Today the Lectionary has a bunch of things we could discuss and consider, from Zechariah being told he was about to father John the Baptizer to Zephaniah prophesying forgiveness to the daughter of Zion…

But Paul has some teaching on eldership. And this matters. Because the leadership of the church can lead people astray.

Titus 1:5-8

⁵I left you behind in Crete for this reason, that you should put in order what remained to be done, and should appoint elders in every town, as I directed you: ⁶someone who is blameless, married only once, whose children are believers, not accused of debauchery and not rebellious. ⁷For a bishop, as God’s steward, must be blameless; he must not be arrogant or quick-tempered or addicted to wine or violent or greedy for gain; ⁸but he must be hospitable, a lover of goodness, prudent, upright, devout, and self-controlled. ⁹He must have a firm grasp of the word that is trustworthy in accordance with the teaching, so that he may be able both to preach with sound doctrine and to refute those who contradict it.

The church is not a democracy. it is not a place where all can lead. You have to be qualified. As a divorced man, I am not qualified to be an elder, though (I pray) that my children believe. If you cannot rule your house, you do not qualify. If you are a woman, you do not qualify. If you are clearly breaking the moral rules — you steal, cheat, are ungenerous, hot tempered… you do not qualify.

When we are called to Christ, none of us qualify, but those called to be elders will meet these criteria.

There is a final criterion hidden within the need to be able to teach true doctrine, and it is in the final phrase and confront those who do not teach so. An elder (or bishop, if my Greek is correct the word presbyter was used for both) must have a spine. He is going to have to say some unpopular things. He cannot be scared of people who listen to their friends, and voter against what is sound teaching/.

(And it is easy to find sound teaching. If you pare away the controversies around the sacraments, the role of Mary and saints, Ikons, styles of worship… you have a core of teaching that has not changed. If you find Calvin in agreement with Thomas Aquinas and the Orthodox fathers, you are on safe ground. However, it the teaching does not have a history and has not been discussed from the time of the church fathers to this generation, that teaching is quite shaky).

The failure of last century was that the Elders did not hold to sound doctrine but let the people go as they please — or the people went as they pleased and the church did not shun them. This is starting to correct itself. The churches that were wobbly wusses are dying. The churches that preach the gospel and sound doctrine are growing.

For without the Gospel we are but the Kiwanis with better buildings. We forget that we are going to be Christ;s. He is the ruler of the church, not us. and he appoints and empowers the leaders, not us.  And.. although it is a great privilege to lead, being lay is the usual position for a Christian, and that has its own role, rules and reward.

Yesterday I was laughing out loud as I read Captain Cap’s new book Worthless. The son started reading, and since I read faster than him he sat down and listened… to me reading the last five chapters out loud.

But he as already got the message. He is dropping all liberal arts except History and English (which is still compulsory) and taking maths, biology, chemistry & physics. The science track with a backup arts subject in case he gets poor marks in English.

What we both found useful was a chapter on the signs of a useless degree, such as repeated content, talking drivel, and a lack of Math.  Anyway, if you have kids in high school, read the book — so at least they will not drop Math, and therefore get a degree without any career prospects