Where Are the Elders Who Guard the Flock?
This is a very important issue. Of all the posts published on this blog I feel that this is one of the most important when it comes to warning fellow believers of the dangers infiltrating the church.
This article by Bob DeWaay places the responsibility on the church elders whose job it is to guard the flock from false doctrines.
The problems go even deeper than that, for example, many churches do not even have elders like my former Baptist church. This is unbiblical. They have their "staff", many of which are younger men and women in their 20s and 30s, make all the decisions in the church. Are these the ones whose task it is to "guard the flock" from false teachings and doctrine? No wonder why my former Baptist church has drifted so far and has allowed so many dangerous doctrines, trends, and methods to guide and direct the church.
I wish they would wake up and repent. I also wish the many I love and who are still attending there would study the Word, even if it is inconvenient and takes effort, and recognize the error and would confront the leaders of that church.
Here is an excerpt from the article by Bob DeWaay:
"My interviews with people who have witnessed their churches being infiltrated by unbiblical teachings and practices have opened my eyes to a serious problem in our evangelical movement: elders who do not think that what is being taught and practiced in their church is important enough to judge biblically. This is serious. In many cases, these elders consider their primary job to be—support the senior pastor and his reputation at all costs. Their secondary job—watch over the financial well being of the church as a corporation. Their tertiary job—make sure no one rocks the boat. Thus, in these elders’ interpretation of their job description, the problem in the church becomes those concerned members who care about the integrity of the gospel message.
Combining what we know about elders from Acts 20, 1 and 2 Timothy, and Titus, it is clear that guarding the flock from false doctrine and teaching true doctrine is the elders’ most important role. Churches endanger the flock when they choose elders based on their business acumen, that they seem to be moral men and “nice guys,” or are likely to support the senior pastor at any cost while ignoring the importance of doctrine. Pastors who do not teach sound doctrine from the pulpit exacerbate the problem by making it unlikely that a pool of men qualified to teach the truth and correct error will ever arise in that church."
READ THE REST...
This article by Bob DeWaay places the responsibility on the church elders whose job it is to guard the flock from false doctrines.
The problems go even deeper than that, for example, many churches do not even have elders like my former Baptist church. This is unbiblical. They have their "staff", many of which are younger men and women in their 20s and 30s, make all the decisions in the church. Are these the ones whose task it is to "guard the flock" from false teachings and doctrine? No wonder why my former Baptist church has drifted so far and has allowed so many dangerous doctrines, trends, and methods to guide and direct the church.
I wish they would wake up and repent. I also wish the many I love and who are still attending there would study the Word, even if it is inconvenient and takes effort, and recognize the error and would confront the leaders of that church.
Here is an excerpt from the article by Bob DeWaay:
"My interviews with people who have witnessed their churches being infiltrated by unbiblical teachings and practices have opened my eyes to a serious problem in our evangelical movement: elders who do not think that what is being taught and practiced in their church is important enough to judge biblically. This is serious. In many cases, these elders consider their primary job to be—support the senior pastor and his reputation at all costs. Their secondary job—watch over the financial well being of the church as a corporation. Their tertiary job—make sure no one rocks the boat. Thus, in these elders’ interpretation of their job description, the problem in the church becomes those concerned members who care about the integrity of the gospel message.
Combining what we know about elders from Acts 20, 1 and 2 Timothy, and Titus, it is clear that guarding the flock from false doctrine and teaching true doctrine is the elders’ most important role. Churches endanger the flock when they choose elders based on their business acumen, that they seem to be moral men and “nice guys,” or are likely to support the senior pastor at any cost while ignoring the importance of doctrine. Pastors who do not teach sound doctrine from the pulpit exacerbate the problem by making it unlikely that a pool of men qualified to teach the truth and correct error will ever arise in that church."
READ THE REST...
posted by kennyo at 8:37 AM
1 Comments:
Kenny,
Your hittin' a hot button with me here. I think the best words to speak to this are found in Ephesians 4:11-16; And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head-Christ from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.
HK
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