stephen R Harrison

Over the next several days, I want to help you and your church identify, train, and install elders. The New Testament is full of information about the plurality of elders functioning and leading the local church. I pray this helps you and your church shepherd, lead, oversee, teach, and pray for your church in a greater way.

Jeremiah 3:15 says, “Then I will give you shepherds after my own heart, who will lead you with knowledge and understanding.”  The first time I read this Scripture was shortly after my call to ministry at the age of 15.  I did not fully understand the calling and responsibilities of the pastorate at that time.  I’m still learning today after 25 years of pastoring.  Since the first day I read it, that verse has shaped my view of the pastorate.  I want a heart like the Lord in my spiritual formation.  I want His heart in my marriage and family.  I also want His heart as a pastor.  He is the Good Shepherd (John 10:11, 14), the Chief Shepherd (1 Peter 5:4), and the Shepherd of our souls (1 Peter 2:25). 

I was first asked to be an elder in my church when I was an associate pastor.  Honestly, I did not know much about eldership.  I wasn’t sure how that many people could find unity in leading a church.  I grew up with a single pastor/elder-led church model that was ultimately led by a deacon board.  A lot of churches are like that.  Sometimes, that leadership style produces a church with no elders, deacons functioning as bad elders, while leaving the church with no biblically functioning elders or deacons.  What a mess that can be!   

Elders are not simply board members that make decisions.  Deacons are not glorified janitors.  As I would learn, an elder was a pastor.  He was to be a shepherd and overseer of the body.  I knew somewhat how to work with a pastoral team while being in a church with multiple pastoral staff.  However, I did not understand at all what it meant to lead a church by example in the plurality of eldership.  It was biblical.  It was necessary.  It is still challenging.  Eldership was way more fulfilling and challenging than simply performing my associate pastor responsibilities.  It became “weighty” really quick.  I, along with the other elders, was responsible for the souls, direction, mission, doctrine, discipleship, and essentially everything in the local church.  To this, I learned, I would give an account by God Himself one day (Hebrews 13:17).  Talk about more than sitting on a board of directors!

I know in everything you “learn as you go”.  On-the-job training (OJT) is important in any field.  However, I quickly realized I was ill-equipped for the task to which I was asked to perform.  It wasn’t that the men who were currently elders weren’t good at being elders – they were exceptional!  I just wish I could have had someone walk me through the process of becoming an elder more thoroughly and systematically before I became an elder.  I needed someone to explain and demonstrate in-depth the responsibilities, qualifications, calling, character, and necessity of biblical eldership.  What I needed was to be discipled and not just given a title. 

Don’t get me wrong.  I was discipled.  The men who asked me to be an elder thoroughly examined my life and helped me walk as an elder along the way.  I just wish the responsibilities, expectations, and biblical requirements for eldership were more clearly defined upfront.  I needed to see the big picture before walking out the broader details of it.  For the first two years of my eldership, I felt unprepared and in over my head.  I didn’t see myself as equals with the men in the room.  They had walked as elders much longer than me.  I’m thankful for godly men who reassured me of my calling and were extremely patient while walking with me as we grew together in eldership those first couple of years.  I would have given up without them.

When I became a lead pastor, I desired a more intentional and consistent elder identification, training, and installation process.  The church must always be discovering and developing its leadership.  As I would learn, elders pass away, grow weary, move, sin, stray, take a break, and even resign.  If a church does not continually identify and train potential elders, it will lack leadership for the next generation and the church will suffer by not reaching its full potential.  The pipeline of leadership must be active.  If not, new leadership will be a pipe dream.  

I took what I learned over almost ten years of identifying, training, and ordaining elders and complied a consistent starting point through an elder training workbook.  It’s not perfect.  It’s not exhaustive.  It will need to be adapted to fit your context.  Feel free to adapt it to best serve your church.  I produced it alongside elders who took each other through it, evaluated its effectiveness, and offered suggestions along the way.  

I pray you will find it helpful as you identify, train, and ordain elders at your church.  Eldership is biblical, necessary, and rewarding.  Go slow.  Pray much.  Obey the leading of the Holy Spirit.  Train biblical elders.  Give God glory.  Make disciples.  Be shepherds after God’s own heart.