Mending the Nets: Rethinking Church Leadership
Digital Logos Edition
Overview
Despite the good intentions of a hardworking fishing boat crew, if their large and strong nets have gaping holes, they will lose some of the catch. It’s not time to get rid of the crew and the nets. Rather, torn nets, when mended, can accomplish much. Similarly, a good church with faithful members and devoted pastors has potential for much kingdom-usefulness, but when the leadership structure has gaping holes, ministry diminishes. The answer to the problem is not to remove the members or pastoral team, but to mend the nets in their leadership structure.
Mending the Nets: Rethinking Church Leadership seeks to take a biblical look at church leadership structures, while identifying ways to mend the holes for more effective ministry. By walking through the New Testament’s explanation of healthy church polity, experienced pastors, authors and professors Phil A. Newton and Rich C. Shadden make complex concepts accessible. Years of shepherding congregations have enabled them to see things from pastoral and ecclesiological angles that help churches toward effective leadership. They tell some of the pastoral story they’ve lived in to put life into the applications they recommend.
Writing from Southern Baptist (SBC) pastoral roots, Newton and Shadden explain the Baptist heritage in church leadership, how it slipped from regular practice, and how to restore it to more effectiveness in ministry. They’re realistic about traditions, timing, and challenges of moving toward healthy polity, offering strategies for teaching, training, and equipping local congregations to mirror New Testament leadership patterns. Pastors, pastoral staff, lay leaders, and ministers-in-training will profit from reading Mending the Nets: Rethinking Church Leadership. The book gives congregational leaders a roadmap for developing effective, biblical structures that lead toward strengthening church health.
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- Examines biblical church leadership structures to identify and mend “gaping holes” for effective ministry
- Explains the Baptist heritage in church leadership, detailing how to restore it to regular practice
- Offers strategies for teaching, training, and equipping congregations to mirror NT leadership patterns
- Preface
- 1. What is Leadership Polity?
- 2. Baptists in the Past to the Present
- 3. What Does a Church Look for in Elders?
- 4. One Office, Multiple Men, Diverse Gifts
- 5. What Do Elders Do?
- 6. How Elders Work Together
- 7. Elders and Deacons in Partnership
- 8. How Does a Church Transition to Elder Plurality?
- Afterword
- Selected Bibliography
- Appendices
- Elder Nomination
- Questionnaire for Elder Candidates
- Elder Meeting Agenda
- Suggested Worship Service for the Installation of New Elders
- Suggested Polity Documents
There are all kinds of books on church leadership, as well as church structure. But there are few books that address the particular polity of congregational Baptist churches, and the unique unhealthy patterns that emerge from them. And even fewer books explain how to steer them to be more biblically faithful. This book was written to accomplish this very task and has captured it brilliantly. Newton and Shadden have written a wise, clear, biblical and practically helpful guide to all those seeking to follow the commands of Scripture about how Baptist churches should be ordered and who should lead in them. They tell us where we have been, where we are, and practical steps to get us back where the New Testament instructs. Every pastor should read this book, but especially those in autonomous, congregational churches.
—Brian Croft, Founder and Executive Director, Practical Shepherding
Polity matters! While the topic may be boring or secondary to many, the health of the church as a whole rises and falls on her leaders. In God’s kindness He has provided us with sufficient guidance for shaping the church’s leadership structure through His word. Phil and Rich helpfully direct the Bible’s counsel on church leadership and make application for the integration of these principles in today’s church. The guidance provided by these two robust thinkers and seasoned pastors will serve current and future leaders well.
—Matt Rogers, Pastor, Christ Fellowship Cherrydale, Greenville, SC
An uncompromising commitment to the authority and sufficiency of Scripture. A biblical and historical understanding of church polity. A dedication to thoughtful, intentional, and gracious implementation. A shepherd’s love and heart for the local church. Anyone seriously considering leading a church to transition to a plurality of elders must begin with these things — and that is exactly what Drs. Newton and Shadden provide in Mending the Nets. This book will be an immensely helpful resource for pastors, church leaders, and church members looking for a guide that is biblically faithful, historically informed, “congregation conscious,” and immediately practical.
—Stephen Cavness, Pastor, First Baptist Church, Fulton, KY
- Title: Mending the Nets: Rethinking Church Leadership
- Authors: Rich C. Shadden, Phil Newton
- Publisher: Courier Publishing
- Print Publication Date: 2024
- Pages: 182
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Logos Reader Edition
- ISBNs: 9781955295468, 1955295468
- Resource ID: LLS:MNDNGNTSCLDRSHP
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2025-08-28T19:32:18Z