Excellent, Biblical description of the office of pastor/elder/overseer. If you want to understand the original Biblical meaning of these terms, hear a full presentation on the qualifications and responsibilities of church overseers, this is the book for you, The book also addresses false implementations of bishops and other offices of rank inside the church where appropriate. ( )

How is it that I can agree with most of Strauch's conclusions but think his exegesis, logic, and assumptions are mostly wrong? The last half of the book is somewhat better than the first, but the whole thing is a good 100 pages too long. He goes out of his way, and outside the Biblical text to make points. He makes unprovable assumptions and then basis policies on these. He is fond of quoting old commentators, but he does not seem to have dealt with any recent scholarship on issues of Jewish or Greek culture. All of that said, he brings up many worthwhile issues regarding churches and elders and gives a good corrective to those churches which have abandoned the seriousness with which the NT deals with church elders and their appointment. ( )

How is it that I can agree with most of Strauch's conclusions but think his exegesis, logic, and assumptions are mostly wrong? The last half of the book is somewhat better than the first, but the whole thing is a good 100 pages too long. He goes out of his way, and outside the Biblical text to make points. He makes unprovable assumptions and then basis policies on these. He is fond of quoting old commentators, but he does not seem to have dealt with any recent scholarship on issues of Jewish or Greek culture. All of that said, he brings up many worthwhile issues regarding churches and elders and gives a good corrective to those churches which have abandoned the seriousness with which the NT deals with church elders and their appointment. ( )

Excellent look and exposition of church leadership in the New Testament... and principles and concepts for churches today. ( )

This book was quite good and just not all that great either. At times, Strauch overstates his case, in my opinion, but overall does a good job of exegesis.

On the positive side, this book was very thorough. It gave a good biblical examination of the relevant biblical texts on the topic.

On the negative side, this book was very, very, very thorough, even to the point of redundancy.

I think the ideal audience for this book would be those in currently in or preparing for leadership in a church who are not sure or familiar with biblical teaching on elder leadership. For those already familiar with and committed to an elder led polity, this book was a bit cumbersome and dry.

It's one of the more highly recommended books on the topic, as far as I've been able to tell, but it was not ideal for our situation. I'm hopeful of finding a more accessible treatment for use not only personally but with lay elders. ( )