Scott Mehl’s notes from the recent TGC LA EQUIP Meeting for pastors and church leaders has been posted on the TGCLA Blog. There’s helpful thoughts from principles on eldership, qualifications, and the process from identification to installation so check it out. I was really blessed and helped so I commented on the blog post and reproduce it below:
I was helped by several things at this meeting. (1) I liked the concept of not making the excellent deacons, the “Super-deacons,” elders just by virtue of their excellence in their diaconate. I feel that temptation and was totally unaware. (2) The problem with most leadership teams having strife is that they don’t have qualified elders. Don’t appoint a man who is not qualified in character. Most leadership issues start here. (3) Most men have the wrong idea about what it means to serve as a pastor-elder so you need to tell them and show them. Immerse them in the work so they can have the right concept.
I wanted to comment on the discussion of the function of statements of faith and eldership, but the discussion moved in a different direction. I think some churches have inadequate statements that are too broad or too specific. Some are broader than they should be on specific issues like baptism or church government. Some are narrower than they should be on issues like eschatology (millennium/rapture debate). There’s room for discussion on which issues should be included and why and whether it’s wise to have a second statement of faith for elders that goes beyond the one for the church as a whole (membership). Does anyone want to pick up on either of those issues?
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