MaxPC wrote:In Catholic world, the elder is the priest and the bishop.
We have deacons who are married and single men; they don't have all the faculties of the elders but can perform weddings and baptisms.
Just in case you were wondering.
I've found out since there is another definition as well, that fits your usage of it.
Apologies for the Catholic lingo: lifetime habits
"Faculties" in my previous post means having both the licensure and authority to perform rites in this case.
Before I retired I was also a member of academic faculties. The English language is fun ... or not
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Max (Plain Catholic)
Mt 24:35 Proverbs 18:2 A fool does not delight in understanding but only in revealing his own mind.
1 Corinthians 3:19 For the wisdom of this world is folly with God
mike wrote:I came across this, and thought it was one of the better descriptions I've seen of the role of an elder in the church:
Ray Stedman put it this way (Discovery Paper 3500, “A Pastor’s Authority”), “The task of the elders is not to run the church themselves, but to determine how the Lord in their midst wishes to run his church.” He points out that much of this has already been made known through the Bible. Thus, “In the day-to-day decisions which every church faces, elders are to seek and find the mind of the Lord through an uncoerced unanimity, reached after thorough and biblically-related discussion. Thus, ultimate authority, even in practical matters, is vested in the Lord and in no one else.” The Lord delegates that authority to a plurality of men in each local church so that no one man can play God.
Even though the general tone is good, it sounds like a moderator to me. Not a shepherd.
It assumes a spiritual congregation.
I think the wisest of elders realize that even in spiritual congregations on rare occasions, they may need to take the sheep to a pasture that the sheep don't know about or protect them from predators in ways they are not aware. (There could be other brothers in the congregation that see this also and can inform/advise the shepherd accordingly.)
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The old woodcutter spoke again. “It is impossible to talk with you. You always draw conclusions. Life is so vast, yet you judge all of life with one page or one word. You see only a fragment. Unless you know the whole story, how can you judge?"
