Review: Who Rules the Church?

Examining Congregational Leadership and Church Government

Gerald P. Cowen, Broadman & Holman, Nashville, 2003, 144 pp.

Reviewed by T. C. Pinckney                                                                   Vol. XVII, No. 2, February 2004

This is a book which will prove eminently useful to every pastor, every layman, and especially every member of a committee seeking a pastor for their church. Gerald Cowen is professor of New Testament and Greek at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary and uses that expertise to provide a thorough study of the entire pastor-elder issue.

The first five chapters address the pastor-elder, sequentially focussing on definition, call, role, qualifications, and authority of the pastor-elder. The sixth chapter is entitled “The Pastor-Elder and the Deacon” and discusses the biblical qualifications and role of deacons. The book includes two very interesting appendices: “Ecclesiology in the Free Churches of the Reformation (1525-1608)” and “Ecclesiology among Baptists in Great Britain and America (1609-Present)”.

Written in straight-forward, easily understood terms, Who Rules? should be read by every pastor, every leader of a Baptist church, every member of a search committee, and every layman who wants to be a committed, contributing member of his church.

Buy the book from your LifeWay Christian Bookstore or order it online from LifeWay at www.lifeway.com/lwc/mainpage. $19.99 plus shipping.