Feb
10
2012
Kind Reviews of “Finding Faithful Elders and Deacons”
Matt Smethurst at The Gospel Coalition concludes:
Finding Faithful Elders and Deacons isn’t a magic bullet solution to the problem of under-qualified leadership that may exist in your church. You won’t find “a ten-step process for turning spiritual duds into elder studs” (13). You will, however, find an accessible, practical, and altogether helpful resource for raising up reliable men to lead the blood-bought bride of Christ (Acts 20:28).
Carl Trueman offered an encouraging commendation in “Three Great Books“.
Also, Frank Turk at Pyromaniacs offered some words of recommendation:
This is careful and simple book, expressly about the call and qualification of the servants of the church who are also its leaders, and I credit Thabiti for writing it to the church rather than to fellow theologians.
Let me say this about the books in the 9Marks series: Mark Dever’s fingerprints are all over these books, and that’s not at all a bad thing. Dever’s fatherly love for the local congregation comes out from all of these books, but in this book especially. It’s funny how much Thabiti doesn’t say about the local pastor in this book: there’s no chapter on white boarding; there’s no chapter on productivity or time management; there are no references to secular business practices. There are no suggestions about how to hear what God’s own voice is telling you to do. Selah.
Instead, Thabiti takes Paul’s directions for calling Deacons, Elders, and Pastors, and lays them out for us real people to take seriously as God’s plan for leading the local church. It’s not even 150 pages long, which is to its credit: there is no fluff in here. This is the vernacular theology of how those called to be, as Thabiti says, the waiters in God’s church ought to be trained up, and called out, and then serve and see their own service.
Well, that’s enough shameless self-promotion. I hope you’ll read the book and perhaps share it with many in your church’s leadership, prospective leadership, or young men who hope to grow in godliness. I pray it’ll be a blessing.