Leadership Selection

Communication | Deacons | Delegation | Elder-Preacher Relationships | Leadership | Leadership Selection | Overseeing | Shepherd-Shepherd Relationships | Shepherding

Considering becoming an elder
ByJerrie Barber September 1, 2025August 30, 2025

What prepares a man to be an elder? Is it years of church, attendance, a successful business career, or a heart shaped by conflict, prayer, and growth? When someone accepts the call to shepherd God’s people, how do they know if the congregation actually wants them to serve, and how do they avoid simply becoming…

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Communication | Conflict | Deacons | Delegation | Elder-Preacher Relationships | Giving | Goals | Gossip | Grace | Gratitude | Grief | Growth | Individual Responsibility | Influence | Leadership | Leadership Selection | Listening | Overseeing | Sheep | Shepherd-Shepherd Relationships | Shepherding | Termination | Tools and Skills | Transition

Interim Ministry and Other Ministry Workshop
ByJerrie Barber July 7, 2025July 8, 2025

Do You Think About Ministry? A better ministry? An Interim Ministry? A new Ministry?Whether you’re a veteran preacher, a deacon wondering about your next step, a retiring professional ready to serve in a new capacity, or someone in your first year of ministry, if you’ve thought about it, you need to come to this workshop!…

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Communication | Individual Responsibility | Leadership | Leadership Selection | Listening | Transition

Everybody’s Trying Out — preachers and churches
ByJerrie Barber May 5, 2025April 28, 2025

A few months ago, a preacher-friend told me he hated the selection process. He felt uncomfortable and intimidated in a room with several people asking him questions, knowing that his selection depended on what he said, how he said it, how he looked, and how his wife and children acted before, during, and after Sunday…

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Communication | Conflict | Elder-Preacher Relationships | Gratitude | Growth | Individual Responsibility | Influence | Leadership | Leadership Selection | Listening | Overseeing | Sheep | Shepherd-Shepherd Relationships | Shepherding | Tools and Skills | Transition

Happy 80th Birthday, Jerrie Barber, and Happy 10th Anniversary New Shepherds Orientation and Seasoned Shepherds Revitalization Blog
ByJerrie Barber March 3, 2025March 3, 2025

The first post in this blog was on January 6, 2015. I use this date as the day I started liking to write. I was approaching seventy years old and had been preaching for more than fifty years. I wrote bulletin articles each week and a weekly newspaper article when I lived in Dalton, Georgia….

Read More Happy 80th Birthday, Jerrie Barber, and Happy 10th Anniversary New Shepherds Orientation and Seasoned Shepherds Revitalization Blog
Communication | Delegation | Individual Responsibility | Leadership | Leadership Selection

Who Selects Elders?
ByJerrie Barber December 2, 2024July 31, 2025

A question I received: Tell me what you think about this statement: “Elders appointing an additional elder or more, without discussion with or consulting the congregation, is dictatorial and shows little if any respect for or trust in the church as a whole.” First, there should be a selection before the appointment. I used to…

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Communication | Conflict | Deacons | Delegation | Elder-Preacher Relationships | Giving | Goals | Individual Responsibility | Leadership | Leadership Selection | Overseeing | Shepherd-Shepherd Relationships | Shepherding

Third New Shepherds Orientation Workshop at Fairlane
ByJerrie Barber November 4, 2024November 2, 2024

Fairlane Church of Christ in Shelbyville, Tennessee, participated in its third New Shepherds Orientation Workshop from August 9 to 11. This is my first time leading three New Shepherds Orientation Workshops for the same congregation. But this was the design of this workshop. Henry Wilhoit called me in the fall of 2013. He told me,…

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Communication | Conflict | Elder-Preacher Relationships | Leadership | Leadership Selection

Hiring the Son of an Elder
ByJerrie Barber July 1, 2024July 4, 2026

New Podcast Released July 1, 2024 Click on the picture below or the following link to listen to the first episode of Gleaning Mustard Seeds: https://feeds.buzzsprout.com/2369804 Click on the picture above or the following link to listen to the first episode of Gleaning Mustard Seeds: https://feeds.buzzsprout.com/2369804 Question I was wondering what your experience/advice would be…

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Influence | Leadership | Leadership Selection

Unfaithful Children and Elders
ByJerrie Barber May 6, 2024November 25, 2025

A recent question: This is one of the qualifications that tells us the reason for it: one who rules his own house well, having his children in submission with all reverence (for if a man does not know how to rule his own house, how will he take care of the church of God?) —…

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Individual Responsibility | Leadership | Leadership Selection | Overseeing

Book of the Quarter — Interim Ministry in Action: A Handbook for Churches in Transition
ByJerrie Barber August 28, 2023August 18, 2023

Interim Ministry in Action: A Handbook for Churches in Transition, by Norman B. Bendroth, An Alban Institute Book, Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham, Copyright © 2018 by The Roman & Littlefield Prublishing Group, Inc., (electronic) ISBN 9781538104989 This is the latest book I’ve read about interim ministry. Mr. Bendroth lays out the need, advantages, and helplessness…

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Communication | Conflict | Deacons | Delegation | Elder-Preacher Relationships | Giving | Goals | Gossip | Grace | Gratitude | Individual Responsibility | Influence | Leadership | Leadership Selection | Listening | Overseeing | Sheep | Shepherd-Shepherd Relationships | Termination | Tools and Skills | Transition

New Shepherds Orientation Workshop # 25, Riverchase Church of Christ, Hoover, Alabama
ByJerrie Barber May 1, 2023May 2, 2023

We had a beautiful weekend at the Alabama 4-H Center in Columbiana, Alabama. The temperature was ideal. The facilities for sleeping and meeting were excellent. The food was delicious. We had all our meals there and spent Friday night there. There were nine elders, three ministers, and their wives in the workshop. They had read…

Read More New Shepherds Orientation Workshop # 25, Riverchase Church of Christ, Hoover, Alabama