by Bill Robinson<\/p>\n
Most congregations don’t die in a day. They don’t collapse because of a single scandal or a bad sermon. They weaken slowly, like a house that settles when no one checks the foundation. Attendance thins. Classes lose their energy. Members who once volunteered stop raising their hands. Hard questions go unasked because everyone has learned they won’t be answered. And one day we look around and wonder where the life went.<\/p>\n
Often, though not always, the answer sits in the elders’ meeting.<\/p>\n
That’s an uncomfortable sentence to write, and I write it as one who now serves as an elder. The warnings in these lines are aimed at my own heart before anyone else’s.<\/em> But Scripture won’t let us look away. God gave His people shepherds, and when the shepherds failed, the sheep suffered, and God held the shepherds responsible.<\/p>\n The Old Testament gives us a sobering gallery of men who were placed over God’s people and let them down. They weren’t elders in the New Testament sense. Eli was a priest and judge, Aaron was high priest, Saul and Rehoboam were kings. We need to be honest about that difference and not force a one-to-one match. But the prophets take the language of shepherding and apply it to every kind of leader in Israel (Ezekiel 34; Jeremiah 23:1-4), and Peter picks up that same language when he writes to elders (I Peter 5:1-4). The principles carry over. The temptations these men faced are the temptations men face in every eldership. What follows is a study of those temptations, and of what they cost.<\/p>\n Eli is the saddest figure in this study because he wasn’t wicked. He blessed Hannah. He taught young Samuel to say, “Speak, LORD, for your servant hears<\/em>.” He accepted God’s judgment with humility (I Samuel 3:18). By most measures, he was devout.<\/p>\n But his sons, Hophni and Phinehas, were priests who treated God’s offerings with contempt and lay with the women who served at the entrance of the tent of meeting (I Samuel 2:12-17, 22). Eli knew. Scripture says he heard everything his sons were doing. And he talked to them. “Why do you do such things?<\/em>” (I Samuel 2:23). That was the extent of it. He spoke, and then he let it ride.<\/p>\n God’s verdict is pointed. He charged Eli with honoring his sons above Him (I Samuel 2:29), and when judgment came, the reason was plain: his sons were blaspheming God, “and he did not restrain them<\/em>” (I Samuel 3:13). A mild word of disapproval wasn’t enough when he had the authority, and the duty, to act.<\/p>\n There’s a detail at the start of chapter 3 that we shouldn’t miss. “The word of the LORD was rare in those days<\/em>.” A congregation led by men who won’t confront sin will eventually be a congregation where God’s word is scarce. The two go together.<\/p>\n The weakness:<\/strong> Eli’s problem was a soft heart pointed in the wrong direction. He loved his sons more than he loved the holiness of God’s house. He preferred peace at home to faithfulness at the altar.<\/p>\n The temptation for elders today:<\/strong> Men rarely fail the way Eli’s sons failed. They fail the way Eli did. A popular member, a big contributor, a family friend, or an elder’s own relative lives in open sin or stirs up division, and the shepherds have a conversation, express concern, and then do nothing more. Everybody knows. Nobody acts. And the whole flock learns that Scripture’s standards apply to some people but not others. Paul told Timothy to rebuke those who persist in sin “in the presence of all<\/em>” and to do so “without prejudging, doing nothing from partiality<\/em>” (I Timothy 5:20-21). Eli’s partiality cost him his house.<\/p>\n Moses had been on the mountain forty days. The people grew restless, gathered around Aaron, and demanded gods they could see (Exodus 32:1). Aaron didn’t argue. He didn’t teach. He didn’t remind them of the Red Sea or the voice from Sinai they had heard only weeks before. He asked for their gold, shaped a calf, built an altar, and announced a feast.<\/p>\n When Moses confronted him, Aaron’s defense came in two parts, and both are worth studying. First, he blamed the people: “You know the people, that they are set on evil<\/em>” (Exodus 32:22). Second, he minimized his own role almost to the point of comedy. He threw the gold in the fire; he said, “and there came out this calf<\/em>” (Exodus 32:24). As if it made itself.<\/p>\n The inspired writer gives the real account in one sentence. The people had broken loose, “for Aaron had let them break loose<\/em>” (Exodus 32:25). The chaos wasn’t only the crowd’s doing. It happened because the man in charge let it happen.<\/p>\n The weakness:<\/strong> Aaron led by reading the room. He measured what the people wanted and supplied it. When it went wrong, he blamed them and shrank his own part.