Can an elder step down from the position?
Question:
A thing of concern is that elders are not allowed to step down from their positions. The only time an elder can step down is when his wife passes away. What if the elder and his family relocate to a different area or country, or when that elder goes to preach the gospel in a new area and a church is established there? The great commission in Matthew 28 does not exclude elders from going to win souls for the Lord. So, can an elder step down from his eldership and fulfill the great commission? Not to totally dissolve the eldership in a particular congregation, if there are more than two elders there. Can one elder do this if he wishes to win souls for the Lord?
Answer:
"Therefore, I exhort the elders among you, as your fellow elder and witness of the sufferings of Christ, and a partaker also of the glory that is to be revealed, shepherd the flock of God among you, exercising oversight not under compulsion, but voluntarily, according to the will of God; and not for sordid gain, but with eagerness" (I Peter 5:1-2).
Elders serve because they want to serve God and His people. They are not forced to serve. I've known elders whose jobs required them to move. They cannot be long-distance servants to a congregation, so they step down and become assets to the people of God in their new location. Sometimes, they become elders again in the new location.
If an elder wants to work as a preacher in a different location, that is his decision.
