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The Glass House of God: The Strategic Necessity of an Elder’s Public Reputation · Reformed Thinking

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  We'll come back to reformed thinking.
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  We are really glad you're here with us.
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  Glad to be here. Today we have a topic that I've
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  been chewing on all week, and honestly, it's making me sweat a
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  little bit. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
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  We're talking about the church. We're talking about leadership.
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  But specifically we're getting into the uncomfortable reality
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  that the church does not exist in a vacuum.
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  We're looking at this idea of the Glass House.
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  It's a striking image, isn't it? When you live in a glass house,
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  you have all this visibility, you have light, but you also
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  have 0 secrets. Right.
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  And you're incredibly fragile. Totally.
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  If someone throws a stone, everything shatters.
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  And the text we're digging into today?
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  First Timothy 3.7 deals directly with that visibility.
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  It's the requirement that an elder or an overseer must have a
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  good reputation with those outside.
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  When I first read that my knee jerk reaction was to, you know,
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  push back. I thought, wait a minute, since
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  when do we care what the world thinks?
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  That's a common reaction, I think.
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  Isn't the gospel supposed to be offensive?
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  Why are we letting the culture grade our homework?
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  But looking at the articles and the exegesis we've got here, I'm
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  realizing this isn't about PR. No, this is about something much
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  more serious. It's about survival, and more
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  than that, it's about the integrity of the thing itself.
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  We tend to view the church as, you know, a fortress of truth.
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  And it ought to be. It absolutely ought to be, but a
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  fortress with a compromise commander is easily taken.
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  The stakes here are high. We're not talking about being
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  popular or liked. Not at all.
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  We're talking about whether the church is a credible witness to
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  the nation's or, frankly, a laughingstock.
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  The material we're working with today really strips away any
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  romanticism we might have about ministry.
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  They paint a picture of the modern context that is, well,
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  it's pretty bleak. It is, yeah.
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  We are living in an era of deep institutional distrust.
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  People just assume leaders are corrupt until proven otherwise.
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  And that puts the church in a really tight spot.
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  We're trying to hold up the standard of truth, but we're
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  doing it before a watching world that's cynical, skeptical and,
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  you know, waiting for us to mess up.
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  And the sources point out that the sins of our time,
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  Pragmatism, you know, wanting what works, valuing charisma
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  over character have made us vulnerable.
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  We handed them the ammunition. We've handed the world
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  ammunition to shoot back at us. So let's get into the text
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  itself first. Timothy 3.7.
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  This is part of the qualifications for an elder, but
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  the sources highlight that the grammar here is It's intense.
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  It is. It's not a suggestion.
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  It is not a nice to have. No.
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  The Greek verb Paul uses there is day E.
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  It's a tiny word, just three letters, but it it carries the
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  weight of logical necessity. It means it is necessary.
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  It's the kind of word you use when you say for a fire to burn,
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  there must be oxygen. It's not optional, not optional
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  seasoning. It's a divine mandate.
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  So let's play this out. You have a guy.
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  He is a phenomenal teacher. He can parse Greek verbs in his
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  sleep. He tithes 20% of his income.
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  He's charismatic. People love him but his non
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  Christian neighbors think he's a clook according to this text.
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  Is he disqualified? According to the grammar of the
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  text, yes, he's out. Just like that.
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  The day creates A logical compulsion.
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  If this quality is absent, the office is denied.
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  It does not matter how gifted he is.
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  The text is creating a mark of fitness.
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  If the reputation with outsiders is missing, the fitness is
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  missing. That is a hard pill to swallow
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  for the modern church because we love gifting.
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  We love talent. We really do.
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  But let's look at what kind of reputation is required.
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  The Greek word is martyria. That sounds like a word we know.
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  It's yours root with martyr it means witness or testimony, but
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  here it's used in a legal, almost forensic sense.
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  OK, forensic. What does that mean in this
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  context? It implies evidence.
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  It's something that can be borne out by observations, not just a
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  vibe or a feeling. That's not just He seems like a
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  nice guy. No is evidence that would stand
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  up in court. If you put this man on trial in
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  the court of public opinion, would the evidence support his
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  integrity? And the sources made a big deal
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  about the specific word for good here.
