5 Marks of a Healthy Church

Good morning. Good morning. I hope everyone is. Hope everyone is doing well this morning. It's a joy to be with you. It truly is. I was very honored that Pastor Rob wanted me to come and fill the pulpit for him.

I've gotten to know him a little bit over the last few months, and I'm very very impressed with him. I'm very impressed with him. I Think that you will be in very good hands once pastor Rob is here. He's a really really good guy.

Loves the Lord loves his word cares about doctrine and theology cares about the truth and So I think you'll be in really really good hands. I'm very excited that pastor Rob is going to be here. Let's go to the Lord in a word of prayer, and we will begin.

Father we are grateful that you have given us this time to gather together around your word. We pray that your word Will have its intended result. We know that it will not return void. So we pray that it will accomplish the tasks that you have given to it.

We pray that it would find good purchase in the soil of our hearts that it would bear good fruit. Good and lasting fruit may our hearts be. Hearts and minds be conformed to your word all for the glory of Christ Jesus our King.

And it is in his name that we pray. Amen. Amen, I invite you to take your copy of God's Word and open to first Timothy chapter 3. First Timothy chapter 3 this is a message. I have entitled quite simply five marks of a healthy church.

Pastor Rob has not asked me to preach on this or any this was completely my idea. He gave me complete rain, but I thought that this might be a helpful message. For you as a local body of believers in this time of transition as you were eagerly Awaiting pastor Rob and his family's arrival in this time of transition.

So just kind of a topical message here, but five marks of a healthy church. I'm not gonna fully exposit first Timothy 3, but this will kind of be our jumping-off point first Timothy chapter 3 beginning in verse 14.

The Church as the Household of God and the Five Marks of Health

The Apostle Paul Writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God says this. I Am writing these things to you hoping to come to you soon. But in case I am delayed I write so that you will know how one ought to Conduct himself in the household of God the pillar and support of the truth.

The Apostle Paul is writing to Timothy a man who is converted under Paul's preaching. Timothy was converted as an older teenager probably around 17 or 18 years of age, maybe 16, but in that neighborhood and then some 15 years later Timothy is serving as pastor in Ephesus and It's kind of interesting.

We hear that verse Paul says to Timothy. Let no one despise you for your youth. We think of Timothy as being a teenager, but by that time Timothy was a man in his early 30s and So he was serving as pastor of Ephesus and Paul is writing to him to help him navigate Some issues that the church in Ephesus was facing.

False teachers false doctrine prayer roles of women in the church qualification for elders and deacons honoring widows and Just general instructions Necessary for a healthy church. So we see from this text.

There is a way in which We as believers ought to conduct ourselves in the house of God the church. The church is Christ's creation. He created it. He purchased it with his own blood. He gets to set to decide what a church is.

What a church does and how it is to function. He has not left these things up to us. He gives us all of these instructions. It is his church his creation. He gets to decide how it is to function. And so I want us to look now at five marks of a healthy church and I think you have there in your outline those five points and so encourage you to Follow along and take notes as you're able to do.

So kind of fill in the blanks there. Five marks of a healthy church. Number one is sheep centered ecclesiology. Number two word centered preaching. Number three a biblical leadership structure. Number four sound doctrine and number five church discipline.

And we will work our way through these so the first mark of a healthy church a sheep centered ecclesiology a sheep centered Ecclesiology now Ecclesiology that's a big word, but it really just simply means the study of the church.

So a sheep centered ecclesiology means quite simply that churches are to be centered around the sheep. Not the goats. Dear friends a church is not for lost people. A church is not for the sheep. It is excuse me.

It's not for the goats it is for the sheep. If you get this wrong you get pretty much everything else wrong. A church by definition is comprised of people who have been born again called by God's grace into a saving relationship with Jesus Christ and Sadly, that is not the predominant model for the vast majority of churches today.

The vast majority of evangelical churches churches today are geared around the goats. Not the sheep. They are designed to attract the world into the church. But it is not really designed and comprised of sheep.

They want to bring the lost people and into the world of course to do that. You're gonna have to make your church look like the world to attract the world, right? This is nothing new this goes back decades.

Robert Schuller some of you know that name. Robert Schuller was the pioneer in the seeker sensitive model to doing church. The attractional model of doing church. Robert Schuller began by having a Drive in church.

He had this enormous parking lot and people would literally drive into this church and They would park there and he had a platform in the front and he would preach. Quote-unquote. And at one point they had about 500 cars that would come in on a weekly basis on Sunday mornings.

