Latest / INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living / Checklist for Choosing Church Leaders │ Msg 710 - Pastor Chuck Swindoll Insight for Living (64k)

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Checklist for Choosing Church Leaders │ Msg 710 - Pastor Chuck Swindoll Insight for Living (64k) · INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living

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Speaker 1: Leaders with power and brains are common, so are leaders
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Speaker 1: with riches and popularity. But a competent leader full of
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Speaker 1: integrity and skill coupled with sincerity, now that individual is
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Speaker 1: a rarity. In fact, if a leader's integrity ever begins
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Speaker 1: to diminish, the thin wire of respect that holds everything
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Speaker 1: in place snaps. We expect integrity from our leaders. I
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Speaker 1: my dad, so does God. All of us have suffered
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Speaker 1: disappointment and no little fear as we watched various leaders'
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Speaker 1: secret lives exposed to the public. With each revelation of deception,
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Speaker 1: our respect and our confidence in those leaders dwindled. I
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Speaker 1: can think of no place where integrity and leadership is
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Speaker 1: more important than in the Church of Jesus Christ. That's
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Speaker 1: why Paul's words to a young church leader named Timothy
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Speaker 1: still remain so urgent to the church today. We'll deal
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Speaker 1: with the first part of this passage in this message,
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Speaker 1: and we'll finish it off in the following message. To come,
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Speaker 1: listen to how the new American Standard version renders what
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Speaker 1: Paul wrote in One Timothy three, the first seven verses.
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Speaker 1: That's First Timothy, chapter three, beginning with verse one. Listen carefully.
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Speaker 1: It is a trustworthy statement. If a man aspires to
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Speaker 1: the office of overseer, it is a fine work he
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Speaker 1: desires to do. An overseer then must be above reproach,
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Speaker 1: the husband of one wife, temperate, prudent, respectable, hospitable, able
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Speaker 1: to teach, not addicted to wine or pugnacious, but gentle, peaceable,
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Speaker 1: free from the love of money. He must be one
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Speaker 1: who manages his own household well, keeping his children under
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Speaker 1: control with all dignity. But if a man does not
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Speaker 1: know how to manage his own household, how will he
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Speaker 1: take care of the Church of God? And not a
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Speaker 1: new convert so that he will not become conceited and
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Speaker 1: fall into the condemnation incurred by the devil. And he
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Speaker 1: must have a good reputation with those outside the church,
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Speaker 1: so that he will not fall into reproach and the
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Speaker 1: snare of the devil. Actually, the ministry of a church
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Speaker 1: is the ministry of people. When a church lives, it
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Speaker 1: lives because the people within it vital. And when a
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Speaker 1: church dies, it die. It withers and dies, not because
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Speaker 1: the brick and mortar and the carpet and the pews
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Speaker 1: get old and begin to crack and rip and crumble.
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Speaker 1: A church withers and dies because it's people wither and die.
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Speaker 1: I think the most vivid illustration of this I've ever
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Speaker 1: heard of comes from a true story of a young
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Speaker 1: minister in Oklahoma who went to this little, though long
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Speaker 1: standing church in hopes of really reviving the ministry of it.
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Speaker 1: And he had stars in his eyes, and he had
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Speaker 1: great hopes for for the future of this thing. He
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Speaker 1: thought it could turn around, and he gave it his
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Speaker 1: best efforts and his best shot week after week after
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Speaker 1: week to no avail. Finally had one last idea and
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Speaker 1: it seemed to work. He announced in the local newspaper
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Speaker 1: on Saturday that the church had died, and on Sunday
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Speaker 1: afternoon there would be a funeral service at the church
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Speaker 1: itself and all who wished could attend. For the first
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Speaker 1: time in his years there, the place was packed. In fact,
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Speaker 1: people were standing outside on tiptoes looking through the window
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Speaker 1: to see this most unusual funeral service for a church,
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Speaker 1: to their shock, because most of them got there twenty
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Speaker 1: thirty minutes early to get a seat. There was a
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Speaker 1: casket down front, and it was smothered with flowers. He
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Speaker 1: told the people as soon as the eulogy was finished,
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Speaker 1: they could pass by and view the remains of the
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Speaker 1: dearly beloved that they were putting to rest that day.