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  It's not the usual word. This is a beautiful detail.
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  The word is Callan. Usually when we talk about
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  something being good in a moral sense, like, you know, paying
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  your taxes or not stealing, we use agathos.
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  Agathos, that's functional goodness.
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  But callos implies something that is beautiful, noble,
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  attractive. It's a goodness that is visible
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  to the observer. So it's not just good, it's
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  compellingly good. It compels respect, it has an
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  aesthetic quality to it. Help me visualize the
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  difference. What's the difference between an
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  Agathos reputation and a Kalos reputation?
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  OK, think about a neighbor. An Agathos neighbor is the guy
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  who doesn't play his music too loud and doesn't let his dog,
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  you know, poop on your lawn. He's fine.
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  He follows the rule. He's morally good.
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  He's not a problem. A Kalos neighbor is the guy who
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  notices your fence is broken and comes over with his tools to
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  help you fix it. Not because he wants something,
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  but because he's just just generous.
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  It's a goodness that has a certain shine to it.
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  Even if you don't share his faith, you look at him and say
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  that is a good man. I see.
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  So it's the difference between a hidden virtue and a virtue that
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  commands attention. That's a great way to put it.
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  And that brings us to the audience, those from outside
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  tunic Ethan. The non believing community,
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  neighbors, Co workers, the barista, the mechanic, the civic
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  leaders. Everyone who isn't in the
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  church. Right.
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  Paul is drawing a sharp contrast between the covenant community,
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  the church, and the world looking in.
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  The church doesn't exist in the sealed room.
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  We are on a stage. Which is terrifying because the
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  world can be hostile. The world is not always fair.
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  It's not, but notice the requirement.
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  It isn't that the world agrees with this theology.
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  Right, that's a key distinction. It isn't that the world likes
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  his stance on predestination, it's that they cannot credibly
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  attack his character. They might hate his God.
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  But they cannot say he is a liar.
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  They can't say he's a cheat. Okay, that is the requirement.
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  A compelling evidential reputation for good character
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  among non believers. Now I need to get to the.
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  Why? The purpose clause.
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  The text has a so that clause. This is the purpose statement.
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  Paul says he must have this reputation so that he does not
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  fall into two things, reproach and the snare of the devil.
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  Let's start with reproach on ideas most.
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  Reproach means disgrace or shame, and the sources use a
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  metaphor here that really stuck with me, the splash effect.
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  I have that highlighted in my notes.
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  I love that. Break that down for.
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  Us It's the idea that when a leader falls into disgrace, the
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  scandal never lands on the man alone.
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  It's not contained. It's.
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  Not contained. It's splashes.
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  It's like dropping a boulder into a muddy pond.
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  The muddy water splashes onto the congregation.
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  Like see that happening? It splashes onto the office of
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  Elder itself, cheaping it. And most terrifyingly, it
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  splashes onto the name of Christ.
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  It gives the outsider A logical reason to reject the gospel.
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  Yes, the outsider thinks, if that is your faith, why should I
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  listen? Your leader is no different than
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  the Pagan down the street. Precisely, And we have to make a
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  crucial distinction here. The cross itself is an offense.
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  The gospel is offensive to the natural man because it tells him
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  he's a Sinner who cannot save himself, right?
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  We cannot avoid that offense, right?
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  But the sources argue there's a massive difference between the
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  unavoidable offense of the cross and the avoidable offense of
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  hypocrisy. So if they hate you because you
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  say Jesus is the only way to the Father, that's one thing.
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  That's the cost of discipleship. But if they hate you because you
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  stiffed the contractor who fixed your roof, that is reproach.
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  That is it. The latter is an avoidable
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  offense. You have handed the world a
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  ready made excuse to dismiss the message without ever grappling
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  with the claims of Christ. You've made it easy for them.
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  You've made it easy for them to say no to Jesus because they can
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  point to your bad check or your bad temper.
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  That brings us to the second danger, and honestly, this
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  sounds like the title of a horror movie.
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  The Snare of the Devil pages. It is a chilling phrase, yeah.
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  The word pages refers to a trap used for birds or beasts.
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  It's a mechanical device. It's like a bear trap.
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  Exactly. It's hidden and it's sudden.