And people never even got out of their cars. They were doing social distancing before social distancing was even a thing. He later built the Crystal Cathedral. The hour of power was a long long-running television show.

Schuller was knowing for known for saying this quote. Jesus met needs before touting creeds. He met needs before touting creeds. In other words. What was really important is not doctrine not theology just meeting people's felt needs.

He was known for preaching on self-esteem. That was the predominant theme of his ministry. His seminal best-selling book was titled self-esteem the new Reformation. Self-esteem the new reformation.

Let me quote to you Robert Schuller. He said quote. Sin is any act or thought that robs myself or another human being of his or her self-esteem. Sin is being robbed of your self-esteem. That's what he thought sin was.

That is a stunningly unbiblical view of sin. The Bible describes sin as transgression of God's law and When we sin that sin incurs his righteous wrath and his wrath must be satisfied. Either in the person work of Christ on the cross or by us for all of eternity as we perish in the lake of fire.

That's what sin is but not according to Robert Schuller sins and was simply losing your self-esteem. I never forget one morning. I was watching him on Television and he said and I quote when Jesus was on the cross.

He lost his self-esteem. Unbelievable and then he said Jesus died on the cross to forgive you of the greatest sin of all not believing in yourself. Not believing in yourself. That is the greatest sin of all.

He was known for conducting door-to-door research in the community asking people what they wanted in a church. He would literally go up to lost people in a community and ask them. Do you go to church?

And if and if you don't. What would get you to go to church. And if you did go to church, what would you want in a church? He would ask lost people what they wanted in a church. Dear friends lost people have.

They have no desire for church not for true church. Asking a lost person what he or she wants in a church is about like asking me what I want in a pair of running Shoes, I don't care. I don't have any interest.

He founded the Church Growth Institute and The Church Growth Institute was to train pastors and aspiring pastors as to how to do church and follow his model. Robert Schuller said this hell is the loss of pride.

That naturally follows separation from God. Hell is the loss of pride. The Bible has a lot to say about pride and none of it is good. But according to Robert Schuller, that's what hell is. Is losing pride unbelievable.

One of his star students was a young man at the time by the name of Rick Warren. Rick Warren and his wife came they were students of Robert Schuller. Rick Warren, of course is the author of purpose-driven life and purpose-driven Church.

Rick Warren. His book purpose-driven life starts out famously with this sentence first sentence in the book. It's not about you that's the first sentence in the purpose-driven life and. Then the entirety of the rest of the book is all about you.

It's all about you. Rick Warren said quote much in the vein of Robert Schuller. He says quote for me Hell would be if God showed me all he could have done in my life if I had just trusted him a little bit more.

That's what hell is according to Rick Warren. Just seeing what he has missed out on if he had just trusted God a little bit more. Dear friends that is not what hell is. Hell is a very real place the lake of fire where the fire will not be quenched the worm will not die the full undiluted fury of God's wrath will be Poured out on the ungodly forever and ever and it will never end.

That's what hell is but not according to Rick Warren because you see. According to the tractional model to doing church seekers sensitive lost people don't want to hear about such things. So we've got to water it down.

We've got to dilute it. In fact completely change the Bible. Rick Warren says and I quote. We should study our community and target our audience. Geographically demographically culturally and spiritually.

He says that evangelism should quote. Make the gospel as easy and attractive as possible. Make the gospel easy make it attractive. Make it fun. He says we are to quote create a service church service that is intentionally designed for your members to bring their friends to Make the service so attractive so appealing and relevant to the unchurched that your members are eager to share it with the lost people.

They care about so make church fun make it entertaining. To attract worldly people. Well to attract worldly people you're going to have to have a worldly quote-unquote church. He said the music style should reflect that which is the preference of the community in which it is.

So whatever the world is listening to in music, that's how the music should be in church quite famously or infamously several years ago Perry Noble a pastor in South Carolina Performed. Had his church saying on ease on Resurrection Sunday morning.

No less Easter Sunday morning. Saying highway to hell as one of their worship songs. This is the attractional model. Rick Schuller, excuse me, Robert Schuller and Rick Warren started this. Rick Warren, I quote again says this Quote the preaching should focus on those passages that require no previous Understanding of the text and they should show the benefits of knowing Christ.

In other words, Jesus will make your life better. Jesus will enhance your life. He'll give you your purpose-driven life. He'll make your life better. That's why you should come to know Jesus life enhancement.

