The Office of Elder
Part 3: The Ministry of an Elder
Andrew Rutten
In Acts 6, we find the early church beginning to move from a seemingly wild movement of the Spirit to the necessity of leadership roles within the church. The Apostles, who are acting as proto-elders in the early church, recognize a problem arising. People were converting to Christianity rapidly; disciples were being made, but structure was not in place to care for the needs of the saints. Specifically, a group of Jews, called the Hellenists, complained that their widows were being neglected. This was not the nagging of opinionated church folk, but a righteous light shone onto an injustice in the community.
In this scenario, it would seem one of two options most likely would be walked out. First, the apostles, as the leaders, could reject that injustice is happening and carry on with ministry as normal. Or the other extreme is that the apostles may neglect their calling to make sure the injustice is handled from the top. However, neither of these is what we see happen.
“And the twelve summoned the full number of disciples and said, ‘It is not right that we should give up preaching the word of God to serve tables. Therefore, brothers, pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the Spirit and wisdom, whom we will appoint to this duty. But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word’” (Acts 6:2–4, ESV).
The beautiful response of these men is neither to neglect the need nor to neglect their calling. Instead, they hold fast to the ministry for which they are responsible, which is later defined as prayer and word ministry. But they also do not neglect the need because they appoint others within the community to fix the injustice and provide for the poor. This action carried out “pleased the whole gathering” (Acts 6:5).
What Acts 6 shows us is the beginning of leadership roles within the church being formed, and what is later fleshed out in the epistles. The Apostles, who are acting as proto-elders, are giving themselves to prayer and the ministry of the Word, but under their oversight and direction, they call for others in the community to lead and serve to make sure all the needs are met. This passage is not telling us that serving tables is “less than” for this group of men, but it is simply not the ministry they have been called to. Serving tables is so important that they call a whole new group of people to serve in this way. And this role is so important that the men called to serve must be full of the Spirit and wisdom.
So, then, what does a ministry of the Word look like for elders today? Here are three Scriptural categories for elders in carrying out this ministry.
First and foremost, the elders have a ministry of preaching and teaching God’s Word. The most obvious form of this ministry is carried out in the routine public preaching of Scripture when the church gathers on the Lord’s Day. This ministry of preaching is modeled in Old Testament worship (Neh 8:8), in Jesus’s ministry (Luke 4:42–44), at the birth of the church (Acts 2:14–42), in Paul’s command to pastors like Timothy (2 Timothy 4:2), and even in that one of our books of the Bible is most likely a sermon (Hebrews). The Lord speaks to his people through a qualified preacher standing before the congregation and explaining the Word of God for their edification and worship.
This point is not to say that all elders must preach regularly in the church gatherings. This preaching is simply the clearest form of the ministry of the Word that is to be the primary responsibility of some elders. All elders must guard the doctrine of the church, and therefore it is their responsibility to help guide the preaching of the Word on Sundays. But there will most often be an elder or a few elders who take the primary responsibility of delivering the preached Word to the congregation [1]. This distinction seems clear throughout church history, but is also given to us in 1 Timothy. Paul writes, “Let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching” (1 Tim 5:17). An explicit distinction is made in that some elders will labor in the preaching ministry while others may not.
Second, it is not only the responsibility of the elders to preach the Word in a pulpit but to also guard the church from false doctrine. In Paul’s three pastoral epistles, he frequently discusses the need for pastors to recognize, call out, and rebuke false teaching. This is clearly commanded in Titus 1:9, “He [an elder] must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it.” The rest of Titus helps explain how pastor Titus must teach sound doctrine and the areas where he must rebuke false teachers and their doctrine.
This cannot be overstated: shepherding the church will always involve spotting and shining light on wolves. Jesus warned the church that there will always be “false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves” (Matt 7:15). Paul writes that these wolves do not serve the Lord but themselves and that “they deceive the hearts of the naive” (Rom 16:18). He urges the Ephesian elders to know that wolves will come “not sparing the flock” and will be “speaking twisted things, to draw away disciples after them” (Acts 20:29–30). He warns to avoid those who appear godly but teach falsely, because they will prey on weaker members and lead them astray (2 Tim 3:1–9). And Peter devotes an entire letter (2 Peter) to warn against the dangers of false teachers and the need to rebuke their lies.
Elders must not only teach right doctrine but actively rebuke false teaching. Why is this an essential element of their ministry of the Word? Because the blood-bought sheep of Jesus depend upon their leaders to lead and guide them into truth. The Chief Shepherd has called under-shepherds as the primary people to protect his bride from being taken over by lies and led to destruction. An elder who is unwilling to rebuke false doctrine is a man who is unfit for the office.
Third, an elder should not only see formal teaching moments as his sole ministry, but every conversation or setting as a time to apply the Word in the congregants’ lives. Every profession has its tool that allows the work to be completed. For the elder, the tool we have been given is the Word of God. The elder must absorb Paul’s command to Timothy as his own, “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work” (2 Tim 3:16–17).
The elder, as a man of God, is fully complete and equipped for all that God has for him to do, if he has the Word of God. The Word is not the elder’s starting point or base; it is the very substance in totality of his being equipped for a situation. This means we do not start with the Word and move past it to greater resources. The Word is beginning, middle, and end to our ministry. With it, the elder is fully complete and equipped. Whatever situation may arise, it is the right tool for the job.
Only a few sentences later, Paul forcefully calls us, on the basis of the risen King Jesus, to “preach the word” (2 Tim 4:2). Why is this God’s call to an elder? Because it is the answer needed for any season of life and the very word of the living Christ, who is our King. He continues that this Word must be preached “in season and out of season” and that it should be used to “reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.” The Word is not simply meant for the preacher to use in the pulpit; it is the source of authority the elder carries in his ministry.
With all this being said, the elder must go into any pulpit, meeting, counseling session, writing project, leadership coaching, small group, or any other gathering of the saints with the Word driving his words. An elder without the Word of God is a carpenter without his tools. He loses the very identity of what it means to be an elder.
One final comment should be made about the elder’s ministry of the Word. The role of an elder or pastor has been described as a physician of the soul. As a doctor needs to know both the medicine and the patient, so too the elder must know both the Scripture and the sheep. While all the Scripture is useful, not every piece of Scripture is the right medicine in every scenario. A doctor would be a fool to prescribe a flu shot for a broken femur or chemotherapy for a common cold. Not all medicines apply to all circumstances. The skill of the doctor is to know the right medicine for the specific illness facing the patient.
So too, it is the skill of an elder to know the right Scriptural truth to apply to the specific illness of the sheep. A congregation that has been generous in poverty does not need the pastor to rebuke them for the love of money. The woman who comes forward revealing an abuse committed against her may not need, in the moment of her transparency, to be reminded of her own sinfulness and need of grace. And the man who is unrepentant after being confronted for cheating on his wife does not need to hear that a believer can have assurance of their salvation. The particular need in the individual or the congregation has a particular medicine from the Word of God that should apply.
An elder must know both the Scriptures and the sheep in great detail. A physician who prescribes one medicine for every disease is unfit for his profession and a fool. The elder who only knows one theological truth, has one biblical agenda, or who lacks intimacy with his sheep is similarly unfit and a fool. The elder has been given the responsibility to serve his congregation through applying the Word to all of life’s circumstances.
Andrew Rutten - Providence Church - Omaha, Nebraska
[1] Most often, this will be the vocational elders/pastors.