A lot of times, people will come to me or to one of the elders and ask about something. Our natural reaction is to make a decision on the spot, but in reality, we do not have that authority. Unless the leadership community has made a decision and/or invested further decisions for a specific area in a specific elder, you will often hear us say, “Let me talk to the elders and we’ll get back to you.”
This is not a cop-out. As ministry moves forward, the elders have the responsibility of steering the church and keeping it within the vision of Jesus Christ. It is a shared responsibility and not one invested into us individually.
That’s important, so let me unpack it. The leadership responsibility is shared by the elder community. Individually, we have no authority. Anytime any of the elders act outside of the elder community, it is because the elders have discerned God’s direction in an area, and we are now moving about in our greater church community encouraging people to move forward in that direction.
When we encounter something new to the vision, we bring it to the other elders and we discuss it, meditate on it and pray over it. We ask hard questions of the Scriptures, of each other, and of the community. This is what we are striving for.
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