The Church’s Attitude to its Elders

We need to think about how a church is to respond to its elders.

The reason this is important is because—as you’ll have experienced in other parts of life—in order for someone to receive help, the attitude of the person receiving the help makes a massive difference as to how effective that help is…

You see it in hospitals. You have the father of a child come in and he says to the doctor, “I’ve googled what’s wrong with her, I know what she needs, make sure you do this, and don’t do x, y or z.” That’s one scenario. A nightmare for the doctors.

Then you have another mother come in and she says, “I trust you, doctors. Just do whatever you think is best. What do you think? I trust you. I just want what’s best for my baby.”

They’re totally different attitudes, and they really are going to affect the way that the doctors give care to that baby.

Well, it’s the same in church. The attitude of the members towards their elders really matters. A church might have a great team of elders—men who meet all the biblical qualifications—but if they are leading a church that has a bad attitude, then they’ll get nowhere.