Difference the true gospel the true message of Jesus is not self-fulfillment. It is self-denial. Number of years ago. I was watching the show on Fox News that at the time was called Hannity and Combs.

Sean Hannity and Alan Combs. Alan Combs is dead now that Alan Combs was the liberal he was the liberal to Sean Hannity the conservative and Alan Combs was a Jew. In one of their programs they had Rick Warren in as their guest had him on the set and Alan Combs asked Rick Warren this question.

He said Rick. He said I am I'm a Jew. What about me? I don't believe in Jesus. What happens to me in. Rick Warren responded with this he said. Well Alan try Jesus for 60 days. Try Jesus for 60 days and see if he won't make your life better.

This is the man who has sometimes been called America's pastor in His response to a direct question from a Jew what happens to me in his responses. Try Jesus for 60 days. Like he's a weight-loss program.

It's unbelievable unbelievable. Unbelievable. But the purpose-driven life in the purpose-driven Church. Have been two of the most influential books in all of evangelicalism in the last two decades. Tragically tragically.

This is the seeker sensitive approach to doing church dear friends. This is foreign to the Word of God. This is foreign to the Word of God. If you make church fun. If you make it entertaining you've got to make it look like the world to attract the world and that is not how the Bible describes Church.

What is the church? Dear friends a church is not a business group. It's not a social group and Though there is one political party that a thinking Christian could never support The Democratic Party because the Democratic Party has literally enshrined the sins of Romans chapter 1 into its platform can never support that party, but that having been said a church is not a political party.

A Church is a group of people called out by God's sovereign grace for his own possession. A Church is a group of people called out By God's sovereign grace for his own possession. In fact, the very word church ecclesia literally means the called-out ones.

Those who have been called out of the world. Into the kingdom of God out of darkness into light. So what does a church do a church? Worships God. That's what we do as a church. We worship God in. Unbelievers by definition cannot worship because they don't know God.

You cannot worship whom you do not know. So a church worships God. A church is only for Believers to equip the Saints for the work of the ministry. Now do not misunderstand me am I saying we should not invite our lost friends or family members to church.

No, I am perfectly fine with that. I do that myself all the time. Yes, invite people to church. Don't do that as a replacement for personal evangelism though. But yes. Certainly invite people lost people to church and the prairie is is that they will hear the gospel and be converted but please understand that a church is not for lost people.

A church is comprised of the sheep. A church worships God. Stephen Furtick another pastor in North Carolina says that he wants quote a church for the unchurched. A Church for the unchurched is a contradiction in terms.

That's nonsensical. It's as meaningless to say I want a church for the unchurched is as Meaningless as saying I want to have a square circle. Doesn't make any sense. But to have a church for the unchurched.

Quote-unquote, you're gonna have to keep the teaching shallow. Avoid doctrine avoid theology. Don't talk about things like wrath or repentance or self-denial. Don't talk about those things because the world doesn't want to hear those things so you can't talk about them.

Don't talk about doctrine and theology. And yet the Apostle Paul writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God says this. To Timothy, he says pay close attention to yourself and to your teaching.

Persevere in these things for as you do this, you will save both yourself and those who hear you. Pay close attention to yourself and to your teaching to your doctrine. True churches care about doctrine.

Care about theology. Besides all of this dear friends when it comes to the seeker sensitive approach to doing church. We need to keep in mind that there are no seekers. There is only one seeker and that is God.

Romans chapter 3 verses 10 through 11. Paul writes there is none righteous not even one. There is none who understands there is none who seeks for God. There is none who seeks for God. None now, there are a lot of people out there that want to.

They're seeking after a God they want to scratch their religious itch. But they're not seeking after the true God. Lots of people are seeking after false gods and false Jesus's. But they're not seeking after the true God.

There is only one seeker and that is God. Who seeks those to worship him in spirit and in truth? Now I suppose if you want to find a seeker Pigeonhole a seeker into the scripture somewhere you could go to mark chapter 10 mark chapter 10 verses 17 through 21.

The rich young ruler and this rich young ruler as we often call him runs up to Jesus and he says good teacher. What must I do to inherit eternal life? So if you if you want to try to find a seeker in the New Testament I suppose you could say that the rich young ruler in mark chapter 10 was one good teacher.

What must I do to inherit eternal life? What did Jesus say? Oh Young man, I'm so glad you came up to me. That's such a good question. Tell you what you look tired. Let me pull up a chair for you and you know, take a load off.

