When I started this blog a year ago, I said I wanted to write about whatever I'm wrestling with and see where it leads. The problem was that I wrestle with so many different things that I wasn't sure how to group it all together into one clear direction.
- One week it's about marriage dynamics.
- Asset management principles the next.
- Leadership in business and the family.
- Building a business.
- Coaching frameworks.
- Spiritual growth.
- Family rhythms.
I felt like I was somewhat exploring disconnected territories. I knew it all tied together besides just the fact that I'm deeply interested in those things, but I couldn't clearly identify the through-line.
But then two weeks ago, I went to a YouTube conference. One of the speakers encouraged people to describe their content with just one word.
As I thought about what my one word might be, it hit me almost at once:
Eldership
The Word We Don't Understand
I realize "elder" conjures up images you'd rather avoid. Maybe you picture the guy who passes the offering plate at church. Or your grandfather shuffling through retirement. Or perhaps even a Mormon missionary.
But that's not what I'm talking about.
Biblical eldership has everything to do with maturity and wisdom gained through years of life experience and the ability to pass it on to the next generation. It's about men who lead their households well, who know how to manage and govern, and who have a reputation for living righteously in their community. Men who, as Scripture puts it, "sit at the gates" where earned authority is passed on.
Last week, I wrote about wanting to become a Proverbs 31 husband. That passage is typically read about our wives, but in verse 23, it also describes a man whose influence extends from his household into the city.
More about that in a future post, but here's the point for today: I finally discovered the thread that connects it all together.
The Progression Nobody's Teaching
Here's what's been crystallizing for me: there's a deliberate developmental pathway that Scripture assumes but our modern Christian culture has completely lost. It's this, which is now my new tagline for the blog and podcast:
From father in the home to elder in the city to ruler in the Kingdom.
In 1 Timothy 3:1 Paul tells Timothy (the irony of the name is not lost on me) this:
The saying is trustworthy: If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task.
The word "overseer" is synonymous with the word "elder," and I want that noble task. It's a worthy, noble endeavor that's worth pursuing.
Where does it start? Paul keeps going and talks about character traits, including his family. Paul says he must be "the husband of one wife" and able to "manage his own household well... for if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God's church?" (1 Timothy 3:2-6)
The progression starts with faithful governance of your household. Can you lead your family well? Can you manage your resources wisely? Can you cultivate righteousness in the small sphere you've been given? This is the training ground.
Because household management is the qualification for city influence. Paul isn't talking about a church building or an organization – he's talking about the body of believers in a city (i.e. Paul writes to the church at Ephesus, Philippi, Colossae, Laodicea, Galatia, Rome, etc.).
I prove faithful in my home, and I'm entrusted with the city. I prove faithful in the city, and I'm being prepared to rule in the Kingdom.
In Luke 19 Jesus is just about to descend the Mount of Olives on the donkey. Verse 11 says, "they supposed that the kingdom of God was to appear immediately," so Jesus tells a story. He tells of a master who left to inherit a Kingdom and entrusted three servants to manage His resources. When He returns, He finds two of them were faithful with their governance.
And he said to him, ‘Well done, good servant! Because you have been faithful in a very little, you shall have authority over ten cities.’
And to the second guy who was entrusted with fewer resources, the same thing:
And he said to him, ‘And you are to be over five cities.’
Jesus is saying that faithful stewardship in this life directly qualifies us for governmental authority in His Kingdom.
In my opinion, His reference to "cities" isn't metaphoracal. I'll unpack this passage more in a future post, but I'll suffice it to say for now that this is the pattern of authority progression throughout Scripture. Present-day management skills are training for future rulership over cities in the Kingdom. The father who governs well in his home is becoming the elder who leads well in his city and later becomes a ruler who will reign well with Christ in the Kingdom.
This Changes Everything
With this perspective,
- Marriage becomes training in partnership and authority. My relationship with my wife is the lab where I learn complementary leadership.
- Business becomes more than revenue generation. It's where I develop judgment, cultivate assets, create value, and exercise governance at increasing scale.
- Asset management isn't just about building wealth. It's stewardship training so I'm prepared to rule cities in the Kingdom to come.
- Leadership and coaching emerge naturally from engagement with others rather than existing as authoritative skills. I lead because I'm responsible for helping others achieve what they couldn't on their own.
- Faith isn't compartmentalized from "real life." It's the integrating force that shapes how I exercise eldership in every sphere.
These aren't separate interests competing for attention. They're aspects of a single calling: the formation of becoming a man who governs righteously at increasing levels of influence.
What I'm Building Now
I love this because I'm no longer exploring seemingly disconnected topics here on my blog.
Ironically, this perspective is one that I wrestle with literally every day. I'm not sure why the blog connection didn't happen earlier, but hey, here we are. Once it all clicked, the content around this topic flowed out of me. In the past two weeks, I've drafted 12 posts with 90 more ideas queued.
Launching the, "Elder My City," Podcast
I love writing because it forces me to wrestle with each idea and articulate it well, but verbal processing often helps me take a big, raw idea and mold it into something useful that challenges me.
So sometimes I'm going to wrestle through these ideas in audio form on my podcast, Elder My City, (yes, I turned "elder" into a verb on purpose) in order to cut away the rough edges of these ideas before I attempt to articulate them clearly in writing. You can get an idea of what this is like by listening to the audio podcast that's available at the top of this post.
It's a way of inviting you into the messy process of formation. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
Join Me
If you've been following my sporadic writing this past year, this shift might feel sudden, but to me, it's not. It's the natural progression of assembling a lot of different ideas into one bigger purpose: the noble task of becoming an elder, first in my home, then in my city, and one day in the Kingdom.
Let's become the kind of men our families and cities need while we eagerly anticipate the Master's return. The pursuit in our homes today with the sphere of influence we've already been given.
