A Pilgrimage Of Faith, J.B. Toews, 1993

s on the council of elders to lead the church and share the responsibility for the flock. The Old Testament references to the elders of Israel (Num. Il:l6,17,24f0 provided the basis for this belief. In the min- istry of Jesus they recognized the inner circle of the three dis- ciples as symbolic of the council principle. Acts 11:30, 14:23, 15:4, 15:6, 15:23 and the continued reference in the epistles to 62 LEADERSHIP AND THE TEACHING MINISTRY uthe elders of the church" (Phil. 1:1, Titus 1:5, James 5:14, 1 Pet. 5:1) suggested a model of leadership shared by a plurality of equals.28 The people chosen for these leadership roles were to be those who had the Spirit of God (Num. 11) and the New Testament qualifications as defined in 1 Timothy 3. The Confession of Faith further addressed the function of leadership: "In the household of the M. B. Church the order obtains, that one elder or a substitute for the elder acts as moderator of local churches and leader. The other ministers are his co-workers."29 Until recently, leadership always came from among the ministers of the congregation, The 1951 General Conference decision underlined this longstanding principle: The appointment of brethren to the leadership of the church, who are not ministers, shall only be considered in such cases where a church has no minister, or where there is no one of them qualified for such a position . . . . As soon as the church again has a minister brother quali- fied for the leadership, the church should transfer such re- sponsibility to him.30 This manner of selecting leadership remained a practice for the first eighty-five years of Mennonite Brethren history. The strength of this unsalaried, multiple ministry can be seen in the following areas: 1. The ministers engaged in gainful occupation could identify with members' daily experiences as farmers, teachers, businessmen, craftsmen and in some cases even as household servants. The theological framework of their preaching was not academic and propositionaL They interpreted the Word from the platform of mutual experience. Their illustrations emerged from the life of the community, just as the teachings of Jesus contained illustrations drawn from the culture of his time. The strength of that communal identification of minis- 63 A PILGRIMAGE OF FAITH ters and people can hardly be overestimated, 2. They knew the people in their daily lives, including their individual and corporate strengths and failings. Most of the ministers lived with and served their churches over a peri- od of decades. They addressed