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Speaker 1: They could hardly wait until he finished the eulogy. He
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Speaker 1: slowly opened the casket, pushed the flowers aside, and people
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Speaker 1: walked by, filed by one by one to look in
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Speaker 1: and leave, sheepishly, feeling guilty as they walked out the
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Speaker 1: door because inside the casket he had placed a large mirror.
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Speaker 1: As they walked by, they saw the church that had died. Now,
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Speaker 1: if that is true, then the life of the church
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Speaker 1: within is absolutely vital, and it hangs on the leadership
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Speaker 1: of the people of the church. Since the church is
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Speaker 1: not made up of the neighborhood, or of bricks and mortar,
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Speaker 1: or of activities, but really people, then it stands to
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Speaker 1: reason that the leadership of the people must be the
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Speaker 1: very finest. As the leadership of a church goes, its
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Speaker 1: people go. If the leadership begins to fail and wither
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Speaker 1: and die, then it won't be long before the people
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Speaker 1: within the congregation show the signs of death. It's been
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Speaker 1: my observation that in over forty years, in local churches,
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Speaker 1: the leadership of the church is often decided in one
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Speaker 1: of several erroneous manners. I have made a list of
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Speaker 1: four of them in my notes, and perhaps we could
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Speaker 1: together expand it to fourteen, or fifteen or twenty different methods.
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Speaker 1: It so happens that all four of these methods begin
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Speaker 1: with the letter P. The first is popularity. It is
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Speaker 1: very common to find churches that select the leadership of
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Speaker 1: the church among those who are most popular, those who
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Speaker 1: have the most charisma, people who are best up front,
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Speaker 1: individuals who are well known in the community, or well
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Speaker 1: known in their profession, or well known among other people
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Speaker 1: in the church. Popularity is often the method of choosing leadership,
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Speaker 1: and that is a horrible plan, though it will go
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Speaker 1: on throughout time. The second is what we will call
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Speaker 1: the past or, in other words, tradition. Perhaps of the four,
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Speaker 1: this is the most common in every church you will
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Speaker 1: find the difficulty of breaking with traditional leaders. Their favorite song,
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Speaker 1: of course, is as it was in the beginning. It
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Speaker 1: is now and ever shall be world without end. Amen. Amen.
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Speaker 1: The leaders who have been leaders in the past are
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Speaker 1: leaders now, and they will be leaders in the future.
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Speaker 1: It's also been my observation that most of those who
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Speaker 1: are traditional leaders are not visionaries, not all. It's amazing.
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Speaker 1: In every church. There are a few people who endure
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Speaker 1: in leadership through time, and they keep coming back into
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Speaker 1: leadership with a fresh view, a fresh word, a fresh challenge.
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Speaker 1: But most often the grief of a pastor is dealing
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Speaker 1: with people who are traditionally put back into office even
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Speaker 1: though they're not qualified. The past is an erroneous way
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Speaker 1: of choosing today's leaders. There's a third politics, having the
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Speaker 1: right name, pulling the right strings, manipulating or massaging the
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Speaker 1: right people, shaking the right hands, throwing around the out
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Speaker 1: of pressure. And you can, politically, in some churches, get
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Speaker 1: yourself voted into office, and you become a leader simply
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Speaker 1: because you are. You have political moxie. You're able to
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Speaker 1: push or manipulate your way in popularity. The past politics,
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Speaker 1: and the fourth is pocketbook. People of wealth often find
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Speaker 1: their way into the office of leadership in a church.
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Speaker 1: It's most unfortunate. It's not that there's something wrong with wealth.
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Speaker 1: There's nothing wrong with wealth if it has earned the
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Speaker 1: right way and if it is handled correctly. Is everything
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Speaker 1: right about wealth? It's God's blessing, it's God's favor. But
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Speaker 1: it's wrong if wealth is used as the wrench or
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Speaker 1: the spade or the lever to get yourself known and
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Speaker 1: into church offices, into church leadership. Frequently, people with money
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Speaker 1: lack the spiritual qualities it takes. They may have good
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Speaker 1: business sense, but often they lack the walk with God,
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Speaker 1: the humble, teachable spirit, the qualifications that are required among
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Speaker 1: church leaders. Now that's not a rule across the board
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Speaker 1: for all who have money. Some godly people I know
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Speaker 1: are eminently wealthy, and that's true in your life as well.
