That’s not to say ALL abandoned homes are sad.  I’ve never driven past a trailer park filled with vacant trailers and felt anything akin to sorrow.  Nothing against trailers or those who call them home, it’s just that trailers are utilitarian things and were never meant for beauty.  The same cannot be said, however, for the abandoned and decaying homes one sometimes stumbles across in one's travels.  On the odd occasion passing through a strange neighborhood it may only take a casual  glance at some ancient place wilting and sagging in the noonday sun to inform the passerby that once upon a time this was a stately place.  Once upon a time it was beautiful.  Once upon a time, long ago before unforeseen circumstances led to its peeling paint, spongy porch and broken windows, this was a place of greatness…   In such circumstances even the causal passerby might be tempted to shed a tear or two for what once was but now is not. 

 According to Spencer evangelicalism will soon become a house deserted for the following reasons:

• its unneccesary identification with social and political conservatism and the so-called “culture wars”
• its failure to pass on to evangelical young people an orthodox form of faith that can take root and survive
• its inability to produce, through Christian education, a people who can withstand the rising tide of secularism
• its ministries increasingly coming into conflict with a secular society that sees “good works” as “bad”
• its failure to pass on to its own children an evangelical confidence in the authority of Scripture
• its excess of debt and dwindling sources of revenue 

Those are Spencer's thoughts in a nutshell...  and there is something very disturbing about them.

Someone reading this might ask me - why raise this gloomy issue at all?

Here's why...

​To begin with I am part of the Reformed tradition...  and while most American evangelicals consider the Reformed tradition to be (at best) a kind of eccentric and stogy step-cousin, to the evangelical family, I nevertheless have a great deal of heartfelt sympathy for my evangelical brethren.   It would grieve me tremendously to one day see the great house of evangelicalism lying in ruins.  Furthermore, I prayerfully hope that the problems highlighted by Spencer (assuming they are accurate) can be corrected within the evangelical community and that Christ will graciously protect it from any and all self-destructive errors.  But over and above all of this, I recognize what I hope all Christians reading this post will recognize regardless of the theological tradition from which they come – namely, that the errors which plague one part of Christ’s Body today might easily plague another part tomorrow. 
 
Let us earnestly consider how Spencer’s argument might apply to us and let us humbly ask the Lord of the Church to correct our own in-house errors so that we -  along with all of the household of God - might be strengthened in Christ for His glory and never fall into dereliction. 

However, the Lord Jesus makes it clear that such rulers were not and are not models for leadership, especially Christian leadership.  In fact Jesus, Himself, is our leadership model.  He is the one that exemplifies Christian service.
 
   "(Jesus Christ) who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross."  
(Philippians 2:6-8, ESV)

It is always helpful to remember that gospel work is global work.  We are not alone in our little corner of the world but we have a multitude of partners - some of whom are in heaven while others are spread throughout the four corners of the world.

When later I came to learn that Peter was studying to become a pastor and that his future plans included marrying that young piano-player and planting a church in his native Inverness, I recognized that he had an unusual amount of wisdom and foresight.  Both the marriage and the church-plant seemed like good moves (though to me the latter seemed more attainable than the former.) 

As a matter of fact, I liked Peter so much that I actually had plans to bring him on staff at my church as a ministry partner while he finished up his theological training.  Though providentially this never came to pass the prospect did give me multiple occasions to get to know Peter better and to be inspired by his zeal for the gospel. 

Then time did its work.  Peter and that piano player got married (I sat in a small rural church in Northern Ireland and witnessed the nuptials with my own eyes.)  They started a new life together.  About that same time I was called to a church 3,500 miles away from Scotland and along with my wife and children left the UK.  We settled down into our new routine together...  and as often happens Peter and I more or less lost touch...  And then today I was sent a link to the website of Living Hope Church - a new church plant in Inverness, pastored by Peter Rennie.  This news has come as a great encouragement and it has reminded me once again that gospel work is global work. The same Lord who has guided us in the planting of All Souls Church in a little place called Green Camp, Ohio has guided Peter and Anne in the planting of Living Hope Church in a big place called Inverness, Scotland.  

What a great God we serve!

To Peter, Anne, and the flock of Living Hope Church; we thank God for you!  We will pray for the success of your work.  We will pray that under your ministry the saints will be perfected even as the lost will be saved.  We will pray that the hand you have laid to the plow will remain on the plow....  

And we will do all of this with the firm conviction that we, here in this corner of the world, are greatly blessed to be your partners in the gospel. 

Why is it that we in the Church often times choose our leaders in stupid ways?  We have empty positions (elder, deacon, trustee, etc.) and we are much more interested in who is willing to fill these position than who is qualified to fill them.  Moreover, we don't seem to have any strategy to help people become qualified.  Is there any other organization in the world that operates like this and expects to survive?

Can you imagine the Fortune 500 company that says to its employees:

  “Hands up anyone who wants to volunteer for leadership…  we’ve got a few open slots to fill?”

And yet this is exactly how many churches - particularly small churches - go about choosing their leaders.  And larger church aren't doing much better.  They typically tend to have budgets big enough to cobble together a multimember "professional" staff to oversee the various niche ministries offered by their respective church.  While this might serve a pragmatic end and meet the needs of a large and diverse congregation one wonders if this approach more or less bypasses the biblical mandate to "equip the saints to do the work of the ministry" (Ephesians 4:12).

With these things in mind I want to suggest that any church, large or small, need only look to the bible to find a reliable leadership model.  Nowhere in the Bible will anyone find that church leadership is merely about filling slots - regardless of whether those slots are filled by volunteers or professionals.   We are never to merely fill slots!  Church leadership is a serious matter and thankfully God has not left us in the dark about it.  In the Bible we draw out the following basic principles about leadership in the local church - they are to be detected, developed, and deployed. 

                               Let me explain:

1)   Detecting:  The elders and pastor of a local congregation should actively be on the lookout for perspective new elders and deacons to join them in the shepherding care of God's people.

2)   Developing:  Each local church should have a well designed mechanism for mentoring and training perspective leaders in various areas including – the biblical qualifications for leadership (I Timothy 3 & Titus 1), the doctrinal standards and distinctives of the church, and the organizational and operational norms of local leadership.

3)   Deploying:  Men who are qualified to lead and who are trained to lead must be turned loose to lead.



Since All Souls Church is a fairly new church plant we needed to come up with a strategic program to help us accomplish these things - and we did so!  Early in the Autumn of 2014 we launched a nine month course of study called F.I.O.T. (the Fraternal Institute for Officer Training).  Our inaugural class is almost halfway through their coursework this year and they are doing excellent work.  I have been both encouraged and blessed in the fellowship I have shared with my F.I.O.T. brothers.

The stated rationale for F.I.O.T. is as follows:

Our belief is that if All Souls Church is to be governed by Biblical and Reformed principles, and is to continue in its commitment to the faith once for all delivered to the saints, then it is necessary that all men seeking the office of elder or deacon should be committed to Christ, His Word and the church.  Therefore FIOT will seek to accomplish two things. 

 1)   It will equip perspective office-bearers to serve, if elected, with all of the knowledge and resources necessary for the fulfillment of the office.  

2)   It will ensure that all potential elders can make an honest, informed, and wholehearted affirmation of their ordination vows if and when they are given the opportunity.

Some people might say that a 9 month course of study is a little much...  but in my opinion it beats the pants off the "hands up whoever wants to lead" model of church leadership!