This morning at church I was approached by one of the leaders. He asked for a couple of minutes of my time; I granted his wish. He wanted to talk to me about the elder selection process in our church.
Each year the current leaders solicit input from the members via a form in the Sunday morning bulletins. These forms are included for a few weeks to give everyone the opportunity to provide input. The form gives room for a member to recommend several people to the eldership whom they view as qualified for this honorable position of leadership.
The man told me that my name had been submitted by several people. He wanted to know if I would prayerfully consider accepting this position of responsibility. I told him that I was honored to have been viewed with such respect by the various people who submitted my name and by the eldership who affirmed that view by approaching me. I also told him that I had already pre-decided this years ago. I would turn down the invitation.
I have served as an elder in two other churches. I won't go into all the reasons for my decision, but basically I don't feel called to that kind of leadership. I serve in various capacities of leadership and feel comfortable that God wants me in all of these roles, at this time. Until God changes my mind, I will turn down any such invitations.
As I sat in the worship assembly a little over an hour after I had turned down that invitation, this thought came to me: "Live in such a way that men might see you as worthy of an invitation to serve as an elder. That invitation, however, does not mean you need to accept." I believe that local churches should be populated with many men who are qualified to be elders, yet feel no personal calling to that particular service.
Something is wrong with the concept of discipleship when you find a church with a bunch of Christian men, who have been "Christian men" for 20 years or more, and are not close to biblically qualified for the eldership. Furthermore, it is an error to think that the qualifications for an elder are just qualifications of an elder. They are marks of Christian maturity that should be the goal of every man who comes to follow Jesus.
I fear that many churches focus on salvation too much. How can that be? Well, if you focus on salvation to the exclusion of maturation, I think you have too much focus there. If a person wants to come to Jesus "just as I am" but intends to stay as they are, they have missed the mark of Christ's mission, in humble understanding. I have been in many evangelistic meetings where, at decision time, we were all instructed to bow our heads and close our eyes. Then, with every head bowed and every eye closed, the one who felt a need to respond to Christ was to "slip a hand up in the air". The evangelist would then, announce to all of us, "I see those hands; I see that hand up in the balcony." For years, I have thought that some substantial number of those "converts" are waiting for all of us to bow our heads and close their eyes before they are ready to really live for God.
If you have been avoiding the process of spiritual maturation, I have this to say: Get off your saved butt, in Jesus name. Get with the program. He didn't ask us to say we will follow; He asked us to really follow Him. Following Him leads to maturity. If the way you have been on hasn't honestly led to maturity, you have not been on His Way. I can't say it any clearer or kinder.