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Speaker 1: It is marvelous to meet those that are able to
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Speaker 1: handle this world's goods and remain capable as a church leader. Now,
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Speaker 1: God never intended his work to be governed on the
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Speaker 1: basis of any of those four peas. God's method of
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Speaker 1: leadership for his church is spelled out rather carefully in
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Speaker 1: the first seven verses of First Timothy Chapter three. A
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Speaker 1: little bit of time we have remaining, I would like
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Speaker 1: for us to spend on the first couple of verses.
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Speaker 1: Maybe we'll dip into verse three, but we'll finish next time.
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Speaker 1: Of this third chapter of First Timothy, I'd like you
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Speaker 1: to follow along, because without that, you'll really have no
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Speaker 1: basis upon which to discover what God has to say
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Speaker 1: about how his leaders are to be selected. Let me
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Speaker 1: say a couple of things by way of just general information.
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Speaker 1: First of all, this list seems to be limited to men.
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Speaker 1: It does not include women. He's talked about women down
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Speaker 1: through of well, it's been verse nine down through verse
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Speaker 1: fifteen of chapter two. But when he gets into chapter
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Speaker 1: three and he addresses the top roll of leadership in
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Speaker 1: the local church, he has men in mind. Not only
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Speaker 1: because it says if any man aspires to the office
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Speaker 1: of an overseer, for that word really is any if
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Speaker 1: any one aspire, and it isn't any gender, male or female.
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Speaker 1: But the reference to being the husband of one wife
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Speaker 1: down in verse two, and a little later on being
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Speaker 1: the manager of one's household in verse four suggests rather
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Speaker 1: obviously that this list is limited to the men of
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Speaker 1: a local assembly, not to men and women. It's not
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Speaker 1: very popular to say that, but it seems to be
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Speaker 1: good exegesis, or good and accurate interpretation to state it.
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Speaker 1: This seems to be a list limited to the males
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Speaker 1: in the local assembly. The way God has established the
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Speaker 1: work or the leadership of the highest office of the church,
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Speaker 1: which is an overseer, and we'll look at the word
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Speaker 1: a little closer in a minute. The term actually is
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Speaker 1: the word from which we get the term.
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Speaker 2: Episcopal epi scopas to scope over, to look over is
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Speaker 2: really what the word means, and overseeer is really a
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Speaker 2: nice term that really comes from the original epi scopas
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Speaker 2: over seer.
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Speaker 1: The second thing I would say in general is that
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Speaker 1: these these qualifications are essential. They're not optional. It isn't
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Speaker 1: a multiple choice kind of thing where you can choose
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Speaker 1: four and leave off six, or you can take the
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Speaker 1: top five and forget the other ten. There are if
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Speaker 1: I count them correctly, about fifteen in all. But I
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Speaker 1: take this to mean that these qualifications are generally speaking,
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Speaker 1: they're very specific, and God puts them into the text
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Speaker 1: of scripture for our observation. We don't fuss around, we
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Speaker 1: don't mess around with the list when He puts it together.
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Speaker 1: It's a list that we're to go by, kind of
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Speaker 1: like a pilot has a checklist before he or she
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Speaker 1: takes off from the runway. So you in a church
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Speaker 1: are to go to this checklist and go by one
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Speaker 1: by one to determine is this person possessing this gift
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Speaker 1: just another comment, if I may. This seems to be
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Speaker 1: limited to the role of the pastor, or what we
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Speaker 1: call often in churches, the elder of the church. It
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Speaker 1: does not relate to deacons, for that role is mentioned
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Speaker 1: down in verse eight. In following, this is a list
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Speaker 1: limited to the overseers, those who have the highest rank
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Speaker 1: of authority in the local assembly. And remember now our
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Speaker 1: early comments. As the leadership of a church goes, so
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Speaker 1: goes the church as a family or as a body.
