Do(es) Your (Preacher) Elders Have a Job Description?

A young preacher friend had been with a new church about a month. He called one Monday morning asking, “Do you have a copy of a job description? I think I’m going to need one.”

I had one. I mailed it to him. (This was during the Old Testament before email and messaging). But he was at least five weeks too late. Negotiate expectations and write them before a relationship begins for understanding and to reduce conflict in a relationship.

I find most preachers have job descriptions. I know very few elders who have job descriptions and covenants. For the same reasons it’s good to be clear what’s expected of the preacher, it’s good to be clear about what’s expected of an elder at Anywhere Church of Christ and how elders will relate to each other. The best time to communicate those is before a person is appointed and then disappointed because it wasn’t what he expected or he wasn’t what the other elders thought he would be and do.

Two discussions can reduce bad communications and disappointment: an elders’ job description and an elders’ covenant.

Elder Job Description

The first elders’ job description I remember seeing was in a congregation where I recently led a New Shepherds Orientation Workshop. I was impressed when they shared it with me. They called it: Elder Expectations and Commitments.

I’ve talked with many frustrated elders. When he was appointed, he assumed everyone understood the correct role of elders, shepherds, overseers (which was the way he understood it). Soon after his ordination (first elders’ meeting), he learned otherwise.

Imagine the shock of a shepherd at heart coming to his first, second,…ninety-ninth, and following meetings to discuss roofing leaks, need for a new lawn mower, why members aren’t more involved (showing up for work days, cleaning up after pot-lucks, and turning off lights) with no mention of marriage problems, sin-sick souls, a member who’s been arrested for molesting children, and how we’ll help each of them and their families.

How can shepherds shepherd shepherds and overseers oversee overseers when they’ve never agreed on what they commit to do in their role? This church clarified this by writing Expectations and Commitments.

A job description lists specific expectations of what an elder does at Anywhere Church of Christ. An Elders Covenant records how shepherds promise to relate to each other in and out of meetings.

Elders Covenant

Family (group) rules are usually unspoken, unconscious, unwritten—but understood, and contradictory. A better way is to have our rules (habits, usual ways of behavior) conscious, discussed and negotiated, written (which will aid understanding), and making every effort to cut contradictions.

Every marriage is a mixed marriage. Each partner came from a different family that had different rules about roles, time, money, spirituality, holidays, dress, habits (relating to drugs, alcohol, and tobacco), authority, children, pets, conflicts, family secrets, and feelings and how to deal with them. Understand that—then multiply by two to six—and it’s easy to know why many elderships don’t function very well.

“But we don’t have any conflict. We never disagree about anything.” That’s one of the most significant problems I observe. Many equate disagreement with disunity. They have an unwritten, undiscussed rule: we will never disagree. All but one might as well stay home. If the first to speak always gets his way—because we never disagree—the group is deprived of the wisdom of each man and the wisdom of the group that could be enjoyed as each one expresses agreement and disagreement with respect and love.

That’s the purpose of an elders’ covenant. We agree before we’ve ever disagreed about how we will treat each other in minor and major disagreements.

Here’s one used by a church I know: Elders Covenant.

What have you seen to help in better understanding among elders?

[reminder]