Should a person want to be an Elder?

Ambition is in-built into most of us so it must be a God-given characteristic.  What matters is what we are ambitious for.  To be ambitious in your work, home, sport or hobby is attractive but for some reason to be ambitious for God seems to unspiritual for some.  Yet the apostles were clearly very ambitious people and they wanted church members to be ambitious too.  Thus Paul could write about his ambition to be effective for Jesus,

“He is the one we proclaim, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone fully mature in christ.  To this end I strenuously contend with all the energy Christ so powerfully works in me.” Colossians 1:28-29

Peter also recognised that if a christian is to be effective for Christ they will inevitably have to work very hard in order to become so:

“For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness, and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self control; and to self control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness, and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection love.  For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will prevent you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.” 2 Peter 1:5-8

So becoming a mature, effective Christian will mean a lot of hard work.  Yet the church also needs some to stand out as leaders.  This is an honourable role to undertake.  It is important to stress that being a church elder is primarily a job and not a status.  Paul wrote at the beginning of a section about the characteristics that should be seen in elders that eldership is a ‘task’,

“Here is a trustworthy saying: Whoever aspires to be an overseer desires a noble task.” 1 Timothy 3:1

Paul begins by stating that these words are ‘trustworthy.’ He used this phrase in the Pastoral Epistles before giving an axiomatic quote. This phrase is also used in 1 Timothy 1:15 and 4:9, 2 Timothy 2:11 and Titus 3:8 and each time it is to emphasise a particular point.   Good ambitious church leaders are always urgently needed.

Although the Greek word used for ‘Whoever’ is neuter the rest of this section describing the elders needed always uses masculine form.  All of the following pronouns in this section are specifically male, with qualifications including the husband of one wife (1 Timothy 3:2) and managing his own household (1 Timothy 3:4).

Just as a person can have aspirations in our careers and in relationships so they are need in our christian lives.  Yet how many Christians seem content that they have reached their goal when they become Christians?  It appears that many think that all God wants is an appearance in church, to believe the right doctrines, join in the singing and have friends among the faithful!

For our churches to have the right quality of leaders in the future surely such people need to be trained.  We need to train both men and women in ministry but passages such as this in I Timothy 3 do state clearly that the senior roles in churches should be filled by men.  I have read suggestions that Paul might have written so definitively on this subject because of a particular problem in Ephesus where authoritative cult prostitutes from the temple of Diana might have joined the church.    Yet there is no mention in the letter that Paul is only talking about problems in Ephesus, on the contrary he specifically says he is talking about the universal church,

“. . . you will know how people ought to conduct themselves in Christ’s household, which is the church of the living God.” 1 Timothy 3:15