Michigan Camp Meeting 2017

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

Michigan Conference of Seventh-day Adventists

Elders Basic Training

Royce Snyman

Elders Basic Training - Part 1

Elders Basic Training - Part 2

Father in heaven, thank you for a new day and a beautiful morning here at Camp Meeting.

We pray that as we begin this class and in learning about the basics of being an elder, I pray that your Holy Spirit will guide our conversation and that our time will be well spent as we seek to understand the purposes and the job description of an elder and how to carry that work out.

May your Holy Spirit guide us, I pray and I thank you in Jesus' name, amen.

Well really glad that you're here and we're going to take a look at some of the work of an elder today.

I've given you a book that looks, a little notebook that looks like this, and if you would take it, I just want to show you what's there.

We have 2 sessions of elders training, basic training.

That's today, this morning, and tomorrow morning at the same time.

And I'm doing a elders training, I mean a deacons training on Wednesday and Thursday, And I don't know how you feel about it, but I think elders should know what deacons should be doing.

And you are, elders are leaders in the church, And that's the place you need to be.

It doesn't hurt you to learn how to be in 1.

And so we're going to have a deacon and deaconess training on Wednesday and Thursday, and then on Friday I'm going to do a class that is talking about helping your church to grow as a leader, that's part of the work of an elder as well.

So this is a leadership course, and even though it has some different titles, the parts for an elder actually carry through all week.

And I would encourage you to participate in that.

So if you take this out, this is what we're using for today.

Tomorrow I'll give you that presentation here.

So I want you first of all to know what's in your notebook.

Also there are some blank pieces of paper underneath the class evaluation.

And if you want to take notes, you can either take notes on the printout of the handout from the class, or you can take it on the notebook, on the notebook paper if you would like to do that.

If you need something to write with, we have that too.

Looks like everybody's doing alright with that.

And so that's the material that I'm giving you to be able to work with.

Okay, let's dig into what we're gonna be talking about.

The first thing we wanna talk about is the Elder's Call and qualification.

This material that I'm going to be sharing with you comes out of the Elder's Handbook.

And we had a little trouble in the last year that there didn't seem to be an Elder's Handbook available.

They printed them and then they ran out and it's my understanding they're available again.

So if you don't have an Elder's Handbook, I encourage you to go up to the ABC and get a hold of 1 of those because I'm only hitting some of the highlights.

I'm able to use just parts of it and focus in the main items.

I want to talk to you about the calling and election of an elder.

First of all, to be an elder is to receive a call from God.

It's not just your local church, that's important, but the real important role that you have is the role of being a leader in the church.

And you want to make sure that that's your calling because there's nothing worse than being in a position that God didn't call you to when he begins to put burdens on you that you didn't realize were going to be something God expected of you, and if you didn't really get that call from God, then you realize the challenge that you have in terms of carrying that work out.

God is the 1 who calls an elder to their responsibility.

Elders who realize that their calling comes first from God will appreciate the importance and the seriousness of the leadership responsibility.

There is a tremendous responsibility upon the elder.

If you don't mind passing that sign-up sheet to the back, we've had 1 more person join us, so great.

So the work of an elder is a very serious task.

In some places, not so much in Michigan, but in some places in the world, elders serve as assistants to the pastor.

And really that's the way it ought to be even in Michigan, in the United States as well.

That is the work of an elder, is to assist the pastor.

We'll talk a lot more about that later today and tomorrow as well.

It is a very serious responsibility and an important task.

The election of an elder after an individual receives a call from the Lord to do this and sometimes that call to be an elder comes through the congregation.

There are people who say, I've never thought about being elder, I don't want to be an elder.

I remember when I was pastoring 1 of the churches in this particular case, the Kalamazoo Church.

And while I was pastoring, I noticed that there were people that I could see that God was, would be able to use in elder responsibilities, but they were hesitant to take that responsibility.

