Actually, I'm pretty excited about this semester. Taking Hebrew 2, a theology class, and a leadership class - which incidently is online, and involves no actual leading...
So, I had pretty low expectations for a 300 page book about biblical eldership, some of you might have read it.... I was thinking, man, this book is going to be so incredibly boring...but actually, its very insightful, and very practical. As qualifications for being an elder in a church, an elder is to be able to teach and preach the word. I find this is not true in most churches....actually, I can only think of one church that does that, and I've never actually been there.
But, I found this convicting, for among other things, elders are to be this sort of....support network, of which the pastor is in a sense first among equals, that church leadership is more of a shared network rather than a top-down CEO style that is fairly common today. So, its convicting in the sense that when I apply this to my own life, I think of all the people I could be pastoring, or being an elder to, and yet I hold back because I'm afraid, though thats another story. So, perhaps a good new years resolution is to be more like and develop the characteristics of the qualifications for elders in the church. I think so....
