Church Leadership 103: What is Next's Structure?

This is the third and last post of a series on church leadership.  Here’s hoping this trilogy is more in-line with the original “Star Wars” Series, than say, the “Back to the Future” trilogy.  (I mean, really, the first one was good, but they got real bad after that!).

Now that we have looked at the qualifications of Eldership and the biblical role that they are play, the last question to answer is how this all plays out in our local church.  What is our structure?  To lay this out in the simplest form, I want to identify and define 6 groups of people.

Congregation:  These are the people that consider Next their church home.  Everyone in the congregation is important, has value, can have a leadership role and influence in church matters. 

Members:  A Member is someone who has ‘signed on the dotted line’.  They are ‘all in’.  They have publically declared that Next is their church home.  Membership isn’t a biblical deal, but it is an important one.  First, because the government requires us to have a membership for charitable status purposes.  Second, it communicates to the church leadership who can be counted on.

Members only have a couple of privileges over and above someone in the congregation.  They can serve on our Church Council and the Nominating Committee, and only a Member can vote at a General Meeting (budget, Council, capital expenditures, etc…)

To become a Member at Next, one has to have been baptised, had a public declaration of their faith, gone through an interview with the Church Council and agreed to our Community Covenant.

Staff:  The role of the pastoral staff is to give spiritual and organizational leadership within their ministry portfolio.  In the case of our pastoral staff, Heather leads our Children’s Ministry, Jill gives leadership to our values of ‘A Caring Church’ and ‘A Friendly Church’, while Jason leads Sol Café.  The pastoral staff are to recruit and train up volunteer leaders, while giving direction, oversight and vision to their ministry. 

We also have contract staff whose scope of responsibility is more limited.  While a pastoral staff is a relationship based ministry, contract staff are more tasked based.  In our case Chelsey’s responsibility is to find renters for our facility, while Fiona ensures the church remains clean.

All staff report directly to the Senior Pastor.

Senior Pastor:  The Senior (Lead) Pastor position is most similar to an Executive Director role in a not-for-profit.  Essentially, the Senior Pastor is responsible for the overall organizational, relational and spiritual health of the church.  It is primarily the Senior Pastor that is accountable to move the church forward in a healthy and God honouring way.

In our context, the Senior Pastor reports to, and is therefore, accountable to the Church Council.  The constitution of the Christian & Missionary Alliance, allows for the Senior Pastor to be both Chair of the Elders Board (Council) and Nominating Committee.  I have always relinquished these roles, as I believe it would put me in a conflict of interest.  That said, I am an active participate on our Church Council. 

I am not sure how helpful this example is, but in many respects the Senior Pastor works ‘on’ the church (macro matters) while the staff is to work ‘in’ the church (micro matters).

Nominating Committee:  the Nominating Committee is a group of four that nominate Members who are willing to serve on our Church Council.  They are to present no less than 6 Members for 6 Council positions.  Ideally, the Nominating Committee will nominate 8 people to give an electoral choice.  The whole Membership than votes on who they would like to serve on Church Council.

The Nominating Committee is made up of one person currently on Council and three people elected from the floor at the previous years AGM.  The Senior Pastor is allowed to ‘veto’ any Members that he or she believes is not ready to serve in this capacity (I Timothy, Titus).  Short of this, the Nominating Committee is free to approach anyone on our Membership List for Church Council service.

Any Member is limited to three consecutive, one-year terms on our church Council.

Council:  The Church Council is the highest form of leadership in our church.  Their responsibilities are to set parameters, policy, direction, measurements to the Senior Pastor. The Church Council is to make decisions on behalf of the Membership as it relates to personnel, finances and overall direction.  According to Hebrews 13:17b “….they watch for your souls, as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy, and not with grief: for that is unprofitable for you.”

The Church Council is accountable to the Membership for their actions and decisions.  Although technically not so, in a practical sense, a Membership vote against a Council recommendation is a vote of ‘non-confidence’ in the churches’ leadership.

No ‘one person’ on Church Council has authority.  Instead, it is the collective group that has constitutional and biblical authority in the church.

One of the more unique organization functions in the Alliance is the relationship between the denomination, Elder’s Board and Senior Pastor.  This plays out in a few different ways, but in the area of direct ‘accountability’, denominational leadership cannot ‘fire’ the Senior Pastor without the Boards approval.  Nor can the Board ‘fire’ the Senior Pastor without denominational consent.  This is mainly to protect the Senior Pastor.  It ensures that the denomination can’t over-step their authority within the local church, and it also ensure that the Board doesn’t fire their pastor a whim (perhaps after a bad sermon).

Denomination:  The denominations structure and role is too long and complicated to lay out in this blog, but there are a few key points that bare explanation as it relates to Next.

