Tag: Joel Tetreau

“The Pyramid and the Box: The Decision-Making Process in a Local New Testament Church” by Joel Tetreau

~ Bob Hayton ~ 1 Comment

The Pyramid and the Box by Joel TetreauBook Details:
  • Author: Joel Tetreau
  • Category: Church and Ministry
  • Book Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers (2013)
  • Page Count: 212
  • Format: softcover
  • ISBN: 9781620326367
  • List Price: $23.00
  • Rating: Must Read

Blurbs:
“You are holding a great handbook on decision-making for every local church. I commend Joel’s insights into biblical decision-making — here are some profound new insights into how it should be done.”
—Hans Finzel, author of The Top Ten Mistakes Leaders Make

“Joel’s book is both needed and refreshing. It is needed because church leadership needs clear exegetical direction, and it is refreshing because Joel puts truth into usable shoe leather for today’s church.”
—Daniel Davey, President and Professor of Biblical Exposition, Virginia Beach Theological Seminary

“Dr. Tetreau’s approach is theologically rich, exegetically sound, biblically shaped, and eminently practical for both the teaching-shepherd and the people of God in the body of Christ. I have every confidence that his seminal work in this book will benefit multiples of ministries.”
—Doug McLachlan, former President of Central Baptist Theological Seminary, Minneapolis, MN

Overview:
Much has been written on how to do church. Church should be purposeful, simple, deliberate or missional. The building must be inviting and the service disarming. Or the answer might be: we need to major on small groups or a downplayed doctrine. The answers and strategies are as varied as they are plentiful, and the books keep coming as fast as the presses can run. All this attention is not without some merit. There have been some excellent books published and taking time to think through how we do church is certainly time well spent. But of all the books I have seen on the subject of how to do ministry, not a single one is devoted strictly to how decisions should be made in a local church. This important ministry “how to” gets a full Scriptural treatment in Joel Tetreau’s book The Pyramid and the Box: The Decision-Making Process in a Local New Testament Church.

Twenty years of pastoral ministry stand behind this book. It was written in part “to shed light on the destructive power of poor decision-making” (p. xi). The book gets its title from two versions of an “institutional” church: “The Pyramid” illustrates the “power-hungry” pastor, who is like “an Egyptian pharaoh, sitting on top of his own pyramid… his own domain” (p. 8). “The Box” illustrates an institutional church consumed more with its “budget, buildings and reputation” than with its people. With both of these approaches to ministry, churches are “acting like cut-throat corporations” who are “willing to discard families or use up individuals” (p. 9). In contrast, “the family church is willing to ‘sell the farm’ if necessary for the sake of its members” (p. 8).

The book is well designed and carefully laid out with key chapter principles summarized at the beginning of each chapter, and a clear and helpful outline. The book spells out in very practical ways, all the considerations that need to go into decision-making in the context of the local church. After setting the stage for how vital decision-making is, Tetreau presents a biblical theology of decision-making in his first main chapter. Next he examines the different levels of decision-making made by the various members of the church: the decision-making role of the senior pastor, the elders, the deacons, the congregation and then each church member. The book then turns to how to recover from bad decisions and concludes with a summary of the principles that should inform decision-making in the local church.

At the beginning of the book, Tetreau explains that the leadership principles for decision-making that he finds in Scripture “can give concrete help, no matter what form of polity a local church prefers” (p. 12). An honest read of this book will benefit pastors and congregations from a variety of different backgrounds. Tetreau prefers a model with a senior pastor who is the “first among equals” with respect to a plural body of elders. Deacons play a role as well, as does the congregation and its authority. The balance of power and responsibility will vary among different church models: some will not have an elder board, some will not prefer the idea of a senior pastor, but the principles in this book truly will be a benefit to all kinds of churches.

Quotable:
The following excerpt illustrates the problem with “the Pyramid” approach to decision-making.

The pyramid approach places one man at the top of the pyramid. He directs many resources to a project in order to achieve the goals he has in his mind quickly. In some cases, this one man is the senior pastor; in other cases, he is the chairman of the deacon board. IN a few confused situations, these two may fight for the top position within the pyramid, straining the entire structure. In any case, the strict pyramid approach identifies one man as the only person who can make the final decision on just about everything. This leader may become such a CEO that he loses touch with the shepherding side of ministry altogether. These ministries and organizations display very centralized leadership.