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Speaker 1: Let's begin. It's a trustworthy statement. If anyone aspires to
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Speaker 1: the office of overseer, it's a fine work he desires
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Speaker 1: to do. How when I first read that verse, I
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Speaker 1: was relieved, because the common idea is that you shouldn't
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Speaker 1: aspire to leadership. But that's not what it says. As
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Speaker 1: a matter of fact, it encourages those who aspire to
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Speaker 1: a high office of responsibility. You come into the family
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Speaker 1: of God, you're young in the faith. You begin to
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Speaker 1: grow up in the church, you watch the church in action,
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Speaker 1: You become an active teenager in the Christian camps of
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Speaker 1: the church, and you grow through those adolescent years. You
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Speaker 1: become a young adult, and perhaps you finish your schooling
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Speaker 1: or you get into a trade, or you get into
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Speaker 1: a profession, and all these years you're watching the church
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Speaker 1: in action, and you begin to think, hopefully this church
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Speaker 1: has integrity. I admire my church, or I really respect
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Speaker 1: the way things are handled by the way. One of
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Speaker 1: the consequences of poor leadership in a local church is
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Speaker 1: that it turns off the youth. The youth see a
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Speaker 1: lack of integrity in leadership, and they write it off
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Speaker 1: before they're young adults. They've checked it to the church,
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Speaker 1: they've gone on their way if the church lacks integrity.
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Speaker 1: But there is, on the other hand, nothing quite as magnetic,
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Speaker 1: nothing quite as as holding in the life of a
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Speaker 1: young person than a church with integrity, a church that cares,
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Speaker 1: a church that has life, a church that gives away
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Speaker 1: scholarships to camp boy, that'll bring the kids back, a
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Speaker 1: church that sees the value of a young life and says,
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Speaker 1: we have authenticity, will help you meet your needs. We'll
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Speaker 1: be here when everybody else walks away, and we'll handle
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Speaker 1: this place correctly according to God's word. Now, my point is,
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Speaker 1: as you grow up in a church like this, you
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Speaker 1: begin to think, I'd like to be in leadership that
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Speaker 1: is not only expected, that's encouraged. That's healthy. Young adults,
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Speaker 1: young men in this assembly, let me say to you,
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Speaker 1: there is a place in the leadership of this church
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Speaker 1: for you. Those those words don't often come from our pulpit.
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Speaker 1: We don't often address something as pragmatic as that. But
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Speaker 1: you're in your twenties or perhaps moving on into your thirties,
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Speaker 1: and you've established yourself, and you've grown up in the Lord,
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Speaker 1: and you may have grown up in this local church
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Speaker 1: or some good local church, and you begin to aspire
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Speaker 1: to the office of an overseer. That's good, that's right.
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Speaker 1: God applauds it. He affirms that that's what ought to be.
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Speaker 1: And because he does, we also do. It's a fine
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Speaker 1: work you desire to do now. It takes more than desire, however,
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Speaker 1: it takes a whole number of things to qualify you
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Speaker 1: for this position. It doesn't take money. It doesn't take popularity.
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Speaker 1: If the church is handled right, it shouldn't take politics.
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Speaker 1: It doesn't require that you have long, deep roots and
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Speaker 1: that your family has been here for years and your
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Speaker 1: great grandfather has been around for years, or that you've
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Speaker 1: got ministry in your background. That's not required. It's not
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Speaker 1: the past, but certain things must be As soon as
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Speaker 1: Paul says to Timothy, it's a good thing to aspire
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Speaker 1: to leadership, he qualifies it by saying, now these things
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Speaker 1: are required. The overseer must possess certain qualities. Now, men
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Speaker 1: and women, we can check them off when we look
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Speaker 1: for pastors. We can check them off when we look
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Speaker 1: for elders. And we are to do that, even if
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Speaker 1: it's in a pedantic manner. One, two, three, four. They
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Speaker 1: are to have these qualities. Let's take a few of them. Now.
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Speaker 1: If I read this correctly, Verses two and three talk
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Speaker 1: about the overseer's personal life or inner life. Verses four
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Speaker 1: and five talk about the person's home life. Verse six
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Speaker 1: talks about this individual's church life, and verse seven his
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Speaker 1: life in the world or among the unsaved. Let me
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Speaker 1: give it to you again. Verses two and three the
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Speaker 1: inner life the overseer, Verses four and five the home
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Speaker 1: life of the overseer, verse six the church life, and
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Speaker 1: verse seven the life you're living in the eyes of
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Speaker 1: the world system among the unsaved. Personal life to begin with,
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Speaker 1: an overseer then must be above reproach. The term is
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Speaker 1: a very interesting word. It means one who cannot be
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Speaker 1: laid hold upon. We would say it this way, a
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Speaker 1: person no one can point their finger at with an
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Speaker 1: accurate accusation. Not someone who is perfect, but someone who
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Speaker 1: has kept short accounts, not an individual who has a
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Speaker 1: lingering offenses and debts. I usually don't try to sell books,
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Speaker 1: but this is one that is really worth your money.
