Developing Elders

by Joe Thorn on May 14, 2007


Steve McCoy and I have been talking a lot about elders in the church, their development and ministry. Along the way we have been asking others for their thoughts. We had a chance to chat with Daniel Montgomery of Sojourn and he recommended 3 books: Being Leaders, Building Leaders and Leading Leaders all by Aubrey Malphurs. I thought I would throw this out there to further our thinking.

If you are a pastor/elder, church planter, etc. I would like to hear your approach to developing leadership – specifically elders – and the work elders engage in. Do you have a structure/organization chart? Do you use some kind of assessment tools? How often do you meet? What church(es) do you believe models this well? This is an open discussion, but keep in mind I am not looking for the biblical support for elders, and am not interested in that debate on this post. We have elders at Grace and believe the biblical model is to have an elder led, congregational church.

About Joe Thorn

I am the Lead Pastor of Redeemer Fellowship in Saint Charles, IL, and author of Note to Self: The Discipline of Preaching to Yourself. Jen is my wife, and Katherine, Elias, Madeline and Kilian are my kids.

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  • http://noahdlee.blogspot.com Noah

    Has Grace always had elders? If not, how did you lead the church to move to an elder led congregational government?

  • http://www.joethorn.net Joe Thorn

    Noah, we constituted with Elders. From the beginning it was a part of our theology.

  • http://www.stevekmccoy.com Steve McCoy

    Daniel also recommended The Leadership Baton. This with the other three are the books his elders are going through now.

    I can’t add much but theory since we are just starting the process of changing our constitution and adding elders in a church with a terrible leadership structure. I am in the process of training some guys I think have the greatest potential as elders. Right now we are trying to meet every other week for basic discipleship. Not much more yet.

  • http://www.goodmanson.com D. Goodmanson

    My last four or five posts deal with elders, ecclesiology and leadership development.

  • http://www.joethorn.net Joe Thorn

    Been reading that – thanks for posting it here Drew!

  • http://adamfeldman.typepad.com adam

    joe~ wow. i’m right here in the boat with you guys. i’ll be watching what you write with great interest. (actually, if you don’t mind, i may carry on an off-line email dialogue with you…)

    anyway, we’re about one to one-and-a-half years from having elders in our church plant. for one thing, we just don’t have much depth right now (i am referring to spiritual depth of new converts). but, i am spending this summer going deep into a study of elderdom so that i know how to prepare them (any myself) for such a task.

    i purchased and will read “biblical eldership” and “minister of mercy: the new testament deacon” (both by alexander strauch) this summer, and hope to also read “elders & leaders” (gene getz) in early fall.

    this summer i will be meeting with all the men of our church (new converts and folks who have walked with jesus for years) on a monthly basis to walk through a book together (still deciding on that one). i hope to use that time to prayerfully discern who to invest the bulk of my time in the fall/winter.

    good stuff…

  • http://raewhitlock.com/ Rae Whitlock

    I’m a member of a presbyterian church plant, so elders are naturally part and parcel of our polity. We’re in the process of training and evaluating candidates for the offices of elder and deacon . . . they’ll (well , , , “we’ll”, since I’m one of them) be examined by a commission of our presbytery in the next six months, so I’ll let you know how that goes.

    Before that, however, I was a member of an elder-led SBC church. That was the first place I saw a plurality of elders functioning in the way that they seem to in Scripture — truly sharing responsibility for leading the church in pastoral care, teaching, preaching, and other concerns.

    (I’d previously been in a Christian & Missionary Alliance church that had “elders”, but in reality, it seemed to function as a single-pastor autocracy.)

    Anyway, despite my presbyterianism ;-) I just today finished reading Phil Newton’s Elders In Congregational Life. Excellent primer on how elder rule can (and should) work in a congregational context.

  • http://pc1oad1etter.blogspot.com Nick

    I keep looking in the image at the top of this post to see if Steve has photoshopped your head into the pic.

  • http://www.munichurch.de Steve Henderson

    Greetings from Germany where we have elders too! As pastor of an international English speaking church in Munich, the challenge is the huge transition we go through. A man is tested quickly for his suitability to serve, because he may be here only two years. In the eight years I’ve served here, I have had about 30 men serve as elders with me. God’s faithfulness in supplying qualified men is amazing, yet in the process, I’m learning to contextualize the elder tasks. In many ways, since the church is so transient (we’ve had over 1100 adults pass through in eight years; about 30 percent leave each year), it is clear that even with an elder governing board, as the pastor I am much more in a role like a church planting lead pastor. Our ministry needs stability that both staff and long-term residents can supply. (Church has been here since 1985).

