Eric Laverentz

Eric Laverentz is Lead Pastor of First Presbyterian Church (ECO), Edmond, Oklahoma, and Coordinator of the Elder Leadership Institute. His doctoral work at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary recovers the historic role of elders as shepherds of people.

20191 essay

Theology · 2019 Winter EditionRecovering the Office of Elder – The Shepherd Model, Part III

The third and final part of Laverentz's series on the elder as shepherd. Drawing on the original 1788 PCUSA Constitution, he sketches what eldering as soul-care could look like in…

March 25, 2019

20182 essays

Theology · 2018 Summer EditionRediscovering the Office of Elder. The Shepherd Model, Part II

Part two of the elder series opens with an 1898 Kansas City session quietly addressing one of their elders' moral failure with the kind of pastoral seriousness modern church courts…

December 4, 2018

Theology · 2018 Summer EditionRediscovering the Office of Elder-The Shepherd Model, Part I

What does it mean to be an elder? Laverentz argues that for most of Presbyterian history, an elder was a shepherd of souls, deeply enmeshed in people's lives. Part one…

August 28, 2018

Eric Laverentz

"Free to all who ask."