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The Shepherd’s Sword: The Necessity of Didaktikos in the Life of the Elder · Reformed Thinking

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  Welcome to Reformed thinking. I'm so glad you're here with us
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  for this deep dive. It's good to be here.
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  Today we're getting into something that, well, it affects
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  every single person sitting in a church on Sunday morning.
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  Even if you don't realize it. I mean, you don't realize it
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  until something goes wrong. We're talking about church
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  leadership. That's a great analogy.
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  You never think about the structural integrity of a house
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  until, you know, the roof starts leaking.
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  And today we're basically inspecting the foundation of the
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  church's leadership structure. We're looking at the biblical
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  qualifications for elders specifically.
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  But before we even open up the Bible, I just, I want to paint a
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  picture what I'm seeing out there in the, let's call it the
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  evangelical world. It feels like we're in a a
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  crisis of discernment. Oh, crisis is absolutely the
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  right word. We are living in an age that,
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  well, you could call it the democratization of truth.
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  What do you mean by that? It's just a way of saying that
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  for a lot of people, maybe most people, personal intuition.
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  Now, Trump's revelation. I feel this is true.
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  Exactly, this feels right to me. Carries a lot more weight on the
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  scales than God has said. This is true.
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  And that mindset, it has to bleed into how we pick our
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  leaders. And I've seen it so many times.
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  A church needs to nominate new elders.
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  Yep. And who do they look at?
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  They look around the congregation and they see the
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  guy who owns the successful car dealership or, you know, the
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  vice president of the local bank.
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  It's the. Board of director syndrome, it's
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  kind of the default setting for how a lot of modern churches
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  think about governance. It is we look for guys with
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  business acumen and we look for those charismatic personalities
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  or men who have some kind of influence out in the secular
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  community. We sometimes call it the CEO
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  elder model. You can understand why on a
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  purely human level, you think, well look, this man manages 100
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  employees in a multimillion dollar budget.
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  Surely he can help run a church. But that is a fundamental
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  category error. It's assuming that the church is
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  just another business enterprise.
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  Which it isn't. Not at all.
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  If the church is a business, then sure, go get ACEO.
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  But if the church is what the Bible says it is, a flock of
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  sheep, then you don't need aceo, you need a shepherd.
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  And the skills are totally different.
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  Completely different. The skills required to run a
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  corporation are not the same skills required to, you know,
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  care for souls. So what's the fallout?
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  What happens when we get this wrong?
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  When we fill the elder board with men who are great with
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  spreadsheets but maybe a little weak on their theology.
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  You get what's been called a weak pulpit, weak Pew dynamic.
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  Weak pulpit, weak Pew. Yeah, if the leadership is
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  chosen because they can read a balance sheet, but not because
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  they can read and apply the text of Scripture, then the
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  congregation will stay. Like spiritual infants, they get
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  tossed around. Tossed to and fro.
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  That's biblical language from Ephesians.
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  It's such a scary image, like a little boat in a huge storm with
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  no rudder. It's an image of complete
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  instability when the winds of culture start blowing.
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  And man, are they blowing hard right now.
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  The sheep just don't know where to stand.
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  They can't tell the difference. They can't distinguish the
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  shepherd's voice from the wolf's lies because, well, because
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  their own local leaders can't distinguish them either.
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  Wow. OK.
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  That really sets the stage for our specific focus today.
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  We are going to drill down into one single specific word.
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  It's found in First Timothy chapter 3, verse 2.
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  That word is didacticos. Didacticos, which in our English
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  Bibles is usually translated as able to teach.
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  That's right. Now, I have to be honest when I
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  read through that list of qualifications in first Timothy,
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  you know, husband of one wife, sober minded, respectable, all
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  of that able to teach can sometimes feel like just one
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  more item on the grocery list. But you're going to argue that
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  this is actually the main thing? I would argue it's the
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  watershed. It's the functional dividing
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  line that separates the office of elder from the office of
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  Deacon. This isn't some optional bonus
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  for the guys who happen to like reading books.
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  This is a matter of spiritual survival for the Church.
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  Survival. That's a strong word.
