Shifting Polity

Foreword

(wrote the foreword)

Phil A. Newton

“Zach offers a practical guide to church polity leadership, especially for pastors seeking to lovingly shepherd their congregations well through change. His heartfelt stories and lived experience give depth to each principle, allowing readers to see how faithful leadership is lived out in real ministry. Humble, clear, and deeply encouraging, this book will bless and strengthen every pastor who desires to lead with grace and wisdom.”

Jon Martin

“The concern for biblical polity in the local church has increasingly grown as a concern in recent years in Baptist churches. This is especially true concerning the nature of pastors and elders in a church. The questions of ‘Who should be a pastor?’ or ‘How many elders should a church have?’ are the impetus for many books and articles. In this volume Zach Kilpatrick adds a helpful and practical word to that conversation by addressing how to lead a church to evaluate and change their polity. Anyone looking to engage in a change to a plurality of elders will find this book essential to that task.”

W. Madison Grace II

“Leading change in any long-standing organization is never easy. It requires vision, courage, patience, and much wisdom to do it successfully. Zach Kilpatrick has written a book to aid us all in a much-needed area of change in local churches. Moving to a plural elder polity is a return to a biblical model that strengthens and blesses those churches in significant ways. I am grateful for this book and grateful for the example and wisdom that Zach has demonstrated in his own context. This book will serve current and future churches in restoring what has been lost in many places. I hope you read it and follow Zach’s suggestions. We are all indebted to him.”

Greg Belser

“Born out of a pastor’s heart and forged in the trenches of faithful local ministry, Zach Kilpatrick’s work, Shifting Polity, offers a practical guide for pastors and church leaders seeking to transition from a single-pastor model to a biblically grounded plurality of elders. So often these conversations stay at the theoretical and hypothetical. Kilpatrick offers a biblically saturated framework that is drenched with lived patience, wisdom, and humility. I pray that this timely resource will strengthen and encourage healthier patterns of pastoral leadership for decades to come.”

David Eldridge

“Zach Kilpatrick’s careful study, teaching, and leadership of moving from a single pastor model of church leadership to multiple elders is a great example for other pastors. His advice is biblical and practical. It’s clear, Zach loves Mt. Zion Baptist Church. I have loved watching Zach, mainly from the other side of the world, as he introduced this transition over the last few years. In three decades of cross-cultural church planting in Central Asia, I have learned to look for new missionaries who are sent out from healthy local churches. They love the Bride of Christ not only from their time in the word but from how they have personally experienced the local church. We most easily replicate what we have known first-hand. I’d give particular attention to any potential missionaries from this church. They would be coming from a great environment, where their elders have sought to equip ‘the saints for the work of ministry’ and ‘to build up the body of Christ’ (Ephesians 4:12).”

Winfield Scott