Biblical Eldership Church Leadership

Notes

Why This Book Is Needed

1. Presbyterian churches, Reformed churches, Churches of Christ, Chris tian Churches, Brethren churches, numerous Baptist, charismatic, and independent churches. Quoted by Alfred Kuen in 1 Will Build My Church, trans. Ruby Lindblad (Chicago: Moody, 1971), p. 27. Calvin was one of the first to write about the demise of church eldership. Remonstrating the loss of the eldership, Calvin, quoting a Roman author named Ambrosiaster (ca. AD. 375) who also decried the loss of the church elders, writes: Gradually this institution degenerated from its original condition, so that already in the time of Ambrose the clergy alone sat in ecclesias tical judgment. He complained about this in the following words: “The old synagogue, and afterward the church, had elders, without whose counsel nothing was done. It has fallen out of use, by what negligence I do not know, unless perhaps through the sloth, or rather, pride of the learned, wishing to appear to be important by themselves alone” (Institutes of the Christian Religion, ed. J.T. Mc Neill, trans. FL. Battles [Philadelphiaz Westminster, 1960], 22107). See George Miiller, A Narrative of Some of the Lord’s Dealings with George Mu'ller (London: James Nisbet, 1881), vol.1, pp. 206, 207, 276 281; Henry Craik, New Testament Church Order (Bristol: W. Mack, 1863), pp. 57, 58; H. Groves, Memoir ofthe Late Anthony Norris Groves, 2nd ed. (London: James Nisbet, 1857), p. 385. See Alexander Campbell, The Christian System (1835; repr. Nashville: Gospel Advocate, 1964), pp. 60-67. See Emil Brunner, The Misunderstanding of the Church, trans. Harold Knight (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1953), pp. 103, 104.

Chapter 1

l . Victor A. Constien, The Caring Elder: A Training Manual for Serving (St. Louis: Concordia, 1986), p. 10. 2. DJ. Tidball, Skillful Shepherds: An Introduction to Pastoral Theology (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1986), pp. 46,48.

297