<\/p>\n The temptation for elders today:<\/strong> Every congregation has pressure points, a push to change the worship, to soften a teaching, to adopt whatever the church down the street is doing because it seems to be growing. The shepherd who leads by polling the flock will eventually give the flock whatever it asks for, including things God never authorized. And when the fruit turns bitter, he’ll say what Aaron said: the people insisted, it just sort of happened. Elders aren’t there to manage the mood of the congregation. They’re there to hold it to the word (Titus 1:9).<\/p>\n Saul started with every advantage. God chose him, Samuel anointed him, and he received “another heart<\/em>” (I Samuel 10:9). Yet twice, at the moments that mattered, he failed the same test.<\/p>\n At Gilgal, Samuel was late, the Philistines were massing, and the soldiers were slipping away. So Saul offered the burnt offering himself, a thing he had no right to do. His explanation: “I saw that the people were scattering from me… so I forced myself<\/em>” (I Samuel 13:11-12). Later, when he was ordered to devote Amalek to destruction, he spared the king and the best of the livestock. Confronted by Samuel, he first insisted he had obeyed (I Samuel 15:13, 20), then blamed the people for taking the spoil (I Samuel 15:21), and finally admitted the root of it: “I feared the people and obeyed their voice<\/em>” (I Samuel 15:24).<\/p>\n Even his repentance showed the problem. After confessing, he pleaded with Samuel, “honor me now before the elders of my people<\/em>” (I Samuel 15:30). He was still more concerned with how he looked than with where he stood before God.<\/p>\n The weakness:<\/strong> Saul was impatient under pressure, and he feared men more than God. He offered partial obedience and called it obedience. When caught, he explained and deflected before he confessed.<\/p>\n The temptation for elders today:<\/strong> Paul put the question bluntly: “Am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God?<\/em>” (Galatians 1:10). Elders who worry that a sound decision will cost them members, contributions, or goodwill will find themselves doing what Saul did, keeping the parts of God’s instruction that are comfortable and quietly setting aside the rest. The fear of man doesn’t usually announce itself. It shows up as “this isn’t the right time” or “we don’t want to lose anyone.” Sometimes those are wise words. Sometimes they’re Saul’s words.<\/p>\n The first three men failed in dramatic moments. This failure is quieter, and it may be the most common one of all.<\/p>\n Through Hosea, God brought a charge against the priests of the northern kingdom: “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge; because you have rejected knowledge, I reject you from being a priest to me<\/em>” (Hosea 4:6). Notice who is blamed. Not the people for being ignorant, though they were. The priests, for failing to know and to teach. The people perished because the men responsible for teaching them had stopped caring about God’s law.<\/p>\n Malachi says the same a few centuries later. “The lips of a priest should guard knowledge, and people should seek instruction from his mouth<\/em>” (Malachi 2:7). But those priests had turned aside and caused many to stumble by their instruction (Malachi 2:8).<\/p>\n Set against them the example of Ezra. He “had set his heart to study the Law of the LORD, and to do it and to teach his statutes and rules in Israel<\/em>” (Ezra 7:10). Study came first. Then practice. Then teaching. The order matters.<\/p>\n The weakness:<\/strong> These men held the office without doing the work. They let the knowledge they were supposed to guard slip away, and they led people into error because they no longer knew the way themselves.<\/p>\n The temptation for elders today:<\/strong> Paul required that an elder be “able to teach<\/em>” (I Timothy 3:2) and able “to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it<\/em>” (Titus 1:9). A man can’t give what he doesn’t have. An eldership that has stopped studying will make decisions by habit, tradition, or instinct instead of Scripture. It won’t be able to answer a false teacher who is more prepared than it is. It’ll walk into meetings unprepared, decide weighty matters on the fly, and wonder later why the decision didn’t hold. The hardest part is that no one sees this failure happening. There’s no scandal, no confrontation. Just men who used to open their Bibles through the week and gradually stopped.<\/p>\n Eli, Aaron, and Saul all failed on the soft side. They wouldn’t confront, wouldn’t stand, wouldn’t say no. Rehoboam shows us that the opposite failure is just as destructive.<\/p>\n When Solomon died, the people came to his son with a reasonable request: lighten the heavy yoke your father put on us, and we’ll serve you (I Kings 12:4). It was a hard conversation, and a legitimate one. Rehoboam asked for three days to consider it. That much was wise.