Elders & Deacons

Good morning! My name is David Sorn, and I’m the Lead Pastor here at Renovation Church.

As a church, we’ve been teaching verse-by-verse through the letter of 1 Timothy.

And it’s been a very different sort of series for us, as its quite different than going through the Gospels about Jesus, or even some of Paul’s other letters we’ve done in past years.

1 Timothy, like our Series Name suggests, gives us “God’s Blueprint for His Church”

So our passages have been a little less personal than normal, and more about the structure of God’s church.

How do we do church discipline?

How should one act in the church?

Who are the leaders of the church?

And today, we’re going to get a passage on the qualifications of leaders.

And you may feel like, “Meh, I’m not a leader. What does this passage have to do with my life?”

But it has a lot to do with your life.

Because when churches get these things wrong, it gets messy for everyone.

But when they get them right, you don’t think much about it.

It’s kind of like being an offensive lineman in football…those are the people who block for the quarterback if you’re not into football.

But they only mention the name of an offensive lineman on TV if they mess up.

And too often in the church, we only start thinking about qualifications of leaders, when they mess up.

But the goal is that we think through it well, and Biblically, together now, so it doesn’t get messy in the future.

1 Timothy 3:1-7

Page 811

This is going to be our last week in 1 Timothy for this Spring…

…because we are finishing the first half of the book today (chapters 1-3), and then we’ll do the rest of the book in The Fall.

(1 Timothy 3:1-7) – NIV

Here is a trustworthy saying: Whoever aspires to be an overseer desires a noble task. 2 Now the overseer is to be above reproach, faithful to his wife, temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, 3 not given to drunkenness, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. 4 He must manage his own family well and see that his children obey him, and he must do so in a manner worthy of full respect. 5 (If anyone does not know how to manage his own family, how can he take care of God’s church?) 6 He must not be a recent convert, or he may become conceited and fall under the same judgment as the devil. 7 He must also have a good reputation with outsiders, so that he will not fall into disgrace and into the devil’s trap.

(Elders & Deacons)

Okay, keep this open.

A NOBLE TASK

So here we get the qualifications of an overseer

Now the words overseer, elder, and pastor are interchangeable in the Bible.

Let’s study this point a bit more before we go further in this passage.

Words for Pastor in the New Testament

#1: Overseer: Leader that oversees the church and is responsible for the spiritual well-being of the flock.

#2: Elder: Mature leader that guides the flock.

#3: Pastor: Shepherd that cares for the flock.

And so all of those words describe both what we today would call a pastor, or even the elders (the spiritual leaders) of the church.

In fact, if you read Titus chapter 1, which is another section where Paul lists the qualifications of elders…

…Paul literally switches from using the word elder to the word overseer right in the middle of the list.

Just as someone today might today switch between the words pastor or minister or as my wife’s grandma used to say, “parson.”

It’s all the same thing.

These are leaders that are watching over, guiding, and caring for the believers in their midst.

Which is why it’s SO important that YOU are in a House Church.

This is just half of Church. The other half is House Church.

You need people who know you, and can support you, and challenge you to walk closer with Christ.

We got about 6 or 7 weeks left of House Church left, so sign up and try one out this Spring.

So let’s look at verse 1 again.

Here is a trustworthy saying: Whoever aspires to be an overseer desires a noble task.

(Elders & Deacons)

Being a pastor, or an elder, is not easy, but it’s noble.

It’s good.

In our church, we have several pastors on staff.

But our elders here are our House Church Leaders.

In many church contexts today, elders are board members that sit in a room and work on policy.

But when I read in the Bible what elders do, what I see are spiritual shepherds who watch over the flock

…and so for us, our elders are our House Church leaders.

Although, we would say they are not elders “of the church” (not “elders OVER the whole church”), but they are the elder of their church, their house church.

And then our constitution says that 3 of those elders are selected to be a part of our church board.

And we read here that are many, many qualifications to being a pastor or an elder.

We studied in chapter 2 last week that Paul has reserved the elder role for men, but that doesn’t mean that just any man can lead.

Not even close.

In fact, Paul just listed about 17 qualifications in chapter 3

And there are a few other different qualifications in his list to Titus.

So these are probably not exhaustive lists, but principled lists

It’s fairly common to divide up these qualifications in 4 categories.

(Elder Qualifications Chart)

The first grouping is regarding the elder’s personal life in verses 2-3

So when we’re looking at hiring a pastor on staff, or looking at a future House Church Leader, we want to know does this person have character?

