A few weeks ago, I finished a little booklet by our favorite living Baptist pastor-theologian, Mark Dever called By Whose Authority? I don’t intend this to be a formal review of the booklet as much as a plea that you get not one, but many copies of it. Have one copy to devour personally and have several more to use in a group study as soon as you are able and many more copies to hand out. After reading a few comments from another famous and influential Baptist suggesting that elders aren’t all that necessary (since they aren’t named specifically in the BF&M), I may even make sure that I send a copy to him.

A tiny bit of background on my part as to why I found this book so very refreshing and helpful. I pastored a small Southern Baptist Church in Texas from 1988 to 1997. I loved that congregation (and still love those who were there) with all that was in me. I began my eight and ½ years there at age 18 as an associate pastor. I became the Senior pastor and the junior age of 20. I followed my mentor in ministry, Dr. J. C. Traweek, who had planted churches and pastored for over fifty years. Before his resigning from our church and his subsequent passing on to glory, he had begun to set up what he called “an eldership” in our church. It consisted of the younger “preacher boys” (all were older than me by some fifteen to thirty years) and some of the prominent men in the church. He met with them monthly and allowed me to tag along to learn. I loved the discussion and passion for ministry that existed in those meetings.

The first book from Scripture that I began preaching through when I became the Senior Pastor (again, at a much too junior age) was 1 Timothy. What better book to learn and grow in the area of ecclesiology. I assumed that the same group that had supported Dr. Traweek would also support me as I wanted to keep the eldership intact and use their wisdom and maturity as a firm foundation to my total lack of experience and overgrown sense of theological and pastoral self-worth. I was learning more about eldership from my studies in Timothy and the rest of the New Testament, and regularly sharing my thoughts not only in sermons but in smaller group settings with many of the men in Dr. T’s eldership group. I assumed that they all understood and accepted the elder concept much more than I did and were merely being patient with me as I came along.

How naive was I? The reality was, they hated the idea of a biblical eldership and assumed I wanted to become Presbyterian. It all broke loose one fateful Fall afternoon as I was beginning to open up a budget meeting with the “elders.” Just before I was to ask one of the men to open in prayer, another brother (so-called) interrupted me and informed the group that he had asked “Brother Leo” to lead the meeting. Ah, the sweet smell of an insurrection filled the room. For the next hour I was lectured on why Baptists do not have elders and how the church was to be a pure democracy. I rebelled and so did they. The church split. I remained and most left. In my new found zeal, I struck out hard on eldership and left democracy in my dust. I pursued a pure “elder-rule” approach that, quite honestly, never really developed. There is much more to the story, but sufficient to say, I’ve probably come around to what I believe is a more biblical approach to eldership and congregational polity. Mark Dever has been a major help.

In my “battle for the elder-board” days, I consulted Southern Baptist pastors from across the United States. I received piles of documents from solid Southern Baptist Churches who were led by a plurality of elders (I now serve just 20 minutes from one of these pastors who helped me while I was in Texas). They pointed me toward historical documents written by W. B. Johnson, the first President of the Southern Baptist Convention, among other founders in the early SBC days. I was amazed to read how founding Southern Baptists had a very different ecclesiology than I had seen or continue to see in many more modern churches. Needless to say, I’ve come to more fully understand congregationalism and a healthy plurality of elders. In my understanding they are both Baptistic and biblical.

That’s why you really need to get yourself and others copies of Dever’s booklet, “By Whose Authority?” He reviews the biblical, historical and Baptistic roots of elders and then finishes with a most helpful section on the “Relationship of Elders to Others.” His personal testimony is engaging and practical for pastors wrestling with this issue and its application to the contemporary local church. Oh, how I wish I had such a resources nineteen years ago when I was just beginning to serve the local church. I plan to use this booklet extensively and have it available to assist pastors who have a serious interest in how the church leadership should function and lead.