An excellent and thought provoking opinion on (at least for me) has been a very tough issue. However, I my understanding from you that is still up to the congregation to make a judgment call on whether or not the holy spirit has appointed an elder.

“I can tell you that in my own life it is fairly obvious who God is using as a leader (in service to others) and whose life best reflects the character of Christ.”

In that sentence you are making a judgment call on who’s lives best reflect the characters of Christ (or the qualifications of Elders). Which brings us directly back to square one on question 2. Do you or the congregation have the authority to make that judgment call that will effectively appoint an elder.

Thank you and God bless.

James,

I think Alan has answered extremely well.

Have you read chapters 5 and 6 of Frank Viola’s Rethinking the Wineskin ?

Tom

By the way, this “flushing out” may be different for different groups of believers, just as the relative maturity of the “most mature” believers will be different for different groups of believers. The important thing to note is that we as followers of Christ recognize what God is already doing in someone’s life and in the lives of the other believers. This assumes that we actually KNOW the person that we are following. (And not KNOW in the sense of meeting him once and hearing him preach… but actually knowing how he lives his life, especially when the going gets tough.)

-Alan

How is number 2 flushed out?