Healthy Plurality Durable Church How To Build And Maintain A Healthy Plurality Of Elders

Have you ever wondered what separates a healthy church from an unhealthy church when they have the same doctrine (and even methods) on paper? The long-term health and durability of a church simply cannot exceed the health of her elders who lead, teach, shepherd, and pray the church forward. Therefore, building and maintaining a healthy plurality of elders is the key to durability. Yet a healthy plurality is a delicate thing working through hardship and the difficulties of relationship while pursuing the noble task of eldership. If you wish to grow deeper in your theology of eldership to lead with a healthy, biblical vision of plurality, then this is your "How-To" guide. DAVE HARVEY serves as the Executive Director of Sojourn Network and a Teaching Pastor at Summit Church in Naples, Florida. Dave chairs the board for the Christian Counseling and Educational Foundation (CCEF) and has traveled nationally and internationally doing conferences where he teaches Christians, equips pastors, and trains church planters. He is the author of When Sinners Say I Do, Am I Called, Rescuing Ambition, and Letting Go: Rugged Love for Wayward Souls. Married for 36 years, Dave and Kimm have four kids and two grandkids.

Building and Sustaining a Thriving Leadership Culture Essential to every healthy church is a biblical model of leadership. In the New Testament, church leadership is built around a team of elders working together, each bringing his own unique skills and gifts to the cause of shepherding the flock God entrusted to them. However, in many churches today the principle of plurality in leadership is often misunderstood, mistakenly applied, or completely ignored. Dave Harvey encourages church leaders to prioritize plurality for the surprising ways that it helps churches to flourish. This book not only builds a compelling case for churches to adopt and maintain biblical elder pluralities guided by solid leadership but also supplies practical tools to help elders work together for transformation. Download the free study guide.

Elders Lead a Healthy Family explores the biblical paradigm for shared leadership: elders as the spiritual "big brothers" and shepherds to the family of God. This book is a fresh biblical alternative to the standard fare of pragmatic church leadership. Delivered in a winsome and irenic style, the book addresses the key concerns of our day, including pastoral burnout, women as elders, women and the pastoral gift, power in leadership, abuse of power in ministry, ministerial pay, and fostering missional-leadership structures. The answer to so many of the problems facing the church is not more coaching or better education. The answer requires our churches to change the very structures that foster abuse, isolation, and burnout. If we hope to save our pastors, then we need our pastors to abandon the "pastor-as-CEO" model of leadership. If we want to reach the lost, we need a systemic change in the way we plant, grow, and maintain our churches. Instead of putting a solo leader at the top of "Church Incorporated," we need to build teams of elders, doing ministry together, as they lead the family of God.

(Foreword by Mark Dever) A biblically functioning church requires intentional devotion to the New Testament model of the church. In this practical book, Phil Newton gives a definitive and biblical study of elder-based leadership.

Many churches are switching to the multisite or multiservice models to manage crowded sanctuaries due to growing attendance. This solution seems sensible in the short term, but too often churches adopt this model without taking into consideration what the Bible says about it. Illuminating the importance of physical togetherness as a way to protect the gospel, this book argues that maintaining a single assembly best embodies the unity the church possesses in Jesus Christ. Jonathan Leeman considers a series of biblical, theological, and pastoral arguments that ask us to stop and examine intuitions or assumptions about what a church is. He reorients our minds to a biblical definition of church, offering examples of churches that have thrived with a single service at a single site and compelling alternatives for those looking to solve the complications that come with a growing church.

Effective leadership is important. Nowhere is this more true than in the church. Jeramie Rinne offers readers a concise overview of the Bible's teaching on spiritual leadership, setting forth an easy-to-understand "job description" for elders that is focused on enabling pastors and church leaders to effectively shepherd their congregations. Giving practical guidance to new elders and helping church members better understand and support their spiritual leaders, this conversational book emphasizes purposeful ministry rather than project management. It will also bolster leaders' confidence by encouraging them to embrace their pastoral calling with grace, wisdom, and a clarity of vision.

Dever and Alexander propose a model of complete reliance and submission to the Gospel when building a healthy church. Great resource for pastors, elders, and others interested in the vitality of their church.