1 Peter 5:1-4  

As we come to the final chapter of 1 Peter we come to the closing stages of a journey which we began last September. It has been a long but hopefully a rewarding journey as we have looked at this letter under the overall title of Living a Cross Centred Life, a life which at times will have hardship in it and suffering in it but ultimately we will be able to say it is worth it for we have a great saviour who is worth following.

In this last chapter Peter addresses the church quite specifically and what I think I will do is divide this chapter in three and cover three different topics between now and July. In v.1-4, which we look at today, we will look at leadership in the local church, in a couple of weeks we will look at humble submission in the local church and finally we will look at satan in the local church.

In v.1-4 Peter deals with church leadership. Good leadership is vitally important in anything – in a business, in a government, in a school, in a home, and in a church. Not everyone can be a leader but the role of leaders is important for it sets the pace and ethos of an organisation and can also determine whether it succeeds or fails. The bible has a lot to say on leadership for God  knows how important it is to his church.

As a Presbyterian church we are a church that has eldership as a central part of its leadership and government. The word elder in the Greek is presbuteros from which we get the name of our denomination. The word presbuteros in the Greek is translated a number of ways in English – as elder, as bishop and as overseer. But it describes the same person and the same function which is to shepherd, or pastor or oversee the church. Mark Driscoll says “As an elder a man has authority and rank to rule and govern a church. As a bishop he has the responsibility before God to rule and protect a church. As a pastor he has the high honour of caring for Christians and evangelising non-christians. As an overseer he has the responsibility before God of leading and managing the church.”  We will tease out some of these things in a moment but let me list for you what Peter and the rest of the Bible make clear about healthy Christian leadership. Seven things to note:-

Peter writes in v.1 “To the elders among you…”

1.The elders are the spiritual leaders of a local church. Their role is to govern, discipline, care, teach, pray and generally lead the congregation. Congregations respond to strong and wise leadership. A certain amount of ideas and motivation can come from the ground up and this should be encouraged but the main drive and vision should come from the top down. People rarely rise above the level of the leadership - as go the leaders so goes the congregation. Leaders are pace setters and in a congregational setting we should be setting the pace in spiritual maturity and growth. Elders are key to the health of a church.

2. Normally there should be a number of them; Peter writes to the elders plural. Paul speaks about appointing elders plural in place in each church (Titus 1:5)  Plurality of elders is good - it helps in pooling wisdom, in gaining perspective, in sharing the burden of difficult decisions, in carrying the blame, and it helps with accountability and stops the tyranny that can come from one person who has all the power.  This is actually one of the strengths of our church and other denominations who have not emphasised plurality of elders, or even eldership are waking up to the strengths of this.

3. Eldership is not easy and is not for everyone. It is a matter of calling and most of the things written in scripture about elders concern their personal qualities rather than what they do. In short they are to be people of mature faith and who live godly lives. Someone has said regarding qualifications for those who come to church that the front door of the church to attend church services and other programmes should be as wide as possible, the door to membership should be smaller, the door to leading an organisation or programme smaller again and the door to eldership is really quite tiny. In this way every church can help to ensure its health. Eldership is a high and holy calling which carries great responsibility, especially to those of us who are teaching elders (James 3:1).

While an elder will not be perfect, scripture makes it clear that the elder should be exemplary in their behaviour, honest, faithful in their marriage, self-controlled, not a lover of money, hospitable, gentle, kind, gracious, not quarrelsome, well thought of by outsiders and not a recent convert. These things are part and parcel of the spiritual leadership of a church.

Peter also says in v.1 “I appeal to you as a fellow elder”

4. There is an equality among elders. The Presbyterian church is strong on this. All elders have an equal status. We divide elders into ruling elders and teaching elders, the teaching elder is the minister but he has the exact same status as the other elders. This again protects against dictatorship and one person having too much influence. We are a very democratic church. However within the plurality and the equality of eldership there is also the biblical principle of first among equals, in other word there is usually a leader of the leaders. We see this in the Bible  - within the trinity of the Godhead there is initiative and leadership of God the Father; within the eldership of Israel there was Moses and then Joshua. Within the 12 disciples Peter was looked upon as the leader, in the ministry to the gentiles Paul was the leader and initiator. Within a plurality of leadership there is usually one person who leads the group, and within Session this tends to be the teaching elder, the minister. Yet that leader of leaders must have a servant heart, a humble heart, and be accountable to his fellow elders (usually to Presbytery) in our case. He should lead by example just as Paul once said in Phil.3:17 “follow me as I follow the example of Christ”.

v.2 Peter says “Be shepherds of God’s flock that is under your care, serving as overseers..”        