Because notice…the qualifications for leadership here don’t say much about giftedness.

When I was just starting in ministry, an older pastor told me:

Your giftedness will keep you in ministry about 5 years.

If you’re really talented, you’ll make it to 10 years.

But if you don’t have spiritual maturity, and you don’t have character, you’ll flame out or you’ll burnout by the end of your first decade in ministry.

And that’s so true.

So few of my seminary classmates are even in ministry anymore.

I’m not going to comment on all 17 of these qualifications, but I want to make a couple comments on just a few of them.

In verse 2, Paul starts with saying the overseer, the elder/pastor is to be “above reproach”

This doesn’t mean that every House Church Leader or Pastor is perfect.

It means that there should be no “easy reproach,” no “smoking gun” in their life.

No secret habit or major sin.

The next one is “faithful to his wife”

This may surprise you, but this is probably the most controversial of the 17

And it’s because the Greek literally reads that the elder is to be a one-woman-man.

And people have vigorously debated what “one-woman-man” means over the centuries

Is Paul saying that elders need to avoid polygamy?

I mean, I guess at minimum he’s saying that.

I’ve been in parts of Africa where polygamy is still practiced, and it’s actually fairly common for the pastor to stand up, and in his introduction, say, “I’m Pastor David, and I’m the husband of ONE WIFE, Lindsey.”

Because they want to make sure everyone knows they are a ONE WOMAN MAN.

Others say that when Paul writes, “one woman man,” he is saying that elders can’t be adulterers or divorced.

Especially if it’s an unbiblical divorce

I think that’s the most probable reading here, but others disagree.

Next is TEMPERATE:

And again, I’m not going to cover all these, but these first few are really important.

If you’re temperate that means you’re someone who is not given to extremes.

You’re not overly emotional or polarizing, you’re self-retrained.

I know many of you around here aspire to be promoted or leaders at work (or here at church), so let me say temperance is one of the THE key indicators I look for in leaders…

Our church has had (praise God) very little major conflict at the leadership level in 15 years.

In part because we place a high priority on choosing temperate leaders.

When I was putting together for our Land Search Team back in the day, and then the Building Team after that, I only put people on the team that weren’t polarizing in their thinking and communication style. .

People who could “think in the grey,” and see both sides.

They could keep their emotions in check.

In six years of building meetings as we worked towards building this place, I think someone only got really passionate in a meeting once…it was me! 😊

In leaders, you want to see stability, dependability, and emotional maturity.

So if you’re looking to be a leader in the future, and this isn’t you yet, ask God and a trusted friend to help you start working on this.

Last one in verse 2: Able to Teach:

It says able to teach.

Not every elder we have teaches large groups of people.

Although they may teach their House Church from time to time, mostly what we’re looking for is: Can they, 1-on-1, teach someone how to follow and grow in Christ.

Okay, verse 3 now.

We see that the elder should…

Not be given to drunkenness.

That doesn’t mean a spiritual leader has to be someone who never drinks alcohol, but if their drinking leads to drunkenness, that is a disqualification, at least currently in their life, for them to be an elder.

When we hit verse 4, we get to our second category of qualifications, and that is the FAMILY LIFE

Let me read verses 4 & 5 again

4 He must manage his own family well and see that his children obey him, and he must do so in a manner worthy of full respect. 5 (If anyone does not know how to manage his own family, how can he take care of God’s church?)

So we’re not expecting the children of every House Church Leader or every pastor to be perfect.

Every one of us, including the leaders, are sinners.

But Paul is saying, “this is a good litmus test in assessing who is ready to have larger spiritual influence in leadership”

Can they lead their own little family in faith?

If so, they might be good at leading God’s family.

The 3rd category is the potential elder’s SPIRITUAL LIFE:

This is verse 6.

He must not be a recent convert, or he may become conceited and fall under the same judgment as the devil.

When people first come to Christ, they experience a lot of emotional excitement, but often their faith isn’t built yet on deeper foundations and the Word of Truth.

They need time!

Martin Luther once said:

Three things are necessary for the making of a pastor, “Prayer, meditation, and temptation.”

In other words, spiritual leaders are going to have to be humbled by their own weaknesses before they fully trust in God and not themselves.

That’s why Paul is worried about them becoming conceited in verse 7

And this doesn’t mean, by the way, that elders have to be old.

Or even that they have to be Christians for decades (like some churches think) just to be an elder.

