How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord is laid for your faith in his excellent word.

How should elders in the church be chosen?

Well, this tough task can be one of the most divisive issues in our churches today, but does it have to be?

Does God's word give us criteria to help us choose these leaders?

Well, I think you know the answer, and welcome to through the the Bible because in a minute our teacher Dr. J. Vernon McGee is going to take us through the apostle Paul's answer to these questions and he shares wisdom about church leadership from as many years in the pastorate as we dive head first

into 1st Timothy chapter 3.

So grab your Bibles and get ready to study and welcome my friend and through the

Bible's president Greg Harris. So hi Greg we're

glad that you're here. Well thanks Stephen I'm glad to be here. And leading a

church body and even a Christian ministry like through the Bible certainly has its

challenges doesn't it? Oh my goodness yes I will tell people when friends or colleagues when I meet with them.

I know two weeks are the same for me and I love that I don't like to be bored but boy we have a lot of challenges and you know you and I are getting to be a little bit older and

we've passed a few age milestones and we have seen a lot of change in our life haven't we technologically we have seen a lot of change in our life,

haven't we, technologically?

We have.

And the thing that keeps us grounded and not going off track,

I think, is the commitment that we've had,

and you've done a very good job reiterating and driving home to everyone our core

values.

Thank you.

And we've got a whole bunch of them and let's focus on a couple of those today.

Yeah and one of our core values is to offer as many different ways as possible to listen to the whole word taught so that you can find your best way.

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