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Speaker 1: It's called the Measure of a Man by Gene gets Getz.
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Speaker 1: He does as good a work as anyone does on
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Speaker 1: these qualities of First Timothy three one to seven. You
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Speaker 1: owe it to yourself to buy this little paperback. Gene
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Speaker 1: had loved me to know that I've said that for him.
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Speaker 1: In this little book above Reproach, where he talks about
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Speaker 1: being above reproach, he says this when discussing this quality
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Speaker 1: of a good reputation with a group of Christian men,
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Speaker 1: I ask them what they thought of and what words
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Speaker 1: they might use to describe a Christian man with a
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Speaker 1: good reputation. Following are the results of our discussion. Let
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Speaker 1: me pick and choose several. He is on I'd trust
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Speaker 1: him with my bank account. He's a sensitive person, he
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Speaker 1: radiates christ, he loves people, he works hard. He's a
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Speaker 1: humble guy. He keeps his word. He's not self centered
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Speaker 1: or conceited. He makes you feel comfortable. He doesn't let
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Speaker 1: you down. Among other things, he won't take advantage of you.
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Speaker 1: He doesn't use people for his own ends. He knows
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Speaker 1: where he's going, He plans ahead. He's fair. He's a
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Speaker 1: good steward of time and talent. He doesn't lose his cool.
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Speaker 1: He's consistent. He hangs in there and perseveres. He admits
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Speaker 1: when he's wrong. He's teachable, doesn't have a martyr complex.
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Speaker 1: You often know what he's thinking. He's transparent. When you
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Speaker 1: sit down to think about a possible overseer in an assembly,
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Speaker 1: ask yourself, can I point a finger of accusation at
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Speaker 1: that individual? Do I know someone who has the facts
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Speaker 1: against that person? Is this individual really above reproach? Not
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Speaker 1: has he never done anything wrong, because we'd never qualify,
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Speaker 1: But having done wrong, has he made it right? He's
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Speaker 1: above reproach. Now the second must be the husband of
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Speaker 1: one wife. This is really a controversial statement, believe it
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Speaker 1: or not, folks. It looks very simple. In fact, it
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Speaker 1: certainly ought to be taken that way, But it's been
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Speaker 1: the diving bored into all kinds of positions on whether
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Speaker 1: an elder should have ever been married before, or whether
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Speaker 1: an elder must be married, can a single person be
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Speaker 1: an elder, and on and on and on. Taken in
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Speaker 1: its basic sense, I understand it to mean. It doesn't
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Speaker 1: necessarily mean he has to be married. Paul was certainly
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Speaker 1: an overseer, and we know that Paul wasn't married, couldn't
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Speaker 1: be single. It seems as though he must be intimate
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Speaker 1: with one woman. He must be a one woman man. Literally,
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Speaker 1: it's very, very safe as a congregation to sustain a
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Speaker 1: purity in this area, even at the risk of being misunderstood.
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Speaker 1: Are called legal It is the safest route to maintain
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Speaker 1: among those in the high rank of leadership. This position
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Speaker 1: of being a one woman man having had only one wife.
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Speaker 1: If there are exceptions, and perhaps it could be an
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Speaker 1: exception on a few rare occasions, must be handled very wisely.
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Speaker 1: I don't feel the need to be diplomatic here. I'm
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Speaker 1: sharing with you the very fact that it is a
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Speaker 1: controversial issue, and there are excellent men and women who
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Speaker 1: disagree on both sides. The point I want to make is,
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Speaker 1: if it's at all possible to sustain a ministry with
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Speaker 1: an elder board and pastoral staff of men who have
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Speaker 1: one woman in their married life, you're safe. You have
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Speaker 1: no risk of making a mistake. And interpretation, he must
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Speaker 1: be upholding the sanctity of his marriage. By the way,
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Speaker 1: that's a part that we often don't think of. This
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Speaker 1: individual who is an elder or is a pastor of
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Speaker 1: a church is to be engaged in a relationship with
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Speaker 1: his wife. That is healthy. He is pursuing a closeness,
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Speaker 1: a oneness as a one woman man. I think that's assumed,
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Speaker 1: or I certainly think that's implied. Third, he must be temperate.
