Thank you for joining us for this conversation today on the Sword and the Trial. Today, Pastor Tom and I talk about eldership. We talk about some of the biblical foundations for the office of eldership, what an elder ought to look like. And then we also spent quite a bit of time talking about practically how do you raise up elders in your church? How do you go from a singular elder to a plurality of elders and what are healthy ways in which elders can

operate together within the same church. I hope it's a helpful conversation for you. Take a listen.

Welcome to The Sword and the Trial. The Sword in the Trial is a podcast of founders' ministries,

and founders exist for the recovery of the gospel and the reformation of local churches. I'm

Graham Gundin. I'm Graham Gundin.

I'm Tom Askell. And today's episode is brought to you by Lake Yale Baptist Conference Center.

Today, Pastor Tom and I are going to talk about pastors. Oh, wait. Bishops. Bishops.

Overseers? Oh, they're all the same thing. That's right. Yeah, we are Baptist, so we do believe that those

are all referring to the same office. With no apologies to our Anglican friends. Yeah, or, yeah,

or any other Christian brothers who may disagree. But we just think that's biblical. Yeah. And that's what

the Bible says. We want to talk today about elders, eldership, pastoring, and the qualifications

for elders, the responsibilities, the

tasks the elders have.

And I want to maybe talk about some practical issues because we want to be help to the pastors

out there who listen to this podcast and also perhaps encourage some who are not elders,

if they are qualified, to perhaps seek that noble task that Paul talks about in Firstst, Timothy 3. Yeah, and to help church members to understand the value in the place of elders,

the lane that God has given elders to function in. And man, you just see the goodness of God

whenever a church is operating with a proper eldership and a proper congregational life.

I mean, I can testify to God's kindness and grace in that.

We haven't always had that, and we've had our ups and downs, no doubt.

But we're in a season right now where it's just so wonderful to see what God has done.

And I can honestly say

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