The pyramid approach may lead to ecclesiastical demagoguery on the part of the leader. Everyone assumes that all decisions must have one individual’s approval before they can be implemented. Too often, the assumption is that the chairman or the pastor always knows best, even when the item falls outside the leader’s area of expertise. These leaders can display a harsh and unloving demeanor. While a godly leader might be forceful or show strong emotion, he is to have that energy checked by a personal code of conduct and character that is consistent with 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1. (p. 87)

Evaluation:
Tetreau lays out a biblical vision for a vibrant local church ministry with each member playing their part and applying the Scripture to areas where they have decision-making authority. His years of pastoral experience inform and illustrate the work, providing humor and caution, and wisdom. He pieces together helpful quotes and critiques opposing leadership models. And throughout the book, he turns to a careful exegetical focus on the text. The book doesn’t provide all the answers for every question. He doesn’t explore the question of women’s ministry in a church in too great a detail, and his chapter on deacon ministry doesn’t fully address their particular role and how they should or could serve in churches today. But he does take time to address so many other practical areas. He discusses how and when not to defend your self; when it is best to stay in a church and push for growth, and when it is best to leave—and how exactly to go about leaving. His bent toward practical applications brings him to address the “worship-wars” and the problem of emphasizing each and every doctrinal position as being fundamental in nature. He spares no punches in opposing a legalistic spirit that is lurking in some fundamental churches, and tries to push for a focus on discipleship and servant-leadership rather than a ministry-first mindset.

Recommendation:
This book is a handbook for church leaders and a blueprint for a healthy New Testament church. Tetreau’s contribution offers the next generation of church leaders a steady compass from which to chart a sure course for fruitful ministry.

About the Author:
Joel Tetreau (M.Div, Detroit Baptist Theological Seminary; D.Min, Central Baptist Theological Seminary, Minneapolis), is Senior Pastor of Southeast Valley Baptist Church in Gilbert, AZ. He is Regional Coordinator for the Institute for Biblical Leadership (West), and has over twenty years of ministry experience. Joel has taught at the undergraduate and graduate levels and serves on the boards of several parachurch ministries.

Where to Buy:
  • Amazon
  • Christianbook.com
  • Direct from Wipf and Stock

Disclaimer:
This book was provided by the author. The reviewer was under no obligation to offer a positive review.

A Third Option for Separation: Tetreau on Type A, B & C Fundamentalism Again

~ Bob Hayton ~ 1 Comment

Back in 2006, Pastor Joel Tetreau posted a three part series at SharperIron.org called “Three Lines in the Sand”. In it, he explained the landscape of fundamentalism in terms of Type A, Type B and Type C fundamentalists. You can still read that original series of posts at Sharper Iron: part 1, part 2 and part 3.

Type A is the traditional, hard-line fundamentalist who won’t budge on music or other cultural issues and doesn’t see any need to fellowship with those who disagree with him. Type B were those like Tetreau who didn’t mind moving beyond the boundaries of the fundamentalist movement for fellowship and cooperation, but nevertheless self-identified as fundamentalists — holding to the fundamentals and a practice of separation. Type C fundamentalists were the conservative evangelicals who shared ideals with fundamentalists but not the name and had no organic connection with the movement.

This week, Tetreau has revisited this topic and gives some more observations about where we are now, five years removed from his original series. His post is well worth the read and has already attracted a lot of interaction in the comments at Sharper Iron.

I wanted to excerpt his description of the fundamentalist types as well as his view of a “third option” for separation. Then I have a few comments on his taxonomy.

Joel’s Taxonomy

Type A fundamentalists are those fundamentalists who emphasize a first and second degree separation with militancy. Typically with these brothers, fellowship or separation is an “all or nothing” proposition. Another common characteristic with this group is a kind of sub-culture identity that not only separates them from the secular world but from the rest of evangelical Christianity. There is very much an “us vs. them” identity. Type A men would in the main not view Type C men as fundamentalists. This is probably the chief difference between Type A and Type B fundamentalists. Type A fundamentalism holds that it needs to not only protect the gospel but a specific set of sub-Christian ecclesiastical practices and forms that are especially clear in the typical Type A congregation’s corporate choice of music.