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Speaker 1: Look at this word must be temperate. The word means
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Speaker 1: not self indulgent. He's able to say no with his
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Speaker 1: mind when his emotions say yes in his body. It
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Speaker 1: involves being in control, free of impulsive action, not rash, dispassionate,
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Speaker 1: and balanced. I know we could just turn this into
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Speaker 1: a series of word studies, but I do want to
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Speaker 1: spend enough time on each one for you to get
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Speaker 1: the accurate picture in your mind. Some time, you can
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Speaker 1: give so many synonyms that you lose the distinct meaning
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Speaker 1: of the one term. I don't want to do that.
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Speaker 1: Temperate when you look for a pastor, or look for
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Speaker 1: an elder in the assembly to guide that assembly. You
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Speaker 1: don't want someone who is going to be given to extremes.
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Speaker 1: But a person who has a solidity of life, has
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Speaker 1: a calm and dispassionate control of himself, not given to
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Speaker 1: a or the rash of wild emotions. Number four must
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Speaker 1: be prudent. We don't use the word prudent. You probably
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Speaker 1: haven't used prudent all this past week. You know, prudent
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Speaker 1: is not a word for our times. So fron is
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Speaker 1: the Greek word. One man said, it's reasons girdle and
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Speaker 1: passion's bridle. I thought that was good. A person who
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Speaker 1: is prudent has wisdom. It doesn't mean the person has
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Speaker 1: a lot of biblical knowledge only for wisdom is directly
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Speaker 1: related to biblical knowledge, but has the ability to put
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Speaker 1: into action the information that has been logged in the mind,
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Speaker 1: knows how to carry out the truth that has been absorbed.
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Speaker 1: You see, one of the qualities needed in a church
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Speaker 1: leader is decisiveness, and those decisions continually are hammered out
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Speaker 1: on the anvil of wisdom. If you have a person
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Speaker 1: that's in leadership who is given to rashness or given
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Speaker 1: simply to the letter of the law. You'll lack wisdom
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Speaker 1: in that individual. I'll give you grief. It will not
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Speaker 1: be helpful for you as a church. And take it
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Speaker 1: from one who works with church leaders and is a
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Speaker 1: church leader. We need wisdom as much as we need knowledge.
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Speaker 1: And if I think we had to choose one over
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Speaker 1: the other, I think I choose wisdom. Give me one
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Speaker 1: with a little less knowledge but more wisdom, and I'll
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Speaker 1: choose him far quicker than I will one with more
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Speaker 1: knowledge and less wisdom. So there has to be the
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Speaker 1: seasoning of some time. I found that sofron Or. This
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Speaker 1: basic idea of prudent person comes from one who's had
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Speaker 1: some hurts, who's had some pains, had some heartache, had
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Speaker 1: some bruises, some losses, some failures. Has been tempered in
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Speaker 1: the furnace of affliction. It's wonderful to rub shoulders on
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Speaker 1: an elderboard with men like that. I need them around me.
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Speaker 1: We need each other. Number five is interesting. You must
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Speaker 1: be respectable. Cosmeto is the word hah, cosmetic. We get
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Speaker 1: the term from it. It's the idea of being well
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Speaker 1: ordered or well arranged, fairly well organized, clear thinking. An
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Speaker 1: individual who is able to think in an orderly manner,
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Speaker 1: not messy, not silly, not sloppy or inconsistent in thinking. Sometime,
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Speaker 1: in dealing with decisions of a local church, you have
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Speaker 1: to really concentrate, and you have to concentrate over a
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Speaker 1: period of time. And it must be mixed with prayer.
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Speaker 1: It must be mixed with the ability to listen. It
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Speaker 1: must have the wisdom of keeping one's mouth closed while thinking.
