Rev. Dr. Gary Straub

What a blessing this little book has been to me.

For all of my life, since I submitted to baptism by immersion when I was twelve years old, I have been a “Christian,” a member of one of the truly American churches. Called the Stone-Campbell movement by its members (after its 19th century founding leaders, Barton Stone and Alexander Campbell), it has divided into three branches, as recognized by the US Census Bureau: churches of Christ, independent Christian Churches, and the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). These are, respectively, the fundamentalist, evangelical, and liberal wings of the movement. My wife and I have been dedicated members of each of those branches at one time or another in our lives. We can readily summarize the strengths and limitations of each of these denominations.

The origin of the movement was to “restore” New Testament Christianity in 19th century America, largely in the frontier states from Ohio and what is now West Virginia west to Missouri and south to Kentucky and Tennessee. (This period is still referred to as the Restoration Movement by its more conservative members.)

Leadership in the movement has often been vested in the elders of each congregation. However, in the 1960s, the liberal Disciples church tended to set up committee systems and church boards in each congregation, and the elders became less prominent in church governance. This little book (just ninety pages) is a 21st century response to that development. It is, indeed, a treasury of thoughtful instructions for practicing elders and for all congregational leaders. It is a very practical book, simple and clear-cut, but also sensitive and challenging. I have highlighted the book in many spots; so I shall devote most of this review to a dozen quotations that will show its main focus.

1.. "You have been selected as an elder because you cannot seem to help yourself: You already are one! I encourage nominating committees or call teams to look out across the congregation and ask this question: 'Who is already elding?' Elders just 'eld.'” (p5) [Cf. Acts 20.28: “Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers [bishops], to care for the church of God . . . .” Note: the Holy Spirit has made you elders, not a nominating committee or congregational election.]

2 ". . . elders have a 'holy spirit' role with those who are weak and hurting, to come along beside them and serve as comforter, advocate, guide and friend." (p21) [John 14.25-28; cf. also Romans 15.1 and Philippians 2.5-11]

3. [Each congregation should be a mission post, not a museum.] "It is time to reach beyond the security of the four walls of First Christian Church. We are called to boldly risk reaching out to the least, the last, and the lost for the sake of the church’s mission . . . .Our capacity for audacity needs exercising." (p35)

4. [The bureaucratic “committee system” of governance has tended to neglect the spiritual dimension of leadership.] "Disciples have become overly enamored, if not completely captured by, the corporate mentality of the culture in which we minister. . . . " (p36)

5. "Ever since the functional committee system was adopted among Disciples congregations in the 1960s, the elders have felt misplaced, dislodged in the structure, and a bit confused about what to do, and where they belong. Subsequently the crucial energy of their leadership has been lost in the shuffle." (p83)

.6. " . . this calls for a core spiritual community [i.e., the eldership] within the congregation in which the faith is practiced . . . " (p39)

7. "Four simple disciplines help keep the elders’ circle on track: (a) Attending weekly meetings regularly unless out of town. (b) Maintaining strict confidentiality in all pastoral matters . . . . (c) Willingness to step up to and own the spiritual authority and spiritual responsibility of the office of an elder. (d) Maintaining a willingness to ask for prayer". (p55)

8. "When we observe Sabbath, we participate in a Biblical work strike, in imitation of the divine Creator . . . .
"Consider how God modeled the highest form of freedom, by giving God’s self the liberty to take liberty. Jesus embodied this same spiritual freedom and warned against any legalistic attitudes that encroach upon and bind us to 'rules and regulations' around the right way to practice this way into God." (p67)

9. ". . . elders cannot ignore the overwhelming needs for healing in our hurting world and in the wider church family and community." (p71)
[Calling on the sick] "is not an optional duty as an elder that can be 'hired done' by professional pastors. " (p25) [Cf. James 5.14: “Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord.”]

10. "If elders in our Disciples churches did nothing more in this millennium that recover their hearts for God in prayer, it would be enough to revitalize our congregations. " (p88)

11. "Of all he dimensions of eldering we have tried to trace in such careful detail, the only aspect that even gets an honorable mention in the apocalypse is prayer and praise." (p89) [Cf. Revelation 5.14: “And the elders fell down and worshiped.”]

12. "This is a plea for contemplative eldering, an encouragement to become a circle, a community of practice." (p90)

The thrust of this author’s message should be clear from these quotations. Of course, these and other ideas are developed with care (and with greater sensitivity than my out-of-context quotes might indicate). The tone of the book is captured in Straub's clever phrase: "capacity for audacity." In most congregations within the Stone-Campbell Movement, implementing at least one or more of his recommendations would require considerable audacity and a great deal of patience. So be it.

It should be clear, however, that Straub's focus is NOT on governance of the church, but on genuine "shepherding": To him "overseeing" (the biblical term) or its modern transliteration, supervision, is a matter of wise guidance, not management, administration, or even leadership in the more ordinary sense of the word. To "eld" is to care for, to be attentive to, to maintain awareness of the spiritual well-being of the congregation as a group and of individual members as the need arises. It seems to me that that is precisely the way the term is used in the New Testament and often, if not always, in the Hebrew Bible also. (I have not traced the word in all its recurrences recorded in a concordance of the Hebrew scriptures, as I did with the New Testament.)

I have two quibbles about the book. The author makes many references to Bible verses but usually does not quote the verses; hence, he keeps the attentive reader jumping back and forth between his text and the Bible. It would be helpful if direct quotations were included, at least in footnotes and/or an appendix.

Many of the practices Straub recommends are presented mostly in the abstract. Specific, concrete examples from contemporary churches would help one envision exactly what he means. There are a good many lists of such abstractions, usually with brief explanatory comments but without illustrations. To provide these, probably, would sacrifice the brevity of the book and might lead to a misplacing of emphasis. But, as is, one sometimes gets the feeling of floating along on on cushion of comfortable but vague terminology.

However, the book as a whole is inspiring for the individual elder and provides the basis for serious discussion within the elders’ circle and the congregation as a whole. Quibbles aside, it represents the principles and ethos of the Stone-Campbell Movement adapted to 21st century realities. I shall look forward to hearing others' responses and to hearing how church leaders and pastors have used the book (or Straub as a consultant). Personally I have been uplifted by the insights, the thoughtfulness, and the challenges of the book -- its "capacity for audacity."… (altro)