Tim Ellsworth

Last Sunday night I was privileged to speak at Emmaus Road Fellowship, a new congregation that my brother Marty is leading. They’re in the process of becoming a church, and they’re thinking through some important matters as they go down that path.

I addressed the topic of elders in congregational life, and talked a little bit about how things are done at my church. If there was one thing I hope they took away from what I said, it’s this:

Don’t be someone who grumbles about your leaders, and someone who criticizes your leaders, and someone who’s always finding fault in what it is that your leaders do. I’ll say this, if you find yourself in a position where you cannot support the leadership of your church, as long as there is no sin in the leaders, as long is there is not some way that they are sinning that needs to be addressed — but if it’s just an issue that you don’t particularly like this, or you don’t particularly like that — either, number one, shut up, or number two, go someplace else. How many churches would be spared so much heartache and so much division if people would do that?

You can listen to the entire address here.