How to Run an Elders' Meeting

The apostle Paul never lost his sense of wonder and amazement that the Lord would call him out of the darkness of Satan's kingdom to serve the resurrected Christ. He called his ministry "grace" several times (e.g. Ephesians 3:2), and regularly ascribed his calling as an apostle to the grace of God: "By the grace of God I am what I am" (1 Corinthians 15:10). Paul knew he deserved the eternal condemnation of God for destroying God's church, and yet God by his grace gave him the privilege of building God's church (1 Corinthians 3:10). So it is today with the elders of a church. God by his grace has saved each elder, covering his sins by the blood of Christ and putting in his heart the hope of eternal glory in Christ. As if this isn't enough, God lavished on us a ministry of meaningful service to Jesus and his people as elders. Thus we are delivered from the emptiness of a meaningless life and called to build something that will last for eternity. Elders should be overwhelmed with thankfulness every single day for the great privilege of serving Christ in this way.

No elder is called to this task alone, for God has called elders to minister with other qualified men as a group in a local church. The plurality of elder leadership in every local church is established in Titus 1:5: "The reason I left you in Crete was that you might straighten out what was left unfinished and appoint elders in every town, as I directed you." These men must lead the church in a harmonized way, with cooperation and collective wisdom.  In the real world, this requires a regular pattern of elders' meetings to discuss and pray over all aspects of church life for which they are accountable to Christ. The purpose of this article is to discuss practical elements of elders' meetings so that God may be maximally glorified by them. I will discuss the consecration of elders' meetings, their content, and their conduct. Briefly, by consecration, I mean that the elders should set themselves apart as holy to the Lord for this service, and should set apart their meeting times for his glory and the edification of the church by the ministry of the word of God and prayer. By content, I mean the actual topics of discussion and decision elders will entertain during their meeting. I will argue that there are four main headings:  Continue at Andrew Davis