Who leads any organization or group will depend on its purpose. The church is Christ’s representative on earth, reaching those he died for, teaching those he has saved, and equipping those he is calling and sending. Churches claiming to follow the commands of Christ, the writings of the apostles and the example of the early church, must also obey in selecting, qualifying and appointing leaders. Too often, the qualification of leaders other than the pastor is given little thought, so the average church committee spends more time bickering than leading. Officers are often chosen based on giving and length of membership. Largess and longevity are important but do not qualify one to lead Christ’s church.

The qualifications for church elders are laid out by the apostle Paul in 1 Timothy 3:1-7 and Titus 1:6-9. These two passages are quoted from the NIV here:

1 Timothy 3:1-7 “Here is a trustworthy saying: If anyone sets his heart on being an overseer, he desires a noble task. Now the overseer must be above reproach, the husband of but one wife, temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not given to drunkenness, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. He must manage his own family well and see that his children obey him with proper respect. (If anyone does not know how to manage his own family, how can he take care of God’s church) He must not be a recent convert, or he may become conceited and fall under the same judgment as the devil. He must also have a good reputation with outsiders, so that he will not fall into disgrace and into the devil’s trap.”

Titus 1:6-9 “An elder must be blameless, the husband of but one wife, a man whose children believe and are not open to the charge of being wild and disobedient. Since an overseer is entrusted with God’s work, he must be blameless—not overbearing, not quick-tempered, not given to drunkenness, not violent, not pursuing dishonest gain. Rather he must be hospitable, one who loves what is good, who is self-controlled, upright, holy and disciplined. He must hold firmly to the trustworthy message as it has been taught, so that he can encourage others by sound doctrine and refute those who oppose it.”

The first qualification to address is often overlooked—willingness. Paul tells Timothy that one who sets his heart on being an overseer desires a noble task. Paul is speaking of who reaches out for who longs for the task of being an elder. Desire and longing alone do not qualify one for this position. Too often in the church we fall into the warm-body syndrome of finding anyone willing to serve and letting them do it. In one church the elders were feeling stretched and wanted someone else to join the oversight and share the load. They started drawing up a list of names in the church when I pulled out my Bible, flipped to this passage and read out the qualifications. When asked, who among their candidates fit the qualifications one responded, “I’m not sure we do.”

The role of elder is too important, or as Paul would call it noble, to trust to just anyone. Just as we must not put a man into the position of elder simply because he is willing, we also should not push the unwilling into it. Peter tells the elders (1 Peter 5:2) to shepherd and oversee the flock, not because they must, but because they are willing. The willingness of a man to serve in this capacity will determine how much of it he takes on and how well he performs. Pushing a man into this position when he does not want it is to saddle the church with an unmotivated leader, cripple other leaders with an unfair distribution of labor, and hobble the man involved with guilt and resentment.

When looking for a new elder for any church, take into account the man’s willingness to serve in this capacity.