Thank you for your thoughtful series. It been encouraging to be reminded of our distinctives. This is something we can often take for granted from week to week.

It’s interesting that you would entitle your post “growing elders” because I remember very clearly when Aaron nominated me on behalf of the elders growing was the main adjective he used to describe how I had a come to be qualified as an elder. I contribute alot of my growth to some of the very things you’ve mentioned in your previous posts. Now we haven’t had elders for the majority of my time at 3ABC nor did we have “open” meetings for men to sit through. Nevertheless, there were still strong models of leadership.

As for Sunday nights, those 15 minute talks aren’t easy. They require time management and thoughtful organization. More preparation goes into a 15 minute talk than one would expect. But there is a freedom you have that you don’t in a Sunday morning. And they’re something you have to learn to do well. I think alot of guys realize that after doing their first one. (I’ll never forget my first few.) But it’s amazing to see how these men grow the more they do it. Obviously, they grow in their preaching. But it’s also amazing to see who grows in leadership, which testifies to the fact that leadership and authority accrues to the preacher. Furthermore, these men take feedback from the elders and congregation very seriously. They have an earnest desire to be faithful to the text and see the congregation encouraged.  And that’s the kind of elders I what us to raise up.

We want to be a place where elders can be grown and matured within our congregation. While we have many seminary students as members, they and we do not assume that all of them will be elders. We also don’t assume that all of our elders will be seminary guys. We seek to identify and to help mature elders by giving guys regular opportunities to preach and teach. We do that by pairing guys with current elders to teach Christianity Matters classes, by giving them opportunities to deliver Sunday evening devotions, and by giving a smaller number an opportunity to preach in a morning service. This gives a large group of guys ongoing opportunities to refine skills and to allow the church to speak into their lives regarding their teaching gifts. It’s routinely amazing and gratifying to me how blessed we are as a church to have so many gifted men. It’s also encouraging to know that we have the potential to be a blessing to other churches as our members leave and move on to other churches and places of service. Any present elders or members (send me an email) care to comment on this has helped them?

3ABC is different than most traditional SBC churches and from many contemporary evangelical churches in how we view the Lord’s Day. First of all, some of us like to call it the Lord’s Day. Beyond that though, we view this day as a day set apart for our spiritual edification and worship of the triune God. We begin the day with traditional teaching times (we avoid the term Sunday School) followed by a traditional corporate gathering of the church for worship. Our mornings are like most churches’ mornings.

Where 3ABC is distinct is that we actually come back to church in the evening to end the day in a similar way. It’s fast becoming a relic for a church to have any Sunday evening activity. I would not say that it is required for a church to be considered faithful, but it is beneficial. We find that it has been very helpful for the spiritual nurture of the church and for our worship to gather again on Sunday evenings. What do we do? We gather to sing, to pray for needs of the church and beyond, and to hear again from God’s Word. The evening text we meditate on is usually from the opposite testament than the one we studied in the morning - e.g. NT in the a.m. means we would hear from the O.T. at night — but both texts are always on a similar theological theme.

We prioritize this evening service in our corporate life over other options like one-on-one discipleship, home groups, etc., because we believe that the corporate identity of the church needs to be prioritized and nurtured. As you can see, we value those things (home groups, etc.) too, but the purpose of the corporate life of the church isn’t first to make those other things possible. Those other benefits grow from a healthy and vibrant corporate church life. You’re not part of a family so you can have one close brother or sister — the gift of family life, biological or spiritual, is so much more than that one close relationship.

I posted last night about how we encourage non-elders to attend portions of our elders’ meetings. This morning in my email I received the following, which I am posting since we don’t enable comments:

Bruce,

I just read the 3rd blog where you wrote about elders’ meetings.  I just wanted to agree with everything you said.  It is very encouraging to see the elders work through tough issues and see how y’all love the church.  Plus, the food is awesome.  Thank you for your generosity.

I’ve had some conversations with folks lately about 3ABC for the purpose of helping them understand where 3ABC would fit in the range of Gospel preaching churches here in Louisville. At times I tend to think of us as being very similar to other like-minded churches. The differences certainly are very narrow when compared to other denominations, etc. But, we are still distinct in many aspects of our corporate life and in how we shepherd our members.

One of our goals as a church is to mentor and train elders. We are small and don’t have a lot of formal mechanisms for this yet. One thing that we do is to invite non-elders to our elders’ meetings. Our elders’ meetings can be rather lengthy, and at times even downright exciting. Keith may start pontificating about the Trinity for example, or he may throw my kids toys around. (There is also usually lots of coffee and dessert prepared by my wife.) A few months ago we decided that inviting non-elders to selected portions of our meetings would be a simple way to mentor young men and to help train those who may be preparing for full-time ministry. We thought at first that it would only be Seminary students who were interested in coming. The reality is that we have had many U of L students come also. The conclusion for all those non-elders who’ve come is that this has been one of the most insightful and helpful things for them in understanding how elders practically lead and shepherd the church. It’s small, and it’s simple, but it helps us fulfill what we see as our responsibility to help train future leaders of the church.

I can’t say I had the “college experience” that many young twenties look for when they go off to college. Boyce College just wasn’t that kind of place nor was the community college I graduated from. Maybe Brad and Greg could enlightens us on what that was like from their ivy league towers. I do, however, remember a time, similar to Aaron’s, when I thought the local church had absolutely no bearing on my career decisions. It wasn’t in my framework of thinking to consult members and leaders of my local church.

I think the college students at 3ABC are unique because they have folded themselves into the corporate life of the church. In a season of their life when circumstances lend themselves very heavily toward independence, these faithful brothers and sisters have sought to serve and grow in a community of believers. And that’s exactly what we want. I think there may even be a current trend toward genuine Christian experience and community among young twenty-somethings. Here are a couple of articles worth reading. What Disillusioned 20-Somethings Want and The Young, Restless, Reformed

(Hey, Keith. Don’t you have a class ring with Jerry’s profile on it?)

I appreciated Aaron’s post about the unity of the church in its worship and in our mutual obligation to encourage one another. I had a wonderful moment of encouragement this past Sunday evening that I would love to share.

The encouraging moment was this: observing a U of L student serving in a part of the church where s/he would not be expected to be seen serving. This member went about doing tasks for others that had nothing to do with furthering college ministry or anything that might benefit him/her. I had no idea that this person was doing these tasks, and the way that it was being done told me that this was a very routine act of service. This typifies a general quality that I have seen in nearly all of the university students that have joined the church. Quite remarkably, they do not come only to be served, but also to serve. This is having the mind of Christ, and it is a reason to be deeply encouraged by what God is doing in our fellowship.