<\/p>\n He first consulted the old men who had stood before Solomon. Their counsel was striking: “If you will be a servant to this people today and serve them and speak good words to them when you answer them, then they will be your servants forever<\/em>” (I Kings 12:7). Then he consulted the young men he’d grown up with, who told him to answer with a show of force. He took their advice, “answered the people harshly<\/em>,” and “abandoned the counsel that the old men had given him<\/em>” (I Kings 12:13). Ten tribes walked away, and the kingdom never came back together.<\/p>\n The weakness:<\/strong> Rehoboam faced a hard issue and met it with pride instead of a servant’s heart. He listened to the counsel that flattered him and rejected the counsel that would have cost him something.<\/p>\n The temptation for elders today:<\/strong> Some elders avoid controversial subjects altogether. Others take them up in a spirit that makes things worse. Both leave the church wounded. Scripture asks for something harder than either: “The Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness<\/em>” (II Timothy 2:24-25). Gentleness isn’t weakness, and firmness isn’t harshness. Acts 15 shows how to handle a divisive question well.\u00a0The apostles and elders came together;\u00a0they had “much debate<\/em>” (Acts 15:7); they opened Scripture (Acts 15:15-17); they reached a conclusion openly; and they delivered it in a letter that brought encouragement (Acts 15:31). The issue wasn’t buried or bulldozed.<\/p>\n This is where I’d urge us to be most careful. The question isn’t only whether elders will address hard issues. It’s whether they’ll do it after studying the matter, with an honest willingness to hear the other side, and with the aim of restoring rather than winning. An elder who talks about a controversial question only with those who already agree with him is Rehoboam consulting his friends.<\/p>\n Ezekiel 34 is God’s indictment of the shepherds of Israel, and it reads almost like a diagnosis of an unhealthy church. The shepherds fed themselves and not the flock. “The weak you have not strengthened, the sick you have not healed, the injured you have not bound up, the strayed you have not brought back, the lost you have not sought<\/em>” (Ezekiel 34:4). And what they did do, they did badly: “with force and harshness you have ruled them<\/em>.”<\/p>\n Then comes the result. The sheep “were scattered, because there was no shepherd<\/em>” (Ezekiel 34:5). They wandered over every mountain, “with none to search or seek for them<\/em>” (Ezekiel 34:6).<\/p>\n That description fits more congregations than we’d like to admit. Here’s what it tends to look like in practice. This is my own reading of how Ezekiel’s picture shows up among us, not something the text spells out:<\/p>\n The weak stay weak.<\/strong> New Christians are baptized and then left to find their own way. No one checks on them, and within a year or two many are gone.<\/p>\n The hurting stay hurt.<\/strong> Members carrying grief, family trouble, or doubt learn that no one is going to call, so they stop mentioning it.<\/p>\n The straying drift off quietly.<\/strong> Someone misses a month of services, and nobody reaches out. When they finally leave, it’s treated as their decision alone.<\/p>\n The questions go underground.<\/strong> When controversial subjects are never taught, or are handled with a heavy hand, people stop asking in the open. They ask online instead, or they ask the most confident voice in the room, which may not be the most faithful.<\/p>\n And the faithful grow tired.<\/strong> This may be the highest cost. The members who carry most of the load, who teach the classes, visit the sick, and stay after to clean up, eventually conclude that the men charged with leading aren’t leading. They keep going, but the joy drains out. Jesus looked on crowds like that and was moved with compassion, because they were “harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd<\/em>” (Matthew 9:36). Moses had prayed centuries earlier that God’s people would never be left that way (Numbers 27:17).<\/p>\n A word of caution belongs here. Not every struggling congregation is struggling because of its elders. Members have their own responsibilities, some churches face outside pressures no eldership could fix, and some people leave no matter how well they’re shepherded. We shouldn’t turn this passage into a weapon for every frustrated member. But God specifically names elders in Ezekiel 34, and we can’t hide behind exceptions.<\/p>\n God didn’t simply lament what the shepherds of Israel had done. He announced that He would hold them to it. “Behold, I am against the shepherds, and I will require my sheep at their hand<\/em>” (Ezekiel 34:10). The same principle runs through Ezekiel’s watchman passages. If the watchman sees the danger and doesn’t sound the warning, the people still perish, but their blood is required at the watchman’s hand (Ezekiel 3:17-18; 33:6).<\/p>\n The New Testament carries that same weight straight into the eldership. Paul told the Ephesian elders to pay careful attention to themselves and to all the flock, “in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood<\/em>” (Acts 20:28). The flock isn’t ours. It was bought at the highest price there is, and it’s been placed in our care. Hebrews 13:17 describes elders as men “who will have to give an account<\/em>.” James warns that those who teach “will be judged with greater strictness<\/em>” (James 3:1).