{"id":4537,"date":"2023-09-04T14:33:25","date_gmt":"2023-09-04T21:33:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eaf.net\/mvp\/?p=4537"},"modified":"2023-09-04T20:55:48","modified_gmt":"2023-09-05T03:55:48","slug":"when-your-church-has-leadership-selection-looming","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eaf.net\/mvp\/2023\/when-your-church-has-leadership-selection-looming\/","title":{"rendered":"When Your Church Has Leadership Selection Looming"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>So your church needs another leader. And you get to be part of the leadership selection process. May I help?<\/p>\n<p>No, I don&#8217;t mean helping your church pick. And I certainly don&#8217;t mean helping by being that leader. I mean, may I help <i>you<\/i> personally as you &#8220;figure out&#8221; for whom you will vote?<\/p>\n<p>For the sake of the prospective new leader, know the answers to these three questions:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>What does being a minister mean in your congregation?<\/li>\n<li>To what do you expect him to commit himself?<\/li>\n<li>In what areas are church members to obey church leaders?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Before you make your nomination or cast your vote for someone, resolve at least these things about you and him: <!--more--><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Is his life record such that you can safely commit yourself to follow his faith, to submit yourself to him, and to obey him? (Hebrews 13:7,17)<\/li>\n<li>What about his life generally makes you believe he will watch for your soul? (Hebrews 13:7)<\/li>\n<li>Would you make this &#8220;pledge of allegiance&#8221; to him: &#8220;As long as you follow Christ, I will follow you&#8221;? (1 Corinthians 11:1)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Four years ago, as our congregation worked its way toward two ordinations, I studied God&#8217;s qualifications for leaders as He recorded them in the Bible. I studied and wrote and studied and wrote. Finally I posted <a href=\"https:\/\/www.anabaptists.org\/writings\/44-biblical-requirements-for-church-leaders.html\">44 Biblical Requirements for Church Leaders<\/a>. What an &#8220;impossible&#8221; standard God sets! Where could I possibly find anyone who qualifies?!<\/p>\n<p>Well, I most likely don&#8217;t know about your church. But I hope you have at least one man who&#8230;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>is a stable, growing, Biblically conservative Christian who loves the Word and is apt to teach.<\/li>\n<li>is a sound, independent thinker with a teachable spirit who unflinchingly holds solid Biblical convictions.<\/li>\n<li>has a praise-worthy record as a kingdom citizen, as a church member, and as a church office holder.<\/li>\n<li>has a shepherd&#8217;s heart and already serves the best interests of the Good Shepherd and His flock.<\/li>\n<li>complements the present ministerial body, helping to round out its weak areas and fill in its gaps.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.eaf.net\/mvp\/wp-content\/empty-scales.jpg\" alt=\"Who shall weigh the prospective church leader...and how?\" width=\"550\" height=\"580\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-4538\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.eaf.net\/mvp\/wp-content\/empty-scales.jpg 550w, https:\/\/www.eaf.net\/mvp\/wp-content\/empty-scales-400x422.jpg 400w, https:\/\/www.eaf.net\/mvp\/wp-content\/empty-scales-142x150.jpg 142w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 550px) 100vw, 550px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>May God give you wisdom and discernment as you and your congregation decide whom to call into church leadership.<\/p>\n<p>PS: Getting hung up on unrealistic ideals will hinder your progress just as surely as fudging on Biblical requirements. And don&#8217;t &#8220;promote&#8221; anyone whose proven leadership model is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.anabaptists.org\/writings\/gentile-power-in-the-church.html\">Chicken Power<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p style=\"color:lightgray\">I wrote this yesterday afternoon but waited til today to post it. It has been in my mental hopper for most of this year. (And I wonder who was ordained at &#8220;that&#8221; church in Montana yesterday.)<\/p>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What does your congregation need in a leader?<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4538,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[561],"class_list":["post-4537","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-christianity-101","tag-church"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.eaf.net\/mvp\/wp-content\/empty-scales.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/prJUJ-1bb","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eaf.net\/mvp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4537","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eaf.net\/mvp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eaf.net\/mvp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eaf.net\/mvp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eaf.net\/mvp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4537"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.eaf.net\/mvp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4537\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eaf.net\/mvp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4538"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eaf.net\/mvp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4537"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eaf.net\/mvp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4537"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eaf.net\/mvp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4537"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}