As a matter of fact, they were even asked to do it from time to time, and I'm talking about different individuals, and they backed off or said no or whatever.

They just chose not to take that responsibility.

It's interesting to me that today, 20 years later, those individuals are elders.

And what it sometimes does is takes time for the call to settle in.

There's more than 1 pastor who resisted that call and went off as an electrician first or did this or did that and then finally realized wait a minute God's been calling me for years I've been running from this call and now it's time for me to do that work that God has called me to do." We've got several pastors in the Michigan Conference that that's their story.

And so that happens even to elders, and sometimes it's when the nominating committee selects an elder, wow, I'd really never thought about doing that, wow, I'm not sure.

And then they begin to realize, you know, I really have sensed that God's been calling me to this responsibility.

And it's not because of a person's wealth or because they run a business or their importance in the local community they're being called to be an elder.

They're being called to a position of being an elder in the church for a reason of their spiritual leadership and the opportunity they have to share.

They have no official position or authority in the church unless they have been elected by the congregation.

They are ordained for life, but not elected for life.

I want to make sure I correct that and maybe making the mistake helps to clarify that.

You might be elected this year and not elected next year.

You don't have to be reordained if you were elected the following year back into being an elder, but when you're not elected, you're not an elder.

If you're elected by the congregation and you're not ordained yet, what's that process?

I'll answer it simply because I don't think I really get into it later.

But the process is when you're elected, that means that you should be ordained and that should take place shortly after your election and shortly after you take office.

So in other words, let's say the nominating committee process is going through March and April and May of the year.

So by the end of May, the election is completed, the nominating committee report has been accepted by the church, and you are an elder in the church.

Perhaps the officers actually take effect in July, because that's a typical calendar for a local church.

It should be as early as the first Sabbath whenever the pastor is able to be there because sometimes that becomes a scheduling issue or whatever.

But it should be done by an ordained pastor, they should be doing that.

And they might be more than 1 or you may be the only 1 if that were the case.

And then you would be ordained at that time.

You are ordained then in the local church.

If you go to another church, you know, 5 years later you transfer to another church and somewhere along the line they elect you to be an elder, you do not have to be ordained again, you've already been ordained, okay?

I should say that's the ordination for life.

But the election is only when you're elected by the church.

To take a little bit of a biblical look at this, in the New Testament the elders job description is outlined there somewhat briefly, but still clearly.

As you look at the experience of Paul, going from congregation to congregation, he speaks about the fact that he appointed elders there, and in that case, they were working under the leadership of the Apostle Paul, and he always made sure that there were elders that were elected to that congregation and appointed to that congregation to be able to work there.

Series

Elders Basic Training

Elders Basic Training - Part 1

Transcript

Parent Series

Parent Conference

Sponsor

Recorded

Effective Evangelism

Effective Evangelism - Part 3: Visitation & Decision

59m

Personal Ministries Leadership Training

Personal Ministries Leadership Training- Part 1

1h 11m

Emmanuel Institute - Ignite Your Church

Ignite Your Church - Part 5: How to Give Really Good Bible Studies

58m

Spark Training: Public Evangelism

Spark Training: Public Evangelism- Part 1

57m

Emmanuel Institute - Ignite Your Church

Ignite Your Church - Part 9: The Implementation Guide

59m

Elders Advanced Training

Elders Advanced Training- Part 1

1h 15m

Elder, Deacon, Deaconess Basic Training

Elders Basic Training- Part 1

1h 10m

Amazing Disciples

21. Gospel Presentation, Part 2

25m

Lessons for Today’s Christians from 1 Peter

1 Peter, Part 1

58m

Elder's Basic Training and Deacon & Deaconess Basic Training

Elder’s Basic Training - Part 1

1h 7m

Human Resources

Risk Management for Schools & Churches

1h 12m

Emmanuel Institute Bootcamp

8. State of the Dead

1h 44m

Sound Doctrine