Can I get you a cup of coffee? What what how can I make your life better? What can I do for you? How can I enhance your life? Tell me what are your felt needs? No. Jesus cited to him the Decalogue the Ten Commandments, you know the commandments.

Do not murder do not commit adultery do not defraud honor your father and your mother and Then the rich young ruler because he had been taught these things. There was an instant kind of Initial impulse of familiarity and he said oh, oh, yeah.

Yeah teacher. I I've kept all these things from my youth up. He thought he had but he really hadn't because none of us has done that. All of us are sinners and he said one thing you lack go and sell everything you have give to the poor and then Come follow me.

Now Jesus was not teaching of course a work salvation. But what he was doing he was zeroing in on the one thing in that man's life. That was the most important thing to him his wealth and he said get rid of it.

That thing that is so important to you that thing that is keeping you from serving God. Get rid of it and then come follow me. Oh Jesus that's. That's not very seeker friendly Jesus. John chapter 21 verses 18 through 19.

Jesus speaking to Peter says this. Truly truly I say to you when you were younger you used to gird yourself and walk wherever you wished but when you grow old Peter you will stretch out your hands and someone else will gird you and bring you where you do not wish to go and This Jesus said signifying by what kind of death he would glorify God.

And then Jesus said to Peter follow me you want to talk about a Seeker insensitive message. Try that one on for size. Try a message like that if you want to come to know Christ deny yourself. Take up your cross.

In other words be willing to die because your faith in Christ your obedience to Christ Will result in your persecution. Come follow me. Let me tell you something dear friends. Jesus would have flunked church growth evangelism the class that I took in seminary.

He would have flunked it. That is about the most seeker insensitive message. You could possibly tell. And people say well. Lost people don't want to hear that message. They they won't respond. That'll push them away.

You know what it will. That kind of message that kind of hard preaching that kind of true representation of the gospel not self-fulfillment. But self-denial that will repel the goats. But you know what it's who it's going to attract.

It's going to attract the sheep. It's going to draw the sheep. Because it is only sheep that will respond to that message. Goats aren't going to respond to that goats will be repelled by that, but it will draw the sheep a Few years ago Kathy and I were living in, Idaho, San Juan, Idaho.

And when we moved into this particular neighborhood we Met this couple in the neighborhood. I have a scooter and I would ride my scooter all over the neighborhood. Meeting people and walking the dog, but getting to meet people and I met this neighbor of ours named Jim and Sherry Skeen and Neither one of them were believers and I began to Befriend them and I shared the gospel with them many many many times.

Kathy did as well as we got to know them and Jim had some kind of a nominal like Religious of sorts background, but not a believer. Sherry however his wife had absolutely no understanding of the Bible at all when I met Sherry.

She didn't even know that there was an Old and New Testament. I mean she was a blank slate. She knew nothing. But we began to share the gospel with them and then one day Sherry asked if she could go to church with us and of course we took her and We were going to Kootenai Community Church and Kootenai Community Church pastored by Jim Osman is no seeker friendly.

Happy clappy church. Solid preaching convicting preaching and That particular Sunday that Sherry was there Was a communion Sunday. We did the Lord's Supper and so they began to pass around the plates of the Crackers and.

And Sherry didn't know what that was and Sherry was sitting next to Kathy and Sherry asked Kathy. She said what is that. And Kathy said well, it cannot do this and Kathy said no you can't I'll explain to you later and so the service came to a close and and after the service Sherry asked Kathy why couldn't I participate in that and Kathy explained to her she said Sherry You're not a Christian and if you were to die today You would spend eternity in hell.

But Kathy gave her the gospel now. That might seem like oh, that's kind of harsh. That's kind of offensive. No, the truth is love the most. Kathy did the most loving thing She could do for Sherry gave her the truth and you know what the next Sunday Sherry came back.

In the next Sunday Sherry came back in the next in the next in the next. Now if Sherry had just wanted to scratch her religious itch. There's any number of happy-clappy churches in the community she could have gone to but she kept coming back to our church.

And somewhere along that way you know what happened. God saved her. God saved her and her life was completely changed. She began to have a hunger for the Word of God and for the truth and she started soaking it up like a sponge.

And she was baptized and then just. Just about a year or so after her baptism about a year and a half after her baptism. She died of cancer. Sherry's in heaven now you see the truth didn't push her away.