First, through District Offices (ours is in Calgary) the denomination holds all authority when it comes to licensing and credentials.  Our pastoral staff are all licensed by the District Office. 

Second, the denomination holds title on all property OWNED by the local church.  This is to ensure that an Alliance Church can’t simply go ‘rogue’.  Given that we presently lease, this doesn’t affect us.  But, if we are to ever build or own a church building, this will be enforced.

Third, in extreme cases, the District Office has used its authority to disband a church Elder’s Board.  This only happens when a church is so unhealthy that disbandment is the only alternative.

Fourth, the Senior Pastor has indirect accountability to the District Superintendent.  On the ‘day-to-day’ of church leadership, the Senior Pastor reports to the Council.  On the ‘year-to-year’, the Senior Pastor reports to the District Superintendent (or their appointee) AS WELL AS the Church Council. 

In the case of the Western Canadian District (Alberta and the Northwest Territories) of the Christian & Missionary Alliance, the District has taken a posture of wanting to help the local church have its greatest impact for God.  In other words, rather than being ‘top-down’ they have taken a coaching and supporting role as much as possible.

How it all works (in a nut shell):

*The Church Council is accountable to the Membership

*The Nominating Committee is accountable to the Membership

*The Senior Pastor is accountable to both the Church Council and the Denomination

*The staff are accountable to the Senior Pastor

*The Membership represents the congregation in all voting matters

I realize that this is a lot of information, but I trust it helps you understand the structure of Next.

Dean

Church Leadership 102: What do Elders do?

This is the second in a series of blogs on church leadership. In the last post I wrote about the qualifications for elders serving in the local church. Today’s blog is about the function or task of an Elder.

The word “elder” means to be an “overseer”. In our context we generally think of someone in this position as “the boss”. But what does it mean really mean to be an overseer” In a broad sense an “overseer” is someone who has been entrusted with the master’s estate. To be an “overseer” in the church means that the elders  (Church Council) have been entrusted to steward the care of the spiritual community.

Paul's first letter to Timothy is referred to as a "pastoral epistle".  This is because the purpose of the letter is to give instruction concerning the ministry for the church.   Paul writes extensively about issues of doctrine and teaching (1:3, 10; 3:2; 4:6, 13, 14, 16; 5:17; etc.). His second letter to Timothy emphasizes much of the same (1:6, 8, 13; 2:2; etc.), as does his letter to Titus (1:9; 2:1; etc.)

One of the things that Elders are suppose to do is oversee the teaching component within a church.  They are, in essence, responsible for discipleship.

According to Acts 20:20 elders are responsible for both public and private teaching. While our Church Council may not be the primary teachers, they are responsible to make sure that the sound biblical teaching occurs within the church.  Further, this refers to the spiritual maturity to teach, not the spiritual GIFT of teaching.  Simply put, elders are to have the spiritual depth to be a teacher, but are not necessarily called to be teachers within the church.

In very practical terms, the Church Council for Next is responsible for:

*defending our faith by refuting and rebuking false teachers (I Timothy 1:18; Jude 3; Titus 1:9-16). When someone in the church is promoting an errant doctrine within our community and leading others astray the elders are to protect the congregation.

*guarding people from errors and sins and dangers of all kinds, both from within and without (Acts 20:28-31; Hebrews 13:7; I Timothy 4:16). Since the Church Council are overseers they are to ensure that the congregation is well protected from things such as gossip, malicious talk, favouritism, divisiveness, impurity and other sins that would harm the health of the church.

*exhortation (Titus 1:9; II Timothy 4:2), which combines all the ideas of encouragement, comfort, persuasion, counselling, teaching, rebuking, etc. Our Church Council are to come alongside people and bring words of strong encouragement. To exhort actually means to “spur each other on”. That means that elders are to call people into spiritual growth and urge them on as they do so.

*governance (I Peter 5:1-2; I Timothy 5:17). Elders are called to lead the church. The Church Council is responsible and accountable to make decisions on behalf of the congregation.  They are to lead with the best interest of the whole body in mind.

*be spiritual pace setters.  The Church Council is to lead both by precept and example (I Timothy 4:12; I Peter 5:3). Elders live out the gospel and call people to follow Christ in the same pattern in which they live.

While all elders do not have identical duties, it is the responsibility of our Church Council to lead, exhort, govern and teach. Within this basic guideline are many other responsibilities (such as prayer, guarding, etc.). It is the inescapable duty of the Church Council to serve our church in this way. This is God's prescribed method of leadership for the church.

The role of elder is not to be taken lightly. It is a challenging role that requires great diligence, patience, wisdom and humility. It is a role so large that no one can do it in our own abilities and strength. Our Church Council needs God’s enabling, as well as the prayer support of the whole congregation! It is a massive responsibility, but it is also can be an enriching one.

Blessings,

Pastor Dean