Jones, Bruce A.

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Andrews University

Journal of Applied Christian LeadershipVolume 5 | Number 2 Article 182011Reclaiming the Biblical Role of Elders: Equippingthe Saints to Lead the Local Congregation[Dissertation Notice]Bruce A. JonesFollow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.andrews.edu/jaclPart of the Leadership Studies CommonsThis Leadership Resource is brought to you for free and open access by Digital Commons @ Andrews University. It has been accepted for inclusion inJournal of Applied Christian Leadership by an authorized editor of Digital Commons @ Andrews University. For more information, please contactrepository@andrews.edu.Recommended CitationJones, Bruce A. (2011) "Reclaiming the Biblical Role of Elders: Equipping the Saints to Lead the Local Congregation [DissertationNotice]," Journal of Applied Christian Leadership: Vol. 5: No. 2, 117-118.Available at: https://digitalcommons.andrews.edu/jacl/vol5/iss2/18Chu, Raymond Iao-Man (2011).Conflict management styles ofpastors and organizational ser-vant leadership: A descriptivestudy. Ph.D., The SouthernBaptist Theological Seminary.The purpose of this descriptive correlational study was to examinethe relationship between the conflictmanagement styles among seniorpastors and the organizational ser-vant leadership tendencies in theirchurches. This study should help sen-ior pastors to understand how theirconflict management styles and ser-vant leadership behaviors may relateto the organizational servant leader-ship tendencies in their churches sothat they may improve the congrega-tional health and effectiveness oftheir churches. This research present-ed theological foundations of servantleadership by extracting biblical prin-ciples from two Old Testament and sixNew Testament passages: 1 Samuel15:22, Micah 6:8, Matthew 5:1-12,20:20-28, Mark 9:33-37, John 12:20-26,13:1-35, and Philippians 2:1-11. It wasfollowed by a detailed discussion onthe theoretical foundation of servantleadership and the OrganizationalLeadership Assessment (OLA) instru-ment (Laub, 1999) for measuringorganizational servant leadership ten-dency. A theological foundation ofconflict management and a discus-sion on the Rahim OrganizationalConflict Instrument II (ROCI-II)(Rahim, 2001) for measuring the levelof the five interpersonal conflict man-agement styles (integrating, obliging,dominating, avoiding, and compro-mising) were also provided. The find-ings implied that as pastors embracethe integrating style and refrain fromthe avoiding style when handlinginterpersonal conflict in pastoral min-istry, they model Jesus’ characterdirectly to the parties involved andindirectly to their congregations. Thisis discipleship at its core, and it has apositive influence on the servant ori-entation of their congregations.England, Tamara D. (2011). Theevolving self: A model of transfor-mative leadership training utiliz-ing the concept of mentoring forthe ministry context. D.Min.,United Theological Seminary.The focus of this research projectwas to design and implement anintergenerational mentoring programto train potential leaders for futurechurch leadership. The researcherheld a series of training sessionsdesigned to prepare the participantsfor a three-month mentoring relation-ship in which elder leaders who hadbeen successful as leaders wouldmentor potential leaders to ensuretheir future success. It was deter-mined that when this occurred, thementored leaders were better pre-pared and more confident to serve in a role of leadership, they becamemore involved in the life of thechurch, and they desired to mentorother leaders.Jones, Bruce A. (2011). Reclaimingthe biblical role of elders:Equipping the saints to lead the local congregation. D.Min.,University of DubuqueTheological Seminary.This project focused on developing abiblically based elder-training curricu-lum for First Presbyterian Church inJanesville, Wisconsin. Four biblicalthemes of leadership informed both aretreat for elders and a preaching seriesfor the congregation. The session spentan overnight retreat incorporating wor-ship, instruction, and fellowship tostrengthen their understanding ofChristian leadership. Following theD I S S E R T A T I O N  N O T I C E STHE JOURNAL OF APPLIED CHRISTIAN LEADERSHIP PAGE  1171Jones: Reclaiming the Biblical Role of Elders: Equipping the Saints to LPublished by Digital Commons @ Andrews University, 2011weekend retreat, the pastor preachedon the same themes for the next fourweeks. The effect of the training eventand preaching series were measuredthrough two inventories conductedbefore the elder retreat and then afterthe preaching series to measure thechanges in perception of the partici-pants. In addition, an evaluation of theretreat explored the experience of thetraining. The biblical role of eldershipexplored four themes: ServantLeadership, Spiritual Leadership,Shepherd Leadership, and SharedLeadership. These themes, informed byScripture and the Reformed tradition,provided the basis for the retreat andpreaching series. The content of the cur-riculum included both theological andpractical application of these themes.This project identified the importance ofwell-planned leadership developmentand the importance of a concentratedtime for training. The project reclaimedthe importance of elder training for thecongregation.Mays, Ronald Brent (2011).Comparing turnaround leadershipin a rural church and in schools.Ph.D., University of Louisville.This qualitative study sought toilluminate successful practices of aturnaround leader in a rural churchthat are applicable cross-contextually,so as to inform the leadership effortsof various organizations seeking toreproduce organizational renewal ona wide-scale basis. Utilizing the prin-ciples of case study research, theresearcher conducted participantobservations, mined documents, andinterviewed the pastor, three part-time staff members, and 24 membersof a rural congregation in a south-central Kentucky congregation thathad grown 289% in active member-ship over the last 14 years. Proceedingwith the assumption that leaders can,by the practice of specific, intentionalbehaviors, positively impact the abili-ty of a congregation to reverse its pathand experience turnaround, and seek-ing to illuminate those behaviors, thisstudy was guided by the followingresearch questions: (a) In a ruralchurch that has experienced revital-ization (“organizational turn-around”), how do the pastor and con-gregants perceive the experience? (b)How do they perceive the characteris-tics and behaviors of the pastor as“catalysts” in this transformation? (c)What leadership principles of suc-cessful turnaround church efforts canbe extracted from their experiencesthat are comparable to those reportedin the literature on school revitaliza-tion efforts? The data from the studyrevealed that members did not recallspecific events as much as they didtheir pastor who helped bring peaceand a culture that was conducive torevitalization. Responses to the ques-tion of precipitants to growth essen-tially described their pastor's person-ality and five intentional behaviors.This study revealed consistent themesthat existed in the theoretical frame-work on schools provided by Kouzesand Posner (1987) as well as in thechurch and school turnaround lore.These findings propagate the notionthat turnaround leaders often bearstriking resemblances to one another,exhibiting many of the same personalcharacter traits and intentionalbehaviors. These findings also suggestthat turnaround leadership is not somuch a product of individual, charis-matic leadership as it is the product ofconsistent, sustained attention tosound leadership behaviors.PAGE  118 Vol. 5, No. 2 FALL 2011D I S S E R T A T I O N  N O T I C E S2Journal of Applied Christian Leadership, Vol. 5 [2011], No. 2, Art. 18https://digitalcommons.andrews.edu/jacl/vol5/iss2/18

Reclaiming the Biblical Role of Elders: Equipping the Saints to Lead the Local Congregation [Dissertation Notice]

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Reclaiming the Biblical Role of Elders: Equipping the Saints to Lead the Local Congregation [Dissertation Notice]

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