Pastors' Talk

In a growing church, nominating elders can be hard. After all, people might not know the man. They might never have heard him teach. So what’s a church to do?Jonathan Leeman chats with Mark Dever about raising up elders as a church’s culture changes.

How transparent should pastors be with their congregation as they think about pursuing other jobs? As it turns out, Mark Dever and Hershael York offer different counsel on this. Jonathan Leeman chats with them about the wisdom of different approaches.

There’s nothing in the Bible about who should chair—lead—elders’ meetings. But the role and responsibility of the elder chairman is nonetheless very important. Jonathan Leeman chats with Mark Dever, Ken Barbic, and Isaac Adams.

Surely you’ve heard someone ask, “But pastor, why should I be baptized?”In this episode of Pastors Talk, Jonathan Leeman chats with Mark Dever and Bobby Jamieson about that important question.

In this episode of Pastors Talk, Jonathan Leeman chats with Mark Dever about one of the pastor’s most important jobs: preparing his people for eternity.

This year has been hard, but now it’s finally (nearly) over. In this final Pastors Talk of 2020, Jonathan Leeman chats with Mark Dever about the highs and lows of this particular year.

Are you looking for books to read this holiday season? Jonathan Leeman chats with Mark Dever about a bunch of fun biographies.

Among the many things 2020 has made more complicated, chief among them is caring for members who are unwilling to come back to church.

For years, certain churches and ministries have referred to “virtual church” or “attending church online.” This year of COVID-19—the “anti-gathering virus,” as Mark puts it in this episode—has made such phrases even more popular.

Paul says pastors must be “well thought of by outsiders.” But Jesus says we’re “blessed” when others speak evil about us, even falsely.What do we do with this? How much should a pastor care about his reputation?

Episode 149 explained what “cleaning the rolls” means, and why pastors should lead their churches to do it. Episode 150 continues the conversation, but focuses on how to actually get it done.Jonathan Leeman, Mark Dever, and Matt Schmucker discuss.

Some churches report hundreds of members, with dozens in attendance. These churches need to “clean their rolls.”Jonathan Leeman chats with Mark Dever and Matt Schmucker about what that means and why churches should do it.

Healthy churches plant churches. But how? What causes a church to “bubble over”? Here’s one way.

Broadly speaking, “theonomy” is the theological persuasion that civil societies ought to be governed by the Mosaic Law. In this episode of Pastors Talk, Jonathan Leeman and Mark Dever chat with T. David Gordon about the errors and appeal of theonomy.

We just released a new Journal: Pastoring through Political Turmoil. In this episode of Pastors Talk, Jonathan chats with Mark about the Journal in particular and the topic of pastoring through an election season in general.

In this episode of Pastors Talk, Mark and Jonathan talk about how pastors can prepare their people for a tough political season.

How do you prevent a potential friction between staff and lay elders? How do you ensure they’re not just “yes men”? How much deference should non-staff elders give others? In this episode of Pastors Talk, Jonathan Leeman, Mark Dever, and Klon Kitchen continue their conversation on lay elders.

Churches ought to have elders. Some will be paid (1 Tim. 5), but many will be not. These unpaid elders are called “lay elders.” Is this distinction in this Bible? Are lay elders “minor-league elders”? Are they called to ministry in the same way senior pastors are? How can a church make sure that there isn’t a deep divide between elders who are paid by the church and those who aren’t?In this episode of Pastors Talk, Jonathan Leeman chats with Mark Dever and Klon Kitchen (a lay elder at Cheverly Baptist Church) about these questions and more.

In this inaugural episode of Bible Talk, Alex Duke chats with Jim Hamilton and Sam Emadi about the first three chapters of Genesis. These first three chapters of the Bible are so important because they set the trajectory for everything that comes next—all the way until we get to Revelation 22.Bible Talk is available on iTunes, Spotify and 9Marks.org.