Robin,

It is quite remarkable that you ask this question at this time. Yesterday the elders in our congregation had a morning long meeting to again talk about our calling as elders and to discuss the practical aspects of being elders. And your question about training of elders is something that I also have thought about. I am not going to try to explicitly answer your question. Rather I will tell how it works and have worked in our denomination for many years. And then in the evening service earlier tonight the sermon was also about the elders.

Let me start to say that perhaps the central texts in the NT that refers to duties and character of the elders are 1 Peter 5:1-4, 1 Tim 3:1-7 and Titus 1:5-8. Paul's address to the elders of the church in Ephesus in Acts 20:17-37 also gives us direct hints as to the duties of the elders. Perhaps the main duty of the elders is to shepherd the flock of God.

We have a special formulary that is read with the ordaining of elders. The duties of the elders are (try to translate freely from Afrikaans and to shorten it a bit): (1) That there is good order in the church and that the Word and sacraments are presented regularly and that the sacraments are kept holy. The elders should see that the ministers of the Word (ordained pastors), other elders and deacons faithfully do their duties and to assist the pastor with good advice. (2) The elders should see to it that the members of the church live according to the faith they profess. (3) In particular should the elders oversee that the minister of the Word keeps to the pure doctrine and that their lives testify of the Godly calling. To see to it that no false doctrine is being taught.(4) Should partake in evangilization.

Okay, that's already a lot said. The question is how does it work in practice. Two things: (1) It is said that in the 1850's when our churches separated from the old Cape Dutch Reformed Church due to false doctrine that was contained in certain hymns and preached by some ministers, it was the elders who were the first line of defence. I can say that since the 1850's there has been no split in our churches. (2) There is no formal training of elders.

In practice, elders in our churches are expected to do house visitations of the church members. We have wards and each elder has a ward with 6 - 10 families. This makes that there are perhaps too many elders. Even though there are some negative points that we can raise against this system, it does have the one positive effect of the elders knowing the people in the church. And four times per year we have to report at an elders' meeting on the members in our ward.

As for the lack of formal training I am not sure whether it still is a good thing not to have formal training. Now the fact that we didn't had a split in our churches for 150 years can, I think, on the one hand be ascribed to the fact that the elders have as their to duty to see to it that false teaching is not preached. This means that the elders certainly has to have good knowledge of the reformed doctrine. I am treading on thin ice when I say that I suspect that more than 50 years ago the elders in our churches had a better idea of reformed doctrine than most elders today.

However, I think over the last decade or so things have changed a lot for the churches in SA. You mention liberalization. There defintely are new forces at work in our churches that has not been there for many years. I think churches in the US and Europe have been much more under attack of liberalism than what has been the case in South Africa. Now, all of a sudden we are confronted with the very subtle things that came with post-modernism. And I am not sure whether the elders are equipped to identify these very subtle things. I don't say that I am properly equipped either.

Within our local church I would say that we have some really "good" elders. In fact recalling yesterday's meeting I think I can say with a clear conscience that each of the elders love our Lord Jesus Christ in whose service we stand. But I feel worried that not all of us have a similar understanding of what the authority of Scripture really mean or should mean. As I already said in some of my first posts on this board last year, the issue of women as elders is on the table at our next synod. And then there is the matter of church music on which we also don't have the same opinion. I ask myself why this is so. I have no facts but I am pretty sure that 50 - 100 years ago most elders had the same opinion on these matters. I am therefor really struggling with myself that I struggle to understand the statements made by some elders. Sometimes it feels to me that I am the only one that holds an orthodox position. And I don't think I hold such a position simply because I am old fashioned and want to keep up the tradition but rather that I am convinced that the Lord does not accept any arbitrary form of worship where secular ideas have been imported.

At the moment then my view is that unless elder training is strictly done within some well defined doctrinal boundaries there will always be tension and I am not sure whether that is good for the congregation. I think I have in an earlier post also mentioned that there are elders who are Purpose Driven fans and one who have no problem with Robert Schuler and many of the TBN preachers.

There is still a lot more that can be said but I'd rather leave it at this point hear what others have to say.

Johan