by Elder Peter Lim

When I wrote part 1 last month, I wasn’t able to get everything I wanted to say in it. Please refer to it before reading this article to get a better idea of what I’m talking about, especially about what Star Trek has to do with anything.

How the leadership structure of a church ought to be organized has been the topic of debates for a long time, probably since the Apostles were still around. I am generalizing here but Congregationalists tend to vote on everything, Baptists tend to have a head pastor who controls everything, and the Presbyterians tend to treat pastors as employees while the non-pastoral elders control everything. Please do not misunderstand my intentions here. I am not necessarily against denominations. There are many advantages to being in a denomination. There are various reasons for all this diversity of course and there are Biblical merits to each of these denominational polities. But therein lies a subtle problem: it is easy for the structure of the polity to dictate how issues get resolved, rather than Biblical principles. It is very easy to sidestep the priority of a plurality of elders, self-humility, and prayer for the tempting alternative of efficient decision-making, clarity of authority, and pragmatic solutions.

Some people hear of elders Retreats and our long meetings and think to themselves that the elders must be such close friends since we spend a lot of time together. It is true that we are friends, but perhaps not in the way many might think. Being partners in ministry at an elder level is a much higher level of friendship than mere friends in a worldly sense. (More on this in a future article) In some ways I think that the elders of LBC would be even closer friends if we didn’t have to deal with difficult issues that must be resolved. Battle scars result from having to discuss through difficult issues, especially when elders have differing views. Most people have the luxury of not having to deal with resolving differences of preference with their friends. To illustrate, let’s use the example of choosing a carpet color for the church. Most people don’t have to make decisions like these. They have the luxury of just living with whatever decision that has been made, and then criticizing whether they like it or not. The elders have the responsibility to make a decision on this, whether that entails making the decision themselves or appointing some committee to decide for them. If more than one elder has a strong preference on the choice, things get complicated very quickly. There is no written rule how to come to a decision when it’s a non-doctrinal issue. If the elders take a vote, there will always be losers. That can create bitterness. You may have heard that we only operate on elder unanimity here at LBC. That unanimity is not always accomplished very easily. There is much discussion and giving preference to one another. At the end of the day, there will be decisions made in elders meetings which don’t satisfy all the elders, guaranteed. It can often get to a point where an elder actually disagrees strongly with his fellow elders. How can that elder now support his fellow elders, especially in the eyes of the rest of the church? Only by humility and by the love of Christ. That disagreeing elder can show support for his fellow elders and even defend them because he loves them. Steve Preslar talks about his friend who says “Don’t confuse my meekness for weakness.” Similarly I’d like to say, “Don’t confuse the elders’ harmony with being mindless yes-men.” Mine doesn’t rhyme as well. Okay, mine doesn’t rhyme at all.

It would be foolish for a church member to lump all the elders together in one pot as if we all think the same way in every decision. We are not Borg. (If you don’t know what I’m talking about, I feel sorry for you…go watch Star Trek: First Contact) Unfortunately, some in the congregation actually hurt the church by trying to dig up dirt between elders. They may even gossip that elder A disagrees with elder B and that elder C isn’t happy about a decision that has been made. All of these things may even be true, but that is never the point. One should never say things like, “I agree with YOU, but that other elder is messed up.” It’s like when a kid asks his mom if he can play his Game Boy and upon hearing “no” he goes and asks his dad instead. Because of a selfish desire to get the answer he wants, he risks ill feelings between his parents. In the same way, no church member should tolerate that sort of comment from another fellow church member regarding anyone in the church, especially the leaders. Instead they ought to obey their leaders and submit to them and let the leaders lead with joy. (Heb. 13:17) Note that this is a Biblical command. How are you doing in it?

It may sound to some people that my last two articles here on the Beacon is a result of many frustrating disagreements that I have personally experienced with the elders of LBC. Let me put that gossip fodder to rest and emphasize that we have had many more agreements than disagreements. I’m happy to say that I have seen our elder board step up in many encouraging ways, far above I even expected. We have had more than our share of difficult circumstances to navigate through and many occasions where it would’ve been simpler to just quit. Much larger churches have told us that we are dealing with difficult and unusual problems that they’ve never had to go through. But God has blessed our church to this point where instead of a church split, we are purposefully planting a new church. What a blessed church we are, to be able to be used by God in multiple places. He has brought our church to the strongest we’ve ever been in the 11 year history of our church. More people have come to trust Him as Lord and Savior in the last few years than all the previous years combined. Friends, we are living in the “good old days” we’re going to be talking about in 10-20-30+ years. Praise Him!

p.s. For the record, it took LBC elders all of 10 seconds to agree on our carpet color choice out of the choices given to us by our landlord…and yes, there was more than one choice. 😉