What About Elders Who Are Lax in Their Duties?

by Rowland Gbamis

Dear Brother Rowland,

Thank you for your article on “A Brief Reflection on Ezekiel 34: Faithful and Unfaithful Shepherds.” You observed that “one of the most crucial ways elders can lead by example is by demonstrating strong leadership in providing the congregation with the appropriate spiritual nourishment.” You also quoted I Peter 5:2-3, which says that God expects elders to serve "not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre [not for dishonest gain-NKJV], but of a ready mind; neither as being lords over God's heritage, but being examples to the flock.”

Question: What is your response to elders who do not lord it over the congregation and are so loving, yet do not actively feed the congregation with spiritual meals?

Answer:

Thank you for your question. When Peter commands elders to shepherd God's flock without lording over it (I Peter 5:3), we rightly warn against authoritarian control and domineering leadership. However, your observation highlights an equally dangerous opposite extreme: passive eldership, in which men hold the title but abdicate the actual work of shepherding. While some elders err by controlling and dominating, many others have relegated their fundamental responsibility to feed and nurture the congregation, often because they believe that is what the preacher is paid to do. This "hired gun" mentality reflects a fundamental misunderstanding of biblical eldership and creates a clergy/laity divide that Scripture never intended.

The professionalization of ministry has led many elders to believe their role is merely to make business decisions and keep church operations running smoothly, while all spiritual work—teaching, pastoral care, and discipleship—belongs to the paid minister. But this contradicts the New Testament pattern. In Acts 6:4, the apostles insisted on devoting themselves "to prayer and to the ministry of the word" rather than being consumed with administrative tasks—a principle that applies directly to elders today.

Elders are the primary shepherds of the flock, called to prioritize spiritual oversight: feeding the sheep with sound doctrine (Titus 1:9), knowing them personally (Acts 20:28), visiting the sick, comforting the grieving, and restoring the wayward (Galatians 6:1), and praying regularly for those under their care. Yet many modern elders have inverted this priority, focusing almost exclusively on buildings, budgets, and business matters while outsourcing prayer and the ministry of the word to paid staff. The preacher or evangelist serves alongside them as a fellow-laborer, often with specialized teaching gifts, but his role is to equip the saints for ministry (Ephesians 4:11-12), not to replace the elders' shepherding responsibilities. In a large congregation, a single preacher cannot know most people intimately or provide the personal spiritual oversight that a plurality of engaged elders can offer.

When elders retreat into boardroom management and delegate all spiritual work to paid staff, the consequences are severe and far-reaching. Members do not know their elders personally, and vice versa. Spiritual problems go unnoticed until they become crises. Preachers burn out trying to do the work of multiple shepherds; false teaching spreads unchecked; young men see no model of active shepherding to emulate; and the church becomes program-driven rather than relationship-driven. The church transforms from a family with shepherds into a business with a CEO. Biblical eldership is not a retirement from ministry or an honorary title—it is a calling to intensive, personal, sacrificial shepherding, in which mature wisdom is actively poured out rather than passively held.

If you would not hire a babysitter and then never check on your children, why would you hire a preacher and then disengage from the spiritual care of God's flock?

Elders must ask themselves: When was the last time I had a spiritual conversation with a member outside of Sunday or Wednesday Bible study? When did I last teach, lead a Bible study, or disciple someone one-on-one? Can I identify the spiritual struggles of the families in my care? Am I praying regularly and specifically for individuals in the congregation? The Acts 6:4 principle demands that elders prioritize prayer and the word over administrative minutiae, yet many elderships spend hours debating carpet colors and building maintenance while spending mere minutes in prayer and virtually no time in personal ministry of the word to their members.

The biblical model of leadership presents a clear partnership: elders (plural) share the shepherding responsibility of teaching, caring, and leading, devoting themselves to prayer and the ministry of the word; evangelists and preachers proclaim the gospel and equip the church; deacons serve practical needs so elders can focus on spiritual oversight (Acts 6:1-6); and all members use their gifts to build up the body (Romans 12:3-8; I Corinthians 12). Both extremes—domineering control and passive abdication—fail to reflect this model. True shepherding means elders must remember they are neither lords over God's flock nor absentee managers of a religious organization. Their primary role is to feed and nurture through active, personal, sacrificial engagement with the souls entrusted to their care, maintaining the Acts 6:4 priority of prayer and the ministry of the word while working in partnership with deacons, preachers, and the entire body to build up the church in love and truth.

God’s blessing!