Keeping Watch Over Your Souls - Clover Sites



Keeping Watch over Your Souls

From the Session of Christ Church

Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you. Hebrews 13:17

In II Corinthians 11:22-33 Paul is giving proof of his apostleship by listing the various trials he has had to endure. He mentions beatings, being shipwrecked, thieves, hunger, and sleeplessness. Finally, he mentions the daily, deep concern he has for all the churches. We would not put caring for a church in a list with beatings, but Paul does. Shepherding the people of God requires great diligence and care. Perhaps this is why the author of Hebrews adds the above exhortation at the end of his book reminding his readers to let those who rule do so with joy and not grief. The elders of Christ Church wrote this brief article to show you how you can help us in this task and what we are doing to make sure we can stand before God blameless (Acts 20:26-27).

Before we get to specifics, there is one underlying point that needs to be made: shepherds must know their sheep. Our Lord makes this explicit in John 10, especially verses 3 and 14 where Jesus says that He “calls His own sheep by name” and that He “knows his own.” Shepherding is a hands-on activity. You cannot shepherd sheep from afar. A shepherd cannot mend a broken leg from miles away. A shepherd cannot keep his sheep from running over a cliff via Skype. A shepherd must know and be present with his sheep. This is made explicit in the Hebrews passage quoted above. As elders we must give an account for your souls. That means we must know you. We are going to stand before the Judge of all heaven and earth. We will not just give an account for our lives and the lives of our families, but also an account for your souls. Therefore we must know the state of your souls. Expect us to be involved.

The Sheep

The writer in Hebrews tells his readers to make sure the elders can do their work with joy and not with groaning. He also tells them that it is to their advantage if they make their shepherds’ job easy. Here are some things you can do to make our job easier.

1. Regularly attend worship and other events at church with a joyful and attentive heart.

2. Pray and read God’s Word daily

3. Seek to grow in holiness and righteousness.

4. Pray for your elders regularly.

5. Pray that God would raise up more elders and deacons at Christ Church.

6. Pray for the other members of the church regularly.

7. Encourage us when we do something well. (Galatians 6:6)

8. Joyfully obey the godly advice we give to you. The writer of Hebrews encourages his readers to imitate the faith of the elders (13:7), to obey them and to submit to them. We live in an anti-authoritarian age. We are taught from a young age that authority is to be rejected. God’s word does not see things this way. The leaders in the church are to be obeyed. In most cases, to reject the authority of God’s appointed elders is to reject Christ Himself.

9. If you disagree with something the elders did or are doing, talk to us about it. If you feel that we have sinned against you, let us know. If you have a problem with us, do not spread it abroad among the members of the body. Bring it to us. You have taken a vow as a member of Christ Church to promote the peace and purity of the church and submit to the elders. This vow is tested when you disagree with us or we have hurt you in some way. We are not perfect. If we are wrong or have sinned, we will confess it and turn. If it is a miscommunication, we will seek to clear it up. If you are wrong, we will correct you gently, following the pattern of II Timothy 2:24-25. The point is come to us if you have a concern.

10. Below is a list of some, but certainly not all, of the reasons to contact your elders.

a. If you are having financial trouble or trouble at work and/or could lose your job.

b. If you are having marital difficulties, including sexual issues, communication problems, anger, etc.

c. If you are having trouble with your children.

d. If you are single, you can contact us about sexual issues, problems with parents, problems with friends or anything else that you feel you need advice on.

e. If you have theological questions or questions concerning the interpretation and/or application of Scripture.

f. If you have questions about our worship, a specific sermon, a teaching or practice of Christ Church.

g. If you are having physical problems, such as ongoing sickness.

h. If you are having a conflict with another member of the church or with someone who is not attending our church that you are unable to resolve.

i. If you have committed or are involved in a serious sin and need guidance on how to overcome it.

j. If you are thinking of leaving the church.

k. If a crime has been committed against you or you have committed a crime.

l. If you are having trouble with pornography and cannot seem to overcome it.

11. Here is some additional guidance about bringing problems to the elders.

a. Do not wait until a crisis develops. One of the problems elders face is people waiting until it is too late or the situation is already messy before contacting us. It is better to contact your elders and find out that it is not a big deal than wait and watch the situation explode.

b. The greatest deterrent to contacting the elders is usually pride. People tend to believe they can work things out without help or advice. Sometimes this is true. But most often we need the input of other Christians, particularly those God has appointed over us, to guide us. If there is a problem in your home or life and you do not want to bring it to the elders, ask yourself, why? More than likely the reason is that you do not want your sin to be known. Do not add to the first sin, the second sin of covering it up (Proverbs 28:13).

c. Some of you may worry that you are bothering us. Don’t. We are here to shepherd you. If you think you should call, do.

d. We would add here that the head of the household should usually be the one contacting the elders. The exception would be if the head of household is in serious sin and refuses to come to the elders. In that case, a wife or teenage child could approach the elders after they have rebuked the head of household. This would be following the pattern set by Matthew 18:15-20.

The Shepherds

The job of those who shepherd the church is summed up well in I Thessalonians 2:8, where Paul says that he not only imparted the Gospel to the Thessalonians, but his very life as well. The elders are called to lay down their lives for the sheep just as our Shepherd laid down his life for us. If you would like to look more closely at our task you can read, Acts 20:17-38, I Timothy 3:1-7, Titus 1:5-11 and I Peter 5:1-4. Here is what the elders promise to do for you, our sheep:

1. Pray for you regularly.

2. Study, obey, and faithfully preach and teach God’s Word.

3. Use God’s Word as our primary tool for counseling you.

4. Point you to Christ the Great Shepherd for both forgiveness of sin and power to overcome sins.

5. Set an example for you by leading holy lives in our homes, community and places of vocation.

6. Be gentle with you. (I Thess. 2:7)

7. Exhort, comfort and charge you as a father does his children (I Thess. 2:11)

8. Be involved in your life so that we might faithfully give an account for your soul.

9. Rebuke you when you are sinning.

10. Encourage you where you are gifted.

11. When a crisis develops, do all we can materially and spiritually to help you.

12. Motivate you toward spiritual maturity.

Remember there are three elders at Christ Church, Dr. Moss, Mr. Oldland, and Pastor Peter. You can contact any of us when you need help. Obviously, Pastor Peter will be available more because the ministry is his full-time job. But do not be afraid to contact Dr. Moss or Mr. Oldland if you wish. And ladies you can contact their wives for advice and support should you wish. We would encourage the wives to only do that with the express permission of your husband, unless it is a Matthew 18:15-20 situation. Remember that what you tell one elder will be told to the others. Elders must shepherd the flock and that means we all need to know when there is a problem with one of the sheep. We may share that information with our wives for their counsel, but that is not mandatory. We will not generally share your information with other members of Christ Church or people outside the body.

It is our great privilege to serve Christ by ministering to you. We have a great affection and love for all of you. We truly desire to see you fruitful in every good work. We also long for Christ Church to be a witness in Morgantown of the grace that can be found in Jesus. May God give us wisdom and understanding to shepherd you well and grant you grace to help us do our job with joy and not grief.

With Love in Christ our Lord,

Pastor Peter Jones

Dr. Alvin “Woody” Moss

Mr. Oldland

................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download