Jeremy Hoover

This week, some of our men met together to discuss biblical leadership. Our discussion centered around a few open-ended questions that were intended to uncover the range of thought we had on these questions.

Obviously, not every line of discussion was included and there are some gaps. Overall, it was a good discussion that highlighted several positive areas of understanding and agreement, as well as several areas that we will study further.

Below are the questions and discussion answers. What do you think? What should be added?

This is a summary of a 45 minute discussion about biblical leadership, involving men from the Horton Road Church of Christ (where I work). Obviously, not everything is included and our discussion was limited around a few open-ended questions. The purpose of these questions was to discover what range existed in our thinking on these questions.

I'm posting them here to solicit feedback. What do you think? What would you add?

1. What does a godly leader look like?

* we can see many traits of godly leaders by looking at leaders in the bible that God chose (Abraham, Aaron, Moses, etc.)
o Abraham exemplified self-sacrifice; Moses and Aaron exemplified meekness
* obedient to God; unquestioningly so
* respected by people inside the church and outside the church
* constantly praying (lifestyle)
* willing to step out in faith to follow God

2. What do godly leaders do?

* they are people of action
* they help others in and out of the church (not just their own)
* they are people-focused; selfless, not selfish
* what is right, even when doing right is difficult and/or unpopular
* encourage and rebuke--they teach through actions and words
* one scripture brought up was Proverbs 9:8 and the maturity godly leaders operate with

3. What is an elder? What is a deacon?

* elders are spiritual leaders; deacons are service leaders
* this is explained in Acts 6:1-6--the apostles showed wisdom in appointing service leaders to lead in serving so they could remain devoted to teaching and prayer

4. Which scriptures come to mind when you think about godly leadership?

* Acts 6:1-7
* Acts 7--Stephen's speech, where he outlines biblical history by focusing on key leaders that God used
* 1 Timothy 3:1-13
* Titus 1:5-9
* 1 Peter 5:1-5

Yesterday I posted about how I use Twitter to post content (both mine and others') and build a community. Today, I post my guidelines for following people.

• I will follow any local minister/pastor (my field) or any local person (within about a 3 hour radius), provided I know they are local. This is in part because I'm also interested in the off-line connections that can be made or begun online. Sometimes they follow me first and I follow back; sometimes I find them first. They may or may not follow me back.
  
  
• Otherwise, I follow only people I find interesting. This is becoming more difficult to do, so one way I do so is to pay attention on Twitter to the RTs that come my way. An RT—retweet—is a way of repeating someone else's content to your followers. You cannot see the replies someone you're following makes to someone else you are not following, but an RT is broadcast so that you can see it, regardless of whose name appears in it. RTs, then, become a way to find people who have interesting content. Sometimes, based on the strength of the RT'd comment, I will look at their profile, check the ratio of broadcasts-to-replies, and if they look interesting and to be a conversationalist, I will often follow them.
  
  
• Sometimes I pay attention to Follow Friday recommendations. This Twitter meme is #FF. On Fridays, some folks on Twitter recommends some of their followers through the use of the hashtag #FF. You will see all these, regardless of whether you follow those recommended or not. If the recommendations are coming from someone I've been paying attention to, I will often check the profiles of those recommended and may choose to follow some or all of them.
  
  
• Another way of finding interesting people, this one off-Twitter, is through blogs. If you read a blog you find useful and interesting, check around the blog. Many bloggers also tweet. When you find that link, you can check out that blogger's profile page on Twitter. I personally find that many of the bloggers I look at use Twitter more for broadcasting, but some are very good at engaging with their readers on Twitter.
  
  
• What am I looking for on someone's profile page? Several things. Keep in mind these are what I am looking for. They are not what you need to look for and there are many valid, but different ways, of using Twitter. I'm looking primarily for a mix of original content, some RTs, and some @ replies. I'm mainly looking at ratios. Everyone goes through phases where you have a lot of content or ideas to roll out, but if within 2 pages of your profile you have only 1 or 2 @s, I peg you (rightly or wrongly) as a broadcaster, and I'm not looking to follow broadcasters. I'm not looking to follow broadcasters because, on Twitter, I want to engage with people. If I want your broadcasts, I'll follow your blog in my RSS reader.
  
  
• Lists are a useful feature. Not extremely useful, because I suspect some people set a bunch of them up when they were first added and have since forgotten about them, but some users are diligent in creating, building, and maintaining their lists. Lists are useful because, on someone's profile page, the more times they are listed is an indicator of the value they add to others. This isn't a hard-and-fast rule for me because some people, newer to Twitter, have not been around enough to be listed by others, though their content and engagement is excellent.
  
