SHEPHERDING GOD’S FLOCK
Benjamin L Merkle and Thomas R. Schreiner / Editors
Kregel, Grand
Rapids, 2014.
The book has a series of chapters on the subject of Biblical
Leadership by several authors. However it freely admits that is not neutral in standpoint;
every author is Baptist and presents strongly the Baptist view. It is therefore
a defense and justification of their view. This automatically leans toward
their bias, and the reader needs to understand that. This could either turn off
those outside the Baptist tradition, or it could aid in gaining a greater
understand and appreciation for the view, although they may disagree with it. I
found the presentation somewhat fair and balanced. It upholds the importance of
the Pastor leader, which I appreciated.
For me, the heart of the book is the Biblical Theology found
in the first four chapters. It does a good job in presenting the Biblical view
of shepherding/eldership. Its make clear that the mandate for the shepherd is
to feed the sheep. It puts Jesus as the prime example. It upholds the
interchangeableness of the terms—elder, bishop, and pastor. It sees deacons as
servant leaders who assist in practical and physical matters of the
congregation. However, I am not sure it fully gasps the contribution of the Apostle
Paul and the Gentile influence upon shepherding the flock.
The next few chapters deal with the historical outworking
and its different forms of church leadership—Catholic, Presbyterian, Anglican,
and Baptist. This is informative to anyone not familiar with these types of
leadership.
The last two chapters focus on trying to put the Biblical
leadership concepts into a modern context. I like and appreciate Ware’s
comments about overstating and understating the role of elder. The idea of
“professionalism” has brought an undue status to the elder. Although not stated
in these words, the difference between the congregation and the Pastor is not
status, but function. All in the church are ministers, but elders have a
different function. To understate it is to underplay the idea of formal
training. The book ends with what it calls 12 practical elements of Leadership,
which I found very worthwhile.
This book will be helpful to the Pastor; however it seems to
me to have some weakness. First, its narrow viewpoint. Second, there are places
were there is clear overlapping of ideas and content. Third, it is a struggle
to keep focus in some areas. There is value in this book, especially in the
terms of helping one to form a Biblical view function of the Pastor-shepherd.
Thanks to Kregel in providing
a copy of this free of charge for my review. This did not influence my review.
