Elders (Part 2 of 3)
The Apostle Eldership: Essential Qualities for Church Leadership (Titus 1 Explained)
The Apostle Paul prioritized the appointment of elders in local churches to oversee, shepherd, and care for the congregation according to God’s word. This practice, evidenced throughout the book of Acts and Paul’s missionary journeys, ensures that burgeoning groups of new believers are structured within God’s intended framework of leadership.
Modern churches looking for effective leaders must understand the foundational characteristics laid out in Titus chapter 1, focusing on how marriage and parenting serve as the true testing grounds for leadership.
The Framework of Biblical Church Leadership
Church leadership, often referred to as a “man-sized task,” is entrusted not to a single individual, but to a plurality of individuals. This plurality offers safety in numbers and guards against the tendency of any one person to exercise undue jurisdiction.
While structure is important, the sources emphasize that structure alone is not the primary issue; it is vital that the Spirit of God is filling out the framework that God has determined in His word. A spirit-filled congregation with a bad structure is considered better than a good structure with people not living in obedience to God’s word or filled with the Holy Spirit.
Core Requirement: Above Reproach
The fundamental characteristic required for an elder (or overseer) is that he must be above reproach. This standard is mentioned in Titus 1:6 and repeated in verse 7: “for an overseer, as God’s steward, must be above reproach”.
Other terms used for this concept include “unimpeachable” and “blameless”.
Important Clarification: The requirement to be “above reproach” does not mean faultless or flawless. If it did, “there wouldn’t be any elders at all”. Rather, this non-arbitrary standard ensures that the leadership in the local church will be effective.
Testing Ground 1: Marriage and Sexual Purity
Paul emphasizes that an elder must be the “husband of one wife”. This directive addresses contemporary issues, particularly in places like Crete, by prohibiting polygamists from serving as elders.
The broader application is that the elder must be a “one-woman man”. In the crucial areas of marriage and sexuality, his conduct must be unimpeachable. Any violation of this obvious application carries significant ramifications.
Interpreting this requirement in a “wooden way” creates issues, as it might wrongly exclude:
- Single men (as they do not have one wife).
- Widowers who remarry (as they would have had more than one wife over time).
Instead, the requirement is understood as an essential test of character and consistency.
Testing Ground 2: Family Management (Parenting)
The success of a man’s leadership is first tested in his home. Marriage and family life provide the most probing analysis of a man’s character. Paul posits that if someone does not know how to manage their own household, they cannot become a steward of God’s house. The elder is the “household manager” (steward).
Children and Control
Regarding parental jurisdiction, the elder’s family needs to be “under some kind of control”. Paul is addressing situations where the children are rebellious, contankerous, or full of “insubordinate nonsense”. Their lives should not be “debauchery-filled”.
Nuances of Parental Success
The sources stress the need to avoid micromanaging the application of this rule, especially concerning adult children. If the rule were interpreted rigidly (e.g., that an elder’s children could never go through a rebellious phase), many effective leaders would be excluded. The example of a 90-year-old man whose kind, clever, 60-year-old son professes no faith, despite being raised in a Christian home, illustrates the complexity. The speaker does not believe Paul intends to disqualify a man because of the current, adult unbelief of one child.
The fundamental concern is the correlation between managing one’s private family life and managing the Church. If a leader is “glaringly unsuccessful in managing their own home,” they should not be trusted with the task of managing the Church.
The bottom line is simple: “marriage and parenting is a testing ground for real leadership”. If an individual is “messed up” in their personal life, they should not take on the leadership role in the Church, where they will be even more vulnerable than in the privacy of their own home.