Pastor’s Blog – Bunker Hill Community Church

As Jesus rode into Jerusalem that first Palm Sunday, a multitude of people welcomed him, proclaiming Him as King. Why then would many of them cry “Crucify Him” less than a week later?

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The command to “Fear not” is premised on faith in God. The opposite of fear is peace. But true peace only comes when our faith is defined by a consistent focus on our Lord.

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With the coronavirus scare coming to a pinnacle, and people around us starting to panic, we should trust in what we know to be true about God rather than speculating in what we don’t know about our circumstances.  Psalm 46 assures us that “God is our refuge and strength; a very present help in trouble.  Therefore, we will not fear…”

What kind of men should be elders in the church?

When we leave that decision up to men, we usually choose those who are popular, good-looking, successful in business, charismatic, leaders in the community, and good public speakers. While that list of qualities might make for a good political candidate, it is not the best place to start when evaluating a man to be an elder in God’s church.

In 1 Timothy 3:2-7, Paul lists God’s qualifications for an elder, starting with this:

“A bishop then must be blameless…”

Does that mean that elders have to be perfect? No, because we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

What it does mean is that they should have a degree of spiritual maturity which shows itself in a pattern of godly living. It means that their goal is to become more like Christ every day, just as Paul states in Philippians 3:14, “I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.”

No one is perfect, so we shouldn’t expect our elders to be perfect in everything. But according to God’s criteria, they should be godly above all else.

While we tend to evaluate men from their outward appearance, remember that God looks on the heart.

1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1 both list the qualities and qualifications for men who seek to be pastors/elders in the church. All of the items included in these lists are important in considering whether a man should be ordained as an elder, because those men that God has called, He has also qualified.

One important quality that does not appear on these lists, yet is just as essential for a pastor or elder, is found in 1 Peter 5:5.

“Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility: for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble.”

In this passage, the Apostle Peter admonishes all pastors and elders to be submissive to each other in humility.

No matter how qualified one may be otherwise, the absence of humility will cause his ministry to be completely ineffective.

Earlier in 1 Peter 5, the apostle calls pastors and elders to “shepherd the flock…being examples to them.”  If the leadership of the church cannot live and minister with the right attitude about themselves, how can the congregation be expected to follow them in submission and humility?

How true it is that we cannot lead others unless we “practice what we preach.”

More and more churches today are making their worship more like the world in an attempt to attract unbelievers to their services. While the goal may be to expose more people to the Gospel, the idea itself is unbiblical.

The truth is that the worship services of the church were never intended for unbelievers.  Ephesians 4:12 says that pastors and teachers are given “for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ.”

 The purpose for leadership and teaching within the church is to help Christians mature and to prepare them for ministry.  Unsaved people cannot benefit from that.

1 Corinthians 2:14 says,

“But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” 

Unbelievers cannot understand the truth of God or how to apply it in their lives because they lack the Spirit of God to guide them.

If we, in an attempt to appeal to unbelievers, water down the truth of God or change the worship of God into something that worldly people can relate to, we have abandoned God’s very purpose for the church.  Let’s remain faithful to God and His Word in our worship in order to fulfill His goal for the church.