<\/p>\n This isn’t meant to frighten good men away from serving. Paul called the desire to be an overseer a noble one (I Timothy 3:1), and Peter promises the faithful shepherd “the unfading crown of glory” when the chief Shepherd appears (I Peter 5:4). But the crown and the accounting come together. Every elder will one day stand before the chief Shepherd and answer for the sheep. None of the failures in this study were irreversible at the start. Eli could have acted. Aaron could have refused. Saul could have waited. Rehoboam could have listened. What made them tragic is that they didn’t.<\/p>\n These are questions I’m asking myself. I’d ask every elder, and every man who hopes to serve one day, to sit with them honestly.<\/p>\n Am I studying?<\/strong> Not preparing a lesson, but studying, the way Ezra set his heart to do. When a hard question comes before the eldership, have I done the work in the text myself, or am I leaning on what I’ve always heard? Could I show a member from Scripture why we practice what we practice?<\/p>\n Do I come prepared?<\/strong> Weighty decisions deserve prayer, reading, and thought before the meeting, not just during it. An eldership that makes serious decisions on the spot will make a lot of them twice.<\/p>\n Is there someone I’m protecting?<\/strong> Eli’s sin was partiality. Is there a person in this congregation whose conduct I won’t address because of who they are to me or to the church?<\/p>\n Whose approval am I seeking?<\/strong> When I hesitate on a decision, is it because I need more light from Scripture, or because I’m afraid of how people will react? Saul could never tell the difference, and it ruined him.<\/p>\n Am I willing to talk about hard things?<\/strong> Is there a subject our congregation has quietly agreed not to discuss? If members are asking questions privately that we’ve never answered publicly, we’ve left them to find answers somewhere else.<\/p>\n And when I do, what spirit do I bring?<\/strong> Do I listen to the brother who disagrees, or just wait for him to finish? Am I seeking the counsel that challenges me, or only the counsel that confirms me? Am I trying to restore, or to win?<\/p>\n Do I know the sheep?<\/strong> Could I name the members who’ve been absent lately? The ones who are struggling? The new Christians who need someone to walk alongside them? A shepherd who doesn’t know the condition of his flock can’t give an account of it (Proverbs 27:23).<\/p>\n Members have every right to expect their elders to be men of the word, men who study, prepare, and teach. They have a right to expect sin to be addressed without partiality, hard questions to be answered from Scripture, and disagreements to be handled with patience and gentleness. They have a right to be known and cared for. Those expectations aren’t demands we invent. They come straight from I Timothy 3, Titus 1, Acts 20, and I Peter 5.<\/p>\n But the same Scriptures place obligations on the flock too, and it would be dishonest to leave them out.<\/p>\n We’re told to respect those who labor among us and admonish us, and “to esteem them very highly in love because of their work<\/em>” (I Thessalonians 5:12-13). We’re told to obey and submit to our leaders and to let them do their work “with joy and not with groaning<\/em>” (Hebrews 13:17). We’re told not to entertain an accusation against an elder except on the evidence of two or three witnesses (I Timothy 5:19). And we’re told to pray for them.<\/p>\nSo if you see signs of the weaknesses described here, the right response isn’t gossip, a parking-lot complaint, or a quiet exit. Go to the men themselves, humbly and privately, with Scripture open and a desire to help. Good elders will welcome that. Weak elders need it. We need shepherds like that. By God’s grace, we can have them.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Bill Robinson The Tragedy of Weak Leadership in the Local Congregation Most congregations don’t die in a day. They don’t collapse because of a single scandal or a bad sermon. They weaken slowly, like a house that settles when no one checks the foundation. Attendance thins. Classes lose their energy. Members who once volunteered…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[123],"class_list":["post-98254","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-elders"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":31874,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/do-you-support-conscientious-objection\/","url_meta":{"origin":98254,"position":0},"title":"Do you support conscientious objection?