"It is both an honor and a privilege to be able to write a few words to introduce and commend this very important book. And there is a double bonus: this book is as readable as it is interesting. Not every study of the eldership is as well acquainted with the shepherding practices of the Nix Besser sheep farm in rural Pennsylvania as it is with the pastoral care of the human sheep of Kidderminster during the remarkable ministry of Richard Baxter in seventeenth century England! This is an intelligent and informative book. Here exegesis and exposition provide a solid biblical foundation. So this is also a wonderfully practical, as well as instructive book. It underlines principles that ministers and leaders can employ in the specifics of their own church context, and provides workable suggestions about how to put them into practice. We need this desperately today when so many are 'like sheep without a shepherd.' These pages have the potential to transform the way undershepherds together lead their flocks."