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  It's snap shut. And the analysis in our sources
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  here is heavy. It suggests that Satan leverages
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  hidden shame or public reproach to entrap the shepherd.
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  I want to spend some time here because this feels like the core
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  of the warning. How does a bad reputation become
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  a snare? What are the mechanics of that
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  trap? Think about blackmail.
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  It doesn't even have to be literal blackmail from a person.
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  It can be the blackmail of conscience.
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  If a leader has a bad report, maybe he has unethical business
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  dealings, maybe he cheats on his taxes, maybe he has a secret
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  addiction. He lives in constant low level
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  fear of exposure. So he's always looking over his
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  shoulder. Always.
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  He's managing A narrative, he's trying to keep the story
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  straight. And that fear gives the enemy
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  leverage. The leader becomes double
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  minded. How does that play out?
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  Think about it, how can he preach boldly against greed if
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  he knows he's underpaying his employees?
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  How could he preach against the lack of self-control if he's
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  nursing a secret sin? He can't.
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  He can't. His conscience chokes him.
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  The words die in his throat. So he starts to soften the
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  message. He edits himself, he preaches
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  around the hard topics. He becomes neutralized, and this
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  is the strategic genius of the enemy.
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  The source material makes a point that I think we need to
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  sit with. OK, Satan does not necessarily
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  need to remove the man from office.
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  He just needs to keep him in office as a compromised agent.
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  That is a terrifying thought, a compromised agent in the pulpit.
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  A leader who is hollowed out by fear and hypocrisy is actually
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  more useful to the enemy than no leader at all.
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  If you remove the leader, the church might find a godly
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  replacement. But if you keep the compromise
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  man in place, he wounds the flock.
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  He creates a culture of cynicism.
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  He inoculates. Them he inoculates the people
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  against the truth, because his life denies what his mouth
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  speaks. It's like he's a sleeper cell
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  for the opposition and he might not even realize it.
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  He just thinks he's struggling. But the text calls it a snare, a
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  trap. It is a trap that you walk into
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  and then you cannot get out without tearing yourself apart.
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  Yeah, that is why Paul is so adamant.
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  Try. It is necessary.
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  This isn't just about looking nice for the neighbors.
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  This is spiritual warfare. The reputation is the shield.
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  The reputation is the shield that prevents that snare from
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  snapping shut. You know when you hear
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  reputation with outsiders, it sounds like a very modern PR
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  focused concern. But if you look at the Old
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  Testament, this is actually one of the oldest themes in
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  Scripture. It goes all the way back.
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  One of our sources did a great job tracing this thread back to
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  Israel. It starts right at the beginning
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  of their national life. Look at Exodus 19.6.
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  God calls Israel to be a Kingdom of priests.
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  Now, what's a priest? A mediator, Someone who stands
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  between. The priest is a mediator.
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  A priest stands between God and the people.
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  Israel was meant to stand between God and the nations.
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  They were supposed to show the world what God was like.
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  Their ethics, their laws, their way of life, we're supposed to
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  distinguish them so that the world would look at them and see
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  the character of Yahweh. They were supposed to be the
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  display window. Spot on.
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  They were the display window for the character of Yahweh.
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  But they failed, and the tragedy of the exile, as Ezekiel 36.20
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  puts it, is that they profaned God's name among the nations.
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  Profaned is a strong word. It means to treat something holy
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  as common or dirty. They profaned his name not just
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  by their idolatry in the land, by their conduct when they were
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  scattered. So it was their behavior in
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  exile that was the problem. The nation's looked at them,
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  defeated, exiled, acting just like everyone else, and they
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  mocked the God of Israel. They said these are the people
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  of the Lord and yet they had to go out of his land.
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  Their failure was a smear on God's reputation.
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  But we do have positive examples in the text.
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  The sources mentioned Joseph and Daniel.
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  I want to talk about Daniel because his situation feels very
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  relevant to the modern corporate world.
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  Daniel's the gold standard for this.
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  Look at Daniel chapter 6. He's high up in the Persian
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  government, he's a public official and he has enemies.
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  A lot of them. The other say traps and high
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  officials want to destroy him. They are jealous, So what they
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  do, they launch a forensic audit.
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  They go through his emails, so to speak.
