Church Elders: How to Shepherd God’s People like Jesus (9Marks Building Healthy Churches Series)
Overview
What does effective church leadership look like?
In this conversational book, Pastor Jeramie Rinne sets forth an easy-to-understand “job description” for elders drawn from the Bible’s teaching on church leadership.
Offering practical guidance for new elders and helping church members better understand and support their spiritual leaders, this succinct volume will encourage elders to embrace their calling with grace, wisdom, and clarity of vision.
Top Highlights
“Overseers teach, pray, and serve so that their brothers and sisters might know Jesus more intimately, obey him more faithfully, and reflect his character more clearly, both individually and as a church family. Furthermore, healthy, mature believers reproduce themselves spiritually as they share the gospel with others and help others grow in Christ.” (Page 40)
“Scriptures. So if you are an elder, when you teach the Word faithfully, Jesus is sovereignly ministering to his subjects through your teaching.” (Page 48)
“But the eldership is more than a gifting or a ministry. Elder describes a specific office, a divinely appointed role, a distinct position within the organizational structure of a local church, just as father is a distinct, divinely appointed position in the family.” (Page 28)
“Elders are Jesus’s assistants for shepherding his churches.” (Page 14)
“I will argue in chapter 2 that the term pastor (i.e., ‘shepherd’) refers to the same church position as elder and overseer. Biblically speaking, elders are pastors, who are overseers. The person in a church we typically call a ‘pastor’ is a paid elder, and the person in a church we typically call an ‘elder’ or ‘overseer’ is an unpaid, lay pastor.” (Page 16)
Rinne unpacks what the Bible has to say about the identity and activity of the local church elder with a freshness and clarity that is profoundly helpful. This is a book that elders can read together to their profit and one that will help a congregation to pray for and support its leaders.
Alistair Begg, Senior Pastor, Parkside Church, Cleveland, Ohio
9Marks has been a tremendous help to our church in setting up faithful and effective church government structures. This book is no exception—biblically faithful and practically helpful.
J.D. Greear, Lead Pastor, The Summit Church, Durham, North Carolina
Biblically sharp, wise, and warmly written, this little book is about the essentially collegial nature of church ministry and leadership. You will find much here to challenge, encourage, and guide.
Tony Payne, Publishing Director, Matthias Media
- Title: Church Elders: How to Shepherd God’s People like Jesus
- Author: Jeramie Rinne
- Series: 9Marks: Building Healthy Churches
- Publisher: Crossway
- Print Publication Date: 2014
- Logos Release Date: 2014
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
- Subjects: Christian leadership; Elders (Church officers)
- ISBNs: 9781433540905, 1433540878, 9781433540875, 1433540908
- Resource ID: LLS:9781433540905
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2024-03-19T04:01:36Z
Reviews
1 rating
Patrick
1/19/2022
A good book that can be read by Elders and Deacons alike. This isn't a book for information only but is to actually be used and implemented. Rinne gives enough personal examples to understand the path to take but much of the book is Scriptural support on what to do. A big key of this book is about shepherding the church as elders (and deacons) and what that exactly looks like. A good resource to be used by actual elders/deacons/pastors. Final Grade - A-