Elder Training: Gospel Eldership

Post by contributing author, Aaron Morrow.

The following is a short book review for Gospel Eldership by Bob Thune. If you have a minimal attention span, here’s what you need to know: if you want to train & unify your Elders, using this book should be a non-negotiable!

In the industry of Christian publishing, if your book is targeted towards a narrow audience then it’s often challenging to get published by a large publisher. Such is true for a short book like this on training and unifying Elders. That is why there are not 20 books published annually on this subject, even though it is such a vital topic! So don’t let the small publisher of this book fool you because Gospel Eldership is filled with sharp thinking, penetrating questions, and concise writing.

Here’s how the book is organized:

• Introduction: What is an Elder? 
• Lesson #1 - Servant Leadership / Exercise: “Know Thyself” 
• Lesson #2 - A Biblical Approach to Church Leadership / Exercise: False Righteousness
• Lesson #3 - The Primacy of Character / Exercise: Identifying Idols
• Lesson #4 - The Leadership Triangle / Exercise:Leadership Triangle Self-Assessment
• Interlude: The Duties of Elders
• Lesson #5 - Elders Feed the Church / Exercise: The Gospel and Spiritual Disciplines
• Lesson #6 - Elders Lead the Church / Exercise: Examining Your Character
• Lesson #7 - Elders Protect the Church / Exercise: The Gospel and Conflict Resolution
• Lesson #8 - Elders Care for the Church / Exercise: Identifying Pride 
• Lesson #9 - Missional Eldership / Exercise: Mission and Your Heart 
• Lesson #10 - The Temptations of Leadership / Exercise: Identifying Your Temptations

Below are a few of the many strengths of the book.

Gospel-centered 

The center of this book is the gospel and its premise is that believing and applying the truths of the gospel to our hearts is ultimately where all of our spiritual growth emanates from. If this is what you believe, it can often be daunting to think about training and unifying Elders with clarity and precision about what gospel-centeredness means and looks like. That’s where Gospel Eldership comes into play.

This book gently but deeply drills down into the character of an Elder. And at every turn, Thune makes sure that all of an Elder’s character growth flows through the lens of the gospel. It’s really powerful! If your potential or existing Elders don’t understand the value or practicality of the gospel being at the center of their spiritual growth then this is the book to the set the tone for your team.

One more little note, some of us have reservations about reformed theology due to the tone, posture, and emphasis of some guys who are reformed. But even though Thune is reformed in his doctrine, there isn’t a strong whiff of it in this book. Granted, there are reformed underpinnings to many of the things he says, but rest assured that your Elders won’t come away from reading this book talking about reformed theology, and that’s because the gospel is clearly the center of this book.

Practical

There are questions throughout this book for readers to process that are nuanced and inviting. These questions make it quite easy for facilitators to navigate discussions. This is helpful because this book should surely be read in the midst of a small group or one-on-one.  Furthermore, each chapter has a corresponding exercise that helps the gospel penetrate with deepening practicality.

It’s fair to say that each chapter successfully avoids dappling only in the realm of theory. However, it’s important to note that even though this book is largely practical, it certainly isn’t comprehensive. This is why supplementing this book with reading Sticky Teams by Larry Osborne would likely be helpful for your team. For what it’s worth, Sticky Teams is incredibly practical but its primary limitation is its lack of gospel-centeredness.

Short & Readable

Many of the Elders we want to develop and unify are hesitant to read thick books. Some might argue that if someone can’t commit to reading chunky books then how can they have the requisite commitment to be an Elder? But this type of outlook doesn’t seem to leave room for Elder candidates who have different personalities and giftings than the ones that vocational pastors often bring to the table. That’s why a short and readable book like Gospel Eldership is a good middle ground resource that should meet almost everyone where they’re at. The author puts the cookies on the bottom shelf, which is commendable.

You should definitely buy a copy of this book and check it out for yourself!