Category: Pastoral

What Does it Take to be a Leader in the Church? – Part 1

On By Dr. Casey LewisIn Leadership, PastoralLeave a comment

What do all businesses, schools, non-profits, and churches have in common? They all have leaders. Leaders are important. They are the ones who determine the vision and set the direction for the future. As well they are the ones who make sure everyone is equipped to play their part in the organization. Without leaders, organizations flail. They meander around until they disappear. So leaders, especially good leaders are important.

This is especially true in the church. The last thing God wants is for a church just to meander around until it dies off. He wants His church to accomplish His mission. And He provides leaders to do that.

But God doesn’t just provide any old leader. He provides men who meet certain qualifications and desire certain things. What are those desires? What are those qualifications? What does it take to be a leader in the church?

A Leader in the Church Must See Themselves as an Overseer

Overseer is not just a term I am manufacturing. It’s a term Paul uses in verse 1 when he says,

“The saying is trustworthy: If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task.” (1 Ti 3:1)

One of my friends from seminary contacted me no too long ago. He is not only a pastor but he is also a financial advisor. That’s what he contacted me about. He wanted to see if I would be interested in using his services.

As a financial advisor, it is his job to serve families by watching over and caring for their finances. Since I know him well and trust him, we have allowed him to do just that — oversee our financial future. In a similar way, that is what a pastor does. Except he is watching over souls instead of money.

See Themselves as an Overseer

Anyone who wants to be a leader in the church must see themselves as an overseer because that is exactly what they are doing. They are overseeing the people God has placed under their care.

Responsibilities

In that role, an overseer, a pastor, an elder, whatever you want to call them, all those names are interchangeable, is responsible for watching over the church’s doctrine, practice, people, and vision. They do that by teaching, training, equipping, discipling, protecting, leading, and comforting those in the church. That is the general job of an overseer.

If you think about it, that’s a lot for one person to do. And really, should one person do all of that?

Should a church just have one overseer?

I believe when you look at Scripture, it’s clear that it’s God’s intention for a church to have multiple men functioning as overseers. Now, that doesn’t mean that everyone who serves as an overseer is paid. Usually, there are a few who are paid. In most churches, that is typically the Lead Pastor, Music Minister, and Youth pastor. While those are usually the ones who are paid, a church should still have other men serving as overseers or elders. They would be considered non-vocational elders.

I believe there should be a plurality of elders for a couple of reasons.

(1) First, when the term elder is used in Scripture, it is often used in its plural form.

I don’t want to belabor this point too long, but I do want to prove my assertion from Scripture, let me list a few scriptures so you can see what I mean.

In Acts 14:23 we read,

“And when they had appointed elders for them in every church, with prayer and fasting they committed them to the Lord in whom they had believed.” (Ac 14:23)

 Moving a little further in the book of Acts to Acts 20:17 Luke writes,

“Now from Miletus he sent to Ephesus and called the elders of the church to come to him.” (Ac 20:17)

Paul in Titus 1:5 instructs Titus to follow his example and appoint elders in every town. He writes,

“This is why I left you in Crete, so that you might put what remained into order, and appoint elders in every town as I directed you—” (Tt 1:5)

In James 5:14, we are told that if anyone is sick they are to…

“…call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord.” (Jas 5:14)

Furthermore, we find Timothy’s name included in Paul’s letter to the Philippians. Paul writes,

“Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi, with the overseers and deacons:” (Php 1:1)

Again, I don’t want to belabor the point too much so I will stop there. But as you can see, in each instance, a plurality of elders is mentioned, which I believe tells us that in God’s wisdom, He wants His church to consist of a plurality of elders.

(2) Second, a plurality of elders benefits the church.

It benefits the church because it spreads out the responsibility and it accounts for different gifts and individual deficiencies. Let’s face it, no one man can do everything well, but a team of men who compliment each other can. So for those reasons, I believe a plurality of elders should exist in the church.

Sum it Up

So to sum up this section, if a man wants to be a leader in the church, and a church should have multiple leaders, which should give opportunity for multiple people to function in that role, then that man must see themselves as an overseer — someone who oversees the doctrine, practice, vision, and people of the church.

Question for Reflection

  1. Do you believe a leader in the church must see themselves as an overseer?
  2. Do you believe a plurality of elders is biblical and necessary?

Resources

Post adapted from my sermon: What does it take to be a leader in the church?

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How Our Generation Can Learn From the Older

On By Dr. Casey LewisIn Leadership, PastoralLeave a comment

Old Man Legs

What does it take to learn from the older generation? How can our generation be taught by the previous? These are questions our generation should be asking and answering.

Recently, I posted an article entitled: A Call to Maturity: How the older generation can train the youth of today. One of my readers asked if I would write a follow up post discussing how the youth of today can learn from the older generation. I have given that question some thought over the last week. What follows are a few suggestions.

