Biblical Eldership Church Leadership

Qualified Leadership

of Leviticus, Moses details all the sexual sins of the godless nations that would soon surround Israel. God warns His people against the practice of such sins: “Do not defile yourselves by any of these things [depraved sexual practices]; for by all these the nations which I am casting out before you have become defiled. . ..Thus you are to keep My charge, that you do not practice any of the abominable customs which have been practiced before you, so as not to defile yourselves with them; I am the Lord your God” (Lev. 18:24,30). The need for purity was taught in the new covenant community as well. Paul writes, “But do not let immorality or any impurity or greed even be named among you, as is proper among saints" (Eph. 5:3; italics added). One of Satan’s oldest, most effective strategies for destroying the people of God is to adulterate the marriages of those who lead God’s people (Num. 2521-5; 1 Kings 1121-13; Ezra 921,2). Satan knows that if he can defile the shepherds’ marriages, the sheep will follow. The specific marital and family qualifications God requires for elders are meant to protect the whole church. So the church must insist that its leaders meet these qualifications before serving and while serving. If the local church does not insist on these requirements, the people will sink into the toxic wasteland of today’s sexual and marital practices. Tragically, many major Christian denominations have learned noth ing from the Old Testament about the certain results of accommodat ing secular standards of sexual behavior. In nearly every major Chris tian denomination, God’s laws regarding marriage, divorce, sexuality, and gender differences are being discarded and replaced with an ac ceptance of the most corrupt human practices. Among Christian lead ers, adultery and other sexual sins are at epidemic levels.7 Among the major denominations, clergy divorce and remarriage is hardly an is sue. As Tlme magazine aptly describes today’s religious landscape, “Denominations that once would not tolerate divorced ministers now find themselves debating whether to accept avowed lesbian ones.”8 The other character qualities stress the elders’ integrity, self-con trol, and spiritual maturity. Since elders govern the church body, they must be self-controlled in the use of money, alcohol, and in the exer cise of their pastoral authority. Since they are to be models of Chris tian living, they must be spiritually devout, righteous, lovers of good, hospitable, and morally above reproach before the non-Christian com munity. In pastoral work, relationship skills are preeminent. Thus shep herd elders must be gentle, stable, sound-minded, and uncontentious.

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