Leadership

Advocating for Your Own Pay
By Jamie Dunlop | 9Marks Journal: The Pastor and Church Administration | 09.30.2022Pastors should be able to advocate for their own pay if necessary, but prayerfully and carefully.

Principles for a Benevolence Policy That Is Both Merciful and Wise
By Philip Duncanson | 9Marks Journal: The Pastor and Church Administration | 09.30.2022If we think benevolence is only about giving people money to help solve their problems, then we’ll miss this. No, benevolence is about showing others the mercy and love we’ve been shown.

Why a Church Constitution Is More Than a Necessary Evil
By Greg Gilbert | 9Marks Journal: The Pastor and Church Administration | 09.30.2022Once you’re in a leadership position, it becomes clear pretty fast that solid rules aren’t a necessary evil at all; they’re an indispensable weapon for safeguarding the unity of the church.

How a Lack of Trellis Undermines Ministry
By Jonathan Rourke | 9Marks Journal: The Pastor and Church Administration | 09.30.2022Does the Bible have much to say about church structure? In short, yes!

How to Have a Well-Run Elders’ Meeting
By Aaron Menikoff | 9Marks Journal: The Pastor and Church Administration | 09.30.2022What can we do to make elders’ meetings excellent?

How To Use a Care List in Elders’ and Members’ Meetings
By Alex Bloomfield | 9Marks Journal: The Pastor and Church Administration | 09.30.2022A care list engages the whole church in both corrective discipline and caring for the weak.

LGBTQ+ Policies: What Do We Do about Youth Group?
By Zach Carter | 9Marks Journal: The Pastor and Church Administration | 09.30.2022Increasingly, pastors will be asked to make complex moral decisions related to LGBTQ+ issues. Policies delegate the decision-making process, creating more time for pastors to exhort, instruct, and disciple individuals on gender identity and sexual orientation.

Sabbaticals for the Shepherds
By Garrett Kell | 9Marks Journal: The Pastor and Church Administration | 09.30.2022Pastors should take regular sabbaticals and plan them well.
Sample Constitution and Elder Meeting Bylaws
9Marks | 9Marks Journal: The Pastor and Church Administration | 09.30.20223ABC Constitution Since it pleased Almighty God, by His Holy Spirit, to call certain of His servants to unite here in 1894 under the name [NAME OF CHURCH] of [CITY, … keep reading…

What Job Titles Should Churches Use? Two Simple Rules
By Jonathan Leeman | 9Marks Journal: The Pastor and Church Administration | 09.23.2022Our church structures and job titles should conform to biblical patterns. These patterns are a blessing, not a burden.

The Fruit Grown in a Flock by Pastoral Encouragement
By Bob Johnson | 09.02.2022Encouragement is incredibly attractive. It’s a godly grace that reinforces gospel fruit. Younger pastors may not realize how important it is.

Only Use Authority in the Fear of God
By Mark Dever | 08.29.2022Is all authority abusive? Is all authority—by virtue of one person having power over another person—in its very nature, abusive?

Do Elders Receive Their Authority by Congregational Vote?
By Caleb Morell | 08.19.2022Is the congregation, by affirming an elder through congregational vote, conferring authority upon him or simply recognizing him as a God-given gift to the congregation?

Preacher, Don’t Forget to Speak to the Children
By Ray Van Neste | 08.16.2022Week in and week out, the same group of unconverted people come to our worship services—and we practically ignore them.

Book Review: Megachurch Christianity Reconsidered, by Wanjiru M. Gitau
Review by Conrad Mbewe | 08.11.2022In ‘Megachurch Christianity Reconsidered’, you have a Christian who is also a social scientist using her professional tools to understand why one church in Nairobi, Kenya has flourished among and impacted a generation of millennials.