|
|
NEW Westminster Today magazineJanuary 21, 2010
Alumni and friends will soon receive the winter 2010 issue of Westminster Today magazine [PDF]. Read about Van Til's influence on Dr. Oliphint's spiritual journey and the Westminster scholars and leaders that have resulted from the Amarillo church. Meet a Presidential Interpreter. Read from Dr. Witmer's The Shepherd Leader, available in February. Pres. Lillback shares in his opening letter: "In the spirit of Christ’s gospel imperative, we seek to make life-long learners of the unsearchable riches of God in Christ as revealed in the historic-redemptive self-disclosure of God in the Scriptures." Subscribe today!From the "eternal Word, changing world" department in the winter 2010 Westminster Today, "Therefore, though this is not a book on church polity it will challenge your thinking on the nature, function, and structure of leadership in your church. This is important because the failure to shepherd in our churches is the simple but dangerous result when church members and leaders fail to embrace this fundamental biblical model. For example, if the view of the church leader is that he is called to be a 'shepherd,' those chosen to serve will be different than if the view of leadership is 'decision-maker.' Are the elders or leadership team a 'board of directors' making decisions or is it a team of shepherds caring for the flock? The answer to this question will also have an impact on whether the primary qualification for your leadership team is corporate success and experience, or a shepherd’s heart. Obviously, they are not necessarily mutually exclusive, but what is the fundamental orientation of your leaders?" From the "Foreword" - “It is both an honor and a privilege to be able to write a few words to introduce and commend this very important book. And there is a double bonus: this book is as readable as it is interesting. Not every study of the eldership is as well acquainted with the shepherding practices of the Nuss Besser sheep farm in rural Pennsylvania as it is with the pastoral care of the human sheep of Kidderminster during the remarkable ministry of Richard Baxter in seventeenth century England! This is an intelligent and informative book. Here exegesis and exposition provide a solid biblical foundation. So this is also a wonderfully practical, as well as instructive book. It underlines principles that ministers and leaders can employ in the specifics of their own church context, and provides workable suggestions about how to put them into practice. We need this desperately today when so many are 'like sheep without a shepherd.' These pages have the potential to transform the way undershepherds together lead their flocks.” |
