“The responsibility assigned is pastoring the flock which is ‘among you.’ The responsibility to shepherd is limited to an identifiable flock. In Scripture, God never gives anyone undefined responsibilities. This is especially true of elders who are held strictly accountable for the work they do. Try to imagine a bookkeeper who had to give a …
Not the Other Way Around, As Some Think
“Doctrinal work involves a positive proclamation of the truth, and a guarding against falsehood. The task of a shepherd is to gather sheep and scatter wolves” (Mother Kirk, p. 179).
Where Is This Going to Land Us?
“It is interesting that our Lord compared the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees to leaven. Leaven, or yeast, is not dormant. Leaven in a loaf of bread grows and works through the loaf until it pervades the whole. False teaching works in the same way. This means that an elder must be able to …
Apostolic Authority Is Not Part of an Electrical Circuit
“Ordination is an act of government; it is not a charm, or a means by which power or some special apostolic authority is passed on to the recipient” (Mother Kirk, p. 173).
A Well-Trained Border Collie
“In this sense, an individual elder called as the minister may be considered the pastor, or shepherd, of a church. But if he remembers the pastoral authority of Christ and the pastoral responsibilities of the whole session of elders, he will not understand himself to be the sole shepherd of the flock. His role should …
Bureaucratic Bishopric
“This is the besetting sin of American presbyterianism. When an association of independent churches, or the representatives of presbyterian churches, makes the mistake of establishing a permanent headquarters somewhere (minium requirements: one desk, one phone, on file cabinet), a certain type of bureaucratic mind is immediately attracted to the important task of getting the papers …
Labels and Bottles
“Having gotten this straight, we must then factor in the problem of labels and bottle contents. In a perfect world, things would be what we called them — health food would be healthy, guaranteed savings would be, and so on. But this is a fallen world, and we can find, for example, both ‘independent’ and …
Aluminum Discipline
“We must beware of a too great reliance on a systematic reconstruction of the various references to discipline in the New Testament. matthew 18 is not a paint-by-numbers kits, and we should not assume that when we get to ‘stage two’ in a discipline process that we are at the second rung of a metal …
Death in the Fine Print
“But when rules and procedures multipy, students of history should see it as the manufacture of rope for possible judicial lynchings. Complexity in law is a friend to lawyers, not a friend to the accused” (Mother Kirk, p. 160).
Tough Love
“The most obvious result is that the one discipline is refused access to the Lord’s Supper, as well as the general communion which that Supper seals. But the offender is not being denied kindness, courtesy, opportunity to hear the Word preached, the duties owed to him by others, or anything else due him according to …