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  OK, so let's break this down. Let's start with the word
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  itself. You said it's didacticos.
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  Is this a word that shows up a lot in the Bible?
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  No, it's actually incredibly rare.
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  It only appears twice in the entire New Testament only.
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  Twice. Only twice, once here in First
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  Timothy 3.2 and then again in Second Timothy 2.24.
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  It comes from the verb D dasco which just means to teach.
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  But the key here is to look at the structure of the word, the
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  morphology. It has that suffix on the end
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  ecos. Ecos.
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  What does that suffix tell us? In Greek, that suffix denotes an
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  aptitude. It points to a capability, a
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  certain quality. It's the difference between just
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  doing something and being skilled at it.
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  Can you give us an example? Sure.
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  Think of the word musical. I can sit down at a piano and
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  just bang on the keys. In a sense, I'm playing the
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  piano. The very loose sense.
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  A very loose sense, yes, but no one would say that I am musical,
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  right? Being musical implies you have
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  an inherent aptitude and probably a cultivated skill.
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  Didacticose works just like that.
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  The question isn't is this man willing to teach if we kind of
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  force him to? No, the question is.
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  The question is, is this man skilled in the art of teaching?
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  Is he ready, willing and able to do it effectively?
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  So it's a skill set that really does seem different from the
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  rest of that list in First Timothy 3.
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  It's in a completely different category.
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  Look at the other requirements. Sober minded, self controlled,
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  respectable, hospitable, not a drunkard, not violent.
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  Those are all character traits. They're moral character traits.
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  They describe who the man is. You could find those traits in a
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  godly grandmother or a faithful teenager.
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  Right, we should all be trying to be sober minded and
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  respectable. You all should be.
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  But didacticos is different. It describes A functional
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  authority. It describes what the man can
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  do. It's a competency requirement.
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  The elder has to possess the theological competence to handle
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  the sort of the spirit. Why is Paul so insistent on
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  this? I mean he says the overseer must
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  be able to teach. Why is that a non negotiable?
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  Well, you have to remember the context.
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  We often read these letters as if they're, you know, abstract
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  theology textbooks that just dropped out of the sky.
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  But. They're not.
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  They're letters. They're letters to real people
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  in real cities. Paul was writing to his protege
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  Timothy, who is in Ephesus, and what was going on in Ephesus at
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  that time? It wasn't exactly a picnic.
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  It was a spiritual battlefield. Paul didn't write First Timothy
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  in a vacuum. He wrote it in a war zone.
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  In the very first chapter, he tells Timothy to charge student
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  people not to teach different doctrines.
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  There were myths, endless genealogies, false teachers just
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  swarming around the church. So this requirement isn't just
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  academic, it's it's Marshall, it's for battle.
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  That's the perfect way to say it.
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  It's a Marshall requirement. An elder must be able to teach,
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  not because we want him to give interesting lectures in a quiet
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  hall, but because there are enemies at the gate.
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  So if the shepherd can't use the sword of the word.
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  He can't defend the sheep. It's that simple.
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  This really comes into sharp focus when you compare the list
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  for elders to the list for deacons.
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  I was looking at that in First Timothy 3 verses 813.
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  The character requirements are almost identical, very similar,
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  dignified, not double tongued, holding the mystery of the faith
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  with a clear conscience. Right.
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  But what's missing? What's the one thing that's not
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  on that list for deacons? Able to teach, it's just it's
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  not there. And that silence is deafening.
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  It's definitional. It tells you what the different
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  offices are for. So deacons are for service.
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  Deacons are called to serve the physical and administrative
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  needs of the body. They are servants of mercy.
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  They absolutely need to understand the faith and hold to
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  it, but they are not required to be skilled in teaching it.
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  Whereas elders. Elders are set apart for the
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  ministry of the Word and prayer. That's their primary calling.
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  So if a church looks at a man, he's a great guy, loves Jesus,
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  everyone likes him, but he just can't teach his way out of a
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  paper bag. Then they have appointed A
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  Deacon and called him an elder. They've created a mute shepherd.
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  Or, or like a surgeon without a scalpel.
