There have been many great books written on the need for biblically qualified elders in the church. They do an excellent job unpacking the pertinent scriptures and theology to explain both why we need elders and what they should look like, act like, smell like, etc. once we actually have them. This is not one of those books. Rather, "Eldership Development-From Application to Affirmation" seeks to show you the actual process that one church uses to develop their elders over a two year period. Think of it like a case-study. You'll see the prerequisites and the application that potential elders fill out, and even the questions asked during the interviews. You'll get an in-depth look at the two-year process, all the way to the final moment when you affirm the new elder on stage in a gathering. Along the way, the author stops to explain from experience why he made the decisions he made on everything from book assignments to awkward questions in an application. After you've read the books that tell you why you need church elders and what the Bible teaches, consult this book to build your own Eldership Development program at your local church. This field tested guide is meant to save you time and energy as you train up your church elders. Contents include: Introduction Step One: Surfacing Potential Elders Step Two: The Prerequisites to Entering the Eldership Development Process Step Three: The Application and Post Application Meeting Step Four: Year One of the Elder Development Collective Step Five: Year Two of the Elder Development Collective Step Six: The Post Development Process Check-In Form Step Seven: The Final Meeting Before the Public Affirmation Step Eight: Public AffirmationConclusion Appendix 1: Our Covenant Partnership Agreement Appendix 2: Our Elders/Pastors Covenant Appendix 3: Our Experiment with the Elder Teams Model Appendix 4: How to Get Everything You See Here in a Word File Bibliography and Resources on Biblical Eldership About the Backstage Pastors Series: The Backstage Pastors series of books have been designed to target specific topics with enough depth to provide meaningful direction but with a brevity that facilitates reading or skimming quickly. My hope is to put extremely practical tools into your hands at a reasonable cost that will quickly train you up so that you are quickly freed up to continue with the demands of life and ministry. Other titles from this series: "Defining The Executive Pastor Role" (available in English and Spanish via ebook and paperback)