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Speaker 1: It must have that of that uh that uh uh
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Speaker 1: give and take of dialogue, conversation, wrestling and negotiating with
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Speaker 1: the decision. It takes time on the bigger decisions. And
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Speaker 1: a person that has cosmat oh has this uh respectable mentality. Interesting,
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Speaker 1: it's not at all like our English word respectable. Has
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Speaker 1: an ability to think clearly, doesn't get sidetracked, can hang
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Speaker 1: in there through the through the tough time of concentration.
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Speaker 1: Before we get so intellectual about this, we better look
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Speaker 1: at the next one. This person needs also to have hospitality,
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Speaker 1: an open heart and open home. Interesting Greek word. It
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Speaker 1: comes from two words. One is to be fond of
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Speaker 1: the other is the word strangers. An individual who is friendly,
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Speaker 1: not aloof.
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Speaker 2: You.
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Speaker 1: See, the church is a fellowship, the church isn't an
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Speaker 1: academic center. The church isn't a school. It's easy for
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Speaker 1: Bible churches or Bible teaching churches to turn the place
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Speaker 1: into a Bible school. Church isn't the school. Church is
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Speaker 1: a family. A church is a body. It's a place
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Speaker 1: where there is worship, there is singing, there is laughter,
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Speaker 1: there is hurt, there is instruction, there is growth, there
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Speaker 1: is a disagreement, there is honesty, there is the give
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Speaker 1: and take of decisions. There is the voice of the people.
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Speaker 1: And and a person in leadership must have a heart
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Speaker 1: for those people, rather than pushing people away. Must have
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Speaker 1: that ability to draw people out and to put people
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Speaker 1: at ease with their opinions, and to say it's all
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Speaker 1: right to disagree, state your opinion, say your feelings, open
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Speaker 1: yourself to this family. William Barclay Write's wise Words. In
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Speaker 1: the Christian Church, there were wandering teachers and preachers they
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Speaker 1: needed hospitality. There were many slaves who had no homes
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Speaker 1: of their own. It was a great privilege to them
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Speaker 1: to have the right of entry to a Christian home.
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Speaker 1: The whole church was a little island of Christianity in
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Speaker 1: a pagan world, and it was of the greatest blessing
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Speaker 1: that Christians should have Christian doors which were ever open
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Speaker 1: to them, and Christian homes in which they could meet
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Speaker 1: people like minded to themselves. We still live in a
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Speaker 1: world where there are men who are far from home,
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Speaker 1: many who are strangers in a strange place, many who
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Speaker 1: live in conditions where it's hard to be a Christian.
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Speaker 1: The door of the Christian home and the welcome of
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Speaker 1: the Christian heart should be open to all such. Do
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Speaker 1: not select someone who is aloof and private, someone who
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Speaker 1: keeps you at a distance, someone whose life is a secret,
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Speaker 1: someone who stiff arms you when you need to come
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Speaker 1: up close, or someone who doesn't offer hope and compassion
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Speaker 1: and counsel when you need to be helped. I'm not
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Speaker 1: saying it needs to be a hail fellow, well met.
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Speaker 1: Doesn't need to be a cheerleader, jumping up and down,
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Speaker 1: calling people to yell and scream and to get into
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Speaker 1: the act with and not that kind of thing that's superficial,
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Speaker 1: but the kind of person who genuinely cares about others,
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Speaker 1: hospitable and finally able to teach. I think that's clear enough.
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Speaker 1: It's found only here. Interestingly, and in two Timothy two
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Speaker 1: twenty four translated the same way. There has the ability
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Speaker 1: or the aptitude to teach. Doesn't mean that at a
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Speaker 1: given moment can preach a forty minute sermon without fail.
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Speaker 1: That's not the kind of teaching in mind. It's the
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Speaker 1: ability to handle the scriptures, the ability, with given enough time,
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Speaker 1: to open the scriptures and to explain them, to teach them.
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Speaker 1: That means there is a bit of a biblical foundation
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Speaker 1: in this individual's life. Now you see how all of
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Speaker 1: this fits together. Just having money, or just having a name,
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Speaker 1: or just throwing your political pressure around, does it qualify
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Speaker 1: you to be a leader in a church. Now. You
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Speaker 1: may be politically minded, you may be involved in politics,
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Speaker 1: you may have money, you may have a great traditional past.