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  That's a great image. Imagine you're going in for
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  heart surgery. The surgeon comes in and he's a
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  wonderful man. He's kind, he's honest, he's
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  faithful to his wife. Great guy.
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  But he doesn't know how to use a scalpel.
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  I'm getting off that table I'm running.
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  You better run, because his good character cannot save your life
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  if he lacks the necessary competency for the task.
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  It's the same with the Church. A nice man who cannot teach
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  cannot protect your soul from damning error.
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  OK, so we've established the definition, didactic Cucos
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  skilled in teaching a non negotiable competency.
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  I want to get into the mechanics of it.
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  What does this actually look like in practice?
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  Because teaching can mean a lot of different things to different
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  people. It doesn't necessarily mean just
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  standing in a pulpit on Sunday morning, does it?
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  No, not at all, and that's a common misunderstanding.
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  Preaching is certainly one form of teaching, but being able to
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  teach is a much broader category than just delivering a weekly
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  sermon. So how do we flush this out?
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  To really understand the function, we have to look at the
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  parallel passage in Titus chapter one, verse 9.
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  Paul gives Titus a similar list of qualifications for elders,
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  but there he expands on the why he gives the job description.
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  Right, he says, the elder must hold firm to the trustworthy
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  word as taught. And then comes the purpose
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  clause that so that he says, so that he may be able to give
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  instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who
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  contradict it. OK.
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  So it's a 2 fold job description right there, yes.
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  You can think of it as construction and destruction, or
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  maybe better feeding and defending.
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  Let's. Start with the positive side.
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  The construction, the feeding give instruction in sound
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  doctrine. This is the primary constructive
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  work. The sheep need food.
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  They need to understand who God is, who they are, what Christ
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  has done for them. The elder's job is to build up
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  the church, to clarify the truth, to steady the believer
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  who is wobbling, and to comfort the afflicted.
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  It sounds very nurturing. It is.
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  It's like a mother feeding her child.
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  But then there's the other side of the coin.
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  The defending. Rebuke those who contradict.
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  This is the defensive, protective work.
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  The elder has to be able to spot patterns of error both inside
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  and outside the church, and then patiently dismantle them with a
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  scripture. This brings us right back to
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  that shepherd imagery. I love how the Bible traces this
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  theme all the way through its story.
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  It's a massive theme in the Old Testament.
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  The leaders of Israel, prophets, priests, kings, they were all
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  called shepherds and their main tool was the Word of God.
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  The Levites were explicitly commanded to teach the statutes
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  of the Lord to the people. But they often failed.
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  They did, and when they failed, the prophets had some some very
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  harsh words for them. Hersh is putting it lightly.
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  Read Jeremiah 23 or Ezekiel 34. God condemns the shepherds of
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  Israel because they were feeding themselves instead of the flock.
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  But look at the specific charge they were condemned for
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  prophesying from their own imagination.
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  Not from God's. Word they were saying I had a
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  dream or I feel like God is saying this rather than
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  grounding everything in. Thus says the Lord.
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  Isaiah had that brutal line. He called them dumb dogs that
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  cannot bark. Think about that.
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  What is the function of a sheepdog?
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  Its job is to bark when the wolf comes.
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  If the dog is mute, it is useless for its primary task.
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  A leader who stays silent in the face of heresy is a dumb dog.
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  And all of this imagery points us forward to Jesus.
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  He is the chief shepherd. And how did Jesus rule his
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  people? He ruled by the sword of His
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  mouth. He taught in the synagogues.
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  He refuted the Pharisees. He opened up the scriptures to
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  His disciples. His entire ministry was a
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  teaching ministry. OK, so he is the Chief Shepherd.
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  Now he has ascended. And this is where our theology
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  of the word becomes really practical, right?
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  Very practical. The Protestants were from a
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  Reformed background. We believe in the cessation of
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  those Apostolic gifts. Which means we believe the Canon
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  of Scripture is closed. There are no new apostles
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  walking the earth. There's no new revelation
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  dropping from heaven. We don't have a direct hotline
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  where God is whispering new doctrines into our ears.
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  So if that's true, how does Christ rule his church today?
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  He rules it immediately. Meaning through a medium.
