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Why Missionaries Must Be Qualified Like Elders · Reformed Thinking

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  Welcome back to the show. You are listening to Reformed
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  Thinking. It is good to have you with us
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  today as we as we open up another stack of notes and get
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  into the weeds of some serious theological inquiry.
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  It is always a pleasure to be here and frankly, I am excited
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  about where we are heading today because this is, you know, this
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  is one of those topics that sits right at the intersection of
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  high theology and very urgent practical application.
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  Absolutely. We are two friends who hold to
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  the Westminster Confession trying to make sense of the
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  world through that lens, and today we're tackling a subject
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  that I think keeps a lot of pastors and missions committees
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  up at night. Or it should.
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  Or it should exactly. So let's set the stage a little
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  bit. We're looking at a chapter from
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  the book Biblical Missions, and it's a chapter written by Tom
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  Pennington titled The Elder Qualified Missionary.
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  And right off the bat, Pennington introduces this
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  incredible tension that, you know, it just exists in the
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  evangelical world. It's the tension between the
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  weight of the need and the the speed of our response.
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  Right. And we all feel it.
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  You look at the world, you look at the unreached people groups,
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  you see the fields white for harvest.
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  As Jesus said, there is a weight to that, a real weight.
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  A legitimate urgency. Yeah.
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  Yeah. We want to see the nations
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  worship Christ. And because that weight is so
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  heavy, the temptation is to just go right, just get boots on the
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  ground. If someone is willing, if they
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  have a heartbeat and a passport, we sort of think, great, let's
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  get into the airport. That is the common reaction.
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  The logic goes something like this.
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  The need is infinite. Our time is short.
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  So, you know, any delay for training or qualification feels
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  like a lack of faith or a lack of compassion.
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  But here is the hook. And this is where Pennington
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  really challenges that common assumption.
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  OK, urgency is not a license for unbiblical short.
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  That's a phrase that really sticks with you.
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  Urgency is not a license for unbiblical shortcuts.
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  It's the core of the whole argument.
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  I mean, if we rush to send workers who are not actually
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  qualified for the task, we're not solving the problem.
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  We might actually be creating new ones.
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  Pennington's central thesis in this chapter is very specific
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  and frankly quite challenging to the modern missions machinery.
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  He argues that missionaries who are sent to plant churches or to
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  train leaders must be biblically qualified elders.
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  OK, so let's unpack this because I can hear someone listening
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  right now thinking, wait a minute, I thought we just needed
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  witnesses. I thought we just needed
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  evangelists. But Pennington is drawing a very
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  specific line here when it comes to church planting.
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  He is, and to understand why, we have to look at the road map.
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  For our discussion today, we're going to start by defining our
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  terms, What actually constitutes church planting versus, say,
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  church strengthening? Then we're going to look at the
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  New Testament patterns, specifically in Acts in the
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  Epistles, to see if our modern methods even align with
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  Scripture. And finally.
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  And finally, we're going to get very practical and breakdown, a
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  four step process for how a local church can actually raise
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  up these kinds of men. I love that we're getting
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  practical because so often in reformed circles we can stay in
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  the clouds of theory, but this has to work on the ground.
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  So let's start with Part 1, defining the mission.
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  Pennington makes an observation that I think it's just, well,
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  it's painfully accurate. He says.
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  We often send people to do the work of an elder without ever
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  checking if they are qualified to be elders.
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  It's a category error. I mean, think about it.
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  We send a young man or a couple to a foreign context.
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  We tell them, go plant a church. Now, what does that actually
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  entail? You are evangelizing, yes.
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  But once people are converted, you're gathering them, you are
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  teaching them doctrine, you are refuting the errors of the local
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  culture or the religious context.
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  You're counseling them through sin.
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  You are establishing order. You are separating.
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  Precisely, you are doing the work of a pastor.
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  Pennington cites Titus 1.59 and first Peter 5.1 to 3 to show
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  that these tasks exhorting with sound doctrine, refuting those
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  to contradict, shepherding the flock, these are the biblical
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  descriptions of what an elder does.
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  So the argument is, if a man can't do those things here, if
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  he can't refute error in his own language, in his own culture, if
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  he can't shepherd a flock in his home church, why in the world do
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  we think he'll be able to do it cross culturally in a second
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  language? That is the $1,000,000 question,
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  and usually the answer is just sort of magical thinking.
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  We assume the plane ride will somehow bestow these gifts upon
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  him. Yeah, that.
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  He'll just figure it out. But he won't.
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  If he is not an elder here, he will not be an elder there.
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  He will just be an unqualified man under immense pressure.
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  That leads us to these definitions.
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  Pennington breaks it down into 3 categories, Church planting,
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  church strengthening and support roles.
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  Let's look at definition #1 church planting.
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  How is he defining that? He defines church planting as
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  the gathering of disciples into a newly formed body that is self
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  governing, self propagating, and self supporting.
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  Now catch the nuance there? A church is not just a Bible
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  study. It is not just a group of
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  friends. It is a body that is self
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  governing. Which implies government
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  structure. Which implies elders.
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  You cannot have a biblical church without biblical
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  leadership. So if the mission is to plant a
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  church, the end goal is to appoint elders in that new
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  congregation. So Pennington's point is that
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  you reproduce what you are. Exactly, if the planter himself
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  is not elder qualified, how is he going to recognize, trained
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  and install elders in this new work?
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  It's like trying to teach someone a language you don't
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  speak. You can't pass on what you don't
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  possess. You can't.
