If you appoint men who are not qualified for the eldership what happens......
March 13, 2013
I wanted 10 but only came up with 7.....
1.
The church is weakened because the leaders do not model godliness.
Congregations should be able to look at their elders and aspire to be
like them in their life and teaching.
2. You place the future of the church in peril. Ministers come and
go. Most elders will outlive ministers and have to choose the next
pastor.
3. You put your minister in a vulnerable position. It
may well be that the elders are weak men that allow him to do exactly
as he pleasees. All the decisions go his way and people become afraid of
standing up to him. Alternatively there are countless examples of
elders who make the ministers life a misery by pulling up the hand break
at each opportunity and being obstreporous.
4. Untheological elders are not going to be able to spot error. In
all likelihood it'll be a matter of emphasis and we start to get
unbalanced in our teaching. Elders with a good knowledge of scripture
and the Confession will be able to correct us, or at least flag up where
we might be becoming unbalanced.
5. Your elders will not be shepherds of the flock.They will become
a board of directors who make executive decisions without actually
caring for people and dealing with people's needs. Pragmatism kills
churches in the long term.
6. When it comes to big decisions and attacks on the truth, the
only hope is that they'll make the right decisions based on personal
loyalty. They are not going to have the right theological categories to make the
right decisions based on the issues.
