(Editor’s Note: Evan Knies, publisher at Courier Publishing, recently interviewed Phil Newton about his new book, Mending the Nets, published by Courier Publishing. Newton co-authored the book with Rich Shadden.)
Evan Knies: What led you to work on this project?
Phil Newton: Rich [Shadden] and I have had a strong relationship in pastoral ministry for over a decade. I had the joy of mentoring him when he was a pastoral intern at a church I pastored in Memphis. We wrote another book together chronicling some of the usefulness of having an older pastor shepherd a younger pastor in his ministry. We enjoyed that time. During the internship, he had a burden to do a church revitalization. By God’s grace, one opened for him in our area. But that also meant that he had to rethink how to teach and implement biblical church polity for a church that had gotten into an unhealthy state. With my previous writing on areas of polity and Rich’s clear thinking and practice on the subject, we thought we might could offer some insights useful to other pastors, leaders, and churches. With the encouragement of Courier Publishing, we agreed to put together a concise book addressing this need in local church life.
Knies: Do we really need another book on elders/pastors?
Newton: Over the past 20 years, there have been a number of helpful books written on elders/pastors and polity. I had the opportunity to do one of those books in 2005, with a second, expanded edition coming out 10 years later. I still run into people who tell me that earlier volume helped to reshape their ministries. Yet writing a book on the subject doesn’t mean you’ve arrived at complete understanding of it. I continued to grow in understanding the Bible’s teaching on the church’s polity and its leadership structure. Plus, I kept coming across historical documents that helped me to better understand how Baptists got away from clarity on polity and how it led to some costly divergence from local church health. Rich has continued to study the subject and having established healthy polity in a church revitalization setting, it gave him some excellent insights that might serve other churches. Yes, we need more written on the subject because we’re continuing to learn and grow in this vital area of church life.
Knies: What do you hope readers take away from Mending the Nets?
Newton: More than anything, we want them to have a renewed love for the church that Jesus purchased through His bloody death on the cross. And with that renewed love, we hope that there will be more clarity on how the New Testament directs and models local church leadership and polity. We don’t think polity or leadership structure is the most important thing happening in a church. Worship, service, mission, and disciple-making take precedence. Yet, it seems apparent from God’s Word that polity and leadership structure serve to make the priorities of the church function with greater health and effectiveness. We hope that, at minimum, churches will consider how the most important issue in their leadership structure is the character of those leading them. We try to model that and give some perspective on it.
Knies: How do you hope pastors, deacons, and churches use this resource?
Newton: We’ve written the book to be read and discussed with leaders and members. It’s not a complicated book. We’ve referenced more detailed works on polity and leadership in footnotes. But we think that our book will be brief and concise enough to stimulate discussion for those reading it. We’ve tried to make it practical in its biblical and historical implications. This book might be ideal to study in small groups, with leadership teams, or a midweek study with the church. As an added help, we’ve included a number of resources in the appendices that broaden ideas of how to implement elder plurality in the church’s polity.
Knies: Thank you, Phil!
— For more information about Mending the Nets or to purchase a copy, please click here.