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  They go through everything, his expense reports, his
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  administrative decisions, his contracts.
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  They are looking for corruption, they're looking for negligence,
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  any little thing. And what do they find?
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  The text says something incredible.
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  They could find no ground for complaint or any fault because
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  he was faithful and no error or fault was found to them.
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  That is mind blowing. Imagine if your political
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  enemies did a deep dive into your life and found absolutely
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  nothing. Nothing.
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  Their conclusion is the key. They said.
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  We shall not find any ground for complaint against this Daniel
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  unless we find it in connection with the law of his God.
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  That is the goal of First Timothy 3.7.
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  The only dirt they could find was that he prayed too much.
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  That's a good reputation with outsiders.
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  On the flip side, we have David, and this is a heavy 1.
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  David is a man after God's own heart.
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  But then Bathsheba. David's story is heartbreaking
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  because it shows the splash effect so clearly.
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  He falls into sin, adultery, then murder to cover it up.
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  The ultimate standal. And when Nathan the Prophet
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  comes to confront him, he says something very specific.
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  After laying out the consequences, he says, by this
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  deed you have given occasion to the enemies of the Lord, to
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  blasphemy. And we know David repented.
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  We have Psalm 51. He was forgiven.
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  He was fully forgiven. His standing with God was
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  restored, but the reproach remained.
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  The source material emphasizes this distinction strongly, and
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  it's one we often miss. Repentance brings forgiveness,
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  but it does not immediately restore public credibility.
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  The consequences don't just disappear.
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  The enemies of God still use David's sin as ammunition.
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  They still mocked. Forgiveness cleanses the soul,
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  but it doesn't scrub the history books.
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  And for an elder who is a public representative, that history
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  matters. It matters.
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  The reproach can remain long after the guilt is gone.
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  Moving into the New Testament, we see this theme continue.
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  First, Peter 2.1 tell talks about keeping conduct honorable
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  so that slander is silenced. Yes, Peter uses the idea that
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  the leader's life, and really every Christian's life, is a
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  lens, a lens outsiders look through the life of the believer
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  to evaluate the truth claims of the gospel.
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  If the lens is dirty, cracked, or smeared with hypocrisy, the
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  gospel looks distorted and ugly. And this all points to Jesus.
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  It has to. It has to.
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  He is the faithful and true witness.
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  Think about his trial. He had plenty of enemies.
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  The religious leaders hated him. They wanted him dead.
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  They were actively looking for a reason.
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  But when it came down to a legal verdict, what did Pilate, the
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  secular Roman governor, say? I find no guilt in him.
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  Three times I find no guilt in him.
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  Yeah, Jesus was hated for the truth, not for moral failure.
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  He was the ultimate elder with a good reputation in the forensic
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  sense with outsiders. He was killed because of who he
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  was. Not because of what he had done
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  wrong. That's the critical difference.
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  I want to shift gears and get a little theological.
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  Our listeners know we're a Reformed podcast.
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  We love the Westminster Confession of Faith.
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  It's our standard. It is one of the articles we
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  read laid out how this this concept connects to the
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  confession. I think sometimes we separate
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  practical ministry from systematic theology, but they're
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  tied together here. They are inseparable.
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  If you want to understand why this matters, look at WCFXXV
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  which deals with the church. It states that the visible
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  Church is the Kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ.
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  A Kingdom. Now, if the Church is a Kingdom,
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  the officers are ambassadors. I like that analogy.
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  An ambassador represents a sovereign.
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  Exactly. An ambassador doesn't speak for
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  himself, he speaks for the king. Now imagine an ambassador to a
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  foreign country. If he is known in that country
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  as a drunkard or a liar or a man who doesn't pay his debts, who
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  gets shamed. The King, the country he
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  represents. Not just the man, the king he
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  represents get shamed. It's a diplomatic incident.
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  An ambassador with a bad reputation shames the sovereign.
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  It's high treason to misrepresent the King.
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  In a spiritual sense it is. And then you have WCF, the 9th
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  text regarding the law. We talk about the third use of
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  the law. OK, remind us of the three uses.
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  The first use is a mirror to show us our sin and drive us to
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  Christ. The second is a curb to a
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  strain, evil in society. But the third use is a guide for
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  the believer. It guides us into grateful
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  obedience that adorns the doctrine.