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  Even if the missionary doesn't stay there forever as the
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  pastor, even if he plans to hand it off to Indigenous leadership.
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  He is the temporary elder, he is the prototype, so he must be
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  qualified. OK, so that is church planting.
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  It's a very high bar. What about definition 2?
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  Church Strengthening. This is a broader term, and it
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  has biblical origins. We see it in Acts 15.41 and
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  16.5, where Paul goes through Syria and Cilicia, strengthening
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  the churches. Now, some strengthening roles
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  absolutely require elder qualification, for example, if
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  you were sent to be a seminary professor in a foreign country,
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  or if you were sent specifically to train indigenous pastors.
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  Because you are teaching teachers.
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  Right. You are shaping the doctrinal
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  backbone of that church that requires the apartment to teach
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  qualification and the ability to refute error that we find in
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  Titus One. But Pennington notes that some
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  strengthening roles might fall more into the category of mercy
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  ministries or administrative help, which leads us to the
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  third category. Definition 3 Support roles.
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  This is where I think a lot of modern missions work falls, and
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  it's vital to distinguish this from the office of Elder.
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  It is. I mean, we are talking about
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  Bible translators, pilots, educators in mission schools,
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  medical missionaries, builders, mercy ministry workers.
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  These are crucial roles. They support the work of the
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  gospel. Absolutely essential.
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  But Pennington argues that these rules do not biblically require
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  elder qualification. So.
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  What is the standard then? Do we just send anyone for these
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  roles? Is it a lower bar?
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  No, not at all. The standard is still high, he
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  argues. They should be Deacon qualified.
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  They must be spiritually mature believers that need to
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  demonstrate the character of a faithful servant of Christ, but
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  they don't necessarily need the ability to publicly preach,
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  refute theological error, or govern the church body in the
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  same way an elder does. And this brings up a significant
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  point regarding women in missions.
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  We know that the office of elder is restricted to men for Timothy
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  2 Titus one are clear on that. But women have always played a
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  massive, massive role in the history of missions.
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  How does this framework fit them in?
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  Pennington addresses this directly, and I think very
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  helpfully, since support roles don't require one to be an
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  elder, women can and should work in these capacities.
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  They're not candidates for elder qualified roles like church
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  planting or training pastors. Based on First Timothy 2.1112.
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  But they're vital for these other roles.
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  Absolutely vital. The standard for them is the
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  character qualities of godly women found in First Timothy
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  2.910 and the general spiritual maturity that would align with a
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  deaconess or a faithful servant in the church.
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  I think that clarification is so helpful because it honors the
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  complementarian view of Scripture while also validating
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  the massive contribution of women on the mission field.
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  It's not saying men do missions, women stay home.
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  Not at all. It is saying roles matter and
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  qualifications matter. Precisely.
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  It is about ordering God's house, God's way.
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  And that really moves us into Part 2 of our discussion, the
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  New Testament pattern. We've defined the terms, but now
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  we need to look at the theology behind it.
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  This is where ecclesiology drives missiology.
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  I love that phrase. Ecclesiology drives missiology.
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  The doctrine of the Church determines the doctrine of
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  missions. And not the other way around,
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  which is often how it happens. Right Pennington went out.
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  A common error here. He says many missiologists treat
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  the local church as a pool for applicants or purse for money.
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  It's a utilitarian view of the church.
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  The mission agency is seen as the real engine, and the church
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  is just the gas station. You stop by to fill up on money
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  and bodies and then you leave. But Pennington corrects this
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  using Matthew 16.18. Jesus says I will build my
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  church. That is the central project of
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  history. And then you look at the Great
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  Commission in Matthew 28. Go, therefore, and make
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  disciples of all nations, baptizing them and teaching them
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  to observe all that I have commanded you.
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  Think about those verbs. Baptizing, teaching to observe
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  commands. These are not random activities.
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  These are ordinances and functions of a local church.
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  Right. Baptism is the entry sign into
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  the covenant community. Teaching creates the doctrinal
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  foundation of that community. You literally cannot fulfill the
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  Great Commission without planting local churches.
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  So the Great Commission is not just go save souls, it's go
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  build churches. The fruit of the Great
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  Commission is a planted church, and since the church must be
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  under the authority of elders to be biblical, the logic holds.
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  Missions is a church planting elder establishing endeavor.
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  Let's trace this through the book of Acts.
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  Pennington lays out a pattern that starts right in Jerusalem.
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  It does. Look at Acts 2.4142.
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  Peter preaches, evangelism happens.
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  Then what? Those who received his word were
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  baptized. Step one.
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  Then there were added about 3000 souls.
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  Added to what? To the Church?
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  And then they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching.
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  It is a clear sequence. Evangelism leads to baptism,
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  which leads to church membership, which leads to
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  doctrinal instruction. And initially, the apostles
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  function as the first elders. We see in Acts 6 that as the
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  administrative burden grew, they delegated the serving of tables
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  to deacons so they could focus on prayer and the ministry of
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  the word. Classic elder duties.
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  Then persecution hits in Acts 8. The church scatters, and this is
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  interesting because you have regular believers preaching the
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  gospel, but then Jerusalem sends leaders.
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  That is a key observation when Philip preaches in Samaria and
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  people believe, the Jerusalem church hears about it and sends
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  Peter and John leaders, elders, apostles to establish order and
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  confirm the work. So they didn't just let it grow
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  wild. No, they didn't just leave these
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  new believers as a loose affiliation of individuals.
