Michigan Camp Meeting 2019: As a Witness, Matthew 24:14

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Michigan Conference of Seventh-day Adventists

Elder's Basic Training and Deacon & Deaconess Basic Training

Royce Snyman

Elder’s Basic Training - Part 1

Father in heaven, we want to thank you for another day today.

Thank you for camp meeting and this opportunity to be in a place like this and take advantage of all these different seminars.

And especially today, we want to talk about elders' responsibilities and the task that lies before the leaders of the church.

And we pray that you will bless what we do today.

You have a little booklet like this, a little folder, and today's training is already in there.

And if you take that out, it will be a place for you to take notes.

I haven't given you any additional note paper, because if you take more notes than what's on this page here, you're going to be saying more than I say.

But anyway, here's the information for you and for you to be able to take notes.

I encourage you to put your name on it so that it doesn't get mixed up with somebody else's and sometimes people leave things behind and that way I make sure it gets back to the right person.

I'll have another handout for you tomorrow for tomorrow's class.

This is a 2 class seminar presentation for leaders in the church who are elders.

But let me also explain to you that I am training for elders today and tomorrow, deacons on Wednesday and Thursday.

You need to know what deacons are supposed to do.

Because you are, as you will see, especially tomorrow's class, you are responsible for the other leaders in the church.

And if you don't know what they do, you can't help lead them.

And 1 of the things that they do is participate with the elders in things like visitation and the like.

It's sort of by accident that the Deacons class follows this and it's sort of by design because I can't do everything all at once.

I used to do separate classes and for a longer period of time, but I am doing this sequence and I hope it will be helpful to you to know what deacons do along the way.

And then on Friday we have a leadership class dealing with current issues in the church and how to handle issues that sometimes bring conflict or confusion and the like.

Let me tell you, you are facing this today whether you know it or not.

And I could give you an illustration of that, but I'll save that for later, because it's happening in our churches on a regular basis.

And these are very difficult times in which we live, but not unexpected, because the Bible said it would be like this.

So today's training is going to be fundamental, it's going to be basic.

Now how many of you are brand new elders, never been an elder before and have no clue?

But you've never been an elder before and you're new to being an elder now.

How many of you have been an elder before but never taken training before?

How many of you have taken my training in particular before?

I almost thought I'd ask you what you're doing here, but I won't do that.

We always benefit from training and even though sometimes what I do here in these first couple of classes is repetition, we always learn from repetition, and we always learn how to do our work better.

The material that I'm using today comes to us out of the Elder's Handbook.

How many of you do not have an Elder's Handbook?

The Elder's Handbook is available at the ABC, you can get a copy of the handbook, and I'm taking this material out of the Elder's Handbook as a basic fundamental text.

Elders should have an Elder's Handbook and they should have an Elder's Manual.

I assume they have a Bible and have access to the spirit of prophecy, all right?

But those other 2 tools are very important in your work as elders in the church.

You need the Elder's Handbook, which is a blue book, and I really ought to have that in the notes, sorry that I don't.

It's the Elder's Handbook, and it's the Church Manual.

In 2020, General Conference will be meeting in Indianapolis in the Lake Union, coincidentally.

And when they meet there, they will make changes to the church manual.

They will make changes to the church manual.

It may be that they put an and here where there was a but before or who knows, but they will make changes to the church manual.

Usually they are more substantial than that and they can be very substantial, those changes.

Every 5 years, the church manual changes.

You should get a new copy every time so that you're up to date on what happens, especially in relationship to substantial changes.

The church manual is changed in session, and that will be 2020 next year.

It usually takes about a year before they get the new edition out.

So I just want you to be aware of that process.

So Michigan Conference is partnering with the General Conference Ministerial Association in providing this material today and doing it and I'm grateful for it.

I'm gonna start with the elders call and qualification.

Many times when you are asked to be an elder from your local church, the nominating committee, especially the first time, the nominating committee meets together and they go through their routine, they're looking, we need an elder, we need an elder, we need more elders, we need 5 elders, whatever, they go through.

And they start looking at the list of qualified people.