If you think about it, many of the elders Paul appointed in his church plants had been Christians for only a year.

Remember, everyone in his churches was a new Christian!

And we have a rich history in this church of appointing young people into leadership.

I started this church as the “lead pastor” at 27 years old, and 2 of our first 3 elders (Jared Hibma & Patrick Vesperman) were 26 and 25.

Even today, we hire lots of young people.

Maturity, especially spiritual maturity, isn’t always about age.

Age can help (it should help), but only if you’re intentionally spiritually growing.

Because if you’re not, you’ll just stagnate, and it’s not that hard to become a 75 year-old- 20 year old.

I’m not talking about you of course, but I’m sure you know someone like that

The last category of qualifications is your EXTERNAL REPUTATION

Verse 7

He must also have a good reputation with outsiders, so that he will not fall into disgrace and into the devil’s trap.

Paul is saying, “If your coworkers and neighbors find out that you are an elder at your church, they shouldn’t go, ‘What?! Seriously!’ No way!”

Your coworkers should find it just as believable (that you’re a new elder) as the people who see you on Sunday mornings.

Before I move to the next verses, I want to recognize our elders because they work tirelessly to serve and sacrifice the people of our 25 different House Churches, and we want to honor them!

So, if we have any elders in the room, would you please stand, and we want to honor you!

(clap)

QUALIFICATIONS OF A DEACON

Okay, let’s keep reading.

(1 Timothy 3:8-10) – NIV

8 In the same way, deacons are to be worthy of respect, sincere, not indulging in much wine, and not pursuing dishonest gain. 9 They must keep hold of the deep truths of the faith with a clear conscience. 10 They must first be tested; and then if there is nothing against them, let them serve as deacons.

Let’s jump down to verse 12 as well

(1 Tmothy 3:12-13) – NIV

12 A deacon must be faithful to his wife and must manage his children and his household well. 13 Those who have served well gain an excellent standing and great assurance in their faith in Christ Jesus.

Okay, so now we meet the second main office, or leadership position in the church: the deacon.

And deacons are leaders who organize ministries and the work of the church.

We first are introduced to the deacon role in Acts chapter 6 when the church is growing so explosively fast that the apostles can’t keep up

(Acts 6:1-4) – NIV

In those days when the number of disciples was increasing, the Hellenistic Jews among them complained against the Hebraic Jews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food. 2 So the Twelve gathered all the disciples together and said, “It would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the word of God in order to wait on tables. 3 Brothers and sisters, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will turn this responsibility over to them 4 and will give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the word.”

And so the deacons are organizing the work of the church, so the spiritual leaders (the elders) can focus more on the spiritual work of the church (prayer, teaching the Bible, evangelism, etc.)

(Qualifications of a Deacon)

And the qualifications of the deacons here are quite similar to that of the elders, but there is no teaching gift required as they are organizational leaders.

And, it appears that this is open to both genders.

Let’s look back at verse 11 now.

(1 Timothy 3:11) - NIV

11 In the same way, the women are to be worthy of respect, not malicious talkers but temperate and trustworthy in everything.

This is a bit of a debated text in the Bible because it’s actually unclear in the Greek if when Paul says “women” if he’s referring to the wives of the deacons OR referring to female deacons (sometimes called a deaconess)

I think Romans 16 clears this up, which says:

(Romans 16:1) – NIV

I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a deacon of the church in Cenchreae.

Now, in full transparency, some still say, “No, that just says Phobe is a servant, not a deacon, it can mean the same thing…”

…but I think deacon is the best reading here.

(Qualifications of a Deacon)

In part because in our 1 Timothy passage, if Paul were just talking about the deacons’ wives all of a sudden, it’s really weird that he never did that for the elder’s wives.

So I think he’s talking about female deacons

Which is why we indeed have female deacons (along with male deacons) here at this church.

In fact, if you are a deacon (and maybe you’re just finding out now that that’s what it’s called!)…

But if you are a Deacon, and you lead a ministry team here, whether it be an adult volunteer team, or you lead one of our children’s classrooms, we’d like to honor you.

Would you stand?

(clap)

All right, kind of a unique passage to teach through, but again, these are the things that can seem almost “meh” to us in the moment, but if we don’t understand this, and we appoint the wrong leaders, it’s awful for any church.

I’ve talked to so many people in the last couple years who have come from really painful and hurtful church situations, in part because these principles weren’t followed!

And so, even here, in 1 Timothy chapter 3, good teaching (and application) is still really important.

Amen? Amen.