Installation of elders and deacons; 長執的按立

Installation of Elders and Deacons

By Rev. Rong-Fu Lu on 6/26/11, translated by Elder Howard Chang

Bible verses: Ephesians 4:7-16

The grandmaster of our reformed church, John Calvin, discussed about church, and said: because we believe in Gospel, Christ is in us and therefore, we receive salvation and everlasting mercy. However, because our own ignorance, laziness, and spiritual emptiness, we need outside help to foster our faith and gradually build it up to the fullness of Christ. Our Lord understands our weakness, and He gave us today’s scripture on Ephesians 4:7 “to each of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it.” This grace is also being given according to the church’s needs.

The church is the outside help. God has sent pastors and teachers to teach His people, and He also assigned various grace to people to help the church to grow in faith, be sanctified, be unified and be harmonious. Today’s Bible scriptures elucidate the importance of God’s arrangement. It is God’s will to gather His children in the surrounding of church. The church not only nurtures the infants and children, but also providesdiscipline through loving care until they become adults with mature faith. John Calvin emphasized that whoever calls the Lord Father will call the church mother, as Apostle Paul proclaimed in Galatians 4:26, church is the New Jerusalem, is the Holy Temple of Jesus Christ, and she is our mother.

Calvin also reminded us that there is a double benefit that the Lord gives various talents and graces to members of the church to run the church instead of sending angels or doing it Himself. First, when we can believe whatever the pastor delivers is from God’s will, it demonstrate our obedience. Second, God knows how weak and fragile we are, so He uses human being as teachers to be the agent to lure us back to His Kingdom. If we don’t have the mediation and need to face God directly, we will all be in awe of His sovereignty and holiness. We will be so afraid that we would offend Him and suffer His mighty wrath. One good example is like during Moses’ time, Israelites did not dare to get close to God and asked Moses to be the medium to communicate with God, and promised that they would abide by the commandments God conveyed through Moses.

Today’s scriptures not only mention pastors and teachers, but also apostles and evangelists to help build the body of Christ, which is the church. In fact, there are also other personnel that mentioned in the Corinthians and Romans, such as those heal illness, those help manage the daily livings, and those provide services, etc. All these are God’s grace to help His people to grow into maturity with unity in faith and experienced the fullness of Christ.

Apostles witnessed Christ personally and they spread gospel to all corners of the earth. Today, their responsibilities are replaced by the missionaries. Prophets are those who have grace to receive God’s instructions directly. We don’t know whether we have prophet at today’s world or not, but this is not that important as Christ has demonstrated the complete revelation from God. In terms of evangelism, it will be the responsibility of every one of us. Calvin believed God had provided these personnel to build up the early church. As the gospel being spread across the globe, there are churches everywhere. Today, it appears that only the pastors and teachers are the necessary parts of the church, but in fact, elders and deacons are the ones provide management and assistance for the church. Since the elders and deacons are the integral parts of the church and they are blessed through Jesus Christ, church members should receive them with thankful hearts and respectfulness from the time they are installed.

Laying on of hands started with Hebrews and the apostles also use it in dedicating someone to service in God, and this tradition was continued throughout the years of Christianity. It is also symbolized that God has passed on the grace through those hands into the one that is being installed.

Laying on of hands also has another 2 purposes. One is to reaffirm to the congregation the holiness of the official position, and the other is to remind the one being installed that he or she is no longer his or her own master. He or she is now dedicating fully to serve God and to serve the congregation. Therefore, all who are called to serve in church, you ought to remember that despite there are people among the congregation who may not just have different ideas or styles but can also be defiant and sometimes even spread rumors against you, they are still members that you need to serve. They are the ones you try to reach out through your loving behaviors and gentle words. Remember, you are installed through Christ to help the church grow to whole measure of fullness.

Let’s think about it. During the old Testaments, prophets did not just lead those who were pious to leave behind the rebellious ones; they also did not worship in different temples. Jesus was the same; He did not forsake His people even when he was crucified. Look around; do you see any elder, deacon, or even pastor, who left because they did not like certain people in the church, became successful in God’s eye? I dare to say, there is none! The reason is simple; pastors, elders, and deacons are installed to lead and teach members of church, they are not there to provide judgment. Splitting the church is not the behavior the Lord likes to see. This principle is not just applicable to the officers that are installed, but also to all members as well. Calvin said if we immediately cut off our relationship with the church when we see someone behave against our judgment or even violate Christian’s belief, we are too prideful.

Calvin often equated pastors to apostles, because they are both spreading gospels and also because they are very mobile. No matter in the early churches or today’s churches, the elders and the deacons are generally from local area, but the pastors (apostles) are frequently coming from afar. Pastors also have terms and are time limited, despite Presbyterian churches try to use installation to extend their stay to help them to be localized, the mobility of pastors is still immense. Therefore, the responsibility of taking care of the church will always fall upon the elders and deacons who are from local. I hope all the elders realize their importance.

Lord Jesus once said that church is like a fish net which caught all kinds of fish. When the net was full, the fishermen pulled it up on the shore and separated them. (Matthew 13:47-48) Each of us has different talents and different needs; therefore, at times there would be mismatch between the pastor’s talents and the needs of the church. Whether to issue calls on pastors or to extend terms, the consistory should base its decision, utmost and foremost, according to the needs of the church. Remember the installation of various offices is for the need of the church, not the other way around.

At the same time, members of church can not make baseless complaints against the pastor because of difference in view points and even left the church. Bible tells us that “God is not a God of disorder but of peace”. (I Corinthians 14:33) If there is any disagreement, we need to follow the order. We have bylaws for the church and we also have Book of Church Order from RCA to help sort out our differences. Remember, pastors and teachers are the outside help that God has bestowed upon us, you are the church! May our Lord keep blessing this church, Amen!