Regional Synod of Canada - Reformed Church in America

Pioneer Christian Monthly

Date - Feb/69

Contributor - T. Hogerwaard

Title - In Preparation Upon The Merger Vote PART 4

Topic - Church In Canada

THE ELDER: the characteristic office of the Reformed-Presbyterian Churches

INTRODUCTION

A. A Scottish lady, born and bred in the Kirk, went to South India and joined the Church there. After some years she wrote about her experiences in that Church, where a group of different Churches had formed one Church - with bishops. She wrote that she had no difficulty at all to get accustomed to a bishop, but what she missed in the new Church were the elders of the Scottish Presbyterian Church.

B. A Dutchman, raised in the Netherlands Reformed Church, spent some time in Germany and attended the worship services of the Lutheran Church. After he had come back to Holland he said what had struck him most was the fact that the minister seemed to do everything, also that part which in the Reformed Churches is looked after by the elders and deacons. In the strict sense of the word the Lutheran Church made upon him the impression of being a "ministers' Church".

C. In the Netherlands Antilles the school inspector visited one of the schools. He was in a bad mood and the teacher had a rough time of it, for after all, the school was a Government school; the ' inspector was the big boss, the teacher had to swallow everything though many things that said by the inspector were not fair at all.

Both inspector and teacher belonged to the Gereformeerde Kerken (comparable with the Christian Reformed Church in this part of the world). But the session of that Church had received a complaint (Well founded) about the irregular sexual life of the inspector, so one day the minister called on him to speak to him about it. He was accompanied by one of his elders and that was the teacher! Now the tables were turned ! The fact that the teacher was subject to the authority of the inspector in school matters did not prevent the teacher from exercising his authority as an elder.

D. The Rev. Veldhuizen was a minister in one of the pagan districts of my home - city Rotterdam (Crooswijk). He wrote several books. In one of them he tells the following story. His father had been a minister for quite a few years when he was appointed professor for New Testament at the University of Groningen. After having been a professor for several years, he was elected an elder in the Church. The morning that he was to be ordained as such was a fine spring morning and his on had chosen this day to play hooky from going to Church. With some friends he had explored the meadows around Groningen: they had tried to jump over the many ditches and because one of them was wider than he thought, he landed right into the water. Dirty and stinking he came home where his father was waiting for him. The father told him what he thought about it but what impressed the son so deeply that he never could forget it afterwards, was that the father said: "And that you had to do that to me on the day that I was ordained as an elder of the Church!" Here was a man who had served the Church as a minister, as a professor of theology and who considered it to be such an honour to be ordained and installed as an elder that he was deeply hurt by the f act that his son, instead of being present, had spent that very Sunday morning in the way just mentioned.

These examples serve to show that the office of elder is a typical reformed institution; that it prevents the Church from becoming a "ministers' Church". that it is missed by those who are accustomed to it, and finally that especially in the office of the elder the fact is expressed that the Church is independent of the State and its officials.

BACKGROUND OF THE OFFICE OF ELDER.

What is the background of the office of elder ? There is a general one and a specific one. First about the general background. In most human societies the government, the ruling power, is divided between two. There is the leader, the chieftain, the king, who either acquires his position by birth or by virtue of courage and ability. But as a rule he is assisted by a group of older men, "the elders" who advise him, support him and sometimes criticize him. The American Senate, the House of Lords, the Dutch "Eerste Kamer" were originally such a group of older and wiser men to assist those who had to do the actual ruling. Especially before Israel had a king the elders were influential. When Boas wanted to settle a legal matter, it was enough for him to take ten men of the elders of the city to settle the matter legally. And it was greatly to his own hurt that Rehoboam neglected the wise words of the older men, to listen to the words of the young men who had grown up with him.

According to the Scriptures it is a sign that it goes wrong with a country when the words of the elders are no longer heeded, when the only important elements in human society are the young ones. So, the institution of elders has in the first place a general background in the history of all the peoples of the world, especially in Israel. That, no doubt, will have played its part when Calvin established the office of elder, specifically the ruling elder as we know him in our Reformed Church government.

BACKGROUND IN THE CHURCH OF THE MIDDLE AGES.

Dr. 0. Noordmans (*) has some things to say about these matters which are worthwhile listening to.

He is of opinion that the fact that Calvin abolished the bishop to put the elder in his place, is of world historic significance. And Calvin certainly would never have agreed with our Theological Commission which wants to see all offices in the Church as "functions" only. The charismatic character which Calvin saw in them is left out too much. Dr. Noordmans points out that especially since the twelfth century the bishops had degenerated into almost purely administrative men, surrounded by ecclesiastical lawyers. There was hardly any contact with the Church-people. The Western Church has always been very much interested in pastoral care. But in the Middle Ages the Sacraments came more to their own than the preaching, also on account of the fact that in those days the R.C. priests had not enough education to prepare a good sermon.