They look for even people sometimes that aren't qualified.

They start getting desperate, They need people to lead.

Then they call you up on the phone and they say, we need you to serve as an elder.

Would you be willing to serve as an elder?

Well they get up on the platform on Sabbath morning and they have a morning prayer and read the scripture.

We wouldn't be calling you if you weren't qualified.

I mean, you know, sometimes that's the nominating committee process And it shouldn't be that way.

It should be a very spiritual process, and I'm going to tell you many nominating committees do that, so I don't want to be misunderstood.

But it should be a very spiritual process.

They should be looking for spiritually qualified people.

They should be looking for people who are willing to put in the time necessary and we'll talk a little bit about that as well because you need to be able to know what your responsibilities are.

The most important thing that I can tell you is that you are called by God.

God calls an elder to be in their position of responsibility in leading the church.

The call to be an elder is a call from God.

The nominating committee, if they're doing a spiritual work, are praying and asking God to lead and I believe most committees do exactly that.

They understand their responsibility, their spiritual responsibility, and they understand that the church is a spiritual entity and they understand that the key leaders in the church are spiritual leaders.

Now sometimes we have fallen back on some things like we decide who's qualified, not by the spiritual qualifications, but by what they may, well, we'll talk even about that.

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

That's why I take the time today to remind you of the qualifications, because this is a serious leadership responsibility.

If you think that you're only being asked to serve by asking people, calling for the offering on Sabbath morning, by reading the scripture reading, or having a prayer on Sabbath morning, and that's really all you do, You don't need to be ordained to do that, but you do need to be ordained to carry out the work that God has called an elder to do.

You're elected by the congregation And it shouldn't be because you hold some position of importance in the community, or because they have been, an individual has been successful in business, or are wealthy.

Unfortunately, sometimes that's exactly the way it's done, but it shouldn't be that way.

They should be chosen first for their spiritual qualifications.

You were chosen by God not because you're wealthy or because you're this or that, but because you have been asked to be a servant of God and to represent Him in that local church.

You have no official position or authority in the church unless you've been elected by the congregation.

The reason that is important is because you are appointed by the local congregation to be an elder.

If it's the first time that you are chosen to be an elder in your life, you must be ordained for that.

But you are ordained for life, but you are not ordained for life to that local church's position.

Elder’s Basic Training - Part 2

Father in heaven, thank you for this chance to be together again today.

We pray that you will guide our class as we seek to focus on the work of elders.

We pray for instruction from the Spirit of God and wisdom and understanding that we might be able to apply this to our lives and to our service for you.

I don't know if anybody can see that little screen up there, but am I in it?

Okay, if I go over here, so I'm good, okay, alright, that's good.

All right, well today we're going to get into a little bit more specifics in terms of the responsibilities of elder.

And I'm gonna deal with some things that are a little harder.

I will tell you that when I get to the end of what we're gonna be talking about today, I'm going to cover something that I will cover again on Friday.

I'm not going to cover all of the I'm going to cover on Friday, but I'm going to cover part of it.

The reason is because I get people coming into the class every day that are different than they were there before.

Technically, Friday is not advertised as an elders training day, but the truth of the matter is this whole week is a leader training class and Friday is an important 1 because I'm going to be dealing with dealing with issues of conflict along with dealing with issues that are current issues in the church and they are related to each other because current issues of challenge cause conflict.

And so on Friday, for those that may come into the class that have not been here the first part of the week for the elders part of the training, They will not get that if I don't give it to them and they need that piece.

So, you know, you could come in 15 minutes late on Friday and not get that part or not have to hear it twice or whatever, but I am going to share it a couple of times, but I will just tell you that now ahead of time.

Today we're going to look at a few specifics in relationship to elder responsibilities.

I'm going to talk about the worship service.

I'm not going to spend a lot of time on the worship service.

It tends to be the major focus already, and I don't want to emphasize something that you may already be doing.

What I do want to emphasize is the fact that we, in most cases, need to improve our worship service process and what we're doing in the local church.

And I'll address that in a couple of moments.

That's probably the most important neglected area of elders' ministry.

