Almost five years ago I taught a series on the Marks of a Maturing Church. Hopefully I don’t need to defend the virtue of a growing church; individual believers (Colossians 1:28) and local bodies (Ephesians 4:15-16) should mature in Christ. Those messages aimed to identify the signs of healthy growth in order for us to give thanks for the good we see and also to spur a desire in us to develop any areas we see that are weak. We are, after all, Reformed and still reforming.

A pastor’s responsibility includes reminding believers and, on the Sunday of our annual affirmation of elders and deacons, it seemed like a good time to go over the first mark. A maturing church has leaders who are godly and growing. There are a couple additional reasons why I thought this would be appropriate.

First, I’ve been thinking about leadership in a couple spheres, including home and nation as well as in the church. Not everything overlaps or applies equally in all spheres, but there should be some spill over. Leaders need to know where they’re leading and develop a plan to get there. Christian leaders also need to lead in a Christian way. Character matters, and so does justice.

When one rules justly over men,
ruling in the fear of God,
he dawns on them like the morning light,
like the sun shining forth on a cloudless morning,
like rain that makes grass to sprout from the earth.
(2 Samuel 23:3–4)

“Leaders” includes more than elders. I mean this mark to apply first to elders/pastors/shepherds, but not only to that group of men. Elders should be the primary example, but the example is meant to be followed. Deacons likewise must meet certain requirements. So again, the mark of godly and growing leaders starts with the elders, but it branches out through every man, husband and father, who leads his home, and by application those who lead groups of any size, including moms when dad is gone.

Second, I’ve been thinking about my final Brown Paper Passage and 1 Timothy 4:15-16 is on the short list. By preaching it today, I can still choose another one.

In 2003 a group of us were at the Shepherds’ Conference when Eric Alexander preached 1 Timothy 4:16. God used that verse—I don’t really remember anything specific from the sermon—to prick my conscience the way a jackhammer pricks a slab of concrete. Since then it has been a regular reference point that I return to.

Paul wrote to his disciple Timothy, a young man likely in his mid to late thirties. Paul gave instructions for Timothy to help establish the church in Ephesus. There was some possibility that his leadership might be rejected, or at least held in suspicion, since he was young. Chapter four verse 12 tells him what kind of platform to build for his ministry to stand on. There are certain things that people in the church should look for, the kinds of qualities that establish credibility. If Timothy did these things, no one would have a reason to look down on him.

These aren’t, however, qualities that are only good for beginners. These are an example for believers, for all of them, at any age. These are the sorts of things Christians are, just as the list in chapter three for elders and deacons don’t describe Super Christians but Christians acting like Christians faithfully. Again, they should be pursued by everyone in the church.

Timothy should set an example, a type, for the believers in word, conduct, love, faith, and purity. His speech, his life, his heart, his hope, and his holiness should lead the way. He should get out in front and show the pattern.

In his public leading of worship, the Scripture was most important (verse 13): read the Bible (mostly the Old Testament at that point), exhort from the Bible and teach doctrine from the Bible. Scripture is powerful for salvation and sanctification, so he should pull the sword out of the scabbard.

He was also supposed to remember his ordination by the elders (verse 14).

And now verse 15.

Practice these things, immerse yourself in them, so that all may see your progress. (1 Timothy 4:15)

A variety of English translations try to capture the spirit of the idea in Greek. Practice…immerse. He is to “take pains…be absorbed in them” (NAS), “give [himself] entirely to them” (NKJV), “occupy [himself]…be wholly in them” (DRBY). Let these things—all of the instructions in chapter four—occupy your attention. It could be: “care for…be in them.” This is Paul’s appeal for whole-hearted occupation, to be entirely absorbed and engrossed, to be wrapped up in these things.

The reason is key: so that all may see your progress. Advance. Grow. Make sure there is development. Of a nature that your ”progress may be evident to all” (NAS). Make it manifest, something decisive. Negatively: don’t become stagnant, don’t choose to stay where you are, don’t become satisfied and think you’ve arrived. It shouldn’t be hard for others to notice.

As a young person, progress proves something. Why wouldn’t it also do that for an older person? This is one of the reasons we expect leaders who are godly and growing. Some leaders build a ceiling for themselves and then get nervous when anyone gets near it. They stifle growth by defending their own failure to grow. It discourages those who, without intending to oppose they leaders, keep bumping into resistance from them.

