Unquestionably, numerous ideas are abroad about the actual work of elders. We have noticed that their work is in the area of warning, protecting, feeding through teaching, and supplying an example to follow. Because we are trying to apply the first-century arrangement to twenty-first-century people, we must establish an institution through which God’s people work and alter the role of shepherds.
One of the changes is to adopt the view that the spiritual shepherds were a decision making body? The reasoning for it is based on the following logic. First, elders “rule” the church because the infamous King James speaks of “rule.” Therefore, they must rule something. Because Christ is the head of the church, they assume that their rule must not be in the Word. They have no authority there because there is only one law-giver, Jesus Christ. So, they must rule in making judgments and decisions as administrators do in an organization. The most descriptive term used to support this role is that of an overseer. What is overseen is not individual souls, however. Matters that are overseen are attendance charts, matters of finance, maintenance of church facilities, the order of services, structure, schedules, and who does what? We find no such pattern in the Word! Woe to the shepherds of Israel who support a sectarian view of the organization and seize all decision making for the benefit of their peace of mind.
The unfortunate overwhelming problem is that the majority of men, who are appointed to fill some hierarchy of rule known as the eldership, are not as much qualified to lead as they are to make demands, hand down their decisions, and keep things running as smoothly as one would expect in operating a business. When this occurs, many of them know their limitations. For example, they know they can’t lead in teaching, convicting the gainsayers, restoring the wayward, or stopping the mouths of false teachers. Consequently, they will hire it done. “The preacher will do what we can’t do or do not want to do and we will run the business,” they reason. In other words, the elders will get the professionals hired like a sub-contractor would do, decide how and when the money will be spent and make sure that they are building more members to fund the business.