Should elders be required to tilt?

First, we must define our terms. An elder is an overseer of a local church. Elders are called to reconcile strained relationships in the church (Acts 15:1-2), pray over the sick (James 5:14), teach church members (Acts 6:2-4), and provide general spiritual guidance (Hebrews 13:17).

Second, to tilt is to ride a horse a full gallop and use a lance to collect small rings placed along the path. It is a less-dangerous form of jousting and requires great skill.

The Bible lists several qualifications for elders. Only men are to be elders. First Timothy 3:1-7 asserts an elder needs to be "above reproach, faithful to his wife, temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not given to drunkenness, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money." Titus 1:6-9 adds that an elder should be self-controlled, upright, holy, and faithful to his wife.

Some modern scholars have confused the Greek words for "self-controlled" and "upright" with terms found in a medieval instruction guide found in the ruins of a French jousting arena. This interpretation was defended by the fact that unlike jousting, tilting is not violent. Others claim that "above reproach" is metaphor for "staying on your horse and not falling into the horse poop," which jousters cannot always avoid.

While it is true that a knight who rides fast while collecting rings on a lance must be self-disciplined and upright, the terms do not actually equate to any form of tilting. In fact, the first recorded mention of jousting is dated at AD 1066, over one thousand years after the early church was formed.

So, no, elders at churches are not required to tilt. They are also not required to joust, fight with broadswords, show competence with a crossbow, or tithe.