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 19, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Do you or your church support selective conscientious objection and conscientious objection? Answer: Registering for the draft is a government law that does not violate any teaching of God. \"Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1296,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-are-boy-girl-relationships-not-advisable-at-a-young-age\/","url_meta":{"origin":98254,"position":1},"title":"Why are boy-girl relationships not advisable at a young age?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 3, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Why are boy-girl relationships not advisable at a young age Answer: Youth is a time of impatient desires. They want the things available to adults, but adulthood seems so far away. The typical teenage boy enters puberty around the age of 11. The typical teenage girl enters puberty around\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":32196,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-it-a-sin-to-take-out-insurance\/","url_meta":{"origin":98254,"position":2},"title":"Is it a sin to take out insurance?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 20, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Is it a sin to take out medical insurance or legal insurance? Are we rather expected to put our faith in the Lord to take care of those things? Answer: We were taught to pray, \"Give us this day our daily bread\" (Matthew 6:11), but God still commands us\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":37138,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/we-lost-the-surprise-somewhere\/","url_meta":{"origin":98254,"position":3},"title":"We Lost the Surprise Somewhere","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 10, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jeffrey W. Hamilton I remember watching Mayberry RFD and related shows most of my childhood. Poor ignorant Gomer Pyle who worked as an auto mechanic was a notable character. But I can still recall my shock when I found out that Jim Nabors, who played Gomer, could sing --\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Gomer.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":61889,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-book-of-my-life\/","url_meta":{"origin":98254,"position":4},"title":"The Book of My Life","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 23, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jeffrey W. Hamilton Text: Job 19:23-27 \u00a0 I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Each week the paper publishes its list of top selling books \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Sometimes the books are biographies, fictional stories, or fiction placed in historical settings. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0B.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0They hope that others will also purchase the books, if for no other reason than curiosity. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0C.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Many author\u2019s\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Audio"","block_context":{"text":"Audio","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/audio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6988,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/are-there-passages-that-refer-to-the-lords-supper\/","url_meta":{"origin":98254,"position":5},"title":"Are there passages that refer to THE Lord’s Supper?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 2, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: We have been studying the Lord's supper issues and one of our main concerns is about a second offering in which only a few partake, for the reasons you listed in your article (not doing it together). We have been questioning the idea of everyone taking it a second\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98254","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=98254"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98254\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":98257,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98254\/revisions\/98257"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98254"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98254"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98254"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Eli: The Man Who Would Not Restrain<\/h2>\n
Aaron: The Man Who Read the Crowd<\/h2>\n
Saul: The Man Who Feared the People<\/h2>\n
The Priests Who Rejected Knowledge<\/h2>\n
Rehoboam: The Man Who Got the Tone Wrong<\/h2>\n
What It Does to a Congregation<\/h2>\n
The Account Every Shepherd Will Give<\/h2>\n
For Elders and Those Who Would Be<\/h2>\n
For the Congregation<\/h2>\n
\nAnd pray for your shepherds. Pray that they’ll love the word more than their own comfort. Pray they’ll have Eli’s gentleness without his passivity, Ezra’s discipline in study, and the wisdom that the old men offered Rehoboam: to be servants to the people and speak good words to them. Pray that when they stand before the chief Shepherd, they’ll give their account with joy.\n