Training for new elders that will provide an elder’s job description, how to work with the church pastor and local board, basic leadership principles, basic church organization, how to organize for church service, and more.

Michigan Camp Meeting 2018: As a Witness, Matthew 24:14

<p>Training for new elders that will provide an elder’s job description, how to work with the church pastor and local board, basic leadership principles, basic church organization, how to organize for church service, and more.</p>

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Michigan Conference of Seventh-day Adventists

Elder, Deacon, Deaconess Basic Training

Royce Snyman

Elders Basic Training- Part 1

Deacons and Deaconesses Basic Training- Part 1

Deacons and Deaconesses Basic Training - Part 2

Managing Theological Conflict in the Local Church

Elders Basic Training - Part 2

Father in Heaven, as we begin our class for elders today, we invite your Holy Spirit to bless us and to guide our conversation, our study, and may it be such that it helps us to do our work better for you, and that we might be able to serve you and honor you by our responsibilities that we carry out.

We pray that your Holy Spirit will be in charge of what I say and what we hear, and we thank you in Jesus' name.

How many of you are brand new elders, never been an elder before and you're just starting out?

How many of you are elders and never have taken even whether you're new or not, but never taken any training of any kind in terms of being an elder.

Some of you are kind of getting into it and figuring it all out and we're glad for that and our purpose today is to be able to give you some of the basics of being an elder.

Now I want to warn you that when I teach this class at first it starts out very low-key and it doesn't seem like it's much of an issue but once we get into this class, especially 2 days worth, suddenly we realize that there's an awful lot to being an elder.

And I don't want you to go away discouraged and thinking, I didn't realize I signed up for that.

This is an opportunity for you as an individual to grow in your understanding.

It's not unusual for the nominating committee to call somebody and say, we need you to be an elder, and you say, what's an elder?

And they say, all you got to do is be on the platform once a month and call for the offering or something like that and then okay I can do that and so now you're an elder and you get ordained to take a call up call for the offering on Sabbath morning or to have a morning prayer and nobody ever tells you what the job is, nobody describes it to you, maybe your pastor never gives you any training and you're an elder for years.

That's what you understood was an elder And then 1 day you come to camp meeting and somebody stands up in a class like this and opens up the church manual to you and opens up some basic information to you about what an elder is and you say, whoa I can't do all of that.

Nobody on earth has time to do all of that.

Take 1 step at a time and realize that this is a very special calling and that God does have a purpose for you.

You might have your horizon expanded a little bit, but don't worry, God is able to fill the vacuum in the space and help you as you're trying to meet all of those particular needs and issues that arise in your church that you are responsible for carrying out.

I'd like you to look at your notebook that I've given to you here, your folder, so you know what's in it.

We will have a deacons and deaconesses training on Wednesday and Thursday.

If you are able to be a part of that, I would like to encourage you to do that because part of your work as an elder is leading your congregation and leading your leaders.

And a lot of people have no idea, especially our elders, have no idea what deacons and deaconesses are supposed to do, and we do the same thing there that we do here.

I'm good, but Shelley, I could use some of my materials, like I forgot the elders' handbooks, some of those kinds of things I forgot to bring in here, okay?

I'd encourage you to do it so that you know what deacons and deaconesses do And the Friday class is on managing theological conflict.

I say first of all, welcome to the last days that we knew were coming, but are here.

And welcome is not quite the word I want to use, but I used it a little tongue-in-cheek.

We are in the last days, folks, and we are encountering more and more theological conflict in the church.

And some of it is over minor things that are frankly in times not relevant, Other times they are over things that are very relevant and separating people from 1 another, dividing the church and creating problems.

Our churches are facing it in these days.

We have churches that are dividing and members that are having to be asked to surrender their church membership because of this happening in the state of Michigan and around the country, and there are some issues.

We'll talk about that on Friday, but not today.

In this notebook folder you have a class evaluation which I'd like you to complete tomorrow after our last class.

If for some reason you're only able to come to the class today and you have to be in Hong Kong tomorrow and that may seem strange but we had a fellow that was here for the weekend, Jim Howard, and that's where he is today in China, not Hong Kong, but at least I don't think he's in Hong Kong.