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  They brought Apostolic authority and structure.
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  And then we get to Antioch, which really becomes the great
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  sending Church of the New Testament.
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  Antioch is the model and look at who they sent.
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  Acts 13 tells us that in the Church of Antioch there were
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  prophets and teachers, Barnabas, Simeon, Lucius, Manan and Saul.
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  These were the heavy hitters, the 18, these were the leaders.
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  And the Holy Spirit says, set apart for me Barnabas and Saul.
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  They sent their best. They sent their leaders.
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  They did not send novices. Precisely.
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  Paul and Barnabas were already functioning as leaders in
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  Antioch before they were exported to the nations.
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  And what did they do when they went?
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  This is what Pennington calls the Every Church standard.
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  Acts 14.2123. This is the verse that I think
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  really seals the argument. It really does.
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  Paul and Barnabas returned to the cities they had visited,
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  Lystra, Iconium, Antioch, and verse 23 says, when they had
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  appointed elders for them in every church, having prayed with
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  fasting, they commended them to the Lord.
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  Elders in every church, not just some.
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  Not some churches, not just the big ones.
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  Every church. And Paul gives the same command
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  to Titus and Titus 1.5 appoint elders in every city as I
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  directed you. The pattern is, you know, it's
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  undeniable. If the goal is a church, the
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  requirement is elders, and if the requirement is elders, the
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  man planting the church must be able to identify, train and
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  appoint them. Which means he has to be 1
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  himself. You replicate what you are.
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  If you're a novice, you will replicate immaturity.
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  If you're an elder, you can replicate leadership.
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  That is the principle. So we have established the
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  definition and the pattern. Now let's talk about the danger.
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  Part three of our outline is why character Matters.
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  Preventing missionary failure. This is where it gets really
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  practical. We can talk theology all day,
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  but we also have to look at the casualty rate and missions.
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  It's high. It's disturbingly high.
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  It is. Missionaries leave the field for
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  all sorts of reasons, but usually it boils down to
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  character and family. And Pennington asked the
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  question, who is responsible for training these men to prevent
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  this failure? And the answer is uncomfortable
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  for some. It is not the seminary.
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  It is not the mission agency. Christ holds the local church
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  elders responsible. The scriptural basis is 7
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  Timothy 2.2. Paul is writing to Timothy, a
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  pastor, an elder, and says, the things which you have heard from
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  me. Entrust these two faithful men
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  who will be able to teach others also.
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  This is a pastoral mandate passed from elder to elder.
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  So if a missionary fails on the field because of character
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  issues, the sending church has to take some ownership of.
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  That we have to. We are the ones who vetted them
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  or failed to vet them. And Pennington points out that
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  the elder qualifications listed in First Timothy 3 and Titus One
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  are not just arbitrary spiritual hoops to jump through.
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  They are actually survival skills for the mission field.
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  Give us an example of that. How does an elder qualification
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  help you survive in a jungle or a hostile city?
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  OK, take the issue of team conflict.
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  This is one of the top reasons missionaries pack up and go
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  home. They just cannot get along with
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  their teammates. I've heard that so many times.
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  Well look at Titus 1.7. An overseer must not be self
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  willed, quick tempered or pugnacious.
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  Pugnacious. That means looking for a fight,
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  basically. Right, If a man is self willed
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  and quick tempered in his home church, he is going to be a
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  disaster on a missionary team where stress is high and
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  resources are low. If he has not been tested and
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  proven to be gentle and uncontentious, as First Timothy
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  3 says, sending him is setting him up for failure.
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  What about the family aspect? That's another big one.
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  That is another huge one, family breakdown, the pressure of cross
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  cultural living, learning a language, maybe living in a
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  dangerous area. It puts a massive strain on a
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  marriage and on parenting. I can't even imagine.
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  Well. First Timothy 3.45 says an elder
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  must be one who manages his own household well, keeping his
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  children under control with all dignity.
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  And the logic Paul uses is haunting.
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  If a man does not know how to manage his own household, how
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  will he take care of the Church of God?
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  And Pennington applies that to missions.
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  He applies it directly. If a man cannot shepherd his
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  wife and children through the normal stresses of life in his
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  home culture, how will he shepherd them through the
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  exponential stress of the mission field?
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  That is a sobering thought. The qualification is a
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  protection. It is God saying, do not put
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  this weight on a man who does not have the spiritual muscles
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  to carry it. Precisely.
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  We often view these qualifications as barriers to
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  entry. Oh, the bar is so high we can't
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  find anyone, but we should view them as structural integrity
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  checks. That's a great way to put it.
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  You don't build a bridge out of cardboard not because you hate
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  cardboard, but because you don't want the bridge to collapse when
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  the wait comes. So if you are a church leader
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  listening to this or a member of emissions committee, you're
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  probably nodding your head. OK, But now comes the question,
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  how do we do this? How do we actually raise up men
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  like this? This leads to Pennington's very
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  practical 4 step process. This is part 4A practical
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  process and step one is identifying.
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  It starts with the understanding that Christ gives to the gifts.
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  Ephesians 4. Right.
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  We don't manufacture elders. We don't clone them.
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  Christ gives gifts to his church, but the role of the
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  current elders and the congregation is to identify the
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  men Christ has gifted, and Pennington suggests 2 methods
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  for this. Method A is the astron.
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  This is based on First Timothy 3.1.
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  If any man aspires to the office of Overseer, he desires a fine
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  work. Sometimes a man will come to
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  you. He will express a desire.