Type B fundamentalists like myself, while growing up under and holding on to much of the heritage found in Type A fundamentalism, do not believe the Scriptures teach an “all or nothing” approach to separation and unity. Type A’s generally feel that there simply is really no arena where they could have any kind of real ecclesiastical co-work with a conservative evangelical. Type B’s disagree. We believe there a variety of occasions where fundamentalists can and should have co-ministry with those that self-identify as conservative evangelicals. This is especially true of those evangelicals who are militant and even separastistic. The recent flap over the Elephant Room “second edition” demonstrates that many conservative evangelicals know how to be both militant and even separatistic from other evangelicals when the gospel or orthodoxy is blurred!

Type C fundamentalists are evangelicals who, while not participating in the more Type A or Type B fellowships and not calling themselves fundamentalists (mainly because of the way many in Type A and Type A+ fundamentalism believe and behave), are in fact part of the fundamentalist heritage because of their gospel militancy, their clear commitments to the fundamentals of the faith and the veracity of Scripture, and their willingness to do “battle royal” against an ecumenical agenda. Examples of this approach include men such as John MacArthur, Phil Johnson, Mark Dever and a host of younger men who are clear on the gospel, clear on truth and willing to stand especially against evangelicals who are spineless—or clueless—on theological veracity.

Joel’s “Third Option”

Over the last few decades of ministry I have become convinced that the Type A fundamentalist’s aim to separate from all evangelicals or evangelicalism carte blanche is at best, biblically unhealthy and, at worst, sinfully schismatic to the body of the Christ. Not only have they thrown the poor baby out with the bathwater; but they’ve also condemned the whole nursery as if it was contaminated with some kind of an ecclesiastical leprosy! You slapped the initials “NE” (New Evangelical) on the poor baby’s forehead just knowing that eventually he’d be the next Billy Graham!

Some Type A’s might object that this means I must be for ecumenicalism, because they have been trained to think in the “us vs. you” mentality. They demonstrate the fallacy of the excluded middle. There is a third option that is better than “we separate from everybody or we separate from nobody.” That third option is we cooperate with brothers who love the gospel and are walking in obedience to the teachings of Scripture, even if they aren’t in our “camp” or “group.” You would think this reality would be near the Christianity 101 level.

[headings and the bolded emphasis in the last paragraph, are mine.]

I don’t want to excerpt more than this because you’re really going to want to read his whole piece. One area of difference I have with Joel (besides being a Type C fundamentalist — Joel is a Type B), is that he limits fellowship to just the Type C’s rather than those who are perhaps a Type D.  I’m referring to those who are further removed from the mindset of militancy, but who nevertheless respect the fundamentals and are confessionally based. I notice John Piper, D.A. Carson, Tim Keller and the like, are not listed as Type C fundamentalists – yet I would argue each in his own way does much to stand for the fundamentals of the faith against the inroads of modernism and liberalism (and a whole host of other -isms). They may not have that “edge” or sharpness about them in their critique of other movements in Christianity. They may not be as shrill as fundamentalists typically would like. They may not have pronounced as many anathemas over the Elephant Room 2 as some would like, perhaps, but they nevertheless are leaders who represent a mindset that Type B and C fundamentalists should respect and cooperate with.

Still, Joel’s explanation of Type A, B, and C has really helped me in my thinking through the tangled reality of fundamentalism and evangelicalism over the years. And I’m happy he is continuing to expound on his simple matrix for processing how we can “cooperate with brothers who love the gospel and are walking in obedience to the teachings of Scripture, even if they aren’t in our ‘camp’ or ‘group’.” That is the spirit I see exemplified in Jesus’ teachings in the Gospels, and embodied in his call for unity in John 17. May such a spirit of cooperation and unity continue to spread among fundamentalists and conservative evangelicals everywhere.

Standpoint Conference: For Young Fundamentalists & More

~ Bob Hayton

 

The Standpoint Conference hosted by Southeast Valley Baptist Church in Gilbert, AZ (pastored by Joel Tetreau), just finished up last week. The conference was aimed at some of the issues that “young fundamentalists” have brought up concerning fundamentalism. I plan on downloading the audio, available here, and commenting on the conference in more depth later. For now I just wanted to let you all know about it, as several of my readers may be interested.

As Joel Tetreau would say, “Straight on!”