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Speaker 1: But if you have these things also fine. If you don't,
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Speaker 1: you're not qualified. And many is the heartache of a
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Speaker 1: church that has turned its leadership over to people who
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Speaker 1: lack these qualities rather than possess them. I want to
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Speaker 1: give you a few suggestions, and all of this is
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Speaker 1: to be continued. We'll go on with this the next time.
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Speaker 1: I have three in mine. Number one, Let's be careful
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Speaker 1: in selecting leaders. Let's restrain ourselves from the temptation to
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Speaker 1: select somebody just because we've always known them, or they're
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Speaker 1: good friends, or we've always liked them, or they've always
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Speaker 1: been around. Be careful in selecting leadership, and to your surprise,
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Speaker 1: perhaps the larger a church gets, the more careful we
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Speaker 1: have to be. Doesn't mean you don't have to be careful.
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Speaker 1: If the church is small, you still need to be,
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Speaker 1: but all the more as you affect and influence more lives,
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Speaker 1: be careful in the selecting a leadership. And under this subject,
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Speaker 1: look for spiritual gifts, look for qualifications, Try to get
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Speaker 1: beyond the superficial force yourself to get to know who
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Speaker 1: that person is. For you say, I just put him
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Speaker 1: in office. Second, let's also be realistic. No one's perfect.
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Speaker 1: And if you take all fifteen of these and push
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Speaker 1: him in a corner and put anybody's name or picture
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Speaker 1: up next to it, that person not going to qualify.
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Speaker 1: If you press this thing to the extreme, especially when
37:34
Speaker 1: you get down to managing one's household, well, there's going
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Speaker 1: to be a time or two when the home isn't
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Speaker 1: too well managed. There's going to be a time or
37:43
Speaker 1: two when a person does lose his temper. There is
37:46
Speaker 1: going to be a time or two or three where
37:48
Speaker 1: you are a little pugnacious. That's an ugly word, pugnacious.
37:52
Speaker 1: We're going to get to that a little later. But
37:54
Speaker 1: there are times you get a little irritable. Yeah, everybody's
37:58
Speaker 1: like that. If you require a person to walk on
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Speaker 1: all fours and not fail in any one of these
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Speaker 1: areas throughout his lifetime, we'll have no leadership and the
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Speaker 1: staff immediately resigns. I can assure you, because we are
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Speaker 1: made up of imperfections. So let's be realistic as well. Third, finally,
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Speaker 1: let's be aware. Let's be observant. Qualified people are not
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Speaker 1: always loud, They are not always upfront. They can't always
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Speaker 1: sing well, they don't always have charisma. They may not
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Speaker 1: always be the person that you would want to have
38:37
Speaker 1: speak for you at the city council. They may not
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Speaker 1: be good on their feet, but they may have the goods.
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Speaker 1: And the observant person in the church is looking. He's aware,
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Speaker 1: she's aware of those people. That's hard work to stay aware,
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Speaker 1: but we are to do so. Thank you, Heavenly Father,
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Speaker 1: for the truth of your word, for the fun it
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Speaker 1: is in being in this family, for the joy of learning,
39:05
Speaker 1: of growing for the pleasure of being forgiven, for the
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Speaker 1: relief of compassion, for the warmth of care and love.
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Speaker 1: Thank You for singles and marriage alike. Thank You for
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Speaker 1: those who have grown up in the church and those
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Speaker 1: who are brand new to us. Thank You for youth
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Speaker 1: and old age. Thank you for the family full of variety.
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Speaker 1: No two exactly alike. Though our names may be the same,
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Speaker 1: Though our height and weight and size may be the same,
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Speaker 1: We're all very different. That's the way you've made your body.
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Speaker 1: Give us the discipline to think carefully, intelligently biblically, rather
39:56
Speaker 1: than to act emotionally. When we plan to select officers
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Speaker 1: for a church, may we be free of politics and pressure,
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Speaker 1: and as much as is possible, may we be aware
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Speaker 1: with objectivity of those best qualified for the job. And
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Speaker 1: may your leaders be chosen. Thank you in Jesus name Amen.
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Speaker 3: The preceding message Checklist for Choosing church leaders was copyrighted
40:29
Speaker 3: in nineteen eighty four, and the sound recording was copyrighted
40:31
Speaker 3: in twenty fifteen by Charles R. Swindell, Inc. All rights
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Speaker 3: are reserved worldwide.