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  But there is a distinction here, right?
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  It is not just desiring the title or the prestige.
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  A crucial distinction. He must desire the work.
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  Does he want to study? Does he want to teach?
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  Does he want to bear the burdens of others?
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  Does he want to do the messy work of shepherding?
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  Pennington notes that a desire to plant churches is a desire to
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  be an elder, whether the candidate realizes it or not.
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  Then there is method B, the elder review.
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  This is more proactive. This is where the elder sit down
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  and look at the men currently serving in the church.
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  Who is teaching Sunday school, Who is leading a small group?
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  Who is showing shepherding instincts?
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  Pennington suggests sorting them into lists.
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  You have a short term group, men who could be elders in one to
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  two years and a long term group men who might be ready in three
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  to five years. I like that because it stops the
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  crisis mode of Oh no, we need an elder now.
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  It forces you to think generationally.
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  It's deliberate for the short term, guys.
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  You do some initial vetting. You review recordings of their
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  teaching. Are they actually gifted?
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  An elder approaches them to gauge their desire.
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  You check their testimony, their spiritual disciplines.
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  If that all looks good, you move to Step 2 training.
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  This is part five of our outline and the key here is the
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  mentorship model. It cannot be done by a book
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  alone. It cannot be done by a video
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  series. A specific elder should be
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  assigned to mentor the candidate.
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  Life on life. It's discipleship.
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  Pennington lists 4 pillars of curriculum for this training
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  using Sect. Timothy 2.2 as a grid.
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  Let's walk through these 4 pillars #1 Content of Scripture.
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  This seems obvious, but it is often overlooked.
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  Does the man have a thorough working knowledge of the Bible?
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  Not just his favorite verses, but the whole counsel of God?
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  Can he handle Leviticus as well as he handles?
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  Romans #2. Systematic Theology.
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  This is critical for the mission field.
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  It is not just knowing terms like justification or hypostatic
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  union. It is about defending them
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  biblically. Can he refute common errors on
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  the mission field? Heresy is common.
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  Syncretism is common. If he does not have his
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  systematic theology locked down, he will be swayed or he will
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  compromise the message. #3 character.
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  This goes back to First Timothy 3 and Titus One.
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  The training period is a time to watch him.
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  Is he growing in maturity? Is he hospitable?
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  Is he a lover of good? Is he sensible?
• 18:54
  You are training his heart, not just his head.
• 18:57
  And #4 skills. Practical preparation, teaching,
• 19:01
  counseling, making hospital visits.
• 19:03
  Pennington suggests letting him participate in elder
• 19:06
  discussions. Maybe not the sensitive
• 19:07
  discipline cases yet, but seeing how elders deliberate, how do
• 19:11
  they apply wisdom? He needs to see the engine
• 19:14
  running. The goal here is preparing him
• 19:16
  for evaluation and for the actual work.
• 19:19
  Which brings us to Part 6, steps 3 and 4, evaluating and
• 19:22
  confirming. Step 3 is evaluating or the test
• 19:25
  biblical basis. First Timothy 3 point deserve
• 19:27
  says even deacons must first be tested, so obviously elders must
• 19:30
  be tested too. What is the congregation's role
• 19:33
  here in this testing? Pennington argues they do not
• 19:35
  vote to make him an elder. Scripture seems to indicate
• 19:38
  elders appoint elders, but they are informed so they can bring
• 19:40
  up disqualifying issues. It is a safety check.
• 19:43
  A character check. Exactly.
• 19:44
  Does anyone know a reason why this man cannot serve that
• 19:48
  protects the church? And the elders role is the
• 19:51
  formal exam. And this should be rigorous, an
• 19:53
  in depth examination of his Bible knowledge, systematic
• 19:56
  theology, and practical theology.
• 19:59
  The standard is Titus 1.9. Again, can he exhort in sound
• 20:03
  doctrine and refute those who contradict?
• 20:05
  And if he can't? If he sits in that exam and
• 20:08
  crumbles when asked to defend the deity of Christ or explain
• 20:10
  the doctrine of the Trinity, he is not ready.
• 20:13
  It sounds harsh, but it is actually loving.
• 20:16
  It is better to fail an exam in a safe room with friends than to
• 20:20
  fail in a pulpit in a foreign land with wolf circle.
• 20:23
  Absolutely. If he fails, he needs more
• 20:25
  preparation. It is not necessarily a no
• 20:27
  forever. It is a not yet.
• 20:28
  But if he passes Step 4 confirming.
• 20:31
  This requires A unanimous vote by the elder board.
• 20:34
  You want unity in the leadership and then public installation.
• 20:37
  First Timothy 4.14 speaks of the laying on of hands.
• 20:41
  This is a solemn holy moment during a worship service.
• 20:44
  Now here's a practical question Pennington addresses regarding
• 20:47
  timing. Do you install him as a lay
• 20:50
  elder in the sending church before he goes or do you wait
• 20:53
  until he is about to get on the plane?
• 20:55
  There are two good options. Option A is to install him as a
• 20:58
  lay elder in the sending church. If there is going to be a delay,
• 21:01
  maybe he has two years of support raising to do right.
• 21:03
  Great, let him serve as an elder here.
• 21:05
  It benefits the church and it gives him experience.
• 21:08
  And option B. Option B is to confirm him as
• 21:10
  qualified Mark Mez approved, but install and Commission him
• 21:15
  specifically when he is ready to deploy.
