Monday, April 11, 2011

Widows and Elderly

Pastoring a church would be easy if the preacher didn’t have to deal with people. I was talking to someone about that the other day. There are a lot of preachers who retire, but they go right on preaching. Once you’ve done it a while, the preaching is second nature, but these retired preachers don’t have to deal with the people issues so much. In I Timothy 5:1-16 Paul gets off in to how to deal with people.
First, treat elders with respect. Don’t rebuke him, but give him the same kind of respect you should give your father. The elder women as mothers. The younger men and women should be treated like brothers and sisters. A church isn’t a business and it shouldn’t operate like one. A church is like a family. The pastor isn’t in charge; the pastor is to lead.

Second, take care of the widows. It’s natural for a church to have widows. Men often die before their wives. It is the church’s responsibility to take care of these women, but Paul makes a distinction between the widows who really need help and those that don’t. The young widows ought to remarry. The widows who have children and grandchildren to take care of them should be taken care of by their children and grandchildren. Those who don’t should be taken care of by the church, but only if they are faithful servants of Christ and they are at least sixty years old.

We shouldn’t be wasting church resources on people who don’t really need the help, but when people need help we should find a way to help them.