Church leadership matters. Leaders in the church have a significant impact on the health and maturity of the congregation. This is why the New Testament provides such clear teaching regarding appointing leadership in the church, and why it spends a significant amount of time providing instruction to church leaders.

When we think about a woman’s role in the church, we so often focus on what it’s not instead of what it is. This version focuses on what God has established as unique roles and priorities for women within the church as they use their gifts to build up the body of Christ. "Becoming a Biblical Leader: Women’s Edition" is a modified version of "Becoming a Biblical Leader," focused on equipping women.

Faithful Bible teachers need not only be gifted by Christ. They also need to be trained and committed to working hard to grow and progress as a teacher. Paul exhorted Timothy to "give attention to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation and teaching” (1 Tim 4:13). And he charged him to "take pains with these things; be absorbed in them, so that your progress will be evident to all" (1 Tim 4:15).

This resource is intended to assist in the process of preparing a man to become an elder in the local church. It does this by providing a clear and directed plan for elder mentorship that includes Bible knowledge, theology, and elder orientation.

This workbook is intended to help men who have an interest in becoming an elder evaluate their own life with respect to the Scriptures. The Bible is very clear on what it means to be an elder, including the qualifications, responsibilities and accountability associated with being in such an important position in Christ's church. It is not something to be entered into lightly. The format is designed for you to interact with the material. Before seriously considering or accepting the office of elder you should carefully consider what the Scriptures teach concerning this office.

When a man begins considering the possibility of becoming an elder, he often spends substantial time learning about the qualifications and responsibilities. It is not an understatement to say that after becoming an elder it is less common for a man to seriously re-evaluate his life in relationship to the biblical qualifications and responsibilities. The elder self-evaluation workbook provides a practical way for an individual elder to carefully evaluate his own life. Questions are given that focus on how you have been living out the biblical qualifications and responsibilities of eldership, along with space to write your answers.

All men appointed as elders in the local church are called to shepherd (pastor), to lead with wisdom, and to oversee the spiritual care and direction of the congregation—not only the one we typically call “pastor.” For this reason, it is vital that we pray for all the men God has entrusted with leadership in our churches.

The concept of pastors training pastors is not a new idea in the Christian faith. In fact, I suppose few Christian leaders would deny the value of pastoral discipleship. Nevertheless, the traditional process in our culture for training a man for ministry is often divorced from the life of the very church where he acknowledged his call to ministry.

Some of you may be asking: “Aren’t the sending agencies training our missionaries?” For the most part, the answer is, they’re not. Most of the sending agencies concentrate their training time from 2 weeks to 2 months. Any missionary should be elder qualified, which we all know takes much longer than 2 months and there is no one better to do it then the local church.