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  Through a medium, yes. Yeah.
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  And that medium is his written word.
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  This means the authority of a local church elder is entirely
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  derivative. It is not inherent in the man
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  himself. It's not his own authority.
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  None at all. An elder has authority only so
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  far as he is accurately teaching what is in this book.
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  So if an elder closes his Bible and starts giving his own
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  opinions or, you know, business advice from the pulpit.
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  Then he has no more spiritual authority than your Barber.
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  He he has dropped the shepherd staff.
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  He's standing before the flock, empty handed.
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  And that's why able to teach is the non negotiable.
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  It has to be. If he can't teach the text, he
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  cannot mediate the rule of Christ.
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  To the church, he's just another voice in a world full of voices.
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  I want to get really specific now.
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  We've talked about the what and the why, but I want to break
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  down the how. In our prep for this, we came up
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  with five specific competencies that really make up this ability
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  to teach. Rights.
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  Let's walk through these because I think this will give our
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  listeners a very practical grid for what to look for in a
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  leader. These five are like the
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  diagnostic tools. If you're examining a man for
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  eldership, these are the boxes you need to be able to check.
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  OK, so the first one is exegetical competence.
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  That's a big seminary word. Break it down for us.
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  It's simpler than it sounds. Exegesis is the process of
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  drawing meaning out of a text. The opposite is Ice Jesus, which
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  is pouring your own meaning into the text.
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  OK, so exegetical competence is the basic ability to read a
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  passage of scripture, understand the grammar, the historical
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  context, who the author was writing to, and then explain
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  what it actually means. So is the difference between
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  saying, well I feel like this verse means we should all be
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  nicer to each other versus Paul is actually addressing a
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  specific problem of division in the Corinthian church, and
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  here's how that applies to us. That's it exactly.
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  The competent elder needs to be able to say with confidence it
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  is written. He has to respect the text
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  enough to do the hard work of understanding it.
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  He isn't using the Bible as a springboard for his own clever
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  ideas. He is tethering his own mind and
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  the minds of his people to the text.
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  Got it. OK, number 2 is doctrinal
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  competence. How is this different from
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  exegesis? If exegesis is looking closely
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  at the individual trees, then doctrine is looking at the whole
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  forest. I like that.
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  Doctrinal competence is the ability to teach the whole
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  council of God. It's what we call systematic
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  theology. An elder needs to understand how
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  all the various doctrines of the faith fit together into a
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  coherent whole. Why is that so crucial?
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  So he doesn't teach something from one verse that accidentally
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  contradicts the rest of the Bible.
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  He needs to know how justification relates to
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  sanctification, how the covenants work together, how the
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  person of Christ is revealed from Genesis to Revelation.
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  This is where we need to talk about the distinction between
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  law and gospel. This is a huge deal in our
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  Reformed circles, but maybe not everyone understands why it's so
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  vital for a local elder to get this right.
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  It is the master key to all practical theology.
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  The law is everything in Scripture that commands us.
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  Do this, Don't do that. Its function is to reveal God's
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  perfect holiness and our sin. It shows us we're guilty.
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  It condemns us. And the gospel.
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  The gospel is the good news of what Christ has done for us.
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  It is finished. The Gospel is what saves us from
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  the condemnation of the Law. So give me a real world scenario
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  where an elder without this competence could really mess
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  things up. OK, imagine a man comes to an
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  elder and he is just absolutely crushed by guilt.
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  He knows he sinned. He feels the weight of it and
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  he's despairing. He hates himself.
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  A bad elder, one who lacks doctrinal competence, might say,
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  well, brother, you really just need to try harder.
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  You need to pray more. You need to read your Bible
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  more. You need to get your act
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  together. He's.
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  Giving him more law. He's giving law to a man who is
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  already being crushed to death by the law.
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  He's killing him. So what does the competent elder
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  do? A competent elder knows this man
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  doesn't need more law. This man needs the gospel.
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  He needs to hear that Christ's blood is sufficient for his sin,
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  that his record of debt has been nailed to the cross.
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  It's knowing which medicine to prescribe.
