Scripture provides churches' leadership as a gift to the local church. Even though the Bible talks about many ways that spiritual gifts can be used to show leadership, two stand out. These are ordained before the church and set aside for formal, public service in the congregation's life.

Elders

Elders are qualified men of character who exercise spiritual authority over the church to help keep it pure. The main goals are to build up the church, help people grow up, work toward unity, and prepare the saints for service. These men watch out for teachings that will hurt, voices from the outside that will distract, and motives from the inside that will try to split.

• Current Elders:
  • Chris Jessee
  • Danny Jones (bi-vocational, emeritus)
  • Mike Nash (bi-vocational)

• Proposed Elders:
  • Shane Kohout
  • Lewis Seifert (bi-vocational)
  • Mike Gilland (bi-vocational)

Deacons

Deacons are men and women in the church who are called to make a difference. These qualified people of character are servants who want to care for the church in different ways than the elders through complementary, shared goals. They are great servants who are always aware of and responsive to the church's needs. They protect the focused ministry of the elders by setting up service, helping the needy, keeping the church united, getting people involved in ministry, and more.

• Current Deacons:
  • Chip Chew: Finance, Facilities, Office & Events Administration
  • Eric Chin: Serving our Community & Grow Groups (bi-vocational)

• Proposed Deacons:
  • Jeremy Price: Service to Widows & Families in need (bi-vocational)
  • Jason Myers: Serving our Serving Teams (bi-vocational)

The Process

Becoming a deacon or an elder varies depending on the individual. For the roles, there is a strong sense of calling (both inside and outside of the person), maturity, or a set of skills. Our goal in defining a ‘process’ is to determine the fundamental steps someone who has been recommended or expresses a desire for Eldership or the Diaconate will go through.

Qualifications begin with Scripture as defined in Eph. 4:11; 1 Tim. 3:2; 5:17; Titus 1:9; Heb. 13:17 & 1 Tim. 3:8-13.

Character matters for both roles, so the men who are up for eldership or the men and women seeking to be deacons all have a similar heart and mind about the purpose of those roles in the day-to-day life of the church.

Following prayer and evaluation, elders and deacon candidates submit a self-assessment, while the current elders and deacons complete a complimentary assessment. This lets us agree on the most important ways to encourage each other and know our strengths and weaknesses.

Candidates are brought before our community group, ministry team leaders (that is what is happening with today's email), and finally, the church. This allows us to confirm their qualifications before they are set apart and installed, or ordained, into ministry. What days of rejoicing these are for us as a local church.

Summary

What a gift it is to have a diversity of ways that people can serve within the local church: elders, deacons, apostolic or prophetic ministry, pastors, teachers, evangelists, community group leaders, ministry team leaders, serving team leaders, directors, etc. (this can vary based on church context or current needs of the church)

All of these are critical to the spiritual health and experience of care that our community is designed by God to provide. All of these are subject to prayer and God’s Word, using both the fruit and gifts that the Spirit of God so generously provides for His church.