Foundations of Christian Leadership, Mentor's Guide, MG07

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F O U N D A T I O N S O F C H R I S T I A N L E A D E R S H I P

The Christian Leader as Elder Presbyteroi

Welcome to the Mentor’s Guide for Lesson 2, The Christian Leader as Elder (Presbyteroi) . The overall focus of the Foundations of Christian Leadership module is to look carefully at each of the dimensions of Christian leadership mentioned in the NT, and explore what the ramifications of each are in regards to our understanding of Christian leadership as service and care for the body of Christ. These four dimensions include deacons (Greek diakonoi ), elders (Greek presbuteroi ), pastors (Greek poimenes ) and overseers or “bishops” (Greek episkopoi ). In this lesson we consider the role and function of the elders or presbuteroi . This understanding of human authority in the Church has special implications for those of us who minister in the city, a place where the family has been under siege, and the breakdown of the social fabric has left many communities without any sense of the role of elders, neither in a social nor a spiritual sense. The qualifications for the elder are listed in 1 Timothy 3.2-7 as well as Titus 1.5-9, and essentially both texts highlight the same characteristics for them. What are those qualities? The Titus 1 and 1 Timothy 3 passages lay out the kind of person who merits consideration as an elder. They had to be blameless and above reproach or reproof, a trait that applies equally to deacons in 1 Timothy 3.10. Furthermore, they had to be husband of one wife, which some scholars take to mean that the they had to be have been married only once. Their own households and children must be under control, both in terms of discipline and spiritual impact (see 1 Timothy 3.4-5). The children of an elder could not be open to the charge of wildness and disobedience, seeing as if their own house was out of order they would be disqualified to lead the household of God (1 Tim. 3.5). An elder was to be a person of solid Christian character, one who was neither overbearing nor arrogant and self-willed, neither quick-tempered (cf. James 1.19-20) nor given to much wine. They were to be neither violent (cf. 1 Timothy 3.3 for this and for the previous vice of being prone to violence) nor consumed with pursuing dishonest gain. The NT standard for Christian leadership is high and rigorous, and we ought to underscore its importance as we establish churches of Christ in the city today. In contrast to these vices elders were to have avoided, they also were to positively exemplify the characteristics of a mature disciple of Jesus. They were to be hospitable (cf. 1 Tim. 3.2), those who loved and cherished the good (cf. Ps. 15) and

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