Candidates and Incumbents

“Put another way, the widespread neglect of elder qualifications certainly trivializes an office which the Bible says should be held in honor. But willingness to remove elders too quickly can have the same result. A young woman considering a suitor may legitimately decline his attentions for (comparatively) minor reasons. Those same reasons are not sufficient grounds for a divorce. To give them the same weight would be to diminish the office of husband. The point is not to equate the marriage and eldership, but rather to illustrate the fact that there is an important covenantal difference between getting into something and getting out of it. The bottom line here is this: it ought to be a bigger deal to remove an elder or deacon than to not install an elder or deacon” (Mother Kirk, p.187).