Does American Evangelicalism Understand the Importance Elders and Deacons?

Yeah, so in other words, your understanding and view of the pastor, the elder, and the deacon is a reflection on your understanding and your view of the church, both locally and also the church globally.

I would think so, yes. So that's why it's so important that we really wanted to spend some time to have these conversations and to have this discussion because it is really, really important, and it is something that...

Do you think that pastors, because I haven't heard a lot of sermons on this, I've heard podcasts on this, which is why we wanted to kind of throw this in, there's a lot of books that are written on it, but do you think that maybe pastors almost feel a little odd preaching about the role and the qualifications of a pastor to their church?

I can speak from experience and say yes, absolutely. Yeah, and the weeks we spent on that, as it regarded elders particularly, were weeks of lots of conviction and prayer and, you know,

God make me more like this, am I enough like this? So yeah, it's not a comfortable thing to approach and to preach, for sure.

Yeah, yeah, I can completely understand that. So do you see, as you've done this kind of study, and I know you're also kind of looking around at different churches, would you say that American evangelicalism has a healthy or an unhealthy understanding of the role, the office, the responsibility, and the character of pastors and deacons?

I think there are many that probably have an unhealthy view from experience and also just looking around.

So as a part of preparation for this series, there are a number of websites that have church positions opening, you know, here's an opening, and they describe what they're looking for.

And you look at what they're looking for, and you look at 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1, and you think, okay, have y 'all read this? That's not all of them, but there are some.

And a number of congregations will send out a survey to the body, you know, and say, what do you think we should look for in our next pastor?

And it's telling about the understanding of the body regarding what they're looking for and whether or not they have any understanding of this.

So many of the responses that you see in these postings let you know that it makes you think that maybe what they're looking for is kind of a reaction to the last guy.

So maybe he didn't do this like they wanted, and so they really want to make sure the next guy does.

And so maybe an overreaction without bringing their thoughts before Scripture first and saying, what does

God say about this? Yeah. So we can talk about churches, and that's really, really general and I think really easy because it's very easy for a person, for a listener to say, oh yeah,

I know that church. I know the church that has, you know, this job description and, you know, all this kind of sense.

But how can I, as an individual, really bring my thoughts into Scripture and say, okay, do

I have a proper understanding of the biblical mandate for, or biblical responsibilities of a pastor and elder or pastor and deacon?

Well, bring your expectations, your desires for what that man would be to Scripture and look at the passages that deal with that and see how well they line up.

If they don't line up well, then you don't have a healthy view. And if they line up well, then great.