An Exploratory Study of First-Time Elder Leadership in the Presbyterian Church: A Thesis-Project Submitted to the Faculty of Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary

Lay elders are important to the Presbyterian Church. In my short tenure as an ordained Presbyterian pastor and my church experience as youth director of churches before that, I have seen firsthand how important well-trained and strong leaders are in the church.
While serving as an associate pastor, I was helping the congregation build up the young adult ministry. I was working closely with one elder in the church, a young adult, and he continually shared his frustration about the church. He could not wait for his three years of service to finish. For him, it had been a horrible experience that he did not want to repeat.
After talking to a few other young adults in the congregation and asking them if they would serve on the session as an elder, I received similar responses. All of the young adults who had served were burned out by being on session and wanted nothing to do with serving again. There has to be a better way.
This frustration culminated when I was asked to take part in an all-day training session for elders that ended up looking like an all-day lecture. As the eyes of those newly elected officials rolled back as they were faced with one lecture after another, thoughts came to mind of "Isn't there a better way?" This project is an attempt to find a better way.