  
• I like to see a real picture, but I care little about the profile information. A website is useful but not required (for me). Since when do people need to blog in order to converse on Twitter? I do like to see a location listed, but I also don't require that because some people are sensitive to putting what they perceive as too much information online.
  
  
• Lastly, I will almost always follow someone who engages with me. This works two ways—you may have followed me and I didn't follow you back (for any number of reasons, some of which are listed here, but sometimes, I don't see everyone who follows me and innocently miss some). One way to get on my radar, if you care about that, is to engage with me. Ask me a question, answer one of my mine, comment on one of my posts, join a conversation I'm having with someone else. Sometimes, people will find one of my tweets through a search or through some other means and correspond, or will join a conversation I'm having with someone else. I will often go to this person's profile page and almost always follow them. The main reason—because they took the initiative and showed engagement. Conversely, this does not mean that you should expect me to follow you because you write back to me to say, “Good post.” or “Nice idea.” That's not engaging at all.
  
  
• You probably realize by now that I follow many people who may not follow me back. So what? I'll still correspond with them. Maybe they'll follow me back. But Twitter is not a numbers game; it's a social network. I don't meet someone in the community here on Wednesday and expect to be invited to a dinner party on Friday.
  
  
• I'd encourage you not to worry about your following-to-follower ratio. Concentrate on good content, appropriate RTs, and good, solid engagement with people. Build the community—the social network—you want. Be interesting and funny. Don't worry about people that follow you today and unfollow you tomorrow. Twitter is very organic. If you stick around, your network will grow. You never know who will follow, or who you might follow, so enjoy, interact, and grow!
  

In this 10 minute audio post, I summarize our discussion of 1 Timothy 2:8-15. This often-contentious passage details some of Paul's instructions about both worship and teaching leadership and authority in the church.

This the first of two posts on how I use Twitter. The second post, about how I look at followers and following, is here.

Like many, when I first began using Twitter, I couldn't make a lot of sense out of it. I had very few followers and had no idea why I should bother broadcasting messages to so few. It was much too easy to add followers, but I didn't want to do that and look like I was begging for followers. I also knew that I didn't want to get caught in the trap of tweeting pure nonsense (like what I had for lunch), though some of my early tweets no doubt reflect this insecurity.

In the beginning, I added my friends and also some acquaintances from college. I asked their advice and added slowly. I was surprised when I began being added by others. I tried to post useful information, links, and comments about things I was interested in. This is largely still what I do. I know it risks offending some because I post in the areas of religion and politics. (I am a Christian minister and hold relatively liberal political views.) I try not to be condescending with my views, though my sarcastic sense of humor likely comes across the wrong way (and I should tone it down).

I joined Twitter back when they posted every update from every person you followed in your “stream.” (The Twitter “stream” is simply the flow of updates you receive on your home page or in your Twitter client.) This allowed you to “listen in” on conversations that people you followed were having (via @ replies), find interesting conversation partners, and follow them. Now, Twitter only shows conversation (@ replies) in your stream if both you and the one you follow are following that person. It's a little more difficult to find people now.

To find followers, some people resort to mass follows. They go into other people's follower/following lists and try to follow as many as they can, hoping some will follow back. I don't like this because it appears to be nothing more than an attempt to get a large list. On Twitter, I'd rather have a smaller, more tightly-focused list of people that will have interesting things to say and will be good conversation partners.

So, how do I go about building my Twitter community today? I begin with posting content. I post links to my blog and I post links to articles. Lately, I try not to overdo this. For every link of my own I post, I try to balance it with links to others' articles or RTs of others' content. I also try to maintain a ratio of 10 replies (@s) to every non-reply tweet I make. I do this to be participatory. No one likes someone who does nothing but talk, whether it's about themselves or something else. Real conversation flows; it's a give-and-take. So I want to demonstrate that I am a conversationalist, not a broadcaster.

By the way, those who use Twitter to broadcast are in the right, too. To each his own. It's simply not how I choose to use Twitter, and these posts is about “my” Twitter philosophy.

In the next post, I'll list some specific guidelines I use in posting and in building my follower/following lists.

The church is "one heart" when everyone works together for the greater good and to glorify God. That heart is broken whenever someone acts selfishly for their own benefit. Are you mending the church's broken heart or breaking it?

Sermon: Broken Heart

The church is whole when is of one heart. We break God's heart--and the church's heart--when we practice deception within the church. Are you breaking the church's heart or working to mend it?

Please review these study notes on possession from Acts 4:32-5:11, Sunday's sermon outline, and the slides.