But the people were not left entirely without preaching. The monastic orders stressed preaching and great preachers were found among them (Bertold and Eckart, also Tauler). Not to forget Luther himself ! It is to the credit of the popes, Dr. Noordmans wrote, that they often took the side of the monastic orders against the local priests. "The priests fought for the right of their office and the monastic orders fought for the right of the work they did". (Hauck). According to Dr. Noordmans there is a close relationship between our Reformed Presbyterian Church-order and Paul's Letter to the Romans. It was the Spirit Who called and equipped the deacons for their office which office was not limited to collecting money and handing it out to the needy, but which included preaching and teaching as well. The bishop is characterized by "succession"; the teaching elder (minister of the Divine Word) by the fact that the Spirit calls him and equips him for his task. The men who belonged to the monastic orders, who preached the Word of God, were for Calvin the proto-types of the Reformed ministers. No minister, how big his Church may be and how generous the salary his Church is willing to pay him on account of his "competence" is more than the minister of the smallest and poorest congregation, a fact that is not always sufficiently remembered by those who stress their adherence to our Reformed Church tradition! All ministers are equal in rank. In order to cut off any self-sufficiency in the ministry, any self-importance ("kraft meines Amtes" by virtue of my office, as they say in Lutheran Germany!) Calvin insisted that a minister is only a small man risen from the dust and called to preach. "Those ordained are not to think themselves promoted to. an honour but charged with an office which they are with solemn attestation obligated to discharge". (Calvin.)

On the other hand Calvin saw the ministry of the Word and the Sacraments as God's gifts to the Church; he considered the ministers of the Word (the teaching elders) as successors of the apostles and as bishops. Moreover there is the mystical element, the calling of a man by God's Spirit to the ministry of the Word and Sacraments and connected with it: the equipment which the Spirit gives to those whom He called. We must beware (see Report Theological Commission, chapter: The Nature of the Ministry) that we do not lose sight of that entirely, (otherwise we are left with secularized American efficiency - worship, applied to the Church of Christ, and that might be worse than having bishops!

If this is the background in the Middle Ages of the minister (the teaching elder) what then is the background in the Middle Ages of the ruling elder?

The "laymen" in the Middle Ages had no voice in Church matters, but in their daily life they could express their Christian conviction. They looked after the poor, they took care of the Church buildings, the treatment of the sick, the schools, they were judges, they were guardians of public morals. The activity of those men, with the background of the place which the "elder" had in Biblical times, induced Calvin to push the bishop aside and put "the elder" In. his place. It is also said (and i believe rightly so) that the office of elder is an expression of the fact that Christ rules His Church.

"That the elder was the characteristic man can also be seen from the way in which the Government reacted. The rulers understood right away that with this office in the Name of Christ, Calvin claimed a territory of human life which up till that time had been the sole province of the government. This Reformer considered the succession of Jesus of less importance than the preparation upon Christ's coming. Therefore he was of opinion that there was enough room in the Una Sancta to switch from the bishop to the presbyter, whose office must be understood with an eye upon Christ's coming. For so was this office meant by Calvin, vastly different from the subsequent development of the office of elder in the Reformed Churches." (Dr. 0. Noordmans.)

Therefore it is of prime importance that we keep the office of elder and give him the honour that is due to him. A minister has as his prime task the study of the Word of God, in order to be able to preach it, the administration of the sacraments, the pastoral care and the teaching, especially of the younger ones. B ut the elder - on account of the "worldly way in which he makes his living, has a far wider and deeper knowledge of the business of life (and also of men !) than a minister has or can have. It is therefore very worthwhile for any minister to listen to what the members of his consistory have to say, realizing that there is a variety of gifts but it is the same Spirit. The power which the bishops have, is found in the Reformed Presbyterian Churches with the Classis (Presbytery). Not one man has the final say, but the teaching and ruling elders from all the congregations which comprise a Classis.

Therefore it is not only urgently required that we stand on guard for the office of the elder, but even more for the Classis because there are trends in the present development of Church-government in our Church which cause grave uneasiness with those who begin to see how matters stand. The elders, the ruling elders as well as the teaching elders, are characteristic for the Reformed-Presbyterian Churches, so is the Presbytery (Classis) and the highest body: the General Assembly or General Synod. The Church Reformed According To The Word Of God is not only endangered by bishops, but no less by modern efficiency thinking which would like to organize the Church along business-lines, taking for its example General Electric or Ford Motor Company; reducing the Classes and their members to salesmen who are expected to "sell" the various programs of the Program Board to the congregations. Classis means "fleet"; in serious times Classis had to function as a battle fleet.

The time may not be far off that it will have to be that again, so let us take care that we are ready then and not in the meanwhile have been reduced to salesmen of the General Program Council which assumes the features of the Curia in Rome. No tyranny in the Church of Christ, reformed according to the Word Of God, not in the 16th century and not in the 20th either!

In the office of elder the Lordship of Christ is expressed; we do not need other "lords" in the Church, no matter what their impressive new titles may be!

Christ is Kurios (Lord), He alone

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