Tag Archives: eldership

A Reply to an Objection on “How Old Should an Elder Be?”

Occasionally, we get comments on older posts.  One of those came in last month, responding to my 2014 article, “How Old Should an Elder Be?” The comment read (in full):

So what you are saying is an unmarried man or a married man with no children can NEVER be an elder no matter his age. By this standard, Jesus Christ was not considered an elder nor qualified to Shepard a flock and many of his Apostles also were not qualified to Shepard the flicks and could not have been considered elders. I find your conclusions severely flawed.

Below is what I offered in reply:

So what you are saying is an unmarried man or a married man with no children can NEVER be an elder no matter his age.

First, let’s be honest with each other. It doesn’t matter what I say. It matters what God says. And God is the one who said an elder MUST (that is, it is a necessity, a non-negotiable) be the husband of one wife. So it is GOD who is saying an unmarried man can never be an elder. God is also the one who said an elder MUST have faithful children. So it is God who says a married man without children cannot be an elder.

Do you believe the words that God wrote?

By this standard, Jesus Christ was not considered an elder nor qualified to Shepard a flock and many of his Apostles also were not qualified to Shepard the flicks and could not have been considered elders.

Jesus wasn’t an elder. And it is His church, therefore His rules. He is the one who says an unmarried man cannot be an elder in the church.

All of the apostles, except for Paul, were married (1 Corinthians 9 says this). John was an elder, as was Peter. We aren’t told whether the others ever served in such a capacity. Paul is the one that wrote that an elder “MUST be the husband of one wife.” He understood the words he wrote down, as they are very clear and straight-forward.

Do you believe the words that God inspired Paul to write down regarding elders?

I find your conclusions severely flawed.

By that, I assume you mean you disagree with what God put in the Bible regarding an elder having a wife and children. I recommend you open up your Bible and read what is actually written in 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1. Then ask yourself, did God mean what He said when He said an elder “MUST be the husband of one wife”?

The Model Church

Sometimes, when people realize that I’ve made a lot of old brotherhood books available again (electronically and in print), they send me requests.  “Do you have this book?”  “Can you make this book available?”  And I think it’s great!  One of the ones that I get the most requests for is today’s addition to the Jimmie Beller Memorial eLibrary:

The Model Church by G.C. Brewer.

Here’s why: It is a good, succinct description of elders (and their qualifications), deacons (and their qualifications), and reverential worship in the church.

Having said that, brother Brewer did take the position in the book that female deacons were probably acceptable–so while there’s a lot in the book we agree with, there’s also that part that we don’t (we wrote an article that dealt somewhat with this here).  As always, compare everything with the word of God.

Here’s the chapters, to help give you an idea:

 

  1. What Constitutes A Congregation
  2. The Qualifications of an Elder
  3. The Duties of the Elders
  4. The Relation of the Overseen to the Overseer
  5. How Elders Are Made
  6. How Elders Are Unmade
  7. The Diaconate
  8. Dealing with the Disorderly
  9. Figuring on the Finances
  10. Church Music
  11. A Model Church
  12. Prayer-Meeting Topics

Because of the continual requests for this book, we are making it available in the Jimmie Beller Memorial eLibrary, but also in print for those who want to use it in their Bible classes or personal study.

To purchase the print edition, click here.

To read this book online, or save it for later enjoyment, simply click the link below!

The Model Church (G.C. Brewer)

-Bradley S. Cobb

The Jimmie Beller Memorial eLibrary

Let me quickly tell you about a man named Jimmie Beller.  From the first day that I stepped into the building of the congregation here in McLoud, Jimmie was one of my best friends and biggest supporters.  He always had a smile on his lips, was always happy to see you, and was a great encouragement.

He was also fighting against cancer.

The cancer Jimmie had was incurable, and I can’t tell you how many experimental treatments they tried on him to keep it at bay.  But earlier this year, Jimmie went on to his eternal reward.  I (along with everyone who knew him) still misses him greatly.

But Jimmie’s legacy still lives on.

He discovered that I run the Gravel Hill church of Christ website, and absolutely loved the sheer amount of free material that is available there.  In fact, he loved it so much that he allowed me to scan several books from his own library to put online.  One of those books was very brittle, and I told him that I couldn’t scan it because it would destroy the book.  His response was classic Jimmie Beller: “So, destroy one book so thousands of people can read it.  I don’t see the problem.”

After his passing, his entire library was donated to me with the hope that Jimmie’s desire of spreading useful books to as many people as possible would continue.  Special thanks to Robbie, Jamie, and Jeremie Beller for their immense kindness in making those books available to me.

It is today that we announce the creation of the Jimmie Beller Memorial eLibrary.

The books contained in this free eLibrary have all been scanned, completely reformatted, proofread, and “prettied up” so that you can have a better and easier reading experience.

If you’ve been following our posts the past few weeks, you’ve already seen the first two books:

Both Sides of the Music Question (A Debate)

The Eldership (M.M. Davis)

The Newest Addition to the Library

In 1947, Howard Hilliard (H.H.) Gray, a black brother from Dallas, TX, wrote a book titled “The Music of the New Testament Church.”  I only mention that he was a black brother because that helps explain some of the things he says in the book.  He dedicates it to the “White churches of Christ in Dallas” who helped support his preaching work and who made it possible to get the book published.  He also mentions things which were common in the “colored churches.”

H.H. Gray was led to the Lord by his wife just over six months after they were married.  Within a year, he preached his first sermon in Haskell, Oklahoma.  In 1939, they moved to Dallas to work with the Lawrence and Marder congregation, and rapidly brought people to the Lord.

It is a book that is worth your time to download and read.  It deals with the issue of instrumental music, but it is much more than a book on that topic.  You will find it interesting and even challenging in some areas.

From the Jimmie Beller Library, we now present the latest addition.  Simply click on the link below to read it, or right-click the link and select “save target as.”

Music of the New Testament Church by H.H. Gray

How You can Help

If you would like to help this eLibrary grow quickly, we would welcome your participation.

First, please share this post with your friends, family, and brethren through email, Facebook, Twitter, or whatever other means you would like.  Jimmie’s desire was for as many people as possible to be blessed by these books.

Second, we are in need of proofreaders.  We can quickly scan these books, but we want the final product to look nice (and not like a cheap photocopy of an old book).  The real time-consuming part of getting these books ready is reading through them to catch the punctuation and typographical errors.  If you would be willing to aid us by proofreading, please contact us.

The Eldership

One of the important parts of the early church, according to the Bible, was having trustworthy, godly men to serve as shepherds, overseers, bishops, elders.  All these names refer to the same office in the church.

The apostle Paul, along with Barnabas, made sure to ordain elders in each congregation that they had established and built up.  Timothy was given instructions on what to look for in a man who desired to be an elder.  Titus was left in Crete to ordain elders in each congregation.  Peter himself was even an elder in the church.

Suffice it to say, the eldership is an important biblical topic.

And that’s why today’s “THANK YOU” post contains another free book–this time on the subject of elders.

The Eldership, by M.M. Davis, was originally published in 1912, and was reprinted a few times after that.  Even though it is over a hundred years old, it is still full of plain Bible teaching on this subject.  And it’s not really all that long, either, so don’t think you’re going to have to trudge through some extended dissertation on this, that, or the other.

It has been completely reformatted and proofread (special thanks to Jerry Sturgill for his assistance in those areas), so it looks really pretty on your PC, tablet, iPad, or whatever other device you have.

Enjoy!  Just click on the link below to download it.

Davis. MM – The Eldership