Spiritually on trial
Well, sort of. Amongst the craziness of all God is doing (and did) on Sunday, one such thing is my leadership status in the home-church I attend. Mainly, am I a leader/elder of the group? My status in this group has always been weird--not a new believer, but I don't have the history with the other elders. God sees me as part of the core group there, but I do live 2 hours away. So, am I an elder there? The current elders are praying about it, and it's weird knowing that. I trust God is at work, and it's not really something to "worry" about in any way--it doesn't really say anything about me as a person one way or the other--but it's still a little weird.
I didn't think anything about it until one of my best friends (and current elder) asked me, "Do you feel like you're being judged?" No, I don't, but now that you mention it... Again, I'm not really worried about it one way or another, but I think it's weird to actually know you're being considered (especially in a church with no formal nomination process). Anyone else can relate to that?
On a somewhat related (but probably only in my head) note, have you ever felt a finger being pointed at you? From someone ten feet away? A prophecy was being given, but the prophecier (spelling? is that even a word?) didn't know to whom it pertained....and then all of a sudden did, and pointed, and said, "And it's you." And I felt it in my chest. Not like a pain, but something....that kind of spread through most of my torso. Weirdness. God's doing stuff, I just hope I have the faith to trust Him and let Him take charge...
I didn't think anything about it until one of my best friends (and current elder) asked me, "Do you feel like you're being judged?" No, I don't, but now that you mention it... Again, I'm not really worried about it one way or another, but I think it's weird to actually know you're being considered (especially in a church with no formal nomination process). Anyone else can relate to that?
On a somewhat related (but probably only in my head) note, have you ever felt a finger being pointed at you? From someone ten feet away? A prophecy was being given, but the prophecier (spelling? is that even a word?) didn't know to whom it pertained....and then all of a sudden did, and pointed, and said, "And it's you." And I felt it in my chest. Not like a pain, but something....that kind of spread through most of my torso. Weirdness. God's doing stuff, I just hope I have the faith to trust Him and let Him take charge...
posted by spocktongue at 10:18 PM
8 Comments:
Prophet. =)
Question for you (with no judging behind it - just interested to see what you mean): if you live so far from the church, what do you do that fulfills a role of "elder"?
The only verse in the Bible I see about "elders" is 1 Timothy 5:17, which talks about directing the affairs of the church, preaching, and teaching. Now, as a body, we really emphasize 1 Corinthians 14:26--everyone who comes has a hymn, a word of instructin, a revelation, a tongue, etc., so in some since that covers the preaching/teaching aspect (we don't have a set "preacher"). What part of directing the affairs of the church requires one to live "close?" In fact, probably half of the body, if not more, lives in Indy as it is. I kind of think a lot of stuff happens over email, as well...
At the end of most services, the leaders/elders meet and discuss the body, possible ministry outlets, and other general issues in the church/Church. In that sense, because I'm there almost every Sunday, I don't see location as any real hindrance.
Does that help in any way?
The term "elder(s)" actually shows up several times in the NT. Often (especially in the gospels and Acts), it's used in conjunction with "scribes" and/or "chief priests" to identify leaders in Judaism. When it is used in relation to Christian leaders, it does refer to directing, preaching, and teaching, as you said:
Acts 11:30; 14:23; 20:17; 21:18
1 Timothy 5:17,19
Titus 1:5
James 5:14
1 Peter 5:1,5
There's also a smattering of vague references to heavenly elders throughout Revelation. And the author of 2 John and 3 John calls himself "elder" in the first verse of each letter.
Interestingly, there are several places in the discussion of the Jerusalem council where Christian elders are paired with "apostles":
Acts 15:2,4,6,22,23; 16:4
Each of these occurrences translates the same Greek word, presbuteros, meaning an older person or a leader of a group. (It's the root of our word "Presbyterian.")
Also interesting is that the same word presbuteros appears in 1 Timothy 5:1 and 2, translated as "older man" and "older women," respectively.
Hope this helps...
I found it strange that the concordance in the back of my Bible only had one listing for "elder," but I was too lazy to investigate further. As it turns out, there are a bunch of hits under the KJV concordance (I use a parallel Bible), but only the one I mentioned under the NIV concordance. I wonder why that is?
Adding onto those options, I really like the Titues description of an elder (although it's definitely initimidating in terms of ever being one), and the 1 Peter verses.
Nothing in those would necessarily require one to be "close" to the church. I am curious what the thoughts of my situation would be of someone who is a little more concerned about geography in terms of their church (kind of like living in the inner-city if you are going to attend Woodruff Baptist). Did that sentence actually make grammatical sense?
Hmm... that is strange... I don't know why your concordance would leave those out. Maybe it's not exhaustive, if it's in the back of your Bible?
Since you mentioned it, geography is important at Woodruff Place precisely because of the mission of the congregation. We are a worshiping and studying community, but our worship and study is meaningless without outreach to our neighborhood. So I've learned that if somebody is going to be part of Woodruff Place, then it's important to live nearby (which made our year at Taylor pretty strange).
But that doesn't mean it has to be normative. The fact is that travel is much easier and faster now than it was in NT days, so it's possible for you to be part of a home church some 75(?) miles from home.
On the other hand, I view church as a community of faith (and that view has been influenced and strengthened by my time at Woodruff Place). Our community is made stronger by the building of friendships through various activities (in ministry and otherwise), and we get together for those activities several times in any given week. From our perspective, then, it would seem a bit strange for you to be part of a community of faith with which you meet just once a week.
I think that's one reason why it's been so long to get to this point. I've shown growth, but it's taken some time to develop those relationships outside of worship with numerous people. I *do* spend time with some of them, at talk to some of them, outside of worship, though not all time.
So, given this situation, would you suggest moving closer to the church? And what about the fact that half the church lives in Muncie, and half in Indy?
We definitely have an outreach aspect to our church/ministry, and part of that is to Muncie, but the bigger emphasis is really "everywhere we are," or maybe "anywhere we are."
Not sure there are any "right" answers, it's just an interesting situation I seem to be in right now.
Sorry for the delay (and unanswered questions)... Your church situation is, in a word, unique, I think. I don't know that there are right or wrong answers to your questions. Would I suggest moving closer to the church? No, not necessarily, because (to my knowledge) the *location* of the church isn't one of its most important characteristics. (Contrast, for instance, with Woodruff Place.) And that reality is emphasized by the fact that half the church lives in Muncie, and half in Indy.
So, in short, I think you're ok where you are. :) But it definitely is an interesting situation you're in...
Yeah, I'm definitely there for a reason, though I don't know what it is.
And I've not felt a real strong pull to move at this point in time...
So, I guess the status quo will work for now. :)
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