1. Their Appointment.
    • They are gifted, grown, and ultimately appointed by the Lord through the Holy Spirit, as they are endowed with Christian maturity, knowledge, and the skill of being able to teach God’s Word.After this, or often alongside this process, the existing elders of their congregation recognize their qualities, and they, possessing a burning desire and ambition to oversee the brethren, come to an agreement with the elders that the Lord has called them to fill the role of overseer.
    • Following recognition, encouragement, and evaluation of the character and gifts of those being led into the eldership, their congregation is called to bear witness to their own experience of the candidate’s giftedness and qualifications, and the congregation is to approve of the appointment, and submit to the prayerful decision of the elders.
  2. Their Operation.
    • In obedience to the Chief Shepherd, such newly appointed overseers are to diligently engage in the leading, teaching, encouragement, counseling, warning, correcting, and rebuking of their non-elder brethren. Because they speak God’s Word, the congregation is under obligation to obey their teaching insofar as they teach according to Jesus and the apostles. This teaching is the spiritual food for the flock. They aren’t simply to regularly teach, but to laboriously and fastidiously teach to the point of exhaustion.
  3. Their Counterfeits.
    • In spite of all efforts to ensure that men appointed to the oversight are qualified and truly called to that office, the Lord and the apostles promised that some men would fill such roles illegitimately, without having been gifted or called by Him. These are the thieves, robbers, wolves, and even mistaken people who fill the oversight to the detriment of their followers. First, there are those who are fake teachers, and motivated by sinful desires and ambitions. They seek to use the leadership office in order to gain money, popularity, praise, and comfort for themselves, at the expense of the congregations which they oversee. However, there are also those who have sincere motives for the betterment of the brethren, but are usually compelled by the foolish encouragements and actions of others to fill a role they have no business exercising. This is often the case for our modern conception of “the ministry” or “the pastorate,” which is viewed as a paid, professional, official, separated, hierarchical position, as if another type of hired occupation. Such an office or man is never approved of, or instituted by any of the apostles, except to condemn such a worldly view of leadership. Jesus does this in His teaching on what it means to be great among His disciples. He shows them that the greatest leaders are those who view themselves, and act as though, they are the humblest of slaves, appointed by the Lord to serve their brethren through the leadership gifts, but primarily and consumingly for the good and benefit of their followers. They merely trust the Lord to reward their labors, without unjustly compelling or pressuring their brethren to compensate them, or to honor them as men in some distinct class from themselves. They first and foremost view themselves as servants and slaves to their brethren, in imitation of their humble Master.
  4. Their Duties.
    • As previously noted, the first duty of a true Christian shepherd is to submit Himself to His calling and role with the humble attitude of a slave to his brethren. He must recognize that he isn’t inherently better than his brethren, but equal to them in the family of God. He simply has been gifted, called, and appointed to fill the invaluable and foremost role of leading a flock of God. In order to do this, they have been entrusted with several other duties. Most importantly, to the end of leading their brethren to the spiritual food of God’s Word, they must give their attention to the study, understanding, application, practice, and regular teaching of Scripture. This isn’t to be confined to any official, set time, of delivering some monologue, nor to merely leading Bible studies or classes, but to the spontaneous, personal, ongoing, and regular teaching of God’s Word, and the personal encouragement and counseling of their less mature brethren. This shouldn’t only be carried out from a mere sense of duty, but motivated by a deep, fervent, and passionate love and affection for their needy and immature brothers and sisters. Of course, at all times, they must recognize that they must give an account on judgment day for the way they treated their brethren as those given the grave responsibility of watching over their spiritual lives, and striving to promote their growth into the perfect image of Jesus.
    • Such a task demands that elders be the prime examples of selflessness, self-sacrifice, and costly and exhausting love and service for the benefit, growth, and joy of their less mature brethren.
  5. Their Domain
    • The last thing I want to highlight is that the role of elders in no way makes them owners of their brethren, nor gives them the right to exert undue, domineering, selfish, or arrogant authority over them. They must at all times view their brethren as belonging to Jesus, and being His flock. Their first responsibility is to endeavor to exemplify what it means to be the best follower of the Lord possible. And this should be the delight of their souls, not a grudging duty forced upon them. Nor should they be motivated by a desire to receive material reward for their labors, but by the longing to receive spiritual and eternal reward at the last day. Finally, they shouldn’t let their non-biblical preferences or eccentricities motivate them to bar any true sheep from following their leadership, and being a member of the flock, but should have compassion and affection for all who obey the voice of the Chief Shepherd.