Safety in Elders

In both of my largest ministries, we appointed elders for the first time. Someone mistakenly suggested that this was to increase the minister's authority. In fact, more or less the opposite. The elders ensured that I was acting more safely now with regard to spiritual leadership -- I wasn't a lone spiritual leader. They also ensured that there was shared -- and therefore augmented -- spiritual wisdom. OBSERVATION: One might ask, What about the deacons? In reality, their spiritual input was limited. We needed more.