Editor’s Note: We asked our regular TransformedBlog contributors to give us a short list of their favorite books from 2013 with some brief explanation. We will run them throughout the early part of the new year. Tom Nelson, Work Matters (Crossway, 2011). Nelson brings a great treatment of the issue of faith at work from […]
Author: Jim Hislop
Jim Hislop is the Director of Western Seminary's Center for Leadership Development.
Is There To Be No Leadership?
You could get the impression from my previous posts that I do not believe in recognized leadership within the church other than the body of elders and deacons. If that’s the case, let me correct that quickly. Paul, in referring to spiritual gifts in Romans 12:8, talks about the gift of “leadership” and tells those […]
Is There a NT Pattern for Church Leadership?
Is there a New Testament pattern for church leadership? In my last post “Sola Scriptura or Not,” I asked this very important question. While I believe the New Testament is almost devoid of specifics in terms of prescriptions for church leadership, there is enough consistency in the descriptive passages that seem to indicate God’s leading […]
“Sola Scriptura” or Not?
Elder, deacon, pastor. When and how did this third level of leadership, the “pastor,” come to be? In my last post, “We Are All Clergy,” I began to explore the issue of a third level of leadership that developed in the church in the early 2nd century called “Bishop,” which we would today refer to […]
We Are All Clergy
I remember the event clearly: it was a group of young married couples from our church who went out to dinner. My wife and I were invited (even though we had been married for 24 years by then), I think because I was called “The Pastor” of the church. When the person who was organizing […]