Another Eldership Funeral
On Monday, January 12, the present elders and their wives at Hartsville Pike, Gallatin, Tennessee, Joel and Mary Lou Dodson, Phil and Anne Smith, with Gail, myself and two other “mourners”, Patricia Dale and Linda Kuykendall, met at the Anderson funeral home for an elders’ funeral.
To get a better understanding of this event, read my blog post, Have You Been to an Eldership Funeral?: https://www.newshepherdsorientation.com/have-you-been-to-an-eldership-funeral/
I appreciate Doyle Farris and the staff at Alexander Funeral Home for providing and setting up a room for this event.
Frequently when additional elders are appointed, they are in fact, junior, elders and trainees. They’re expected to go by the same rules and procedures as the former eldership. New suggestions and emphases are often not welcomed.
In interviewing one elder during the last eighteen years of interim ministry, he told me he believed the elders should spend more time in prayer. When it came his time to set the agenda and lead the group, he announced that they would be spending more time in prayer during that meeting. After he had led the first prayer, an older elder responded that they had business to conduct and needed to move on. That was the last time he attempted to suggest a change. Many other elders have told me they have experienced the same dynamic when they began their ministry.
There would be an advantage to that rule if all previous practices of the present eldership were fully aligned with biblical instruction of the functions of elders and represented the best possible procedures. In that case, it would be wise to preserve them.
However, when new elders, have suggestions that could improve the function of the eldership, those ideas should be welcomed. If a previous eldership was more focused on carpet colors and selecting lawn mowers, a new elder with an emphasis on shepherding and biblical oversight should be heard and considered.
Otherwise, a dysfunctional eldership simply continues its practices from one generation to the next.
At the recent funeral of the present eldership at Hartsville Pike, the elders reviewed their past service and experiences. They expressed a desire to preserve the commitment of the elderships in this congregation on doing what God says do the way God says do it. They are committed to that.
They will welcome new elders who share that commitment. Since much of their work involves methods methods rather than changing the message, they are open to ideas from new elders on how to improve their leadership and ministry.
To review the concept of an Eldership Funeral, read this blog post: https://www.newshepherdsorientation.com/have-you-been-to-an-eldership-funeral/
For an outline of an Eldership Funeral read this: Eldership Funeral PDF https://www.newshepherdsorientation.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Eldership-Funeral-C.pdf
Here are pictures of the funeral.
We enjoyed an after funeral meal at the Chocolate Strawberry
Hear Fleecy Clouds: One Woman’s Story of Surviving and Thriving after Childhood Abuse read on audiobooks by Gail’s daughter, Christ Barber Parsons
Click on the picture below:
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