What kinds of questions do you ask to assess the readiness of a prospective elder?
At my former church—an international congregation in the Middle East—my fellow pastors and I wrestled to develop an examination tool for elder nominees. Our church had just adopted an elder model, so we didn’t have history to draw upon. And given our international context, we couldn’t assume a baseline knowledge or common categories that we might assume in, say, a typical American church.
Below are the specific questions we asked, grouped into categories. We typically sent these questions out ahead of time for elder nominees to answer, then followed up with an interview by a few elders, and then before the whole elder team.
CONVERSION QUESTIONS
These questions explored the nominee’s experience of saving faith and the Christian life.
1. Share your testimony of repentance and faith in Jesus. Tell us briefly when you trusted Christ as Savior and the circumstances surrounding your commitment to Christ.
2. Have you been baptized? What do you believe concerning baptism? (Note: our church had also recently required baptism for membership, so there could have been unbaptized members!)
3. Describe the condition, status, or details of your current relationship
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