Rather than reposting the whole article, head on over to The Parchment and read Rev. Bob Vincent‘s article entitled “Ruling Elders Who Cannot Teach“. (DISCLAIMER: Rev. Vincent was a good friend and adviser during this whole fiasco with our church.)

The whole article is excellent, but I’ll leave this little cherry with you:

[I]n the Church, men should not be nominated for the office of elder unless they are already doing the work of the ministry, freely, because their hearts are in it. If a man never teaches Sunday School, never gets involved with people helping them with their problems, never speaks up in the face of error and rebuts the error from the Bible, then it’s deadly to put such a man into the office of elder. I’ve know a lot of men who were just such Satanic plants on church sessions. At the time of my ordination, I vowed to be in subjection to my brethren in the Lord. But I will never submit to people who cannot evaluate decisions by using the Scripture, and it would be sin to do so.