5. The elder is like a shepherd overseeing a flock. The Bible was written out of a mainly rural context and there are many references to agriculture. God chose the idea of shepherding to communicate what he looked for in church leadership. Two sides to this - people are like sheep, they can easily go astray but they do follow a strong lead. But leaders should be like shepherds as they oversee the flock. We see references to leaders as shepherds in the Old Testament – Ps.23 speaks of the Lord as the shepherd of course; in Jeremiah 23:1-4 God chides the leaders, the shepherds, who did not care for Israel properly; in Ezekiel 34 again he chides the leaders for looking after themselves and not the people (esp. note v.4 which says “you have not strengthened the weak or healed the sick or bound up the injured. You have not brought back the strays or searched for the lost. You have ruled them harshly and brutally”)

So this gives us an insight into what God expects of his leaders and overseers – the qualities of a good shepherd.  There has to be aspects of watchfulness and knowledge. While we will not know everything there needs to be an intentional watching out for the flock at a corporate level and at an individual level. The shepherd knows his sheep. Relationship is key in this, pastoring involves knowing people as people and being aware of what they are going through and when they are straying, when they are hurting or injured and seeking to bind them up. It is also about exercising discipline when they are wandering. The shepherd’s rod can help and rescue but it also could be used to discipline the sheep and direct it in the right paths. (I will focus on discipline and the role of leaders and congregation in the next message).

Pastoring involves care, caring for the sick whether that be physically sick or spiritually or at least ensuring that some one is caring if not they themselves. In a large congregation we need to ensure just as Jethro encouraged Moses to break down the flock into smaller groups for care that this was done. Oversight means taking the time and energy to administer the care and nurture among the flock and where that flock is large as in High Kirk, then we need to look carefully at how we do that so that people do not fall through the gaps. (We as a Session are currently looking at this whole area of how we exercise pastoral oversight and the giftings of elders in this and how it relates to our staffing, Laser Groups and so on). The form of eldership is left open in the Bible – God leaves that up to us how we exercise oversight and that will depend on the size and complexity of the church and the particular culture.

In a little book on church leadership Mark Driscoll speaks of the differing giftings of leaders. In the OT the different leaders were prophets, priests and kings. In Jesus we have all these elements combined – he was the perfect prophet, the perfect priest and the perfect king. As the eldership exercise oversight we need prophets, priests and kings. Prophets tend to be strong at vision, study, preaching, teaching and inspiring people. Priests have a deep understanding of human suffering and are compassionate and merciful and tend to the needs of hurting people so that they are loved to spiritual maturity. Kings excel at systems, policies, procedures, planning and general organisation and ruling.

Now in an average Kirk Session we will have a combination of people who tend to have these strengths in different proportions. It is rare to meet a person who has all three qualities, not even ministers have all these qualities equally although everyone of course thinks they should! But I find this helpful as we think through our eldership and as we consider the future of how we exercise oversight, caring for everyone, making sure all our covered, but also playing to the strengths of people in our eldership and indeed in the congregation. What this will look in High Kirk and in a 21st century culture which has different styles of leadership is yet to be seen but I am excited by the prospect as we continue this particular debate within Session.

6. Elders serve willingly as shepherds. (v.3-4) This is a high calling but it is something that God should lay upon a person. The commitment in leadership is high therefore you need to do it willingly because the expectations are high. The elder does not do it for the status but because he or she loves people and loves Jesus.  Peter says that they should not do it out of love for money. The church had reached a stage where the leaders, especially the teaching elders, were being paid. Some had jobs but increasingly the church paid its leaders so that they could devote more time to teaching preparation and prayer people should not be led into it for the money or the status.

Elders should not lord it over people(v.3) and browbeat people but rather earn their respect by being examples to the flock. This is an important point – we are to earn respect and we are to encourage the church into Christ-likeness by setting a good example (v3). Thus as we call the church to increased prayerfulness, in finding our gifts, in discipleship are we as elders leading by example? Are we involved in helping people find their gifts, are we involved in teaching God’s word, are we involved in the prayer meetings, in evangelism, in being at the various discipleship courses that we are encouraging the congregation to attend. The leaders set the pace, the leaders lead by example, the leaders set the standard. As the leaders go, so goes the church.   

7. We are under-shepherds to the Chief Shepherd who is Jesus and we must answer to him (v.4). This is his church, not any person’s church. We have the church as a trust, we are stewards and he calls us to care for it until that day when he comes for his church.  Jesus ultimately has the control and where a church or its leadership is faithless or fruitless Jesus can cause that church to die. So we must stick close to him and listen for what he wants to do led by His Spirit.

I love the church of Jesus Christ, I love being involved in leadership and it’s not getting any easier, but it is rewarding. But for those of us involved in leadership, in Sunday School or other youth organisation, in a working group, on committee, on staff, in Kirk Session, know this  - as we live the cross centred life it will be worth it for one day we shall see our Lord, the Leader of leaders, the Shepherd of shepherds and we will hear his well done and he will bestow upon us the crown of glory that will never fade away. Through all the difficulties and criticisms and heartaches, keep that vision before you, for he is worth it and his church is worth it bought by his precious blood and to him be the honour and the worship now and evermore.

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