How Our Generation Can Learn from the Older

(1) Be open and teachable

A learner is someone who is open to learning. If you are to be taught by the previous generation, you must be open to them speaking into your life, which means you must be teachable. While self-esteem counsellors have puffed us up, telling us we are the smartest, most talented generation yet, we’re not. Actually, we have a lot to learn, and those who have come before us have a lot to teach.

(2) Look for those who model biblical manhood and womanhood.

Instead of finding your role models in pop culture, you should look in your church. As you do, look for those who model biblical manhood and womanhood. Ask questions like: Are they kind and respectable? Do they live according to God’s Word, even if it could impact them negatively in the community? Do they love their spouse? Do they serve the church and community?

(3) Look for those who are accessible. 

While you may learn a lot from your favorite podcaster or blogger, chances are you don’t have direct access to them. But you do have access to the faithful saint sitting next to you in the pew on Sunday. While they may not be as famous, they are accessible and most likely able to teach you just as much, if not more. So instead of looking global, look local.

(4) Ask for advice on decisions

One way to start a mentoring relationship is simple to ask for advice on decisions in your life. Don’t assume advice will be handed out unsolicited. Instead, ask for it from others, and then ask again.

(5) Work toward maturity

If you are not working toward maturity, you will not be interested in learning how to be mature. Actively working toward maturity in Christ is a necessary part of learning from others.

Question for Reflection

  1. What would you add to this list? How would you counsel the youth of today to learn from the older generation?

Resource

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A Call To Maturity: How the older generation can train the youth of today

On By Dr. Casey LewisIn Church Life, Discipleship, Pastoral4 Comments

March 2013’s edition of Table Talk Magazine covers Youth Culture. In an article entitled A Call to Maturity, Robert Carver challenges the older generation to train up our youth in the way of the Lord.

While there is a cultural divide between the older generation and the up and coming youth, godly saints still have a lot of wisdom to offer. Walking with the Lord for 30, 40, or even 50 years bears a lot of fruit. Fruit that needs to be shared. Even though formal instruction exists in homes, schools, and churches, informal day-to-day opportunities are available. Carver offers three practical ways to take advantage of the everyday.

How to Take Advantage of the Everything

(1) Love Them Genuinely And Patiently

The younger generation needs to know that the older generation is not estranged from them. The church is a body made up of many members, young and old – all valuable to the functioning of the whole.

In Ephesians 4, Paul describes the saints as growing from spiritual immaturity “to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ” (v. 13). This process is accomplished “when each part is working properly, mak[ing] the body grow so that it builds itself up in love’ (v. 16).

If we are to have an impact on the young, we must love them, and they must know that we do.

“Love one another earnestly from a pure heart” (1 Peter 1:22).

If you are a part of the older generation, don’t be hesitant to tell the up and coming youth you know that you love them (corporately and individually). To love them genuinely and patiently is to love them as God loves us.

(2) Share With Them What Is Most Important to You

One thing that should be important to you is God’s Word. Let the youth see your passionate love for God’s Word as it instructs you, guides you, encourages you, and convicts you. Let them see how vital of a component it is for your everyday life.

“I have treasured the words of His mouth more than my necessary food” (Job 23:12).

Share specific passages that have gripped your life recently.

Also, convey to them the essential nature of prayer. Help them to see that it is an activity Christians can’t live without. Do this as you pray with them and for them. Le’ts Paul’s testimony of Epaphras be yours. In Colossians 4:12, Paul testified that Epaphras was “always struggling on your behalf in his prayers, that you may stand mature and fully assured in all the will of God” (Col. 4:12).

Without fail urge them to fight the good fight, to battle tirelessly with sin, and to flee youthful passions (2 Tim. 2:22) that wage war against the soul (1 Peter 2:11).

Furthermore, challenge them to see God at work in all events, including the details of their lives. Encourage them to constantly thank God for all they have and for them to never forget to give Him all glory.

(3) Invest In Them

Buy them books that have made a spiritual impact on your life, and offer to study these books with them. Offer to take them to conferences and other Christian gatherings. The investments we make in their spiritual lives will pay everlasting dividends.

Cast your bread upon the waters, for you will find it after many days (Eccl. 11:1).

Conclusion

After offering three practical suggestions Carver closes by saying:

So, “to what shall I compare this generation?” Surely it is a generation like no other. But it is also a generation that needs to know Christ’s redeeming love, and needs to shine as lights in the world in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation (Phil. 2:15) – just as we of the older generation needed to do back in our day (and now). May God help us to be examples and loving instructors to them, and may they do likewise.”

I believe Carver’s call and suggestions are helpful and must be heeded. I can speak from personal experience in saying that the older generation has influenced me. I am thankful men have stepped up and spoke into my life. I am afraid though that is a rarity, but it doesn’t have to be.

