MARSCAST

Episode 307: 307. The Spiritual Formation of Elders

The hardest person for an elder to pastor is himself. In this final episode of our series on pastoral leadership, Dr. J. Mark Beach doesn't let elders off the hook. He looks at the unchecked bad habits of the heart, the hidden sins that hollow out a shepherd's credibility, and the gap between what they confront in others and what they tolerate in themselves. He's candid about what that costs a man over time, and what it costs the people under his care who need a shepherd with skin in the game, not a functionary with a clean conscience. The gospel that elders administer to broken people is the same gospel they desperately need. God, Beach reminds us, shoots straight with crooked arrows. But first you have to admit you're bent.