What Is An Elder?

I wrote the following words a decade ago during a time when we were looking for men to serve as elders. The search never tires for men who will rise up and serve.

What is an elder? He’s a man in his Sunday best playing tag with the kids on the church’s front lawn after services. He’s the silent man that fades into the background while a young couple reveals how they received a card of encouragement with a $50 bill and a note that read, "You deserve a break today -take the kids to McDonalds!" He’s the man who prays at the strangest times in the oddest places like at a stoplight where his "amen" is a cacophony of car horns blowing behind him signaling that the light is green. He’s the man who listens to you with eyes that are windows to his soul and invites you to pull up a chair for a good talk. He’s the guy with the infectious laugh that makes the shut-in forget for the moment their four-walled world. He’s the student with the beat-up bible that is stuffed with his own special filing system of miscellaneous, multi-colored, dog-eared papers peeking out of well-worn pages. He’s the last in line at the potluck and the first in line at a workday. He’s the haggard man with the droopy eyes because he was up all night praying for wisdom to help solve someone else’s problem. He’s big on enthusiasm and small on trivial matters. He’s manly even in a lacy apron cooking pancakes for a youth rally. He’s available even when he’s busy yet stops to pick wildflowers with the grand kids and with misty eyes gives the fragile bouquet to his perpetual bride and best friend. He knows his heritage rests in the Great Shepherd and the tender hearts that wept with the apostle Paul on a beach in Miletus. He knows that shepherding, overseeing and nurturing is an awesome responsibility that the Holy Spirit has called him to do. However, he knows that God will supply the wisdom he needs through ardent prayer and eyes focused on the cross.

Who will be an elder? It will be the man who seeks his perfection in Christ. It will be the tender soul who desires to serve with a willingness to sacrifice. It will be the man who takes heaven serious not himself and thus often laments his own worldliness. It will be a pioneer of powerful imagination to see that God has already secured the victories. It will be a champion who is God reliant on his strength to lead and his compassion to serve. And most of all it will be a man called by God to use his leadership talents to love on the people of God and the lost of this world! -DAN