40 Questions About Elders and Deacons

Book Details

Discerning Reader Editorial Review

Reviewed 03/25/2008 by Scott Lamb.

Recommended. A valuable read for any elder.

A few weeks into my first semester of M.Div. work at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary I met Ben Merkle in class. It wasn’t a seminary class though. Our wives were both expecting their first baby, and we all happened to be in the same birth-instruction class together. We shared a few meals, went to church together a couple of times, and our wives helped each other out after the birth of the children.

Ben was involved in Ph.D. studies and doing work for all the world-class New Testament scholars teaching at Southern. While reading through 40 Questions About Elders and Deacons, the book actually brought back specific memories of Ben’s spirit, passion, and scholarly abilities. I distinctly remember him being both precise and concise in discussion. Regarding the specific topic of elders and deacons, I remember how he spoke in terms of exegetical concerns rather than practical theology or historical theology. In the introduction, he explicitly lays out this same foundation, alerting the reader that this will be a thorough examination of the Biblical texts on ecclesiology.

This book does not disappoint! As stated in the title, there are forty questions relating to elders and deacons, each answered in four to five pages. It seems any question about elders and deacons that is not addressed in this book is actually a question not addressed in the New Testament. In other words, some questions are “What if” situations falling under the guidelines of common sense and the leadership of the Holy Spirit, rather than having a specific verse of divine revelation to guide our ecclesiology. But what this book offers is an incredibly concise answer to just about every question about eldership that can be answered from the Scripture. I challenge you to try to think of a question about eldership that could be answered from Scripture that he does not tackle.

Ben does not shy away from the tough issues either. Women elders, the salvation of an elder’s children, the authority and role of an elder – time and again these types of issues are addressed by asking, “What does the Bible say?”  He does not simply give his own understanding of the difficult texts. He clearly lays out all the options for how people interpret a passage, and then walks the reader through his own understanding the text.

Church leaders would be wise to get a copy of this book for each of their elders, and to keep a copy on a shelf in the room in which they meet. Read it, mark it up, wrestle with the texts, and gain a lot of understanding as to what God’s Word says about the leadership of the church.

In closing, here is a great quote from the beginning of the work:

“As believers we so easily forget what an unspeakable privilege it is to be part of the community of the saints, the church of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the head of the church, and we derive our instructions from Him. The church is not a human institution or idea. The ordering of the church is not a matter of our wisdom or preference. The church is not a business where the brightest executives brainstorm on how it should be organized. Too many conceive of the church as a human organization where we innovatively map out its structure. God has not left us to our own devices. He has given us instructions on the nature and design of the church in His inspired and authoritative Word. To jettison what God says about the church and supplant it with our own ideas is nothing less than an astonishing arrogance. As members of the church we do not give others our own wisdom, but what we have learned from Jesus Christ our Lord.”