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  Adorns the doctrine. Disqualification for elders.
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  This need for a good reputation. It protects against
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  antinomianism. Let's unpack that term,
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  Antinomianism, a big word. It literally means against the
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  law. It's the idea that because we're
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  saved by grace, our behavior or our ethics don't really matter.
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  The cheap grace problem. It's the guy who says, well, I
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  preach the gospel of grace, so it doesn't matter if I cut
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  corners of my business, I'm forgiven.
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  The confession rejects that entirely.
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  A good report is evidence of grace at work.
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  A good report is the visible indicative of the Spirit's work.
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  WCF the 18th on sanctification reinforces this.
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  You can't claim to be sanctified if your neighbors think you're a
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  crook. Spirits work isn't invisible.
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  If the Spirit is at work in you, it will show up in how you treat
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  your neighbor, your employee, the person at the DMV.
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  And the 9th commandment comes into play here too, according to
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  the Larger Catechism. This surprised me.
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  Yes, we usually think the 9th commandment is just do not bear
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  false witness, don't lie in court.
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  Right. Don't lie.
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  But the Larger Catechism expands it beautifully.
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  It says the command requires preserving and promoting the
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  good name of our neighbor and our own.
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  Wait, so protecting your own reputation is a command?
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  It's a stewardship. Your name, your reputation is a
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  tool for the Kingdom. Being careless with it, living
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  in a way that invites scandal, is actually a violation of the
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  9th commandment. You are failing to steward the
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  good name God has given you for His glory.
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  That connects back to the idea of Providence to God, places the
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  church in a specific context. We aren't just dropped into a
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  void. No, we have neighbors, laws,
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  community standards of decency. And we're meant to interact with
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  them. Exactly.
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  We're to be the salt and light in that context.
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  God put you in that neighborhood, in that workplace,
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  in that city. He expects you to be a credible
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  witness to those specific people.
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  OK, let's get practical. This was my favorite part of the
• 18:40
  source material because it gets very real.
• 18:42
  It talks about the outsider audit.
• 18:44
  The outsider audit. I love that term, it's so
• 18:47
  direct. The premise is that outsiders
• 18:49
  don't grade theology exams. They don't care about your
• 18:52
  eschatology, They watch your ordinary life.
• 18:56
  So what are the specific areas they scrutinize?
• 18:59
  The first one mentioned was workplace integrity.
• 19:02
  This is huge and honestly it's often overlooked in church
• 19:05
  vetting processes. We don't think to ask about.
• 19:08
  It we don't. Is the man lazy?
• 19:11
  Does he playoff his politics? Does he cut corners?
• 19:13
  You might have a guy who's a prayer warrior.
• 19:15
  On Sunday he raises his hands the highest.
• 19:17
  But on Monday, his Co workers know him as the guy who shifts
• 19:20
  blame, takes credit for other people's work, or shows up late
• 19:23
  and leaves early. Or the guy who is always
• 19:25
  evangelizing on company time when he should be working.
• 19:28
  I've seen that. Guy, that is a form of theft.
• 19:30
  You are stealing time from your employer to talk about Jesus.
• 19:34
  Outsiders see that as hypocrisy. They sure do.
• 19:37
  They think if your God is so great, why does he make you a
• 19:40
  bad employee? If you steal your employer's
• 19:43
  time, you are undermining the message you are trying to share.
• 19:46
  Then there is money injustice. This is a big one, and it's
• 19:50
  uncomfortable. The world smells financial
• 19:52
  crookedness instantly. Unpaid debts, Creative
• 19:55
  contracts, stinginess. Can we talk about tipping for a
• 19:59
  second? Oh.
• 20:00
  The Sunday lunch crowd. It is a running joke in the
• 20:02
  service industry that the after church crowd is the worst to
• 20:06
  serve. It's tragic.
• 20:07
  They represent God, but they tip 5% and leave a tract that looks
• 20:12
  like a $20 bill. That is a disaster for our
• 20:15
  witness. That is the definition of
• 20:17
  reproach. If a man is known for trying to
• 20:19
  weasel out of obligations, or if he's litigious, always suing or
• 20:24
  threatening to sue, that is a stench to the outsider.
