Dr. Shanks is a professor with Liberty Seminary online.
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I like baseball. I played it when I was a boy, and so did both of my sons. My sons even got to play baseball for their high school. Nevertheless, there is one thing that is kind of silly about baseball teams. It’s the fact that the managers and coaches are made to wear the uniforms of the players. This is not the case in any other professional sport. You would never see Bill Belichick wearing shoulder pads and cleats. It just plain nonsense that baseball managers have to wear uniforms. It’s not likely that Don Mattingly is likely to pick up a glove play 1st base, or pick up a bat in pinch hit for the pitcher. Don Mattingly manages the players, he doesn’t play the game, so why make him wear a player’s uniform?
Unfortunately,
the leadership of many churches function a lot like baseball managers, they
don’t “play in the game,” they just “manage” those who do. This is primarily the case because many elders
of churches use up all their energies managing the church’s staff, the church’s
grounds, the church’s facilities, the church’s finances, and the church’s
policies. Why is this?
I think it is
mainly due to a misinterpretation of 1 Timothy 3:4-5. In this passage Paul gave to his disciple
Timothy the qualifications of a church “overseer,” which most scholars and
Christians today understand as the qualifications of a pastor or elder. In these verses the pivotal verb in both the
NIV and NASB is translated as “to manage.” However, the Greek verb “pro-is-temi” has
other possible meanings, one of which is “to lead,” and it is most likely that
this interpretation is the better reading for this particular passage. The fact is that elders are primarily
supposed to lead the church’s ministries, not manage the church’s staff and
resources.
How do we
know this is the case? Because Paul tells us that the evidence that a man will
make a good elder is the fact that his children are obedient to his
leadership. A man who can parent his
children so that they are functional and obedient is evidence that they can
shepherd others as well. Paul also wrote
to Titus that elders must have “believing children” (Titus 1.6). In other words, the family environment of
elders must be of an atmosphere where they were able to lead their children to
faith in the Lord. Paul’s emphasis to
both Timothy and Titus was that elders should be ministers to their families
before they should be given the responsibility of leading the ministries of the
church.
Unfortunately,
too many churches select elders not because they are effective ministers and
teachers (1 Tim 3.2; Tit. 1.9), but because they are good businessman and are
well liked by most people—therefore, they must be good managers, right? Giving the leadership of the church over to
men simply because they are well liked and appear to be good managers is a
recipe for mediocrity, and possibly disaster.
Managers tend to focus on the proper and effective use of resources
(i.e., policies concerning things).
Minister’s focus on people and “caring” for their conversion and spiritual
vitality, which is what Paul stated was the ultimate purpose and concern for
those leading the church—caring for those in the church (1 Tim 3.5). And shouldn’t that always be the main function
of any shepherd, caring for the flock?
Should elders
understand the church’s budget, yes.
Should they have influence on the church’s policies, of course. Should they take the leadership in the hiring
of church staff, absolutely. But far and
away the most important function of elders is that they are primarily ministers. In other words, they display the capacity to
effectively exhort, enable, and equip others to follow the Lord Jesus Christ.
That is the “stuff” of ministry, and that what the church should be all about.
You know
there is one sure fire way to tell who the manager of a baseball team is—he’s
always the one with the cleanest uniform.
Baseball players are never clean because they are the ones playing the
game. Their uniforms show wear and tear of
effort, exertion, and teamwork, of striving for a common goal, and so it should
be with the lives of those who serve as elders of any church.
And so we have many churches that are merely sinking ships. What will God say to these leaders?
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