Word-Centered Preaching and Expository Preaching

It drew her. Why? Because Sherry was a lost sheep. Who heard the voice of the Shepherd? John 10 27. And went to him a sheep. Centered ecclesiology. Second mark of a healthy church. Second mark of a healthy church.

Word centered preaching. Word centered preaching. Look with me in 2nd Timothy chapter 2. Excuse me. 2nd Timothy chapter 4 verses 1 through 2. 2nd Timothy 4 verses 1 through 2. Paul says I Solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus Who is to judge the living and the dead and by his appearing in his kingdom?

Preach the word. Preach the word. Be ready in season and out of season. Reprove. Rebuke. Exhort with great patience and instruction. Preach the word. A healthy church will be marked by word centered preaching.

Expository preaching. Expository preaching simply means that we take the Word of God and we Exposited we expose the meaning of the text as opposed to What most churches do topical preaching, you know how to have healthy relationships.

How to have? You know a good family how to excel in your work and they'll take a few. They'll take these different Topics and they'll cherry-pick a few verses here and there and kind of is a cheated, you know.

Make those verses fit whatever they're wanting to say. That's that's topical preaching and that's not that's not. That should not be the diet of a church. The standard diet of a church needs to be Expositional preaching.

When you take the Word of God and you go verse by verse and you Exposit the text you expose the meaning of the text. Expository preaching is not about style. It's not about whether or not the preacher is animated.

It's not about whether he's monotone or expressive. Expository preaching is not simply that scripture is referenced on occasion. Joel Osteen is About the furthest thing from us an expository preacher as you can get but Joel Osteen will reference one or two verses in his sermons.

Completely gets the meaning wrong 100 of the time, but he'll reference scripture, but that's not expository preaching. Expository preaching is not how many verses are handled. Expository preaching is when the text is King.

The text is King. Expository preaching exposes the meaning of the text. The meaning of the text is the meaning of the sermon. The text determines both the content and the direction. Let me give you an example of the difference.

John 10 27 our reference has excuse me a second ago. My sheep hear my voice. I know them and they follow me. A topical preacher would say. This is how to hear the voice of God on a regular basis. My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me.

That's about us hearing God speak to us on a regular basis, but an Expositional preacher as he's going through this verse by verse. It will be very clear that that is not the meaning of John 10 27 at all.

Because in context John 10 is talking about the shepherd calling lost sheep to himself in salvation in regeneration in the new birth. It is the effectual call of the gospel. Before our conversion we are lost sheep.

But then one day we hear as it were the voice of the shepherd and he calls us in salvation. Expository preaching will expose that true meaning of the text. Expository preaching rightly robs. The preacher of any personal agenda in any preconceived theology number three.

A Biblical Leadership Structure

Number three third mark of a healthy church. A biblical leadership structure. A biblical leadership structure. Let me give you a definition of biblical eldership. The Bible describes and Prescribes that churches are to be led by elders.

Let me give you a definition of this. Biblical eldership is defined as the following. A Biblically qualified council of men who jointly pastor the local church. A biblically qualified Council of men who jointly pastor the local church.

Every word of that definition is important. Elders Are to be men who meet biblical qualifications? Biblical biblically qualified council of men who jointly together pastor shepherd the local church. Dear friends.

God has not left it to our own imagination as how his church is to be organized. It is his blood-bought church. He purchased it with his own blood. Acts chapter 20 verse 28. He gets to call the shots not us.

It is his body his bride his temple it is for his glory to accomplish his purposes. And he has not left it to our own imagination as to how to do church. Most evangelical churches sadly are modeled roughly after the American United States Constitution.

You know United States Constitution our government. We've got three branches of government legislative judicial and Executive and there's you know checks and balances at least theoretically, you know.

You've got a nominating procedure and you've got committees and you've got proposals that are voted on. By the in our church in our example here by the congregation. And so most churches are kind of roughly modeled after the United States Constitution in our form of government.

You know, we vote on things. And hey, it works for the works for the good old red white and blue. So why doesn't it why shouldn't it work for church? The problem is is that that's not biblical dear friends a church is not supposed to look like a government.

A church is not a democracy. A church is not a business. A church is distinctly Different it is unique. A church is unlike any other Organization on the face of the planet. A church is to be Infused with the DNA of Jesus Christ.

It's supposed to look Different. It's not supposed to look like the world. Scripture establishes for the church a plurality of elders a plurality of elders. Not that decisions are to be made simply by a majority vote in the congregation.