• 20:28
  A Christian should be known as the most generous, honest person
• 20:31
  to do business with. I've seen this happen.
• 20:33
  A contractor finds out his client is an elder at the church
• 20:35
  and he rolls his eyes because he knows he's going to have to
• 20:37
  fight to get paid. That is a tragedy.
• 20:39
  That is the reproach we are talking about.
• 20:42
  That contractor is now inoculated against the gospel
• 20:45
  because of that elder's wallet. Next is sexual integrity and
• 20:48
  boundaries. And this isn't just about having
• 20:50
  a full blown affair, it's subtler.
• 20:52
  It's about boundaries, flirtation, emotional intimacy
• 20:56
  outside of marriage in the counseling room.
• 20:59
  Does he have solid, clear professional boundaries?
• 21:02
  The world is watching that stuff closely now.
• 21:05
  The world understands predator dynamics often better than the
• 21:08
  Church does. They notice when a man is too
• 21:10
  touchy. They notice when he focuses too
• 21:12
  much attention on young women. They pick up on the Creek factor
• 21:15
  before we do sometimes. They do, and if the world thinks
• 21:18
  a man is creepy, he cannot be an elder.
• 21:21
  It doesn't matter if he hasn't technically crossed a line yet.
• 21:24
  The reputation is damaged. The Kalos is gone.
• 21:26
  And temper. And speech.
• 21:28
  This brings us to the digital dimension.
• 21:30
  The sources say reproach spreads faster.
• 21:32
  Now we have to talk about the chronically online elder.
• 21:36
  This is a massive issue in our day.
• 21:38
  Screenshots exist forever. Algorithms feed outrage.
• 21:42
  The danger here is the man who is addicted to the dopamine hit
• 21:46
  of an online argument. He is a brawler.
• 21:48
  The text says an elder must not be a brawler, but we usually
• 21:52
  think of that as a guy getting into a fistfight at a Tavern.
• 21:55
  Today, the Tavern is Twitter. The Tavern is Facebook.
• 21:58
  Comments If a man is online mocking people, being sarcastic,
• 22:02
  being cruel, engaging and dunking on his theological
• 22:05
  opponents, he is a brawler. Even if he's defending the
• 22:08
  truth. Especially he's defending the
• 22:10
  truth, because the truth of Christ must be defended with the
• 22:12
  character of Christ. If you are defending sound
• 22:15
  doctrine with a venomous tongue, you are tearing down with your
• 22:18
  hands what you are building with your words.
• 22:21
  And the outsider, the watching world, sees that venom.
• 22:24
  They see it and they think this is what a Christian leader is.
• 22:27
  He's just as mean and angry as the political pundits I watch on
• 22:30
  TV. It destroys credibility
• 22:32
  instantly. This leads us right into the
• 22:34
  modern error section. We've established what's
• 22:37
  required, but why are we struggling with this?
• 22:40
  One big reason the articles point to is the idol of
• 22:43
  authenticity. This is a very tricky cultural
• 22:45
  current. We value being real, and being
• 22:49
  real has come to mean sharing my mess.
• 22:52
  I'm just a broken person leading broken people.
• 22:54
  We hear that all the time. Right.
• 22:56
  And there is truth in that. We are all sinners.
• 22:58
  We were all in need of grace, but the error comes when we
• 23:02
  confuse transparency with qualification.
• 23:05
  Say more about that. The horse material makes a vital
• 23:07
  distinction. It's one thing to say I struggle
• 23:10
  with sin, it's another to say I am currently entangled in a
• 23:14
  lifestyle of reproach, but I should still lead because I'm
• 23:18
  being authentic about it. The text says above reproach not
• 23:21
  open about my reproach. Spot on.
• 23:23
  Appointing a man who is currently entangled in reproach
• 23:26
  is not grace, it is cruelty. Cruelty.
• 23:28
  That's a strong word. Usually we think letting him
• 23:31
  stay is grace. No, because you are pushing him
• 23:34
  into the snare of the devil. You are putting a weight on him
• 23:38
  that he cannot bear. While he is compromised.
• 23:42
  You are setting him up to be destroyed by the enemy.
• 23:45
  So what's the graceful thing to do?
