So you want to be an elder...

At the Reformed Catholicism Blog (don't let the title throw you- they have good stuff!) there is a great article entitled "Guide for Elder Wannabes". The theme is suggestions for those wanting to enter the ministry or other forms of Christian leadership. It's a great, counter-intuitive list that contradicts so much of evangelical tradition. The whole list is great, but let m call you attention to a couple of the points.

1) Find the janitor in your church and offer to help him with his responsibilities–take the majority of them over if you can. Do the work he’d rather not do. If your church doesn’t have a janitor, volunteer to take over the work in addition to other gainful employment you may already (hopefully) have. Hopefully, you’ll be in a church where there is either a lot to vacuum or mop. Use this time to meditate on God’s Word and how you can work humbly for others. If you’re blessed enough to be the janitor of a church, don’t take any money that the church would like to give unless they insist. If they do pay you, give everything back on Sunday in the offering and don’t ever talk about it. Or, use a portion to buy good books or music for later study.

2) Do not go directly to seminary out of college or do not go to seminary at all. Spend two or three years working and saving money. Having a job while going to college doesn’t count and don’t pretend you work as hard as the average man just because you’re going to college on your own and paying for it by working in the meantime. Don’t quit this post-college job until you’ve gotten good enough at it to be promoted a couple of times. Realize that your job in the ministry is to deal with people who have to put up with everything you’d put up with in these couple of years and more–much more.

3) Remember that being ordained really doesn’t do anything except confirm what is already a reality in your ministry–that is, if you even have a ministry or a reality that encompasses real ministry. Understand that the men who ordain you are just men and you all together don’t add up to anything more than the one elderly lady in the back of the church who can’t always make it because of her health but the prayers she offers to God after a life of service make her among the most important in your church.

11) Live the lifestyle of a mendicant monk, but treat your wife like a queen. Don’t make her financially support you through school. Do it yourself even if it takes three years longer than it would otherwise. Christ gave Himself up for the church and ministers should do likewise in spades for their wives.

My wife liked the last one. I think a very wise man wrote this. Wish it could be more widely read. This blog describes itself as "A continued conversation about a catholicity that remains consistent with early Reformed theology and the creedal orthodoxy of ancient times." Interesting concept!