• 21:17
  This emphasizes his specific role as a scent one.
• 21:21
  Either way, the key is that the sending Church has put its seal
• 21:24
  of approval on his character and doctrine.
• 21:27
  And the conclusion of this whole process is confidence.
• 21:30
  Confidence for the church that sends him and protection for the
• 21:32
  missionary who goes. That is the beauty of it.
• 21:35
  It removes the ambiguity. He knows he has been tested.
• 21:39
  He knows he has the backing of his elders.
• 21:41
  He knows he is not a rogue agent.
• 21:43
  He is an extension of the local church.
• 21:45
  We have covered a lot of ground here.
• 21:47
  Let's head to our outro and just summarize the stakes.
• 21:50
  We started with the tension of urgency versus preparation.
• 21:54
  And we have seen that the Great Commission dictates that
• 21:56
  missions must be centered in the local church.
• 21:59
  You cannot bypass the church to reach the World, no.
• 22:02
  And because the church is central, the New Testament
• 22:05
  pattern of leadership qualified elders must be central to.
• 22:09
  Church planting and strengthening are not amateur
• 22:12
  sports. They require the spiritual
• 22:14
  maturity and gifting of an elder.
• 22:16
  We cannot compromise on qualification for the sake of
• 22:19
  speed. As Pennington implies, A
• 22:21
  qualified man is a lasting tool in God's hand.
• 22:24
  Right. An unqualified man is often a
• 22:26
  broken tool that hurts the user and the work.
• 22:29
  That is the hard truth. We want lasting fruit.
• 22:31
  We want churches that stand the test of time, that weather false
• 22:34
  teaching, that reproduce themselves.
• 22:36
  That only happens when the foundation is laid by wise
• 22:38
  qualified master builders. So here is the final provocation
• 22:42
  for you, the listener, whether you are a pastor, a missions
• 22:45
  committee member, or someone thinking about going to the
• 22:48
  field yourself. If you are a sender, are you
• 22:52
  sending prepared men? Are you checking the foundation?
• 22:55
  Or are you just painting over the cracks because you are in a
• 22:58
  hurry? And if you are a goer or want to
• 23:00
  be a goer, are you willing to submit to this level of
• 23:03
  preparation? Are you willing to say, Lord, I
• 23:06
  will go when I am ready, and I will trust you with the timing?
• 23:09
  It takes humility to wait. It really does.
• 23:12
  It takes humility to be tested, but God honors that humility.
• 23:16
  Trust God's timing over the anxiety of the immediate need.
• 23:20
  The harvest is His and He knows how to bring it in.
• 23:24
  Thank you for joining us for this deep dive.
• 23:26
  This has been Reformed thinking. So deal, Gloria.
• 23:29
  You know, I want to take some more time to expand on a few of
• 23:31
  these concepts because we breeze through the definitions of
• 23:34
  church planting and strengthening and I think
• 23:35
  there's so much more meat on the bone there.
• 23:37
  Let's circle back to that idea. Self governing, self propagating
• 23:40
  and self supporting. I am glad we are circling back
• 23:43
  because these are not just academic terms.
• 23:45
  These are the life signs of a healthy body.
• 23:48
  When we say a church is self governing, we are saying it has
• 23:51
  reached maturity. Think about raising a child.
• 23:54
  The goal of parenting is not to keep the child dependent on you
• 23:57
  forever. The goal is to raise an adult
• 24:00
  who can make their own decisions, run their own
• 24:02
  household and contribute to society.
• 24:05
  That is a great analogy. So in missions, if a church in
• 24:09
  say Brazil is constantly calling the sending church in Chicago to
• 24:14
  ask can we paint the sanctuary blue or how do we handle this
• 24:18
  discipline case, then they are not self governing.
• 24:21
  They're not. They are dependent.
• 24:22
  They're still a child, correct? And dependency cripples the
• 24:26
  local church. It keeps them in a state of
• 24:27
  spiritual infancy. But to reach that state of
• 24:30
  adulthood of self government, you need local leaders who are
• 24:33
  qualified to govern. That means you need elders,
• 24:35
  right? And This is why the missionary
• 24:37
  must be an elder, qualified man. If his job is to raise up these
• 24:40
  local leaders. He has to know what he's looking
• 24:42
  for. He has to model it.
• 24:44
  It goes back to that idea of reproduction.
• 24:46
  You reproduce what you are. If the missionary is a great
• 24:49
  evangelist but has no idea how to govern a church, he will
• 24:53
  plant a church that is full of converts but has no structure.
• 24:58
  It will be chaotic. And chaos is not a friend to
• 25:00
  longevity. The second self is self
• 25:03
  propagating. This means the church can
• 25:05
  reproduce itself. It does not need the missionary
• 25:08
  to do all the evangelism. The members are doing.
• 25:10
  It the members are evangelizing, they are planting daughter
• 25:13
  churches. Again, this requires leadership.
• 25:16
  It requires fires, equipping the Saints for the work of ministry,
• 25:19
  as Ephesians 4 says. Who does the equipping?
• 25:22
  The pastors and teachers? The elders.
• 25:25
  And the third one, self supporting.
• 25:27
  This is often the trickiest one, especially when there was a
• 25:29
  massive economic disparity between the sending country and
• 25:32
  the receiving country. It is incredibly difficult, but
• 25:35
  if a church cannot pay its own light bill or support its own
• 25:38
  pastor because they are waiting for a check from America, they
• 25:41
  are not healthy. They are vulnerable.