So it could happen, I don't know, it might happen to you.

But would you complete this and then turn it in?

Behind it is some blank paper that you can use for taking notes if you would like.

If you happen to need more let me know and we'll be happy to get that for you.

Today I have a handout for you, it looks like this.

You're gonna notice that it looks an awful lot like what's on the screen.

And the reason for that is because it is the slides, because I know that sometimes people wanna take notes of what's on the screen, and that means that it's here for you.

And there's space next to it that will also be helpful for you in taking notes.

So you should have plenty of space for that.

Anybody need something to write with and not have anything to write with?

So my wonderful secretary, this is Shelly Ringstaff for you, those of you who don't know her.

I think that's all I needed, yeah, thanks.

If you'd bring some pens in that would be great.

I will give you a copy of the Elder's Handbook that looks like this.

If you have 1 already, keep it and take it, take this 1 and give it to 1 of your other elders that may not have it.

If you don't have 1, of course, it's yours and there's a price on the back and that's not for you.

That's only if you're buying it from the ABC.

Our study material today is out of the handbook and is what we'll be sharing with you, so there'll be some pieces along the way.

I won't give that to you right now to save a little bit of time.

All right, I think I've taken care of some of the housekeeping items, so I'd like to get us started.

I'd like to start by talking about the elder's call and qualification.

So let's talk a little bit about what God's expectation of is for you.

First of all, to be an elder is not calling you just for the task of reading the scripture on Sabbath morning.

You are called to be an elder by God for a purpose.

1 would call it the highest office in the local church.

Now we don't like to think of offices as higher and lower and all of that, but you have the most significant leadership responsibility in the local church, especially from a spiritual perspective.

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

This is not just the nominating committee calling you, asking you to do something once a month.

This is God calling you for a leadership task in the church that involves serious spiritual responsibility for which God will hold you responsible for what you do or what you don't do.

It is akin to being called to being a pastor.

The difference is you're not called to full-time paid ministry, go anywhere in the world that God might call you to do as an ordained minister, but you are called to serve God in the local church as the spiritual leader in that local church.

That means doing what Paul told Timothy he needed to do, what Paul was told the Scriptures were there to do, and what Timothy was told he was supposed to do in leading the people of the church, correcting them, encouraging them, teaching them, guiding them, being the spiritual leaders that God needs you to be in that congregation.

We're going to talk about the job description more specifically in a moment, but right now we're talking about the calling.

Calling of an elder starts with God calling you.

But the church also needs to recognize that calling.

I have had situations and even have today, situations where people in the church, men who believe that they are called to be elders, who are pushing, pushing, pushing all the time for the church to put them in as elders.

The church has to elect you to be an elder.

The church should recognize your calling.

If the church does not recognize your calling, it is not your job to force them to recognize what you believe to be the calling of God, that job of God Himself to do.

Usually the least qualified individual to be an elder is the 1 who insists on being 1.

Because if God's calling you, he will take care of the placement.

When God's ready for you, he will make that clear.

Elders should not be elected because they already hold some position of importance in the community or because they have been successful in business or are wealthy.

People that are leaders in the church are called to be elders because of their spiritual leadership.

They may also have other leadership skills, But they should not be called to leadership just because they have those skills.

A lot of individuals don't realize this about being elected to being an elder, but an elder is elected, yes, by the congregation, but has no authority in the congregation until number 1, they are ordained and number 2, they are or or called to by the organized church in which they are called to serve.

An elder when they are ordained to be an elder in the local church are ordained for life.

That means that if you were ordained Fred in Michigan you don't have to be ordained in Alabama.

But in order to serve as an elder in Alabama, if you were called to be an elder in the Cedar Lake Church and you were ordained in the Cedar Lake Church, when you go to Alabama you have no authority in that church and your ordination only means that you don't have to be ordained again but that you do have to be elected by that congregation before you have any authority in that congregation.

Let's talk about the job description of an elder for a moment.

Series

Elder, Deacon, Deaconess Basic Training

Elders Basic Training- Part 1

Transcript

Description

Parent Series

Parent Conference

Sponsor

Recorded

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