• 23:47
  True grace would be to remove him from office so he can heal
• 23:51
  and repent without the pressure of leadership and public
• 23:54
  scrutiny. That's a paradigm shift.
• 23:56
  We often think removing someone as punishment, but you're saying
• 23:59
  it's protection the. Protection for him and his
• 24:01
  protection for the flock. Another error is pragmatism and
• 24:05
  celebrity. He's gifted.
• 24:07
  He has a platform. This is the celebrity church
• 24:09
  culture. We protect the brand rather than
• 24:11
  the flock. We see a guy who can draw a
• 24:13
  crowd, who is a great speaker, who sells books.
• 24:16
  The numbers look good. And because of that, we overlook
• 24:20
  the character flaws. We ignore the rumors about how
• 24:22
  we treat staff. We ignore the questions about
• 24:25
  how he handles money because the results are good, the seats are
• 24:28
  full, the budget is met. But the results are a House of
• 24:31
  Cards. When the public face collapses,
• 24:33
  and usually does if the character isn't there, public
• 24:37
  confidence in the gospel collapses with it.
• 24:40
  We have seen this headline too many times.
• 24:42
  Mega church pastor Falls and the world loves it.
• 24:46
  It confirms their bias. It confirms their bias that
• 24:49
  we're all hypocrites. Now, we need to make a careful
• 24:52
  distinction here. We talked about this a bit with
• 24:54
  Jesus, but let's clarify persecution versus reproach,
• 24:58
  because leaders will often use persecution as a shield.
• 25:01
  This is critical. If people are criticizing a
• 25:04
  leader, he might say, well, the world hates the truth.
• 25:07
  They're attacking me because I preach the Bible.
• 25:09
  They're attacking me because I stand for traditional marriage.
• 25:11
  And that might be true, but we have to investigate.
• 25:14
  We have to be honest. Do they hate him because he
• 25:16
  preaches the exclusive Christ? If so, if so, he is blessed,
• 25:20
  that is carrying the cross. Or do they hate him because he
• 25:23
  is a liar, a cheat or a bully? If it's the second one, that's
• 25:27
  not persecution. That is disqualification.
• 25:30
  We must not use the World hates truth as a shield for bad
• 25:34
  character. The source material is adamant
• 25:36
  about this. We need to be honest enough to
• 25:38
  ask why the criticism is happening.
• 25:40
  Is it the offense of the cross or the offense of the jerk?
• 25:42
  So how do we apply this? If you are a church, a search
• 25:46
  committee, or just a member, what do you do with this
• 25:49
  information? The sources suggest a radical
• 25:52
  step for search committees, and honestly, this sounds awkward.
• 25:56
  It is awkward, but it is necessary.
• 25:58
  Do not rely on impressions or rumors from within the church
• 26:02
  bubble. We have to get outside our own
• 26:03
  echo chamber. Do the hard work.
• 26:05
  Talk to non Christian neighbors. Talk to former employers.
• 26:09
  Can you imagine a pastoral search committee calling up a
• 26:12
  candidate's old boss at a secular insurance firm and
• 26:15
  asking, was he honest? It sounds extreme but it's
• 26:18
  actually just due diligence. That is the outsider audit.
• 26:22
  Think about it. If that boss says he was the
• 26:24
  hardest worker I had, I trusted him with the safe and I was sad
• 26:27
  to see him go. That is gold.
• 26:29
  That's Maria. That is evidence, That is
• 26:32
  powerful testimony. But what if he says he was
• 26:35
  always cutting corners, he was difficult to work with and he
• 26:38
  left us in a lurch? Then it is a massive red flag
• 26:41
  that you cannot ignore, You cannot spiritualize that away.
• 26:45
  You can't say, well, maybe he just didn't fit the corporate
• 26:47
  culture. Character is character.
• 26:49
  If he was dishonest there, he will be dishonest in the church
• 26:52
  finance meeting. So the advice is to look for
• 26:54
  patterns, not snapshot. Right.
• 26:57
  Everyone has a bad day. Everyone has a moment of
• 27:00
  weakness. We're looking for character
• 27:01
  traits. Is there a pattern of deception,
• 27:04
  a pattern of rage, a pattern of financial irresponsibility?
• 27:08
  And the advice to the search committee is slow down.