• 25:43
  Very vulnerable. If the political situation
• 25:45
  changes and the money gets that's cut off, the church might
• 25:48
  collapse. A self supporting church is
• 25:50
  robust, but teaching a congregation sacrificial giving
• 25:54
  and stewardship? That is pastoral work.
• 25:56
  That is shepherding. So all three of these markers
• 26:00
  governing, propagating, supporting point back to the
• 26:04
  need for high level leadership. You cannot get there with just
• 26:07
  enthusiasm. You need wisdom.
• 26:10
  Precisely. And that wisdom is what the
• 26:12
  biblical qualifications for elders are designed to ensure.
• 26:15
  They are not just about don't be a drunkard.
• 26:17
  They are about be sober minded, sensible, able to teach.
• 26:21
  These are the cognitive and character tools required to
• 26:23
  build a self-sustaining institution.
• 26:26
  Let's shift gears slightly and talk more about the church
• 26:28
  strengthening aspect. We mentioned Acts 15.41 where
• 26:30
  Paul is strengthening the churches.
• 26:32
  I want to dig into what that actually looked like in the 1st
• 26:34
  century. Well, context is king there.
• 26:36
  In Acts 15, the Jerusalem Council had just happened.
• 26:39
  They'd made a monumental decision regarding the Gentiles
• 26:42
  and the law. Yeah, a huge.
• 26:43
  Decision. They decided that Gentiles did
• 26:45
  not need to be circumcised to be saved.
• 26:47
  This was a theological earthquake.
• 26:48
  So when Paul went back to these churches, he wasn't just saying
• 26:51
  God loves you and giving a pep talk.
• 26:53
  He was delivering a complex theological ruling.
• 26:56
  Correct. He was explaining the
• 26:58
  relationship between the Old Covenant and the New Covenant.
• 27:01
  He was explaining the nature of justification by faith alone.
• 27:05
  He was telling them how to live in unity with Jewish believers.
• 27:08
  This requires a deep grasp of theology.
• 27:11
  It requires the ability to answer objections.
• 27:13
  Oh, absolutely. Imagine a Jewish believer in
• 27:15
  those churches asking, But Paul? What about Moses?
• 27:19
  Paul had to be able to answer that.
• 27:20
  That is definitely elder work that is refuting those who
• 27:23
  contradict at the highest level. It is, and that is why
• 27:26
  Pennington argues that if you are sending someone to do that
• 27:29
  kind of strengthening, teaching in a seminary, training pastors,
• 27:32
  resolving theological disputes, they must be elder qualified.
• 27:35
  You cannot send a novice to untie those knots.
• 27:38
  But then we have the other side of strengthening the Mercy
• 27:41
  ministry side. We touched on this, but let's
• 27:43
  elaborate. If a team goes to build a
• 27:46
  hospital or run a clean water project that strengthens the
• 27:49
  church way, it's a good thing. Absolutely.
• 27:52
  It strengthens the church's standing in the community.
• 27:54
  It demonstrates the compassion of Christ.
• 27:56
  It opens doors for the Gospel. But the person digging the well
• 28:00
  does not need to be able to parse Greek verbs or explain the
• 28:04
  hypostatic union in detail. They need to be a faithful
• 28:08
  Christian Deacon qualified. But they are utilizing a
• 28:12
  different skill set. This distinction is so freeing
• 28:16
  because it validates the different parts of the body.
• 28:19
  The hand does not need to be the eye, the builder does not need
• 28:22
  to be the preacher. But the preacher must be
• 28:24
  qualified to preach and the leader must be qualified to
• 28:26
  lead. That is the non negotiable.
• 28:28
  When we confuse these roles we get into trouble.
• 28:31
  If we put the builder in the pulpit because he is a nice guy,
• 28:34
  we compromise the doctrine. If we ask the preacher to build
• 28:36
  the hospital and he has no skills, the building collapses.
• 28:39
  God is a God of order. Let's move to Part 2 in the pool
• 28:42
  and purse concept. I think this deserves more
• 28:45
  attention because it is so prevalent.
• 28:47
  How often do we see mission agencies treating the local
• 28:51
  church as just a funding source? It happens constantly and to be
• 28:55
  fair, often the agencies are just filling a vacuum left by
• 28:59
  the churches. Churches have abdicated their
• 29:02
  responsibility to send, so agency stepped in.
• 29:05
  But the result is a disconnect. The church writes a check but
• 29:09
  they have no skin in the game regarding the missionaries
• 29:11
  actual life and doctrine. And the missionary feels
• 29:14
  disconnected, too. They're floating out there
• 29:16
  answering to an agency director in a high rise somewhere, but
• 29:19
  they are not really accountable to a local body of believers.
• 29:24
  Who knows? Them.
• 29:24
  That is a lonely and dangerous place to be.
• 29:27
  But look at the Antioch model again.
• 29:28
  In Acts 13, set apart from me, Barnabas and Saul, the Holy
• 29:33
  Spirit spoke to the leaders of the church.
• 29:35
  The church fasted and prayed. The church laid hands on them.
• 29:38
  It was a whole church in never. There was a deep organic
• 29:41
  connection. Barnabas and Saul were not just
• 29:43
  employees of a mission board. They were beloved brothers sent
• 29:46
  from the bosom of the Church and.
• 29:47
  When they came back from their journey, they reported to the
• 29:50
  church. They closed the loop.
• 29:52
  Here is what God did through us. That accountability is vital.
