Something New

Several weeks ago, Jeff was installed as an elder in our church.

Our denomination (PCA) has both elders and deacons. Each office is called for a specific task. The deacons handle much of the physical oversight of the church property, the finances, benevolence, and much more. The elders are responsible for more of the spiritual oversight. They deal with teaching, counseling, church discipline, shepherding and, again, much more. Perhaps (and probably) it isn't the “best” system of church government because it was, after all, designed by man but it is one of the best, in my opinion.

When Jeff was approached about being an elder, we spent time discussing and praying. We both felt it was an honor but also, and more importantly, a huge responsibility and a privilege for which we both felt so totally unqualified.

You see, we know each other well. We know the ugliness in our own hearts, we know the ickiness that raises its head in our marriage. We know that we try and still fall so short. We don't know even know how sinful we really are.

And yet, in all of that and perhaps in large part because of all that, God led in this direction.

As I sat in the installation service listening to the sermon, I literally wanted to sink into the chair. I know that my husband, loved as he is by me, is a sinner. He knows that I am as well. Marriage has a way of really showing sinful natures (as does parenting but that's a different post!). Yet, he (especially) and me to a lesser degree were being charged with helping others. He was being charged with being a leader in the church. He was being placed in authority over a covenant group of people who were willingly putting themselves under submission of a group of men just as sinful and needy as they are.

I think historically we place our church leaders on pedestals that are not only undeserved but also highly unrealistic. We expect them to be models of virtue instead of the sinful humans saved by grace that they are. They will fail. They will fall short of expectations. So will their wives.

As I sat there, I began to realize that I had chosen to put myself under the authority of our elders. I chose that. I also realized that they had taken on an enormous office that would cost them a lot. The decisions they made would be ridiculed by someone. Their reputations, their families,and their decisions would be called into question.

These men share a huge responsibility not only to their own families but to their larger covenant family as well. That responsibility looms large and daunting. That responsibility will make them shed tears, it will humble them.

And it will be God that enables them to handle all that the office entails. Knowing that is one thing; trusting it is another.

But just as God gives them grace and wisdom to do what He has called them to do, He gives the congregation grace and wisdom to trust and follow that leadership.

And that grace, given, makes all the difference.