    Have recently read Malphurs’ Building Leaders and found it immensely helpful and adaptable for our situation. We are in a constant leadership development/transition. His approach with policy governance will also be a stabilizing factor.

    Thanks for posting the info about developing elders. I’ll keep watch.

  • http://www.reverendrockstar.com jeremy

    It’s taken several months to develop our eldership process. Beyond the Biblical requirements, we have a plan in place to train and test elder candidates over a long period. It’s a lengthy document, but I’ll gladly send it your way if you like- just let me know.

    In addition to the counsel and training I received, I’ve found 3 books to be extremely helpful:

    Biblical Eldership by Alexander Strauch

    Elders and Leaders by Gene Getz

    The Unity Factor by Larry Osborne

  • Courtney Joseph

    We are an elder led church and although my husband is only a deacon I fully understand all of the roles of our elders. Our church has in attendance around 1400 on Sundays so we try to have one elder for every 150 members.

    Our elders each have a defined area that they over see. One oversees the small group ministry. One oversees the hospital visitation ministry. One oversees the finances. Two are preacher/teachers in the pulpit (all are able to be teachers and lead either ABFs or a small group in their home.) One oversees the deacons. One oversees the local outreach ministry. One oversees the missionaries. One oversees the elderly ministry. Etc.

    Then the deacons are all servants in these designated areas to help the elders by being ears, eyes and hands to help meet the needs.

    Most of the elders were recongnized as deacons first. This is how we were told that Keith was chosen to be a deacon. They said they choose men who are already literally serving as deacons yet have not been recognized as one. When they see a man who has a heart that beats for the entire body of believers and not just their one area of ministry and they qualify according to the scriptures – then their job is to recognize that man as a deacon. (God has already laid it on the heart of that man to be a deacon since he has a heart for serving the body.)

    The deacons meet monthly with 2 of the elders in attendance. They are there for 2 hours. First they are made aware of members needs or share any needs that have arisen that people may not be aware of. Then they spend time in prayer for the body. Then they break up into accountability groups where they discuss their own personal walks with the Lord, marriage, temptations etc. and close with one or two deacons giving a five minute report on their specific ministry. (Keith’s assignment is to the Young Married’s ABF and he leads a Sunday nigt study in our home)

    Their training is done at the pastor’s/elder’s home on Wednesday nights and is optional. It is a “BUILD” study and is done is a Socratic method – it’s intense – you do not show up without doing your homework! Wives are allowed to attend with their husbands.

    All elders and deacons are announced to the church as a candidate and begin serving as an elder/deacon and then they are watched over a 6 month period. After the 6 months are up, the elder/deacon is brought before the church again and the church affirms the elders choice by signing a paper that we affirm – if someone says they do not affirm them – they are brought before the elders to explain why they have an issue with the person chosen and then the elders decide if this issue is a real one or not.

    So there you have my long winded story of Maranatha Bible Church in Akron, Ohio!!!!

    2 of the books cited above (Biblical Eldership and Elders and Leaders) are books Keith has had to read as a deacon for our church. Good books!

    Courtney Joseph

  • http://www.pointifications.com Rick Long

    I am Lead Pastor of an SBC church plant in Frankfort, Kentucky. We are elder-led because we clearly see that Scripture supports the plurality of elders leading the local church.

    We assess each elder prospect thoroughly, some taking more than 6 months for complete assessment after they enter the process. Our elders serve for an unlimited time and meet twice monthly. There is not enough room here to go into detail about our process, but it is detailed on our website at http://www.thepointcommunity.net

    We are finding that there is tremendous benefit and health to be derived from a Biblical eldership and a Biblical deaconship for that matter. I am convinced that many SBC churches are intrinsically unhealthy because their church governance isn’t in line with Scrpture.

    Alexander Stauch’s “Biblical Eldership” is the premier book on the matter in my opinion.

  • http://www.bjnotbk.com bjnotbk

    I would be interested in learning more about what an “elder-led” church means?

    The church where I serve today as deacon is a pastor led church with the deacons acting in a support role. Each candidate must be nominated and then must go through a screening process/review board. All candidates are then put before the church and voted on. Before any deacons are ordained they are presented to the body of deacons for final review. The deacons ask questions of each candidate before a final vote by the deacon body.

    Our group of deacons focus on supporting the pastoral staff in several specific areas: Church Visitation, Hospital Visitation, Funerals, and Prayer.

  • http://www.joethorn.net Joe Thorn

    You can find helpful, foundational material at 9 Marks. You may want to start with Baptists and Elders.

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