If a man isn’t yet complete in Christ, he can make progress. If a man doesn’t yet have interest in all of the things that Christ does, he can still make progress. The Bible is a big book, the world has a lot of things to explore, and sin lurks in hard to see places in our hearts. It may feel like approaching the speed of light, and the more you know the more you realize that you don’t know, and more righteousness reveals how wretched you are. So make progress.

This is part of being an example. Do you want your kids to believe in their difficult situation? Then believe in the midst of yours. Do you want people to hunger for the Word, to thirst for righteousness? Don’t just tell them that they should, show them. Expect leaders to be growing, making progress. Then expect them to want the same for you.

The same Greek word translated as “progress” is used in Philippians 1:25. Paul writes to the believers that he wants to go and be with Christ but that Christ wanted him to stay for now and work. Here was his work:

I know that I will remain and continue with you all, for your progress and joy in the faith (Philippians 1:25)

There are two connected things about faith: it should progress and there should be joy in it. Christians should be advancing in faith, or in “the faith,” maturing in their joy. They are becoming a kind of people.

Memorized verses can be counted. Sunday attendance earns stickers in the spreadsheet. But measuring— wanting and developing, and repenting from a lack of—progress and joy in faith? That’s hard, but that’s the goal.

Leadership is systemic, it affects the entire system to which it is attached. All the parts of the body are connected and affected. Leaders should be showing what progress looks like and gladly helping others grow in the same.

Part of our annual elders’ review requires us to answer if we believe that we are making visible progress and, of course, the other guys are part of the observers.

Do you want to be taken more seriously at home? At work? Do you have desires for those around you to develop? Then give yourself to making progress. Want to grow and do something about it. Stop coasting.

Verse 16 repeats and extends.

Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers. (1 Timothy 4:16)

In conduct and doctrine: keep a close watch, “pay close attention” (NAS). Paul gave a similar imperative to the Ephesian elders in person in Acts 20:28 (from which Richard Baxter’s pen pulled a whole book). Keep on paying attention because souls depend on it.

The leader’s own salvation is at stake, as well as those who hear him. This doesn’t contradict with other clear statements in Scripture. A leader cannot save himself by himself, let alone save others by himself. Instead, every leader and every follower is saved by grace through faith, not their own doing (see Ephesians 2:8).

God uses means to save, from start through perseverance, and a godly and growing leader is a God-appointed means of grace to others. If we are saved by grace, and if we are saved by leaders with right hearts and right teaching, then one way growing grace gets to people is through God’s use of growing people.

Maturing hearts are a means of maturing other hearts by God’s grace. It’s more than a picture of what could be, it’s powerful. It’s deeper than enthusiasm being contagious, but not less than that.

Conclusion

As Jim observed from Nehemiah last Sunday evening, we do need to see problems, and then also desire to fix them and commit to do something to fix them. That starts with our own hearts, our own lives, and then the groups of people we’re connected to.

By God’s grace, He continues to point out areas for us to make progress in, including joy in faith. At times we must confess our failures and repent from laziness or willful ignorance or culpable immaturity. This has to happen at every level, and those who lead are not only not an exception, they must be an example.

Any leader who barks at his followers, who requires them to go out front, or who thinks he’s so far ahead that he can stop will frustrate his followers and is likely to find his ministry unfruitful.

That same is true at home, husbands and dads. You set the tone. You are leading, your heart is affecting the heart of your wife and kids. The question is, what affect are you having? What kind of hearts is your heart creating?

A maturing church is marked by leaders who are godly and growing because:

• Godly growing leaders model the goal of maturing for those they lead. They call others to follow them as they follow Christ.
• Godly growing leaders earn the trust of those they lead. They increase in influence, they grow in gravitational pull as their joyful dying for others is proven.
• Godly growing leaders communicate grace to those they lead. Their work is potent to salvation, effective for heart change as their own hearts change.

Make decisive progress, that is, decide in such a way that it is obvious.

God can use you to change another person’s life in at least two ways. He can use make you a conduit of grace to someone who needs it or make you an object lesson of someone who needs it.