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  Precisely. And on the flip side, if an
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  arrogant man comes in living an open sin and saying, hey, God
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  loves me so it doesn't matter what I do, you don't start with
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  the gospel for him. You give him the law to break
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  his pride and show him his need. You have to know how to wield
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  both. And that requires knowing what
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  Scripture teaches as a whole system using scripture to
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  interpret scripture. Yes, the analogy of faith.
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  And it requires knowing your confession of faith.
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  Like the Westminster Confession, those historic documents are
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  guardrails. They keep you on the road of
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  sound doctrine. That leads perfectly into the
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  third competency, pastoral competence.
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  This is about applying all that truth to actual.
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  People, because teaching is not just data transfer.
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  It isn't just me downloading information from my brain into
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  yours. It's about skillfully applying
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  the truth of God's Word to the conscience and the real life
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  situations of the sheep. This, I think, is where some of
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  the really intellectual guys can sometimes fail.
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  They can give you a brilliant lecture on the hypostatic union
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  of Christ, but they can't help a couple whose marriage is falling
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  apart. That's a great example.
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  Imagine a husband and wife sitting on the couch in an
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  elder's office. They're angry, they're hurting.
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  They're talking about divorce. The elder can not just offer
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  them psychological platitudes. He can't just say, you know, you
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  2 should try to communicate better.
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  Or Here are five steps to a happy marriage from a book I
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  read. That's Doctor Phil.
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  That's not a shepherd. Right, a pastorally competent
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  elder needs to be able to open up Ephesians 5.
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  He needs to apply the indicative of the gospel, the reality that
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  that you are forgiven in Christ, you are loved by blade to the
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  imperative of the Christian life.
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  Therefore, husbands love your wives as Christ loved the
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  church. He has to bring the weight and
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  comfort of Scripture to bear on their specific messy situation.
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  So he's got to diagnose the heart issue.
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  Is it pride? Is it fear?
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  Is it idolatry of self? And then apply the specific
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  remedy from scripture to that heart condition.
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  He's a physician of the soul. That's the old Puritan phrase
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  for it, and it's spot on. You are diagnosed, diagnosing
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  and treating spiritual conditions with the medicine of
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  the Word. OK, competency #4 polemical
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  competence. This one sounds a little
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  aggressive. It does sound like war, because
• 18:34
  in a sense it is. The word polemics comes from the
• 18:37
  Greek word for war. This goes right back to that
• 18:39
  refuting function in Titus One. An elder must be able to
• 18:43
  identify, confront and dismantle error.
• 18:45
  And we're not just talking about obvious cults, are we?
• 18:47
  We're not just talking about the guy on the street corner
• 18:49
  claiming to be the Messiah. No, the most dangerous wolves
• 18:52
  are usually the ones that are much more subtle than that.
• 18:55
  The elder needs to have his antenna up for the modern
• 18:58
  threats that are constantly trying to infiltrate the church.
• 19:01
  Plus, yes, things like the prosperity gospel, which turns
• 19:04
  God into a cosmic vending machine, or legalism which adds
• 19:09
  our works to Christ's work for salvation, Or it's opposite,
• 19:13
  antinomianism. Let's define that one
• 19:15
  antinomianism. Anti means against and nomos is
• 19:19
  Greek for law. It's the idea that because we're
• 19:22
  saved by grace, the law of God has no bearing on our lives as
• 19:26
  Christians. It leads to license.
• 19:28
  It's the person who says I can sleep with my girlfriend because
• 19:30
  hey, Jesus forgives me. And the elder has to be able to
• 19:33
  refute that from scripture. He has to be able to look at
• 19:35
  that and say no, that is a false conclusion.
• 19:38
  Let me show you from Romans chapter 6 why that's not what
• 19:40
  grace is for. And then they're all the
• 19:42
  cultural issues like critical theory or sexual anarchy or even
• 19:46
  a kind of vague mysticism where people say God told me even when
• 19:50
  it contradicts the Bible. Right.
• 19:52
  A church that is led by nice men who are theologically illiterate
• 19:56
  has no immune system. When these viruses enter the
• 19:59
  body, and they will enter, the elder needs to function like a
• 20:03
  white blood cell that identifies and attacks the infection.
