The 3 likes of Eldership Development
Since Reforming Church was planted eight years ago, we have been working from day one at prayerfully developing - everything. It’s God who gives the growth, and under Him we do the building (1 Corinthians 3), and that building work has always had to have a focus on developing leaders.
Even when we were a tiny church of 10 people, we had to start prayerfully making leaders - and for us that particularly meant a focus on eldership development.
Some of the basic “marks” of a Presbyterian church, even before we talk about the marks of a healthy Presbyterian church, is that the local church has her own local elders. As we planted and God gave the growth, we were daily serving in making disciples and daily praying to “make elders”.
Yes, in a sense a church doesn’t “make elders”, I get that, in a sense. But Jesus does tell us to “make disciples” and in that area of ministry we fundamentally believe Christ himself has the largest part of that happening. So in the same sense, we (the local church) “make elders” - and so we worked at developing future elders from the time of sowing date.
It was a long growing season, and eventually God did give the growth, and we were able to move from being Presbyterian plant to a fully fledged Presbyterian church, because we were financially self-sustaining and self-shepherded by elders that were members of our congregation (and not assessor elders).
So, what are the things God had made in a man when we are looking for as we develop elders? What do we pray to see future and current elders grow in, build upon? We think that the METRO apprenticeship model is a tried and tested one, and because we love those kind of “trustworthy sayings”, we adopted it. The three “likes” of eldership development are about a leader who is:
Being like Jesus
Thinking like Jesus
Serving like Jesus
It’s simple and profound. It’s what we start looking for in our Shepherd Selection Course, it’s what I and the other elders of Reforming Church seek to prayerfully continue to grow in, it’s really what eldership is all about. Jesus.
Make Leaders Article by Russ Grinter | Pastor & Teaching Elder
Russ is weak, but Jesus is strong (2 Corinthians 12:9-10). Russ gladly boasts of his weaknesses by preaching, writing, and speaking the gospel - because Jesus changes everything.
