Eldership Funeral

     After our elders had been serving at Berry‘s Chapel a little more than two years, the congregation was in the process of selecting additional shepherds. At our February meeting, I asked, “Are you going to have a funeral for the present eldership?”. I was asked to explain.

     It has been my observation that when a church appoints new elders, there is not just one or more in the group but a new eldership, a new group that is different from the one that preceded it. I thought it might be appropriate to have a “funeral” for the old eldership—to recognize the death of that leadership group and to anticipate the “resurrection” of a new group.

     After a brief discussion, I did not hear any more until our March leadership meeting. Our elders, Dennis Crowder, Ron Gambill, and Dennis Makins, told me, “We have decided we want to have an eldership funeral and we want you to preach it.” After some discussion, the date was set for April 3.

After visiting the funeral home with a former elder whose step-father had died, we, along with the youth minister, Jeremy Houck, proceeded to a log cabin in Bell Buckle, Tennessee. After getting settled in for the night, we spent about three hours going over the outline:  Eldership Funeral . 

     ...to be continued.