“Mending the Nets” Equips and Encourages Revitalizing Pastors

Phil A. Newton and Rich C. Shadden, Mending the Nets: Rethinking Church Leadership. Baptist Courier, 2024. 182 pages.

Pastoral ministry is beautiful—and brutal. For shepherds called into the often-overlooked work of church revitalization, the road can feel especially steep. We enter churches with deep histories and frayed hopes. Revitalization requires more than vision; it involves wisdom, conviction, and patience. That said, revitalizers can grow in each of these areas through the encouragement offered by shepherds who walked before us in the work of revitalizing.

That’s why I’m so grateful for Mending the Nets by Phil Newton and Rich Shadden, two seasoned and Spirit-filled pastors. They speak from decades of serving, training, weeping, and rejoicing with God’s people. Their wisdom has been tested through real ministry, which colors their words with authenticity and hope. They don’t promise quick fixes or church growth in five easy steps. Instead, they offer something far more valuable: faithful guidance for the long, unseen, and often forgotten road of reforming a church’s polity.

If you’ve ever wondered how to help your church recover a healthy understanding of what it means to be a local body of believers—how to think rightly about membership, leadership, discipline, preaching, and discipleship—Mending the Nets will walk you through it step by step. It’s a clear, accessible primer on biblical ecclesiology, forged in the daily rhythms of life with the saints. Newton and Shadden give us the church as the New Testament presents it: a gathered people under the authority of Christ, led by a plurality of godly elders, shaped by the Word, and sent out on mission.

Newton and Shadden remind us that churches don’t drift into strength. They are shepherded there. Slowly. Prayerfully. Intentionally. Always through the centrality of God’s Word and Spirit-led leadership. What makes Mending the Nets so helpful is not just its theology but its tone. This is a book written by shepherds for shepherds. It’s patient, personal, and full of grace for weary leaders who need to be reminded that gospel work takes time and God is faithful.

I was especially encouraged by the book’s emphasis on a plurality of elders and a return to the pattern given to us in the New Testament. In a culture captivated by quick fixes, a vision of shared, humble, Spirit-filled leadership is refreshing and needed. Their treatment of pastoral qualifications, elder training, and congregational partnership is both sound and practical. If you’re trying to implement healthy church structures without losing the heart of shepherding, this book gives you a steady hand to guide the process.

Mending the Nets doesn’t try to reinvent the church. It doesn’t bow to pragmatism. It simply calls pastors and leaders to mend what is frayed, strengthen what is weak, and trust that Christ loves his church more than we do. It’s a call back to the basics—because the basics are what build enduring churches.

If you are a pastor, read this book. If you are training future elders, walk through it with them. If you are in a church that needs renewal, let these pages give shape to your prayers, your plans, and your posture. We don’t need more ministry hype. We need more gospel faithfulness. Mending the Nets gives us just that.