Notice how I said that, the most important neglected area of elder ministry.

It's not necessarily the most important, they all have their aspects of importance, but visitation is a vital part of what happens in the local church and the work of the elder.

We'll talk a little bit about counseling, which is not a major responsibility for an elder, but does come into the responsibility of an elder.

Then we'll talk about a few other isolated things.

And then I wanna speak about the work of an elder in supporting the local leaders.

That is a major task that is also not being done.

1 that needs to be considered and be part of the work of an elder and that we need to be discussing.

And we'll spend quite a bit of time on that in order to be able to help you to realize the value of that.

I want to remind you of what we talked about yesterday in the responsibility of the elder to be involved in the planning and the development of the spiritual outreach of your church.

And we'll talk about that in terms of local church growth.

And then I want to talk about the church issues that you have to confront and that churches neglect.

I'm not talking about elders neglect, churches are neglecting an aspect of ministry that needs to be revisited and strengthened in the local church.

And then I will talk a little bit, as I said, about conflict.

I need to move right ahead with the things that I have in store.

I can't spend a lot of time on worship, but I wanted to be here to heighten your understanding of the responsibility.

Your most visible role is dealing with the worship service in the local church.

If you happen to be the head elder, you are responsible for organizing the local church.

Now, most of you that responded yesterday were not head elders.

How many of you are a head elder in your church?

The rest of you are not head elders by definition, right?

I'm giving Jim a bad time because he and I have been talking about law-related things and all of that.

I don't know if that would stand up in a court of law, but at least it worked.

Even if you don't plan the platform schedule, as the elder, the head elder would generally do, and maybe you do, I don't know if that individual delegates it to you, but If you are an elder, you still are going to plan for the worship for that morning.

And maybe your head elder plans on a quarterly basis.

Maybe your elder plans on a weekly basis or a monthly basis.

Whatever, I'm assuming that at some point you are responsible for deciding who's going to be on the platform on Sabbath morning, what roles they're going to play, and those kinds of different things.

I don't know exactly how your church works with that, but here's what I want to encourage you with, and that's where I need to go off of my sheet and get back onto the screen.

The worship service is encountering and encountering with God.

You are meeting with God in a worship service.

People today come into a worship service in some cases to be entertained.

This is not an experience that is to be entertaining.

You and I are not just receiving some kind of benefit, oh, that was a wonderful sermon, and you go home and you talk about how wonderful a preacher you had that particular week.

Sure, glad it wasn't a regular preacher who we can't stand because he's boring.

You know, you understand what I'm saying?

That's the way people tend to relate to worship service today.

We become consumers of whatever's taking place in the local church on Sabbath morning.

The whispering and laughing and talking which might be without sin in a common business place should find no sanction in the house where God is worshipped." I'll tell you honestly, I struggle with this too.

When I come and I visit in churches and I encounter people, you know, I want to fellowship with them and it seems natural there in the sanctuary and we have that kind of experience and once in a while something comes up that is somewhat humorous or just not necessarily humorous or funny but just a response or a reaction.

I have to catch myself and be careful with that in God's house.

By the way, it's in your notes and it's from Testimonies, Volume 5.

Worship includes adoration, which is expressed through singing and prayer.

The reason we're emphasizing this is because think of the parts of the worship service that you are leading out on on Sabbath morning.

It doesn't matter whether you're meeting a worship service at 09:00, 11:00, or 03:00 in the afternoon as a number of our churches do today.

The Bible doesn't say you can only worship at 09:00 or you can only worship at 11 o'clock on Sabbath morning.

We need to come together in a way that facilitates worship for everybody and also facilitates the role of the pastor and all those kinds of things.

But when we come together, We want to know that what we are doing is facilitating the worship of God.

He's not stone or wood or metal that we are just simply looking at.

He not only wants us to adore Him, but He also wants to communicate with us.

He is also communicating his expectations to us.

We are responding back to Him in that worship service.

And it's not just during the sermon time.

That's why singing and praying is a part of this interactive experience with God.

1 of my favorite times, and often I'm preaching, but 1 of my favorite times is the singing time.