• 20:06
  He has to be able to say this sounds good on the surface.
• 20:10
  But here is where it deviates from the truth.
• 20:12
  OK, that's four. And finally, the fifth one,
• 20:14
  pedagogical competence. This is the practical ability to
• 20:17
  actually communicate all this stuff.
• 20:19
  This is the how, and I want to be really careful here.
• 20:22
  This does not mean every elder needs to be a world class orator
• 20:26
  like Charles Spurgeon. He doesn't need to be a polished
• 20:28
  public speaker. He doesn't need a PhD from a
• 20:30
  fancy seminary, but he must possess clarity.
• 20:34
  He has to make. Sense he has to be able to
• 20:36
  define his terms. Can he explain what
• 20:38
  justification means to a 12 year old in the youth group?
• 20:42
  Can he explain sanctification to a brand new believer?
• 20:45
  If he understands it perfectly in his own head, but it just
• 20:48
  comes out as theological word salad, then he lacks pedagogical
• 20:52
  competence. It's the singles and children
• 20:53
  test. That's a great way to put it.
• 20:55
  If the singles and the children and the average person in the
• 20:58
  Pew can't understand what he's saying, then he isn't actually
• 21:01
  teaching. He's just talking.
• 21:03
  He has to be able to bridge that gap between the ancient texts
• 21:06
  and the modern hearer. So there's the list exegetical,
• 21:09
  doctrinal, pastoral, polemical, and pedagogical.
• 21:13
  I mean that is a high bar. It is a high bar.
• 21:15
  But I want to pivot now to something that's just as
• 21:18
  crucial, and that's the manner of the teacher, the posture,
• 21:23
  because I think we've all met the guy who knows his Bible
• 21:26
  inside and out. He can win any debate, but he's,
• 21:29
  well, he's a total jerk about it.
• 21:30
  Theological bully. Yes, this is a real and present
• 21:33
  danger, and the apostle Paul addresses it directly in Second
• 21:36
  Timothy 2.24. He says the servant of the Lord
• 21:39
  must not be quarrelsome. It's so interesting that in that
• 21:42
  verse, Apartment to Teach is paired with kind to everyone and
• 21:48
  patiently enduring evil. It's a deliberate pairing.
• 21:50
  Paul is showing us the two ditches on either side of the
• 21:53
  road. On one side you have the coward,
• 21:55
  a nice man, the nice man who refuses to correct error because
• 21:58
  he just wants peace at all costs.
• 22:00
  We've already talked about him. But on the other side of the
• 22:02
  road, you have the brawler. The Cage stage Calvinist, some
• 22:06
  people call him. The guy who just loves a good
• 22:09
  fight. He uses doctrine like a club to
• 22:11
  beat people into submission. He might win the argument, but
• 22:15
  he loses the person. And Paul says that man is
• 22:17
  disqualified from leadership just as much as the heretic is.
• 22:21
  So what's the actual goal of correction then, if it's not to
• 22:24
  win the debate? Paul tells us in the very next
• 22:26
  verse, correcting opponents with gentleness, God may perhaps
• 22:31
  grant them repentance, leading to a knowledge of the truth.
• 22:34
  So the goal is restoration. The goal is to win your brother,
• 22:38
  not to win the debate. The goal is that God might be
• 22:41
  pleased to grant repentance. That reference you brought up
• 22:44
  from Act 20 where Paul is saying goodbye to the Ephesian elders
• 22:48
  has always struck me. He reminds them that for three
• 22:51
  years he warned them night and day with tears.
• 22:53
  With tears. Think about that.
• 22:55
  When was the last time you saw a theological debate on social
• 22:57
  media that involved tears? Paul wasn't correcting them
• 23:00
  because he had a chip on his shoulder or because he wanted to
• 23:03
  prove how right he was. He was correcting them because
• 23:06
  he loved them and he was terrified for the eternal state
• 23:09
  of their souls. It changes the whole tone,
• 23:11
  doesn't. It it changes everything.
• 23:13
  If you find yourself correcting someone without a breaking
• 23:15
  heart, you are probably doing it wrong.