And as I've traveled around the world, I've been in hundreds of different churches. I see God's wisdom in this because even the best of churches even the best of churches are comprised of a mixture of wheat and tares.

Okay, every church you have I mean the ideal is for everyone to be converted. But in every church you will have false professors of Christ. Some of them don't even know that they're not yet converts and.

That kind of the percentage will vary from church to church, but every church has some unregenerate people in it. So if you leave it up to just a congregational vote, we're gonna vote on something in majority rules.

Well, you've got Unregenerate people voting on something. About the life of the local body of believers. That's not wise that leads to disaster. The Bible has described and prescribed a plurality of elders.

Let me give you a few examples of this and you can write the references down. Acts chapter 14 verse 23. Acts 14 verse 23 and when they had appointed elders plural for them in every church. Having prayed with fasting they commanded them to be Commended them to the Lord in whom they had believed.

Acts chapter 20 verse 17. Acts 20 verse 17 now from Elitus. He sent to Ephesus and called to him the elders of the church. Titus chapter 1 verse 5. Titus 1 verse 5 Paul says. For this reason I left you in Crete that you had set in order what remains and appoint elders in Every city as I directed you.

So in the early days of the church, you basically had one church in every city. And that's why I said point elders in every city the Church of Rome the church in Ephesus Church of Laodicea, you know point elders in every city as I directed you a biblically qualified Council of men who jointly pastor the local church.

Plurality of elders. Now this term elders in the Greek is the word pres Buddha Ross and there's three different terms that the Bible uses for elders pastors and Overseers and I want to show you that these three words are interchangeable in the New Testament.

An elder pres Buddha Ross this word Signifies the the dignity that comes with that office of being an elder the maturity. The honor that comes along with it the wisdom. That's pres Buddha Ross elder. Overseer in the Greek is the word episcopate.

Episcopate stresses the work of oversight and Administration of the church. And then you have the word shepherd poimane in the Greek poimane stresses the function and work of shepherding shepherding the local body.

Feeding the local body the truth of God's Word protecting the local body from the wolves. That's the work of a shepherd an elder overseer and shepherd these three words are used interchangeably in the New Testament.

For example Acts chapter 20 verse 17 and verse 28 says this now from Miletus. He sent to Ephesus and called to him the elders of the church. And then verse 28 be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers episcopates.

To shepherd poimane the Church of God which he purchased with his own blood. So here you see these three terms and they are used interchangeably, right? First Peter chapter 5 verses 1 through 2. First Peter 5 1 through 2.

The Apostle Peter says this. Therefore I exhort the elders Pres Buddha Roy plural first Buddha Roy. I exhort. I exhort the elders among you as your fellow elder and witness of the sufferings of Christ and a partaker also of the glory that is to be revealed shepherd poimane the flock of God among you exercising oversight episcopas.

Not under compulsion, but voluntarily according to the will of God and not for sordid gain but with eagerness. So here in this text you see these three turn terms Pres Buddha Ross episcopas and poimane and they are used interchangeably.

So in other words an elder is an overseer. An overseer is an elder. A Shepherd is an overseer. A shepherd is an elder. An elder is a shepherd. You see these words are used interchangeably. They mean the same thing stress different functions, but they mean the same thing in Scripture gives us qualifications for elders of a local church and those qualifications are found in first Timothy chapter 3 verses 1 through 7 first Timothy 3 1 through 7 and Titus chapter 1 verses 5 through 9.

An elder of a church is A man who is to be above reproach husband of one wife temperate prudent respectable hospitable able to teach doctrine not addicted to wine gentle peaceable Free from the love of money and one who manages his own household.

Well Those are the qualifications of an elder. Being an elder is not a popularity contest. A Man has to meet these requirements in order to be an elder. I want us to look at the fruit of the plurality of elders.

The wisdom of God in having a plurality more than one elder in each local church. A Plurality of elders provides a few things number one. It provides accountability. When you have a plurality of elders no single man runs the church, okay.

When We were at Kootenai Community Church are we had four elders there. Jim Osmond is a primary preaching and teaching elder. It's perfectly natural and it will be the case here that Amongst the elders you have one man.

That is the primary preaching and teaching elder. Okay, and Jim Osmond is at a Kootenai Community Church. So he would be the pastor of that church. But there's three other elders and they have just as much say-so in the affairs of the church as does Jim even though he's the one that's usually behind the pulpit.