May those in the older generation feel God’s call to train up the youth of this generation to be the men and women of Christ that they have become.

Resource

Table Talk Magazine March 2013, A Call to Maturity, 23-25.

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Are You Feeding Your People God’s Word?

On By Dr. Casey LewisIn Pastoral, Quotes1 Comment

How often have we evangelical priests betrayed our confession and our calling. Hungry people come to us ministers and college and seminary teachers for bread, but we give them stones. Our children come to their Sunday school teachers for a word from God, but they concentrate on entertaining them, thinking they have done well to get through another forty-minute session without a major disturbance.

Every week we gather as the Lord’s people, but we fill the Sunday morning service with all kinds of activity, so we don’t have time for a word from God. And when genuinely hungry people come to receive a fresh revelation from God through the words of the preacher, we fill their plates with the husks, the chaff, and the peelings of human wisdom. Too often we are more concerned to impress our hearers with our breadth of knowledge in the fields of psychology, philosophy, science, and literature, than in communicating a passionate word from God. It is no wonder that we suffer from such an epidemic of spiritual anemia and rickets of the heart.

 Question

  1. Are you feeding your people God’s Word?

Resources

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From “Reviving God’s Covenant with Levi: Reflections on Malachi 2:1-9” in Reformation and Revival 4, no. 3 (Summer 1995): 126.

What is the Type of Love that Lasts?

On By Dr. Casey LewisIn Family, PastoralLeave a comment

When most people think of love, they think of a feeling they get from another person. Think of the way a character in the last romantic comedy you watched described their love for another. Most likely they said something like, “I know it’s crazy but it just feels right.” Or maybe they expressed it by saying “I can’t explain it, but I know I am in love with them.” Or maybe, just maybe they used the often quoted line, “You complete me”. While that stuff makes for good movies, the love pictured by those characters is what we call romantic or erotic love. While romantic or erotic love is not necessarily wrong, we all want a little romance in our lives, building our relationship on romantic or erotic love doesn’t usually make for a marriage that lasts the ages.

Romantic or Erotic Loves Focus

Generally speaking, romantic or erotic love is more concerned with how we benefit from a relationship than the benefits of another. Romantic or erotic love, then, is not other-focused but self-focused. When someone expresses love from a romantic or erotic perspective, what they are really saying is either that that person makes me feel good sexually or personally, or they believe that person is the best partner to help them fulfill their financial or personal goals. But will that type of love last?

Will it Last?

Even with the advent of plastic surgery, gym memberships, and magic creams looks fade. Personal and financial goals can change or go unmet. When change happens, or needs go unmet, feelings usually follow suit and change as well. If your relationship is built strictly on feelings, what are you going to do when your feelings change? Are you going to stick it out or move on? I believe our current divorce rate answers that question for us. Over half of all marriages now end in divorce. Could it be that many of those were built on romantic or erotic love?

The Love that Lasts

The love that lasts is the love Paul speaks of in Colossians 3 when he says,

“Husbands, love your wives, and do not be harsh with them.” (Col 3:19)

The love Paul calls husbands to have for their wives isn’t romantic or erotic love, but agape love. Paul’s command doesn’t necessarily negate romantic love. In other words, a little romance isn’t a bad thing, it just shouldn’t be the primary thing. So husbands don’t use this as an excuse to quit dating or romancing your wife.

Do, however, realize that the love Paul is talking about is much deeper than surface level attraction or romantic gestures meant to conjure up certain feelings. The love mentioned in Colossians 3 is a bedrock or foundational type of love. It is agape love. Agape love is a self-sacrificial love. It is a love that gives rather than takes. It is a love that seeks what is best for the other person rather than what’s best for self. That is the type of love a husband is to have for his wife. It is the type love that sticks around when needs go unmet and feelings change. It is the type of love that lasts.

Question for Reflection

  1. What is the love that is primarily active in your current relationship? Is it me-centered or other-centered?

Resources

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Adapted from my sermon A Wife’s Submission and a Husband’s Love

How do we lovingly guide our members away from false teaching?

On By Dr. Casey LewisIn Church Life, Leadership, Pastoral2 Comments

From personal experience, I have found that many church members aren’t discriminate about the preaching to which they listen or the books they read. With so many indiscriminate readers and listeners, we are bound to see many of our fellow members following false teachers, most of which are doing so unknowingly. Not only is this dangerous for their spiritual lives, but for our churches as well. We, however, aren’t to allow those who are indiscriminate to continue to be indiscriminate, nor are we to allow those who we know are digesting false teaching to continue. As pastors and church members, we have a responsibility to lovingly guide them away from error.

How do we lovingly guide our members away from false teaching?

