mission.  This curriculum includes this in the elder’s work.  This is helpful to me, challenging, and a healthy vision for the future work of the church.

So, for these reasons, among others, I’m happy to recommend Gospel Eldership to you.

 

A Radically Awesome “Moderate” Makeover

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Often, after we’ve taken some time in Elder’s meetings to pray for the pressing physical and spiritual needs of members, regular attenders and other things affecting the life of the church, we have a part of our meetings that are meant to inspire us spiritually.  We find an article or study a Scripture together and find the fellowship this brings deepens us in God and in the lives of one another.

This week, at Elder’s Meeting, we read David Powlison’s introductory essay to the latest Journal of Biblical Counseling entitled, A Moderate Makeover.  His point was that we are so driven by some radical, awesome, life-changing, world-altering goal that we often miss the simple work that God is up to accomplishing in our lives.  He puts it this way:

Make me childlike toward God, and make what I do and say helpful toward others. A moderate  makeover, in other words. Not necessarily dramatic. No adrenaline rush. No scaling the emotional heights. No doing a fire dance on the high wire. No latest, greatest, hottest, bestkept secret. Moderate has this advantage: no odor of hype. No excessive hopes that breed disillusionment. No danger of overpromising but underdelivering. This makeover always delivers more than you think it was promising.

We each found this to be a helpful reminder for pursuing growth in godliness.  And, that would be my hope for you: childlike toward God, helpful toward others.

Make me childlike toward God, and make whatI do and say helpful toward others. A moderatemakeover, in other words. Not necessarily dramatic. No adrenaline rush. No scaling theemotional heights. No doing a fire dance onthe high wire. No latest, greatest, hottest, best-kept secret.Moderate has this advantage: no odorof hype. No excessive hopes that breeddisillusionment. No danger of overpromising but underdelivering. This makeover alwaysdelivers

more

than you think it was promising

Couple of Things From Elder’s Retreat…

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As you may know, I am away on an Elder’s Retreat with our church’s leadership.  We have a great time together and have spent all day praying, planning and seeking how God would particularly like us to move.  We also have fun.

Here’s a video of a place we ate at last night, which was excellent:

This morning, we got rolling by working through this recent article entitled Progress In the Christian Life from the latest Life Action Revive Magazine.  Two prayers, in particular, stood out to us as we began our journey today.

George Whitefield: 
“God, give me a deep humility and a burning love, a well-guided zeal and a single eye, and then let men and devils do their worst!”


And a prayer at the end: 
“O Lord Jesus, make me happy enough in you to avoid sin, and wise enough in you to avoid danger, that I may always do what is right in your sight. In your name I pray, amen.”


We have had a truly amazing day.  Thanks for praying for us.  We are humbled to be a part of God’s work and continue to praise Him as THE HOPE for our future. 

Elders, Unity, Retreat…

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Starting today, the Elders I get the privilege to serve with will be taking some time to get away, pray, focus on long term vision and have unhurried discussion about many areas of the future.  We are taking our wives with us for some of this, to build into them and experience good fellowship together.  It really is a rich time.  Psalm 133 speaks of how good and pleasing it is for brothers to dwell together in unity and likens it to rich oil dripping down the head.  God is blessed when we lavish a spirit of unity on one another.  This is one component of how meaningful these times are.  While we are by no stretch of the imagination perfect, at the end of the day, we are in this great cause for the Gospel together.

So, if you take the time to read this, would you mention a prayer for our time together, that God would be glorified as we seek Him, seek His heart, and try to shepherd Crestview to the glory of God.

On the Elders…

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There have been some good resources emerge lately on Elders, Deacons and Church Leadership.  Thought I’d connect to those here.  Even if you are casually involved in church life, you would do well to listen in / read up on some of these things, so that you can better pray for / support your local church leaders.

Andy Davis wrote a great post on how to lead elders meetings.  We follow a pretty strict model of taking time for prayer, discussing something devotionally oriented to help us in our work, and then talking “church business.”  Andy’s article helped get some ideas going on making these meetings more helpful.

A recent 9Marks interview discussed Thabiti’s new book Finding Faithful Elders and Deacons.  This, also, had much to commend to the local church leadership and the church at large, helping us think and consider the long term leadership plans of the church.  I’m hoping to get all of our elders and deacons to listen in on this.

We have huge work to do, but it is a joy.  Therefore, receive these tools as opportunities from God to more faithfully serve Him.

Pray for Us…

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Would you please take a moment and pray for me and the elders (of Crestview) and our wives?  We are heading to Kansas City Thursday afternoon through Saturday to spend time in prayer and seeking the Lord about direction for the coming year.  Ask God to give us wisdom, discernment and His mind about what practical pursuits need to occupy us in the coming year.

Elder’s Meeting Help

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Jim Elliff writes an excellent post on Elder’s Meeting That Do Something. His tips:
1. Plan for meeting together more often and for a longer period of time.
2. Challenge each other spiritually.
3. Discuss the state of the flock.
4. Have an agenda.
5. Actually pray for individuals and issues being faced.
6. Study together toward a unified position on difficult issues.
7. Make these meetings non-optional.

Twitter? Encouraged in Scripture?

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So says one of my elders, quoting Isaiah 38:14 from the NASB: “Like a swallow, like a crane, so I twitter; I moan like a dove; My eyes look wistfully to the heights; O Lord, I am oppressed, be my security.”

Immediately another one of the elders who typically resists technological fads says, “I’m happy to support this verse. If someone uses Twitter, they will be oppressed.”

This is one facet of what makes Elder’s Meetings so fun.