• 27:11
  Better to have fewer elders than unqualified ones.
• 27:15
  An empty seat is better than a seat filled by a man who will
• 27:17
  bring the snare of the devil into the boardroom.
• 27:20
  Sobering. The church can survive with
• 27:22
  fewer leaders. It cannot survive with
• 27:24
  compromise leaders. What about for the candidate or
• 27:27
  the guy listening right now who wants to be an elder someday?
• 27:30
  Cultivate credibility long before you seek office.
• 27:33
  Be the same man at work as you are at church.
• 27:36
  And this the punchline from the sources.
• 27:38
  If you must hide it, you must kill it.
• 27:40
  If you must hide it, you must kill it.
• 27:42
  That hits hard. If you were doing something
• 27:44
  right now, a habit, a relationship, a financial
• 27:47
  practice that you would be terrified for the church to know
• 27:50
  about, you are already in the snare.
• 27:53
  You're already compromised. You need to deal with that sin.
• 27:56
  Kill it before you even think about leading God's people.
• 28:00
  Finally, how do we handle accusations?
• 28:03
  Because in this Glass House world, false accusations happen
• 28:06
  too. We can't be naive about that.
• 28:08
  They do. We live in a litigious
• 28:10
  accusatory culture. The key is to avoid 2 ditches
• 28:13
  which are mob justice on one side and institutional cover up
• 28:16
  on the other. So we don't just believe every
• 28:18
  accusation, but we don't just dismiss them either.
• 28:20
  Use ordinary lawful inquiry. Don't panic.
• 28:23
  Investigate. Distinguish between doctrinal
• 28:26
  hostility and moral concern, and do it with the spirit of
• 28:29
  protecting Christ's honor, not the institution's image.
• 28:32
  It seems like the default setting for institutions is self
• 28:36
  protection. Protect the brand.
• 28:37
  It is, but the church is not a corporation, it's the household
• 28:41
  of God. We protect the honor of the
• 28:43
  master, not the comfort of the servants.
• 28:45
  If a servant is misrepresenting the master, the most loyal thing
• 28:49
  we can do is remove the servant from his public post.
• 28:52
  As we wrap up this deep dive, I want to circle back to where we
• 28:54
  started. This sounds heavy.
• 28:57
  It sounds like a high bar above reproach.
• 28:59
  Good reputation with outsiders. It feels almost impossible.
• 29:03
  It's a high bar, it's meant to be.
• 29:05
  It's meant to be a protective wall.
• 29:06
  First Timothy 3.7 is there to safeguard the church from the
• 29:09
  snare. But is there hope for us?
• 29:11
  Because none of us are perfect. We all have days where we aren't
• 29:14
  the best neighbors. We all fail.
• 29:16
  That's the most important thing to end on.
• 29:18
  The ultimate hope is not in our moral performance, it's in our
• 29:21
  union with Christ. He is the only truly above
• 29:25
  reproach overseer. The one in whom Pilot found no
• 29:28
  guilt. Exactly.
• 29:29
  Our reputation should eventually point to him.
• 29:32
  The goal isn't that outsiders look at an elder and say, wow,
• 29:35
  what a great man, he's perfect. That's not the goal.
• 29:38
  The goal is that they look and say there is something different
• 29:41
  about him. He admits when he's wrong, he's
• 29:45
  honest when it hurts, he has a piece that doesn't make sense.
• 29:48
  So they see the beauty of the Savior who changes men.
• 29:51
  That is it. We want them to see the fruit of
• 29:54
  the gospel. A good reputation is just the
• 29:57
  clean window that allows them to see Christ clearly.
• 30:00
  It's not the painting. It's not the painting itself,
• 30:02
  it's the glass that lets you see the painting.
• 30:04
  That is a beautiful place to land.
• 30:06
  It takes the pressure off being perfect and puts the focus on
• 30:09
  being his. Amen.
• 30:11
  Thank you for walking us through this.
• 30:12
  This has been a heavy but necessary conversation.
• 30:15
  My privilege and to you listening, thanks for joining us
• 30:18
  on Reformed Thinking. We hope this deep dive helps you
• 30:20
  look at leadership and your own life with fresh eyes.
• 30:23
  Until next time.