At last week's Iowa 9Marks Workshop, someone asked whether our church appoints elders for life.  What do you guys do? What works? What doesn't? Why?

Yep...probably.  In answering this question I'm assuming the non-believing wife is NOT a member of a church and understands herself to be an unbeliever.  In this case, I don't think we would consider long the husband's candidacy.  Why? 

1) One of the ways we evaluate a man's qualifications for elder is by looking into his home.  This particular home would likely NOT function in a deliberately Christian manner.  In other words, the aroma of Christ would be partly there and partly absent in the home. 

2) The man is to live an examplary life, literally be an example to which younger believers can model their own lives.  The difference between a believing husband and an unbelieving wife would strain the model and create a fractured example. 

3) The church puts its own reputation at risk.  It is one thing for one spouse to come to Christ and join a local church.  I think it is all together different for that man then to be named a leader -- the man's associations then come into play. 

We at 9Marks are fond of saying the church must be distinct from the culture; this scenario muddies that desired line of demarcation.

I'm shootin' from the hip here.  I have personally benefited from a plurality of elders in my own local church (have been corrected and informed many times!) and stand open and ready to receive more data and correction.