Eldership at Legacy
What does it mean to be an elder-led church?
A team of elders are the ones who pastor the church under the leadership of Jesus, our Chief Shepherd.
This approach applies the biblical directives and descriptions* that the healthiest church is led by a called and qualified team, not one man nor the entire congregation leading.
They fulfill this calling with 5 responsibilities: lead, feed, care, protect, and love.
In practice the elders fulfill these responsibilities this way:
Lead - They prayerfully determine the vision of the church, answering how does God want us to Build Christ’s Legacy this year, next year, 10 years from now, etc.? Answering this question involves our corporate worship activities, location, our employed staff, doing/removing certain programs, etc. This topic is not a staff problem to solve or a congregational one, although we certainly invite feedback from those invested in the situation.
Feed - They prayerfully determine what should be preached, answering how do we train our church family to be enduring and devoted followers of Christ? This responsibility mostly lies with the Lead Pastor, and he informs the elders of what series could be taught next, and they deliberate on it and decide if any of them should preach one of the messages, too. This topic is not a staff topic or a congregational vote, but the elders.
Care - They provide pastoral care, counsel, officiating of weddings and funerals, hospital visits, home visits, etc. Currently, they have some extra help with Care Pastors who are not elders but serve with elders in these ways.
Protect - They teach our people to be vigilant of evil, they rebuke heresy when it infiltrates, and they are the last line of defense for doctrinal purity for the church organization.
Love - All that they do is done in love. They can fulfill the top 4 responsibilities, but they have nothing if there is not genuine, sacrificial love to the family.
As a team they tend to reflect the unique giftedness that Christ gave the church in Ephesians 4:11 (apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor, teacher).
Our Group Leaders often carry similar responsibilities, but limited to their group. They function like the shepherds of a handful of church members….sort of like first-line shepherds.
*Biblical directives/descriptions include: Acts 20, 1 Peter 5:1-11, 1 Timothy 3, Titus 1
How are elders selected?
Simply put, elders are men chosen by God and affirmed by the church to shepherd the congregation.
In practice, there are 5 steps to selecting elders which takes about a year to install:
1. The current elder team prayerfully considers who we believe God has called to be an elder. We give that conversation a lot of prayer before asking a new candidate to consider the role.
2. We ask the candidate to read the Biblical Eldership booklet by Alexander Strauch. They can read or listen to additional content (listed below) to deepen their understanding of the role.
3. If they read the book and believe they should consider eldership, then they join our elder meetings for awhile to get a feel for the elder team dynamics and burdens.
4. After about 6 months, a candidate is ready for a month-long public examination of their calling and character. We present them to the church as someone who we believe should be an elder based upon their life, ministry, and testing the responsibilities for a period of time, but we invite the church to prayerfully share excitement or concerns. If concerns are brought and the elder team agrees that any concern is disqualifying, then the person doesn’t join the elder team.
5. After the examination process is completed and the church affirms the new elder, we publicly install them with prayer.
So far we've only drawn from the pool of Group leadership since they’re already demonstrating shepherding qualities. Our Group Leaders are under-shepherds in that they “shepherd” a smaller group of the church family. (If an elder candidate can’t faithfully shepherd a roomful, how can they shepherd the whole flock?) Not all Group Leaders should be elders due to calling, availability, long term plans, etc. Usually we want someone at Legacy for several years before consideration to test all those factors.
What are the governing & guiding documents that Legacy follows for church leadership?
1. Our bylaws, specifically Sections 4 & 5
2. Multiple books including:
Biblical Eldership by Alexander Strauch
Shepherding God’s Flock by Ben Merkle
The Deliberate Church by Mark Dever
The Shepherd Leader by Timothy Witmer
Church Elders by Jeramie Rinne
And even Pastor Adam’s dissertation The Co-Shepherd Metaphor, which analyzed Apostles Paul and Peter’s writings regarding eldership.
Does Legacy have deacons?
We are often asked if we have deacons. They are our non-elder staff and key volunteer coordinators. They follow the same guidelines in Scripture, but we don’t use the name deacon at this time since "staff and coordinators" are more common nomenclature.