• 23:18
  We need men with mines of steel, but hearts of velvet.
• 23:21
  Let's move into the consequences of neglect.
• 23:23
  What happens when a church just ignores this qualification or
• 23:28
  minimizes it? We've touched on the weak Pew,
• 23:31
  but let's go deeper. What does it do to the culture
• 23:34
  of a church over time? Well, the primary shift is a
• 23:37
  slow slide into what you could call managerialism.
• 23:40
  Managerialism. Yeah, if the elders aren't
• 23:43
  equipped or expected to be teachers, they will naturally
• 23:46
  default to doing what they can do.
• 23:48
  They can manage. So the focus of the leadership
• 23:50
  meetings shifts from souls to budgets, from doctrine to
• 23:54
  buildings, from discipleship to branding and marketing.
• 23:57
  The church becomes an organization that needs to be
• 23:59
  maintained rather than a living body that needs to be edified.
• 24:03
  And right along with that comes the pressure of seeker
• 24:06
  sensitivity. If the leaders aren't deeply
• 24:08
  anchored in the text, they will inevitably start asking what
• 24:12
  does the market want instead of what does God's Word say?
• 24:15
  And that means trimming the hard truths.
• 24:18
  You have to you start trimming the doctrines that might offend
• 24:21
  people, Sin, hell, repentance, judgement, all to keep the
• 24:26
  atmosphere pleasant and the numbers up.
• 24:28
  You're trying to attract customers, not make disciples.
• 24:30
  And what you end up with is a malnourished flock.
• 24:33
  Without consistent expository feeding from the whole counsel
• 24:37
  of God. The congregation stays on a diet
• 24:40
  of spiritual milk. They never get to the meat.
• 24:42
  And this creates a very dangerous dependency, doesn't
• 24:45
  it, on one guy? It creates the celebrity
• 24:47
  preacher model. If the other elders can't teach,
• 24:50
  then the senior pastor becomes the only voice of truth in the
• 24:53
  church guru. The whole church becomes a fan
• 24:56
  club for one man's particular gift.
• 24:59
  And if that man falls into sin, or if he retires, or God forbid,
• 25:02
  he gets hit by a bus, the church completely collapses.
• 25:05
  It has no theological depth, no bench it.
• 25:07
  Creates a spiritual vacuum. And vacuums always get filled.
• 25:11
  If the elders don't intentionally fill the minds and
• 25:14
  hearts of their people with sound doctrine from Scripture,
• 25:17
  that void will be filled by something else.
• 25:19
  What fills it? Social media theology.
• 25:22
  Your people will get their doctrine from TikTok
• 25:25
  influencers, or from Oprah, or from political talk radio.
• 25:28
  They will be discipled by the world because their own
• 25:31
  shepherds aren't discipling them with the Word.
• 25:33
  That is a terrifying thought. So OK, how do we fix it?
• 25:35
  Let's get really practical here. If I'm a man listening to this
• 25:39
  and I aspire to be an elder someday, what should I be doing
• 25:43
  right now? The first step is rigorous self
• 25:46
  examination. You simply cannot teach what you
• 25:49
  have not first learned yourself. Spurgeon had a great line, he
• 25:52
  said. He who has ceased to learn has
• 25:54
  ceased to teach. You must be a student first.
• 25:57
  So does that mean you have to go to seminary?
• 26:00
  Not necessarily, though seminary can be a wonderful tool.
• 26:03
  But at the very least you must be a dedicated student of the
• 26:06
  ordinary means of grace. Meaning you need to be reading
• 26:10
  your Bible deeply every day. You need to be reading good
• 26:13
  theology. Go grab a systematic theology by
• 26:16
  Berkoff or Bavink, or read Calvin's Institutes.
• 26:19
  Study the historic confessions of the church.
• 26:22
  Be a man of prayer. Don't wait for someone to give
• 26:24
  you a title to Start learning. If you want to be able to feed
• 26:27
  others someday, start feeding yourself now.
• 26:30
  OK, now what about the rest of us, the regular church members
• 26:33
  who vote on these men? What's our responsibility?
• 26:36
  Our responsibility is to stop voting for resumes.
