When church and culture look the same...

For the many Christians eager to prove we can be both holy and cool, cultural pressures are too much. We either compartmentalize our faith or drift from it altogether--into a world that's so alluring.

Have you wondered lately:

Why does the Western church look so much like the world?

Why are so many of my friends leaving the faith?

How can we get back to our roots?

Disappearing Church will help you sort through concerns like these, guiding you in a thoughtful, faithful, and hopeful response. Weaving together art, history, and theology, pastor and cultural observer Mark Sayers reminds us that real growth happens when the church embraces its countercultural witness, not when it blends in.

It's like Jesus said long ago, "If the salt loses its saltiness, it is no longer good for anything..."

What makes an effective executive?

The measure of the executive, Peter F. Drucker reminds us, is the ability to "get the right things done." This usually involves doing what other people have overlooked as well as avoiding what is unproductive. Intelligence, imagination, and knowledge may all be wasted in an executive job without the acquired habits of mind that mold them into results.

Drucker identifies five practices essential to business effectiveness that can, and must, be learned:

Managing time

Choosing what to contribute to the organization

Knowing where and how to mobilize strength for best effect

Setting the right priorities

Knitting all of them together with effective decision-making

Ranging widely through the annals of business and government, Peter F. Drucker demonstrates the distinctive skill of the executive and offers fresh insights into old and seemingly obvious business situations.

There have been many great books written on the need for biblically qualified elders in the church. They do an excellent job unpacking the pertinent scriptures and theology to explain both why we need elders and what they should look like, act like, smell like, etc. once we actually have them. This is not one of those books.

Rather, "Eldership Development-From Application to Affirmation" seeks to show you the actual process that one church uses to develop their elders over a two year period. Think of it like a case-study. You'll see the prerequisites and the application that potential elders fill out, and even the questions asked during the interviews. You'll get an in-depth look at the two-year process, all the way to the final moment when you affirm the new elder on stage in a gathering. Along the way, the author stops to explain from experience why he made the decisions he made on everything from book assignments to awkward questions in an application.

After you've read the books that tell you why you need church elders and what the Bible teaches, consult this book to build your own Eldership Development program at your local church. This field tested guide is meant to save you time and energy as you train up your church elders.

Contents include:

Introduction

Step One: Surfacing Potential Elders

Step Two: The Prerequisites to Entering the

Eldership Development Process

Step Three: The Application and Post Application Meeting

Step Four: Year One of the Elder Development Collective

Step Five: Year Two of the Elder Development Collective

Step Six: The Post Development Process Check-In Form

Step Seven: The Final Meeting Before the Public Affirmation

Step Eight: Public Affirmation Conclusion

Appendix 1: Our Covenant Partnership Agreement

Appendix 2: Our Elders/Pastors Covenant

Appendix 3: Our Experiment with the Elder Teams Model

Appendix 4: How to Get Everything You See Here in a Word File

Bibliography and Resources on Biblical Eldership

About the Backstage Pastors Series:

The Backstage Pastors series of books have been designed to target specific topics with enough depth to provide meaningful direction but with a brevity that facilitates reading or skimming quickly. My hope is to put extremely practical tools into your hands at a reasonable cost that will quickly train you up so that you are quickly freed up to continue with the demands of life and ministry.

Other titles from this series:

"Defining The Executive Pastor Role" (available in English and Spanish via ebook and paperback)

A timely and contemporary look at the many forms of the burgeoning "emerging church" movement. Contemporary music, a shirt-sleeved pastor, and Starbucks coffee. Not a typical church service for most people, but it is becoming more popular. Traditionally, churches have set church services, music, and speakers to fit the expectations of the congregation. Changing the service to appeal to a "contemporary crowd" is a recent phenomenon. Many people have grown disillusioned with the church and want a church on their terms, not their parents'. Enter the emerging church movement. Its goal: to help churches to reach their full potential and to reach a wider audience without compromising their core beliefs. Deals with a worldwide movement.

"There are men in the church of Jesus Christ who are not mighty preachers or evangelists, but are outstanding servants of the Lord because of their God-given ability to visit a congregation and spread encouragement. The very news of their coming can lift the spirits of a church with anticipation and then their actual ministries, both privately and publicly, can renew the aspirations of young and old in Christ. Full of faith and the Holy Spirit, these people are the means under God of building up the morale of wilting congregations, giving them courage and making God's people feel they can stand, and they can go on, and that they will indeed overcome a time of heaviness. Such Christian leaders are inspirational men and their ministries make people feel strong. Of course it is God who gives such gifts to them to do this. The same Spirit that came upon Barnabas and made him a son of encouragement is upon them, and hundreds like them in our day. But as in all the stewardship of preaching a