Books for Leadership Development

by Joe Thorn on December 10, 2007

I’ve received quite a few emails and comments about what books we will use for our Elder Discovery and Development process. This process is designed to help potential leaders better understand the nature of ministry, their calling, and essential theological distinctives of our church, and how all of this should mesh together. So while the reading list for those men who are formally in the elder ministry will look different, this is what we are using when taking men through this initial process. It is important to note that the reading is preparation and orientation for my teaching on these subjects.

Basic Ecclesiology:
Here I will be hitting the nature and purpose of the church, what constitutes a true church, and the essence of elder ministry. In this first group all of the men are reading What is a Healthy Church by Dever, and Strauch’s booklet on Elders (not the actual book). Advanced reading would come into play inside the elder ministry, or if men in the D&D process were ready to move on to something like Clowney’s The Church.

Focused Ecclesiology:
I will emphasize the “misional church” concept during the teaching. In this first group all of the men are reading The Radical Reformission by Driscoll. This is a fun book to read that hits on a  lot of important subjects and points to the idea of a missional church. Alternate title could have been, The Essence of the Church by Van Gelder, or The Missional Church by Guder.

Personal Life and Godliness:
I will be teaching on the relationship between godliness and grace, standards and qualifications for leadership, and integrity. In preparation for this the men have the option of reading The Practice of Godliness by Bridges, or Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life by Whitney, or The Godly Man’s Picture by Watson – and a whole host of other titles.

Focused Theology:
Here I will be teaching on “Reformed theology,” and its connection to pastoral ministry. What? Soteriology has implications for how we do ministry? Go figure. Men can read Putting Amazing Back Into Grace by Horton, The Sovereignty of God by Pink,  or selections from a systematic theology.

Focused Ministry Interest:
This will depend on the individual. Men will dive further into areas of interest via books on leadership, preaching, cultural engagement, family worship, corporate worship, men’s ministry, etc.

Once men are set apart for the elder ministry leadership development will continue as we focus on theology, methodology and leadership skills. I view one of my primary ministries as the development of leadership, the elders in particular, so that all are equipped to teach the truth, defend the church from heresy, and lead God’s people to serve the community as God’s missionary people. This means we will read through a wide range books like Father, Son and Holy Spirit by Ware, Leading with Love by Strauch, and Being Leaders, Building Leaders and Leading Leaders all by Aubrey Malphurs as well as the classics and selections from the great systematic theologies.

This is what we are doing in our context with the people in our first D&D group. As always, I’d love to hear what you are doing in your church. We are ready to learn from others as we navigate our way through our first year as a 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://gensheer.wordpress.com Chris Gensheer

    Great list. Thanks for sharing.

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  • http://cadawg.wordpress.com cadawg

    Thanks for sharing your book list. There were a couple of titles new to me that I will want to check out.

  • http://www.randymooney.com Randy

    what!? No Purpose Driven Church? or Good morning holy spirit? :)

    Thanks for the list, some I have not even heard before. Did you personally come up with the list or was it a combined effort?

  • http://www.joethorn.net Joe Thorn

    Yeah Randy, I try to stay away from all books banal and heretical. :)

    I pulled the list together myself.

  • http://raewhitlock.com/ Rae Whitlock

    Our church just this past Sunday elected the men who’ll serve as her first elders (I’m among their number). Our training process probably wasn’t all too different from the approach you’re using, Joe. Assigned reading, weekly meetings together for prayer and discussion, etc. We didn’t really have a “D&D” process like you’re describing, though. Training for the office of elder was opened up to all men who were members of the church and willing to check it out . . . and as time went by, some dropped out and a couple even came into the process midway. I guess out D&D was combined with the actual training in a sense, and then our examination by presbytery confirmed who was indeed called to and qualified for office.

    One book that was particularly helpful for me was David Dickson’s classic, The Elder and His Work. Just an excellent (and fairly timeless) primer on what the office can and should entail. Also (even though I’m a PCA guy), I found Phil Newton’s Elders in Congregational Life helpful as well. It’s a bit more geared toward Baptist pastors who are looking to move their congregations toward elder-led government, but the real meat of the book is great for elder candidates of any tradition.

    The Transforming Vision was good for worldview development. Phil Ryken’s City on a Hill and Driscoll’s Confessions of a Reformission Rev were useful for ecclesiology. We also occasionally used Covenant Seminary’s online lectures for deeper theological and church history learning. (And of course, being PCA and having to go through a formal presbytery exam, we had to be very familiar with the Westminster Standards and Bible content. Maybe going through the 1689 LBC would be good for your guys once D&D is over?)

    Looking forward to hearing about how this process goes for you and Redeemer.

  • http://IndyChristian.com IndyChristian

    Outstanding post — thanks for the thoughts & titles. I’ve tagged a number of them.

    May I wonder aloud though, about how any of the above prepares them for being a 21st Century elder? I realize you’ve apparently carved out a block for discussion with them LATER about ‘methodology’. But I’m not so much asking about training them in methodology, as I am asking about the SELECTION of elders… notably that they be ‘respected’ (in their family & community). Here in the 21st Century, I might surmise this to at least include not only being e-capable, but perhaps actually being ‘innovative’. That is, looking for opportunities for change — changing the rate at which we carry out the mission of the Church. Btw, this may even hint at a research component of elder training — ie, do they even recognize how largely-ineffective the American Church is? [4% of adults holding a biblical worldview, per Barna Research]

    Otherwise, I’m guessing we’ll simply continue replicating the ‘samo’ elders/church we’ve been generating. With the ‘samo’ results.

    Any thoughts?

  • http://www.alienman.blogspot.com Brad WIlliams

    Joe,

    I’ll soon be entering a new situation myself, and I know that there are a group of men already in place who would benefit from this. My wonder is how often you guys get together, and how much you ‘assign’ in reading per week. How do meetings work?

  • http://www.joethorn.net Joe Thorn

    Obviously there a number of ways to do this, and our way wont work for everyone else. But as I said here we have a group meeting monthly when I teach and dialog with the group. These are two hour meeting. In between those meetings I will meet with men individually. Each month they have to work out their own reading schedules, but a book, (or two small books) are to be completed before the next meeting. I am putting together a template of sorts for the men to follow in writing up their reports. Each book report is really just a summary of the book’s thesis and what aspects of the book proved to be most helpful to them.

    Again, the idea is to get them thinking in preparation for the next meeting.

  • http://www.alienman.blogspot.com Brad WIlliams

    Dude, I totally missed that response. Sorry. Thanks for repeating yourself. I really hope that I can get a similar thing started soon and that many willing souls will want to do it.

  • http://thin-edge.org Bill Lollar

    Man, you really scared me with that picture and the freakish font! Then I saw the letter’s “D & D” and thought, “Oh, no! Joe’s gone completely off the deep end—using Dungeons and Dragons in his elder development process!” Ha!

  • http://www.joethorn.net Joe Thorn

    Yeah, I couldn’t sleep last night so I upgraded to the newest WordPress and picked up a new theme.

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  • http://www.takeyourvitaminz.blogspot.com Zach Nielsen

    At our church we are taking future leaders that we think have huge potential and actually paying for a online Master’s degree for them. ACCESS is the program that I am almost done with from Covenant Seminary in St. Louis. (PCA) that we have chosen. There is such a wealth of online seminary level resources out there these day.

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