• 26:38
  We have to stop being so impressed by worldly success.
• 26:42
  Just because a man is a successful CEO or a surgeon or
• 26:45
  just a really great guy to have at the church BBQ does not mean
• 26:49
  he is biblically qualified to watch over your soul.
• 26:52
  We need to be looking for that didactic man.
• 26:54
  You need to look for the man whose conversation naturally
• 26:57
  gravitates toward God and His Word.
• 26:59
  When you talk to him after the service or in a small group,
• 27:01
  does he bring up Scripture? Does he help you understand the
• 27:04
  Bible better just in a casual conversation?
• 27:06
  That's the mark of a teacher. And for the current elders who
• 27:10
  are vetting the candidates, we have to change the testing
• 27:13
  process, don't we? A quick 30 minute interview just
• 27:16
  isn't going to cut it. No, it's woefully inadequate.
• 27:20
  First, you need observation. Don't just ask a man if he can
• 27:23
  teach. Watch him do it.
• 27:26
  Put him in charge of an adult Sunday school class for a
• 27:28
  semester. Have him lead a small group
• 27:30
  Bible study, and then you sit in the back and you take notes.
• 27:33
  Is he clear? Is he faithful to the text?
• 27:36
  How does he handle questions? And I love this idea.
• 27:40
  Use case studies. Yes, give him real life pastoral
• 27:43
  scenarios. John, imagine a church member
• 27:46
  comes to you and says they no longer believe the Bible is
• 27:48
  sufficient. What do you say to them?
• 27:50
  Where do you take them in scripture?
• 27:52
  Or how would you counsel a young couple in the church who are
• 27:54
  living together before marriage? See if he can apply the word to
• 27:58
  a real life mess. And a formal doctrinal exam.
• 28:01
  It doesn't have to be a full seminary exam, but it should be
• 28:03
  substantive. Ask him to explain the gospel in
• 28:06
  2 minutes, then ask him to explain it in 20 minutes to see
• 28:10
  if he can be concise and if he can go deep.
• 28:12
  Does he really own the doctor himself, or is he just parroting
• 28:15
  a few phrases he's memorized? And finally, the most important
• 28:18
  ingredient, time. Paul's warning to Timothy was
• 28:22
  lay hands suddenly on no man. Eldership shouldn't be a rushed
• 28:26
  process. Use a season of supervised
• 28:28
  teaching before ordination. Let him try.
• 28:31
  Let him fail in a safe environment.
• 28:33
  Give him constructive feedback. It should be a process of
• 28:37
  proving overtime. This has been a heavy
• 28:39
  discussion, but a really good one.
• 28:41
  It's just amazing to me how much weight hangs on that one little
• 28:44
  Greek word. The dacty goes.
• 28:47
  It really is the hinge upon which the health of the church's
• 28:50
  leadership turns. As we get ready to close, I want
• 28:53
  to leave our listeners with the final thought that came out of
• 28:55
  our study on this. It's about what we call the
• 28:57
  weight of glory. The hope of the church doesn't
• 29:00
  rest on our cleverness. It doesn't rest on our
• 29:02
  organizational skills or marketing strategies.
• 29:05
  It rests entirely on the sufficiency and the working of
• 29:07
  the Word of God. The whole goal of having
• 29:10
  teaching elders is to ensure that the voice being heard in
• 29:12
  the church is not the opinion of a manager.
• 29:15
  You're ACEO. But the voice of the Chief
• 29:17
  Shepherd, Jesus Christ we. Want to hear his voice?
• 29:21
  When an elder opens the Word and teaches it faithfully, Christ
• 29:25
  himself is ruling and feeding his church.
• 29:28
  That's the high calling we are fighting to recover.
• 29:31
  So here's the question for you to chew on this week as you look
• 29:33
  at your own church. Is your church led by a board of
• 29:36
  directors, or is it led by a plurality of shepherds holding
• 29:40
  the staff of Scripture? Because only one of those can
• 29:42
  drive away the wolves. And the wolves are always
• 29:44
  hungry. Thank you for going deep with us
• 29:46
  today. This is reformed thinking.
• 29:48
  We'll see you next time.