Okay, we're back now with our third hour of five.

We have almost finished point number three on the outline called

Biblical Principles of Local Church Governance.

This is, for any of you who are new this morning, this is a Bethlehem Institute seminar entitled Biblical Eldership,

part of a larger class called Issues in Spiritual Leadership,

and different ones of the seminars are given throughout the year, some on Wednesday night,

some on weekend, some on Sunday morning, And you're sure welcome at any of those,

though we certainly would not want to pull you away from your ministry

or your involvement at your local church,

but rather strengthen you for it.

So those right there on the overhead now are the last three of the 11 principles of local church governance.

Keep in mind that these were all articulated back in the mid to late 80s as guidelines

for how Bethlehem would rethink our governance structure

to move us little by little towards a more flexible, lean, ministry-oriented biblical

governance structure. These were not the result of that, but the guidelines for it.

So let's take these last three and then we'll move on to another point.

Feel free along the way like you did last night to get my attention and ask your questions.

If I feel like we're slowing down too much, I'll say so.

But otherwise, I don't want you to misunderstand or I don't want to make a mistake

that should be corrected.

Number nine, spiritual qualification should never be sacrificed to technical expertise.

For example, deacons or trustees or what we call now, and I added this yesterday, financial and property administrators should be men or women.

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