Elder
“In churches today, elders are spiritual leaders or shepherds of the church. The term can mean different things depending on the denomination and even the congregation.”
Run as fast as you can headfirst into a brick wall. Get up and hope you read that stupid statement and weep, laugh, and vomit for several hours.
You may get healthy in this manner.
“Elder” cannot mean several things as be Biblical!
Anything but Biblical is hogwash and horse poop. What’s goes in and comes out in barnyards has no meaning but religion.
“Yea verily, and I count all things to be loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may gain Christ” (Philippians 3:8).
The excellency of Christ ain’t found in “can mean different things” or “anything we want,” which is “means nothing at all” for kingdom culture.
Biblical Eldering
“I directed you to set in order what is lacking and seat elders in every city” (Titus 1:5).
The presbuteros are appointed, kathistémi, “to stand down or be positioned upon the seat.”
Elder means bearded in Hebrew. It means fundamentally to be older, aged by time. It means maturity in character. It means to have leadership from a position of elevation for a line of sight to oversee to bring to account.
The term means two distinct things in Scripture: “expertise and experience.” When I take the Hebrew and Greek terms apart, I see both of these aspects apply to kingdom eldership.
No novice should lead because Satan will pump up pride. A novice is someone without expertise and experience.
No problematic person should lead. Elders with expertise and experience represent Christ, and the apostles who recognize their Divine appointment as examples.
They can be young: “Do not allow anyone to dishonor you because you are young but be an example of believers.” Timothy had expertise and experience because he submitted to a father as his leader.
Elders can be single. But, they cannot have more than one spouse. Eldering in existing cultures must follow kingdom culture exclusively.
You can be an expert with experience but not qualify to function as an elder. Why this obvious conclusion escapes us can only reveal contemporary disdain for kingdom culture.
We have lost kingdom culture, and we do not know we have lost it.
We have Bibles for historical reference points (from a historical God) that we subsequently dismiss with a shrug to enshrine tradition and superstition in place of revelation. We do err as the generation that murdered God’s Son.
Elders do what the five kingdom leaders do. They are the elders in residence. Every city. Every kingdom Ekklesia. Overseeing overseers. Ruling rulers.
“Let the well-ruling rulers be counted worthy of double honor, especially those straining in the hard work in the word and training” (1 Timothy 5:17).
Here we have proistemi prebuteros. Proistemi means “preside over, lead, and rule by setting into order.” So the overseers who do an excellent job of leading the kingdom culture by setting in order. They are worthy of double honor.
The interchangeable use of overseers and rulers in the new covenant portion of the Bible leaves the inescapable impression that elders are the bishops, rulers, and fivefold leaders.
(“Deacon” means to wait on tables and has zero leadership capacity minus numbers in leadership.)
For the rulers and overseers deniers who wish to define our any leaders, judgment, or even decision-making or problems-solving in the kingdom to accommodate the lawlessness in contemporary vagabond ministries, you have to tell God off to even open the first floor to that cavern of catacomb burial crypts. The very words mean “lead or go home.”
Since you start your denial with “go home,” you find peace in obscurity rather than a Biblical mandate to transform cultures by discipling them as leaders.It is patently impossible to read leadership out of the Bible from verse one to the last letter and punctuation mark. Go figure why someone would desire to create lawlessness in a kingdom, right?
Restoring the Role of Elders
The New Era Reformation restores kingdom culture and kingdom Ekklesia upon the revealed foundations of Biblical leadership in apostolic order. Elders ain’t the church board of contemporary churchism.
Elders ain’t Grandpa Jones offering friendly advice over a pickle barrel with a checkers squares painted on it.
Elders are battlefield generals and captains, master builders and contractors, architects and engineers of operational integrity, and cultural influences for dynamics in lasting covenantal relationships.
Ain’t nothing casual about eldering.
- Elders represent King Jesus in the kingdom culture order.
- Elders represent and partner with Father in fathering.
- Elders watch for men’s souls.
- Elders bring kingdom citizens to account for the principles, processes, and protocols of kingdom culture.
We will ignore the post-reformation adaptation of Biblical leadership in a protest of papal aberration. We will become originalists. We will re-pioneer the ancient landmarks of oversight through kingdom leadership dynamics.
