I’ve had a couple of people ask me about an article that I wrote, Move Toward Elder Leadership By Developing Pillar Men. The concern that was expressed was that the article lacked context. Without that context, it could be misunderstood in different ways, such as minimizing the contributions of older men in the church, or offering a sort of disingenuous, ‘fifth column’ approach to ministry. Without the context explained I can see that some of these impressions could be taken. So I’ll attempt to unpack a bit better what I mean.
- A Pastor’s Dilemma in a “Revitalization”
If a pastor takes a job at a church, at the minimum, there ought to be agreement on paper with the doctrinal positions that he and the church maintain. However, often in spiritually declining churches, the church body has immature understandings of their own statement faith, or at worst they are a resistant to change, even though such change is argued from Scripture and in keeping with their own statement of faith.
This type of resistance is the normal context of a revitalization. It may be that some churches are more or less resistant, or they are not resistant, but they are unaware of their practical, doctrinal inconsistencies.
A conservative pastor who takes a job in a less than conservative church, will have his hands full in staying faithful to his own convictions, working within the parameters of his doctrinal agreement with the church, and extending grace to the congregation as he has received from the Lord.
Still, pastors will have to make choices. They are limited and they need to know where should they expend their energies in ministry. The priority must be in preaching the Word of God and praying for God to be glorified in the context of the ministry (cf. Acts 6:4). Many pastors will aim to be faithful to this calling, and in the face of resistance, they will not have much more to offer in the ministry. They will feel overtaxed very quickly. They will pray and teach and minister to people as they can. However, in resistant contexts, they can get burnt out in a hurry because they can feel alone in the work, without like-minded support. Many younger men (and older ones) have had short ministries in churches that need revitalization, and they leave that church (and the ministry) disillusioned and exhausted. Often they never knew where to start to address the dilemma of revitalization beyond their Sunday morning ministry.
- The Missing Mentorship
Most pastors in a revitalization are exhausted by maintaining the regular ministry work. What tends to be dropped is the command to Timothy in 2 Timothy 2:2, “what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also”. This mentorship of potentially ‘pillar men’ needs to be a high priority for the pastor facing the dilemma of revitalization. It is easily ignored due to the busy demands of regular ministry. However if these men are not invested in, then you are failing to steward your ministry faithfully, and ignoring the long-term view of the church.
- Older Men
Some of the misunderstandings of my previous article had to do with my emphasis on younger men, (although I did qualify my statements about older men). Given the context of a revitalization, (which I had not stated in the article, but was the context of the pastor whom I was counselling), the young men need to be prioritized. Why would I say that? Is it because like our culture says, youth is better than old age? No. The reason is based upon the ministry context that I was addressing. A church that has become schlerotic and sick has had its older members participate in promoting the decline, or more likely, watching as the decline occurred all around them.
In spiritually or doctrinally compromised churches, the older men tend to be doctrinally confused, apathetic, or sadly unsaved. Sometimes there will be a lamenting stalwart who has remained at the church despite the decline, but who has prayed and hoped for better things. Often that man can be a great ally for a pastor as he seeks to bring a church back to biblical moorings. But generally speaking, older men who have become set in their ways, are in deep ruts of bad teaching or bad practice, and they can be resistant to biblical change.
- Strategic Positions
So assuming that there are not a pocket of older men who are spiritually mature and supportive of biblical change in the church, a pastor will invest in the men’s ministry and the young men in particular.
Over time, as those young men are mentored (2 Tim 2:2), there will be opportunities for various kinds of ministry in the church which they can take up. At this point, the temptation can be for the up and coming ‘pillar men’ to only want to study theology, and teaching or preach publicly. This is where a wise and strategic understanding of the church is critical. According to 1 Cor 12, Ro 12 and Eph 4:15-16, the principle of the church as the body of Christ must be dominant. This means that every believer has God-given roles to play in the body, just as elbows, toes, eyes, lungs and cartilege all have various roles.
Pillar men have roles to play in a church, and it is critical that they are encouraged to fulfill those roles. The primary way for them to do this is to engage in faithful churchmanship. And that means they should start to serve in ‘unglamorous’ ministries. This is where real relationships are developed, where biblical examples of being salt and light (Matthew 5:13-14) can be expressed. Remember, we’re talking about ministry in a church that has been in spiritual and doctrinal decline. Often ministry inside these churches is more like evangelism than the discipleship of believers.
As I counselled my pastor friend, I stressed that ministries or committees that might seem unimportant, are nevertheless viewed as important by people in the church. When pillar men engage in patient empathetic ways with these committees and ministries, they show that they care about the people, but they also care enough to be “speaking the truth in love” (Eph 4:15).
In my article, due to its abbreviated manner and lack of context, it might have given the impression that slotted these pillar men into these ministries is a sort of cynical infiltration. On the contrary, when pillar men (or any godly person man or woman) takes a caring interest in others, they are showing that they care about the people, not just about their picture of ecclesiastical perfection. At the same time, when pillar men commit to engage with ministries and committees, they do so with the aim to bring the thinking and the actions of the church into conformity to Christ, taking even every thought captive to him (2 Cor 10:5). This aim is no dark conspiracy, but is the design of the healthy body of Christ, “joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love” (Eph 4:16).
- Culture Before Constitutions
One of the frequent challenges which pastors face is to assist a church to reform it’s governance structures. For example, in Canada, it is surprising how many churches are governed by a board of directors model. This model is not found in Scripture, but is found in the manuals of IBM and General Motors. In the face of these unbiblical structures, many zealous pastors have attempted to instituted structural change rapidly. They push the church to move toward a plurality of elders, or they push to implement meaningful membership and clear inactive members from the rolls. But when they do this, they are attempting a political change in the church without the hard work of applied ministry. As with all sanctifying work, the inside must be changed before the outside can be.
So encouraging the 2 Tim 2:2 men to engage in the various ministries and committees of the church will result in a shift in the church from decline to spiritual life. This is where change must start. Then when it comes time for the annual meeting, the church will have a new desire to reform it’s structures and even its constitution to reflect biblical governance.
The task of revitalization is an important one, but for pastors who take up the challenge, they have the opportunity to patiently see God sanctify individuals, and over time, see the transformation of unhealthy churches into healthy ones.
This is a plan which God has established, and we have the privilege of serving him as he works.
