How to Develop Your Elder Board

Developing Elders can sound like a daunting task.  Having a model or track to run on helps.

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Here is a model I’ve used to develop Elder Boards called the "Development Notebook."  

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The Idea:  Choose 4 areas to develop, make a list of key skills in each area, then rotate trainings on these topics monthly throughout the year.  At the end of the year, you have dived into 4 areas 3 times each.  You can then repeat the areas for the next year with new topics.

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The Goal:  Over time, you are slowly and regularly pouring into your elders, as they create a Development Notebook to refer to and draw upon going forward.  The benefit is you are proactively developing your elders, instead of reacting when an issue arises.

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The Details:

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1. Pick 4 categories of development that best addresses your Elder Board’s needs.  I suggest:

• Doctrine/Theology
• Spiritual Sustainability/Health
• Church Vision/Culture
• Leadership Development

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2. Come up with a list of 4-5 topics within each category.  For example:

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Doctrine/Theology

• Walking through a Statement of Faith
• Theological issues (e.g. sexuality, stewardship)
• How the Bible Talks about Elders and Pastors
• Defining and clarifying “The Gospel”
• Sharing your faith

Spiritual Sustainability

• Healthy habits and disciplines 
• Hearing from God in His word
• Grounding our identity in Christ
• Relationships—marriage, parenting
• Sabbath and rhythms  

‍Church Vision/Culture

• Missions Philosophy
• Our church language: What do we mean when we say ___________
• Defining church health
• What is our Pastoral succession plan?
• Elder Governance— role of Chair, how we are selected, how we make decisions

‍Leadership 

• Stewarding our lives and resources/finances
• Being right vs. being effective
• Unity of leadership –philosophical, theological, relational
• Conflict Resolution 

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3. Assign different Elders, Pastors, or Lay Experts these topics to facilitate, set a monthly meeting time (Saturday morning breakfast), hand out binders, and then each month, have a training where they can add these handouts to the binder.

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This is a great opportunity to lift the leadership of a staff member or elder by assigning them a topic to research and present.  It is also a way to bring outside freshness and insight by bringing in a guest.  For example, we had a person in our church trained in Conflict Resolution, and they came in to lead that topic.

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4. When the year is done, rinse and repeat with a fresh set of topics.

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Three thoughts:

• You can add these monthly trainings to an existing Elder schedule, or make this time the training/prayer/fellowship meeting, while reserving the other monthly meeting for business.
• If expertise is hard to come by, you can always choose a book/series of articles as assigned reading as the “outside expert.”
• Consider inviting staff/potential Elders into these meetings as a way to bring them along as well as give them face tie with the Elder Board.

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I often tell leaders, “I like the 80% plan we will actually implement vs. the 100% plan we never act on.”  So what step could you take today to start moving your Elders towards development?

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Thomas helps pastors and Elder Boards navigate what’s next.  If he can serve you in this, reach out to him HERE.

Photo by Mike Tinnion on Unsplash