It’s time that the church expected more from her ruling elders. They are not CEO’s who make decisions behind closed doors. They are godly, gifted men who have been equipped by the Spirit for the work to which they’ve been called. They are to serve as models of what it means to worship in Spirit and in truth. Ruling elders ought to be visible. The church needs them to be visible.

Visibility and Representation

The PCA is at a crossroads when it comes to worship. Who can lead in worship, what they can lead, and what leading actually means are all being hotly debated, especially with a revised and constitutionally binding Directory for Public Worship in the works. On the one side there are those who insist that for the church’s worship to be a true reflection of the priesthood of all believers (1 Pet. 2:5), virtually all believers can and should have a visible, up-front role in corporate worship. This can range anywhere from having non-ordained men leading portions of the worship service, women who read the call to worship and pray on behalf of the congregation, children who read the sermon text, and married couples together distributing the elements of the Lord Supper, saying, “The body of Christ, given for you. The blood of Christ, poured out for you.” And on the other side there are those, like me, who feel like this is all unnecessary.

Pardon my grouchiness for a moment, but the above sounds like participation trophy Presbyterianism to me. Now don’t get me wrong—I wholeheartedly believe in the priesthood of all believers, but that doesn’t make everyone a priest or minister. I rejoice in the fact that we are one body in Christ with diverse and gifted members, all of them needful; but I fundamentally reject that eyes need to do things reserved for ears and feet need to do things reserved for hands in order to demonstrate this unity. “Visibility” in worship is nowhere stressed in the pages of the Old or New Testaments. Worship has always been representative, never democratic (see Korah). By no means am I advocating that we turn the clock back and give Medieval clericalism another go. There’s a reason I’m Presbyterian—I wholeheartedly believe that the Bible commands and commends a plurality of elders ruling together in every church. I loathe the “pastor as CEO” mindset. But, as I scan the American evangelical landscape, I am far less concerned with visibility for [insert sidelined demographic] than I am with the widespread erosion of ministerial authority (many of us have lost our nerve) and congregational submission to church authority (see Twitter). Identity politics have come home to roost in many a Presbyterian and Reformed church and I for one think it is high time to return to the old, simple paths delineated for us in Scripture and that we offer no apologies for doing so. God’s Word is good, right, and enough.

Church Leaders Should Lead in Worship

Which leads me to my novel contribution to the “visibility” and “elevating voices” discourse: we need to make ruling elders visible again. Of all the groups of people in a church that need to be visible, it is the ruling elders. The sheep should be afforded every opportunity to know who their shepherds are. To be sure, worship is not the only place where elders should be seen by the congregation. If all a ruling elder does is lead in the order of service and teach a Sunday school class here or there, he is falling woefully shy of his responsibility to shepherd the flock of God. We don’t have an office of reader in the PCA. Elders need to be at the bedside, graveside, and side-by-side with members of the flock throughout the week.

Nevertheless, it has always struck me as ironic how in churches that button-mash visibility and representation that their elected representatives (viz. elders and deacons) exercise little to no visible leadership in the church’s most vital activity—corporate worship.

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