ARE ELDERS TO SELECT ELDERS?

It is common practice among Churches of Christ for the elders to select their own successors, or, if the eldership (a term we might in time examine) is to be increased in number, the incumbent elders in one way or another determine who the additional elders will be. This makes the eldership a self-perpetuating body with lifetime prerogatives over a congregation, which itself is both a moral and political hazard for all concerned, including the elders themselves, who are often men who have no intention of arrogating powers unto themselves but who are nonetheless victimized by the System.

We might get at this problem by my telling how we select elders at our congregation here in Denton. It is on my mind since we have just been through an election, selecting an overseer to join the four we have already, of which I am one. I can state at the outset that the present presbyters had no more to do with the election process than any other member of the congregation. Ouida and I were seated in our regular place in the assembly on Lord’s day morning when one of the election committee handed each of us a ballot. We marked it according to our convictions and turned it back to the committee. They soon announced to us that a brother had been selected by receiving at least 75 % of the votes cast, and that one of the present elders had been reelected on the same basis.

An elder is rotated out after a three-year term unless he is again elected by secret ballot. I can state unequivocally that the present pastors never discussed who should or should not be elected. It is our task to function as shepherds, not to sit as judges as to who should be a shepherd. That is the congregation’s business. It is but a caricature of the free process for elders to impose their will upon the church under the guise of “If no objections are made this week, the following will become elders” or some such rubric. Such superficiality is an insult to both the intelligence and the nature of a congregation of believers. As the Body of Christ the members are to function together as a unit, “by that which every joint supplieth,” which surely includes the decision-making process.

Our election committee set up studies and prayer sessions leading up to the election. It solicited nominations from the membership. Since this results in a proliferation of names, we will probably in the future require that one must be recommended by at least five people to be nominated. The committee contacts the nominees to see if they wish to be considered, which greatly reduces the list since so few desire the work or consider themselves qualified. Some nominated women, including Ouida Garrett. The brother who nominated her believes women should be among the bishops and was sincere in his suggestion that Ouida be considered. There is nothing that would keep a sister’s name off the ballot, but she would stand no chance of getting 75 % of the votes --- not in this generation at least. A member of the committee called Ouida dutifully to ask if she wanted to be considered. She quietly declined. Anything she does is done quietly. Her first reaction was that it was a joke, and I think she was pleased to learn that it was done most sincerely. The brother is right. Ouida would make a good elder! But getting her elected . . . It would be like running Margaret Chase Smith for President.

Once we select an elder in this democratic way, we proceed to ordain him. It is an oddity, especially since the scriptures say so much about ordination, that our churches hardly ever ordain anybody. Our elders are selected, usually by other elders, but not ordained. At our ordination service, on a Lord’s day morning, a brother (usually the chairman of election committee) represents the congregation in publicly accepting the man as a pastor of the congregation and assuring him of the church’s love, loyalty, and cooperation. One of the elders accepts him as a fellow overseer, assuring him that all the elders are ready to work with him in shepherding the flock of God. And then, according to Scripture, he is ordained by an evangelist, a minister of the gospel, with some such words as: “In behalf of this congregation I now ordain you as an elder and shepherd, etc.” This is followed by prayers in behalf of both the new elder and the congregation, that the new relationship will be to the glory of God and pleasing to the Chief Shepherd.

The ordination service should recognize that while elders are actually made by the Holy Spirit, if they are truly elders, the selection is made by the church itself. That is, the members know who their true pastors are, men made so by the Spirit, and they select them accordingly. The office, office here meaning only a recognized function within the Body, belongs to the congregation, not to the elders. The church bestows the office on the man. It is not his by some kind of divine right. And the church can take the office back if need be. That is why the evangelist in ordaining should say, “In behalf of the congregation. . .” He is serving as an agent of the church, where all offices or functions have their home. “God hath set some in the church. . .” (1 Cor. 12:29) shows that the offices are in the church to be bestowed according to need. Elders often behave among us as if the office was theirs, and this is certainly the implication when they presume to fill vacancies by their own choices. This is also evident when they presume that they are elders for life and responsible to no one but themselves, as if the office is theirs by some kind of divine fiat.

Elders often overlook the scriptural fact that God has given such offices to the church. The church should therefore select those who fill such functions, and if the office is abused through incompetence or oppressive tactics, they can take it back the same way they gave it. A built-in safeguard is to limit the term of office.

Much of this process is a matter of wisdom and expediency since the Scriptures do not specify just how elders are to be selected and ordained. That a church is to have elders is clear from such passages as Philip. 1:1. That they are to be selected is implied from Acts 6:5, where functionaries are chosen by the whole church. That they are to be ordained is stated in Acts 14:23, while Tit. 1:5 reveals that this was done by evangelists. Acts 6 is especially relevant, for here even the apostles themselves would not select those that were to serve the church, but rather said:”Wherefore, brethren, look ye out among you seven men of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business.” It also distinguishes between choosing and ordaining. The church selected them and the apostles ordained them.

It is high time that our elders everywhere return to the churches their just prerogatives. To do otherwise is to strip the church of its dignity as the Body of Christ and to make the members mere spectators instead of participants. The most grievous sin of all is to deny people their just rights and to assume to do their thinking for them. But it is almost as bad a sin for the people to allow it to be so. If our people do not choose to be free, there are always those who are willing to take freedom from them. --- the Editor