Deacon & Deaconess Basic Training - Part 1

Father in heaven, thank you for this morning.

And as we've talked about the weather, we're reminded that you are in charge of the weather.

You control the elements and we're so grateful for that.

We know that the devil gets his hand mixed up in all of that too, because he wants to be in control.

But we're thankful that you are the 1 who's really in control.

And we're grateful that you're in control of our lives and that we can come together and study together and also talk about how we can serve you better.

So we pray that your Holy Spirit will bless our time in this class as we talk about the work of deacons and deaconesses.

May your Holy Spirit guide our discussion in Jesus' name.

All right, how many of you are a deacon or a deaconess?

And that's a very valuable role that you play in your local church.

How many of you have been in this class of mine before?

Just because I don't want people to get stuck in a rut.

But it's okay if you want to come back and go through a refresher course.

But I like it when they're new people because that's 1 of the reasons I do the class, is because I want to make sure that people have an opportunity to learn what their responsibilities actually are.

And 1 thing I need to share with you, I shared it with the elders in the last few days, and that is this.

I'm going to share a lot of things with you, today and tomorrow, in relationship to being a deacon or a deaconess.

Probably about halfway through today's class, maybe not so much because we're going to be talking about qualifications mostly today, but when we talk about job description, people go about halfway through the class and they say, as soon as I can find my pastor, I'll turn in my letter of resignation.

Because they say, I didn't realize I was supposed to do all that.

And no human being can really do all that.

And that's maybe where you're going to come to.

And I just want to remind you, start where you are.

You didn't come to a class for me to tell you that you're doing everything right.

I could have just simply said, you're doing everything right, don't bother wasting the time and go on to another class.

But I will challenge you a little bit by raising the bar and most importantly reminding you of what the responsibilities are from a biblical perspective, the spirit of prophecy and the outline of the materials that we have.

I want to encourage you that as you see various things that do really need to be done in the job of a deacon or deaconess, in the task of a deacon or deaconess, that you'll realize it's an opportunity to strengthen service.

And there are, in this capacity, opportunities for you to involve other people as well in the ministry that you're doing, and sharing this ministry with other leaders in the church.

We tend to think very narrowly of the work of deacons and deaconesses without realizing that that work is much broader than we have realized as we begin to understand this task.

So I think it'll get clearer for you as we go through.

1 thing I do want to mention to you that there is a book entitled, sorry I forgot to bring it with me here today, but it's the Deacon and Deaconess's Handbook.

No, that is a book I've used in teaching before and it's good.

But more recently, the individual who wrote that book, Vincent White, did a wonderful job in outlining the work there and I used his material for a while until this handbook came out and begin to lay that out.

I told them specifically I would be telling you about this and it's every deacon and deaconess needs to have 1.

And if you don't have 1, make sure you get 1.

And that you also, if you have more than 1 deacon or deaconess in your church, then make sure they all have 1 as well.

And it becomes a book that guides you in your ministry, lays out your job descriptions, it talks about a lot of what we're going to talk about, because what I will be talking about the next 2 days is based on that handbook, and the Bible and the Spirit of Prophecy mixed up together.

And so I want to encourage you with that.

They're not terribly expensive, but they are a most valuable tool.

You should have a copy of the church manual.

You're 1 of the leaders of the church, a key leader in the church, and your responsibilities involve not just your quote narrow task, but even a broader task of keeping the church moving and humming together and moving along in the direction God wants it to go.

And the church manual helps to provide the guidance that you need in order to keep the church united.

Some people disparage the church manual and they seem to think that it's a virtue to put down on the church manual, but they don't stop and think about the fact that you've got 21 million members in the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

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Elder's Basic Training and Deacon & Deaconess Basic Training

Current Issues Facing Local Churches & Their Leaders

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Parts

Elder’s Basic Training - Part 1

1h 7m

Elder’s Basic Training - Part 2

1h 8m

Deacon & Deaconess Basic Training - Part 1

1h 6m

Deacon & Deaconess Basic Training - Part 2

1h 4m

Current Issues Facing Local Churches & Their Leaders

1h 1m

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