Biblical leadership is exclusive.

In the Pastoral Letters, Paul lists several character traits that must be present in the life of someone who is a candidate to become an elder or deacon. He also mentions some things that would disqualify someone from becoming an elder or deacon.

For example, Paul states that an elder must be “above reproach” and “gentle” and must “have a good reputation with outsiders” (1 Tim. 3:2-7). Presumably, a candidate for eldership who is a laughingstock in the community or is a violent man would not be considered further.

However, Paul also limits the eldership to those with spiritual experience. He says a candidate “must not be a recent convert” (1 Tim. 3:6). Deacons “must first be tested” (1 Tim. 3:10). If they pass the test, then they may serve. Elders are to be family men (1 Tim. 3:4-5; Titus 1:6), which cautions against younger men, many of whom lack the wisdom that comes from experience guiding a family unit.

In a biblically functioning church, elders and deacons lead the church into deeper spiritual growth even as they continue to grow spiritually themselves. But not everyone is included. The eldership and deaconship are exclusive—limited to those men who distinguish themselves in a godly manner in several ways.

Other passages attest the exclusivity of biblical church leadership:

• In Acts 1:23-26, the apostles needed to select another man to join the apostleship. There were at least two men who met the qualifications, but only two were nominated. Of the two who were nominated, only one was selected—and this after prayer and spiritual discernment.
• In Acts 6:1-6, the apostles learned about a problem where food was not being distributed throughout the community in a godly way. Their solution was to delegate this task to godly men. Rather than simply gathering all the men together and asking them to handle it, they asked the congregation to choose only seven men who were full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom. These men would handle the food distribution.
• In Galatians 2:1-10 (esp. 2, 6), when Paul went to Jerusalem to share his gospel with the believers there, he did not meet with all the men but with “those who were held in high esteem.” Why? Didn't this leave some out? Yes, it leaves some out, but it reinforces the principle that biblical church leadership is not inclusive of everyone but exclusive—according to God's word.

Biblical church leadership is not inclusive of everyone; it is exclusive. It is not for everyone. There is a high standard set for those who would lead God's people. It's not for us to worry about how people might feel or to impose a democratic voting situation on top of the church, such that eligible folks have the “right” to vote in a meeting.

There are no “rights” in the church. We give up our rights for other people. Godly leaders know this and exemplify it.

What objections do you have to this? What other scriptures would you use in this discussion?

Here are some questions for you to work and pray through as we finish up 1 Timothy 2 and move into chapter 3.

1 Timothy 1 Study Questions

1 Timothy 2 Study Questions

Church Leadership: Elders

1. Why does Paul consider the saying in 3:1 about desiring the overseership/ eldership "trustworthy"?
2. Look at 1 Timothy 1:15; 4:9; 2 Timothy 2:11; and Titus 3:8. How does the use of this phrase in those passages influence your understanding of this verse?
3. Why is being an overseer (or elder) a "noble task" (3:1)?
4. Is someone arrogant or prideful to "aspire" to be an overseer? Why or why not?
5. Are all the traits listed in 3:2-7 required? Are they applications of what it means to "be above reproach" (3:2)?
6. Must a candidate for eldership excel in every area? Is there room for an elder to continue to grow spiritually or must he have topped out already?
7. Read this passage in several translations. Do they all read "husband of one wife" (3:2)? What does that phrase mean?
8. Must an elder have multiple children (3:4)? Must the children believe?
9. How can we gauge these traits in a candidate (3:7, for example)?

Church Leadership: Deacons

1. What does "in the same way" mean (3:8)?
2. Why does it mention "testing" for deacons (3:10) but not for elders?
3. Read several translations of 3:11. Do they all read "their wives"? What other options exist?
   
4. Why does the phrase "in the same way" repeat in 3:8 and 3:11?
5. If we interpret 3:11 to refer to deacons' wives, why are character traits listed for deacons' wives but not for elders' wives?
6. What is the result of good service (3:13)?

I read a report of a survey that indicated, out of 800 people, only 16 percent viewed churches as a place to meet up with or make friends. As a minister, this disturbs me. In this 8 minute audio, I discuss the survey, my thoughts about it, and a way forward. Please leave your comments below, on Facebook, or at Twitter.

Group Publishing Survey: The Friendliest Place in Town

Are we a church that prays or a praying church? The difference is big. The former fits prayer in but ultimately focuses on itself first. The latter is focused on God and lives by prayer.

In Acts 4:23-31 we learn from the early church how to be a praying church. Listen to this sermon and share it with others. Check out the slides, the sermon outline, or the slidecast here.