• 29:56
  It keeps the missionary grounded, it reminds him that he
• 29:59
  is part of a body, and it keeps the church engaged.
• 30:02
  They are not just donors, they are partners.
• 30:04
  They are Co laborers. I want to talk about the every
• 30:07
  church standard in Acts 14.23. Appointed elders for them in
• 30:12
  every church. The fact that they did this on
• 30:15
  the 1st missionary journey is striking.
• 30:17
  They didn't wait 10 years for the church to mature.
• 30:19
  No, they did not. Now we have to be careful.
• 30:21
  They didn't do it on day one. They preached, people got saved,
• 30:24
  they moved on to the next city, and then on the return trip,
• 30:27
  probably months or maybe a year later, they appointed elders.
• 30:31
  So there was a testing period. Yes, there was a testing period,
• 30:34
  but the goal was immediate. The strategy was we are not done
• 30:37
  here until they're elders. It wasn't an open-ended project.
• 30:41
  It had a definite milestone, a clear finish line for that phase
• 30:45
  of the work. And that milestone was the
• 30:47
  establishment of local leadership.
• 30:49
  Once that was done, Paul felt free to move on.
• 30:51
  He could leave because the structure was in place.
• 30:54
  The Holy Spirit had overseers in that flock.
• 30:56
  This challenge is the model where a missionary goes and
• 31:00
  stays as the pastor for 30 years.
• 31:01
  It does. Now there is nothing wrong with
• 31:03
  staying if that is the call. But if the missionary stays as
• 31:07
  the permanent pastor and never raises up local men, has he
• 31:11
  really planted a self governing church or has he just
• 31:14
  transplanted himself and created a dependency?
• 31:16
  Good question. Paul's model was to work himself
• 31:19
  out of a job. He wanted to replace himself
• 31:21
  with a local men. And to replace yourself, you
• 31:24
  have to know what you are looking for.
• 31:26
  You have to be able to spot the qualifications in these new
• 31:28
  believers. Exactly.
• 31:30
  You are looking for the men who are above reproach.
• 31:33
  You are looking for the men who are husband of one wife.
• 31:37
  You were looking for the men who are hospitable.
• 31:40
  If you don't embody those things, you won't value them and
• 31:43
  you won't spot them. Let's spend a moment on that
• 31:45
  husband of one wife qualification that is often
• 31:48
  debated, but in a mission context, especially in cultures
• 31:51
  where polygamy is or was common or where sexual morality is
• 31:54
  loose, this is huge. It is massive.
• 31:57
  It stands as a profound countercultural witness.
• 32:01
  The elder models fidelity. He models covenant love.
• 32:05
  In a world that treats women as property or sex as a commodity,
• 32:08
  the elder says no, I am a one woman man.
• 32:11
  I love my wife as Christ loves the church.
• 32:14
  That speaks louder than 1000 sermons.
• 32:16
  It does so if the missionary does not have that, if his
• 32:19
  marriage is shaky, or if he has wandering eyes, he destroys that
• 32:23
  witness from the start. He undercuts everything he
• 32:25
  preaches absolutely. That brings us perfectly back to
• 32:28
  the character's survival skills point.
• 32:30
  In Part 3, we talked about pugnacious and managing the
• 32:33
  household. Let's talk about not a new
• 32:36
  convert from First Timothy 3.6. Lest he become conceited and
• 32:40
  fall into the condemnation incurred by the devil.
• 32:42
  Pride is the killer. It's the original sin.
• 32:45
  When you go to the mission field, you are often put on a
• 32:47
  pedestal. You are the rich American.
• 32:49
  You are the expert. People look up to you.
• 32:51
  If you are a new convert or just spiritually immature, that
• 32:55
  praise will go to your head. You will start to think you are
• 32:57
  the Savior. And that is the condemnation of
• 32:59
  the devil pride. Yes, a mature elder knows his
• 33:04
  own sin. He knows he is just a jar of
• 33:06
  clay. He has been humbled by ministry
• 33:09
  in his home church. He knows that any fruit is God's
• 33:11
  fruit. So when he gets to the field, he
• 33:13
  is, in a sense inoculated against the conceit that
• 33:17
  destroys novices. What about good reputation with
• 33:20
  those outside from First Timothy 3.7?
• 33:23
  This is critical for evangelism. If the missionary pays his bills
• 33:27
  late, treats the shopkeepers rudely or drives like a maniac,
• 33:30
  the community notices. They say this man talks about
• 33:33
  God, but he is a cheat. His reputation blocks the
• 33:36
  message. It totally does.
• 33:38
  An elder has to be someone who even if people hate his
• 33:41
  theology, they cannot fault his character.
• 33:43
  Daniel is a great example of this.
• 33:44
  In the Old Testament his enemies could find no ground of
• 33:46
  accusation against him except in regard to the law of his God.
• 33:50
  That is the standard. We want the offense to be the
• 33:52
  cross, not our bad behavior. Precisely if they reject us, let
• 33:56
  it be because we preach Christ crucified, not because we are
• 33:58
  jerks. Moving to the practical process
• 34:01
  in part four and five, I want to dig into the elder review.
• 34:04
  You mentioned proactively looking for men.
• 34:06
  What does that conversation actually look like?
• 34:09
  It is a gentle conversation. It is not.
• 34:11
  Hey, you're hired. It is, brother.
• 34:14
  I have been watching you. I see how you love your wife.
• 34:18
  I see how you handle scripture in our small group.
