Choosing Mature Christian Leaders

Many churches choose new leaders in the Fall, including the congregation where I serve. Often these leaders begin officially serving at the first of the New Year. While we call ours elders, other names are used in some churches. Whatever title you give to these leaders, however, it is important that they be chosen from among the mature Christians in your congregation.

Unfortunately all Christian leaders do not prove to be mature or they take a major fall along the way. R. Kent Hughes, in his book of expository sermons on 1 Timothy, says, by his mid-thirties, after a little more than a decade in the ministry, he had "seen it all" as to “the duplicity and hypocrisy and immense evil that can exist in church leaders.”

He knew a man who was prominent in his denomination and community, a married man with a family, who was discovered to be a practicing homosexual and regularly consorted with several of his male employees. In another instance the church treasurer appeared in the church narthex on a Sunday morning dead drunk, glass in hand, wildly whispering that he was leaving his wife and family, and was departing that day on a private jet for the Middle East! And over the years, while speaking at pastors' conferences, he and his wife have had pastors' trembling wives seek them out and reveal abuse and perversion by their publicly straight-laced husbands.

I can tell my share of such stories, as could some of you who are reading this piece. Each story has a great sadness to it and leaves in its wake hurting family and church members who had put their trust in the fallen leader. Not only are families torn apart when leaders fall, but churches are affected. Some churches, of course, are severely wounded, but I have also known some to split or close when a leader fails them.

Of course, we all know that the leaders we choose are not perfect. After all, we all are sinners, and sometimes sin causes even leaders to fall. Yet, we can and must do our best to select mature Christian leaders for the church: leaders who have demonstrated strong Christian character by how they live in their homes, in the church, and in the community. Whenever you select leaders for your church, please do your best in this regard.

Paul suggests this very thing in both 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1. The moral characteristics for leaders that he includes in those two chapters really define the marks of maturity for all Christians. We should all review those chapters periodically and examine whether we possess those marks.

We have often failed to take as seriously as we should the marks of maturity that Paul presents in 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1 because we have created a check list out of Paul’s teaching. Then we try to determine whether leaders meet most of the “qualifications,” excusing them if they do not claiming that no one is perfect and no one can meet all the “qualifications.” However, Paul is not suggesting that these are maximum qualifications. He is suggesting that the various characteristics he lists are examples of one primary mark of maturity: being blameless or above reproach.

In both passages to which I have referred Paul puts being blameless or above reproach first, not as the first item on a list of qualifications, but as the primary qualification. All the other items on his two lists are examples of what it means for an elder, a leader, a mature Christian to be blameless. That is, someone who is not given to drunkenness, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, etc. will be above approach, because his character cannot be called into question.

It is important that we make every effort to get this selection of leaders in the church right. It is important because the leaders of the church represent God. They are entrusted with God's household, God's possessions, God's treasures, and God's riches. They act on behalf of God's interests. I hope your church will work to select mature leaders and help people in your congregation develop the marks of maturity for Christians.