(1) Teach the gospel

If we want our members to discriminate on the teaching to which they subscribe, whether that be a popular radio preacher, best-selling author, or blogger, we have to make sure they know the gospel like the back of their hand. As well as they must know how it applies to all of life. The only way this will happen is if you have a thoroughly gospel-centered ministry. Without rewriting what I have already written, let me just say that one element of a thoroughly gospel-centered ministry is gospel-centered teaching.

Preaching the gospel is no less than telling someone how they are saved, but it is much more than that as well. The gospel has many dimensions, much like a diamond has many facets. It is our job to expose those facets as we teach. As well as it is our job to make sure the gospel informs our application, not works, shame, or guilt.

As we teach the gospel week in and week out, our people should not only come to understand the basic idea that Jesus died for our sin but also how it applies to all of life. Members who have a deep understanding of the gospel should have red flags going up all over the place when they hear or read something that is remotely contrary to what they know to be the gospel.

So one way we can guide our people away from false teaching is through a consistent diet of gospel-centered teaching. Apart from consistently teaching the gospel, there are other things we can do to lovingly guide members away from false teaching.

(2) Provide access and knowledge of biblical resources

If we want our people listening to and reading thoroughly biblical resources, we have to provide them with those resources. One thing I have done on my church’s website and my personal blog is to provide a list of trusted books and authors. On my personal blog, I have also placed links to other blogs/authors I trust. We don’t currently have the resources at my current church to do the following, but other churches I have attended in the past ran a church bookstore, as well as they recommended books each month in the church bulletin. Still another way to expose your people to good resources is to give them away. Set a stack of free books out for the congregation to take. If you do that, you may want to do what one of my former pastors did and make it known that if you take a free book, you are agreeing to be asked about it.

Those are just a few ideas for getting good resources in the hands of your congregation. Hopefully, if you can get them reading your recommendations, they will grow in their ability to discern false teaching. As well as if you can fill their reading list with your recommendations, the time they have to read other things will be limited or non-existent.

(3) Listen and correct

One practice I have found helpful in confronting ideas garnered from false teaching is to listen and correct. As pastors and teachers, it is easy for us to do all the talking, but one thing we must learn to do is listen to what others are actually saying. If we listen, we can then correct them.

When we correct, we shouldn’t do it in a condescending or negative way, but rather with love and patience. When I am in conversation with someone and they say something questionable, I usually say something like, “I am not so sure about that, or I don’t really agree with that idea. Here is what I believe the Bible says about that…” Or if someone brings up a known false teacher, I am sure to let them know my concern with that person. In order to do that, however, we have to be clued into the popular false teachers and know why we disagree with them.

(4) Provide a book review

Providing a book review is another helpful way to address false teaching. I have found Tim Challies (challies.com) to be an excellent source for book reviews, especially on popular level books currently influencing Christian culture. Don’t be afraid to share these reviews with members. After sharing, don’t forget to follow up. A review alone isn’t enough. We also need to gather their thoughts and discuss the main difficulties with the book.

(5) Use social media

Almost everyone I know has a social media account. Social media can be an effective tool for communication and teaching if used properly. In an effort to do just that, I make it a point to post on my church’s Facebook feed weekly. My posts generally cover three broad categories. Some I use to teach and challenge, others are for encouragement, while others are used to inform. I find that to be a good mixture. As well as I try to spread those posts out over the week, which you can easily do by scheduling posts right from your church’s Facebook feed.

(6) Confront

As fellow Christians, it’s important we confront those affected by false teaching with the truth of God’s Word. When we do this, we must go with our Bible’s open, ready to share God’s teaching on the matter. What we think doesn’t matter, as much as what God thinks, so we must confront with God’s Word open in love with much patience.

(7) Pray

Along with providing a steady diet of gospel-centered teaching, a list of resources, correction, book reviews, articles posted on social media, and loving confrontation we must pray and trust the Holy Spirit to work. I say that because it is ultimately the Holy Spirit who draws people away from false teaching and to the true gospel, not us. We can help, but the Holy Spirit must convict and cause a person to repent.

(8) Remove

The above has assumed the person being addressed has indiscriminately subscribed to false teaching. But what about those who haven’t? What about those who are actively spreading false teaching in your congregation? I believe the only option we have when it comes to false teachers, whether they are doing the teaching, or knowingly and actively spreading another’s teaching, is to remove them from any sort of leadership role while making the congregation aware of the false teaching they have shared and its corrective.

If they are not a teacher but are still actively and knowingly spreading false teaching in the congregation, we need to first approach them and ask them to stop. We also need to approach those members with whom they have shared that teaching and provide a corrective. If after approaching them, they refuse to repent and stop spreading false teaching, we must remove them from the congregation by means of church discipline. This may seem harsh, but it is our responsibility to protect the sheep from roaming wolves, which seek to devour.

Question for Reflection

  1. Are there any other ways you would deal with false teaching in your congregation?

Resource

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