• 34:20
  I see a shepherd's heart in you. Have you ever considered that
• 34:23
  the Lord might be calling you to leadership?
• 34:26
  That can be both terrifying and affirming at the same time for
• 34:28
  someone. It is.
• 34:30
  And often the best men are the ones who feel unworthy.
• 34:35
  They are the ones who say me really.
• 34:38
  The arrogant man says, finally you noticed.
• 34:42
  You have to be careful with him. But the humble man needs
• 34:45
  encouragement. He needs to know that others see
• 34:47
  the grace of God in him. And then the training, the four
• 34:50
  pillars. Let's talk about content of
• 34:51
  Scripture. This isn't just knowing Bible
• 34:53
  stories, is it? No, it is biblical theology.
• 34:56
  It is understanding how the whole book fits together.
• 34:58
  How does Leviticus point to Christ?
• 34:59
  How does the Davidic covenant relate to the church?
• 35:02
  If you were going to teach the Bible for a lifetime, you need
• 35:04
  to understand the structure of the Bible.
• 35:06
  Otherwise you just end up teaching moralism.
• 35:08
  Be like David, slay your giants. Exactly.
• 35:11
  No. David points to the greater
• 35:13
  David who slew the ultimate giant.
• 35:15
  You need deep biblical literacy to preach the gospel from the
• 35:19
  whole Bible. And systematic theology.
• 35:21
  We talked about defending the faith.
• 35:23
  Let's get specific Syncretism. Syncretism is the blending of
• 35:27
  truth and error. It is when people take Jesus and
• 35:30
  add him to their shelf of idols, or they take the gospel and mix
• 35:34
  it with ancestor worship. This is incredibly subtle.
• 35:38
  I can imagine. A missionary needs to be able to
• 35:40
  spot it. He needs to be able to say no,
• 35:42
  Christ is not just another spirit, He is the creator of
• 35:45
  spirits. He needs the categories of
• 35:47
  systematic theology, Christology, pneumatology to
• 35:50
  draw those lines clearly. If he is fuzzy on his theology,
• 35:53
  he might accidentally endorse A heresy just because it uses
• 35:56
  Christian language. That happens all the time.
• 35:57
  Words mean different things in different contexts.
• 35:59
  You need a theological grid to filter what you were hearing in
• 36:02
  the teaching. And the skills part, counseling.
• 36:06
  I imagine on the mission field the counseling issues are
• 36:08
  intense. They are.
• 36:09
  You are dealing with trauma. You were dealing with demonic
• 36:12
  oppression in some contexts. You are dealing with deep
• 36:15
  poverty and the despair that comes with it.
• 36:19
  A missionary needs to know how to bring the sufficiency of
• 36:21
  Scripture to bear on suffering. It's not enough to just say pray
• 36:25
  about. It not at all.
• 36:25
  You have to walk people through the Psalms.
• 36:27
  You have to teach them how to lament.
• 36:29
  You have to show them the sympathy of Christ.
• 36:31
  That is skilled labor. It really is.
• 36:32
  It is spiritual. Surgeon and you do not want an.
• 36:35
  Amateur surgeon. Finally, the evaluation in part
• 36:38
  6, the test, you mentioned the congregation's role.
• 36:42
  I like the idea of the congregation being a safety
• 36:44
  check. It is a protection.
• 36:46
  The elders see the man in meetings and in ministry.
• 36:50
  The congregation sees him at the grocery store, at the soccer
• 36:53
  game, in the neighborhood. They see the off duty version of
• 36:56
  him. If there is a disconnect, if he
• 36:58
  is a St. in the pulpit but a tyrant at home, someone in the
• 37:02
  congregation likely knows. We need to create a safe channel
• 37:05
  for that information to come forward.
• 37:07
  Not for gossip, but for truth. And the unanimous vote by the
• 37:12
  elders. Why is unanimity so important?
• 37:14
  Why not just majority rule? Because the eldership must model
• 37:17
  unity to the church. If the leaders are divided on a
• 37:20
  man, that division will eventually seep into the church.
• 37:24
  If 40% of the elders think this guy is not qualified and you
• 37:27
  push him through, you are planting a time bomb.
• 37:31
  It is better to wait. Wait until everyone can say yes
• 37:34
  with a clear conscience. The Holy Spirit is a spirit of
• 37:37
  unity. If we are divided, we might not
• 37:40
  be hearing him clearly yet. That requires patience.
• 37:43
  It requires trusting God's timing.
• 37:45
  And that brings us back to the central theme, patience versus
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  urgency. We are in such a hurry, but God
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  is never in a hurry. He's not.
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  He took 80 years to prepare Moses.
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  He took years to prepare David. He took three years to train the
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  apostles. Jesus himself waited 30 years
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  before starting his public ministry.
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  That is a striking thought. The savior of the world waited
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  30 years, if he. Waited.
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  We can wait. Preparation is not wasted time.
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  It is investing in the foundation so the building can
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  stand. I think that is a perfect place
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  to land. This has been a rich discussion.
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  We've walked through the definitions, the biblical
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  pattern, the character requirements, and the practical
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  process. My hope is that pastors and
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  committees listening to this will take a hard look at their
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  sending pipelines. And my hope is that young men
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  and women listening will take a hard look at their own hearts.
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  Don't just ask, where can I go ask, Who must I become?
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  Focus on the character. Focus on the preparation.
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  Let God handle the geography. Amen.
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  Thank you for walking this path of this.
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  This is reformed thinking. Sali de Gloria.