An Elder ordination service is evidence of a church family that has recognized God’s gift for spiritual leadership within an individual in the church. Elders are the backbone of the work of Christ through His visible church here today. In one Union in Africa, there are over 22,000 members and hundreds of churches. Only one or two years ago, did this field of 22,000 members have a second pastor added. That’s right! Only 2 pastors with 22,000 members and hundreds of churches. How is this possible? By following the Biblical instruction of Paul to ordain elders in every church. Elder’s are to be the spiritual leaders of a local church. Pastors are to be the mission leaders of churches and regions. Jeanne and I had the joy of attending Sabbath School and Church at the Laurel Lake Seventh-day Adventist Church on Sabbath, April 9. 
While there, I was asked to share the Sabbath morning worship message, which I had entitled, “Men Wanted.” This message is taken from the text in Isaiah 6:8, “Also I heard the voice of the Lord saying: ‘Whom shall I send and who will go for Us?’ Then I said, ‘Here am I!, Send me.” (NKJV) Also a key part of this message is the Ellen White quote, “The greatest want of the world is the want of men,--men who will not be bought or sold; men who in their inmost souls are true and honest; men who do not fear to call sin by its right name; men whose conscience is as true to duty as the needle to the pole; men who will stand for the right though the heavens fall.”--Education, p. 57. At the end of that sermon message, the Church Elders came forward and we invited Randy Mallory and his wife Cindy to come to the front.
While there, I was asked to share the Sabbath morning worship message, which I had entitled, “Men Wanted.” This message is taken from the text in Isaiah 6:8, “Also I heard the voice of the Lord saying: ‘Whom shall I send and who will go for Us?’ Then I said, ‘Here am I!, Send me.” (NKJV) Also a key part of this message is the Ellen White quote, “The greatest want of the world is the want of men,--men who will not be bought or sold; men who in their inmost souls are true and honest; men who do not fear to call sin by its right name; men whose conscience is as true to duty as the needle to the pole; men who will stand for the right though the heavens fall.”--Education, p. 57. At the end of that sermon message, the Church Elders came forward and we invited Randy Mallory and his wife Cindy to come to the front. 
Randy had been elected by the Laurel Lake Church as an Elder, and we had the privilege of laying hands on him and ordaining him to serve as a local Church elder as his wife knelt by his side.
I am thankful for each local church elder in the Pennsylvania Conference who is faithfully serving the Lord and leading the spiritual work in our Churches. And our Church families have much to be grateful for, with the men and women who have answered God’s call and like Isaiah have said when the church needed a spiritual man or woman to lead out in God’s work, “Here am I, send me.”
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